Got my degree marks today
- Thread starter Dmack
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You two are turning OCUK into thestudentroom, one of the internet's worst forums.
Stop it
I agree and i'll stop now, it's just hard when you are arguing with special people.
Ok i'm getting tired of this, AAB (A in Maths) is crap, Imperial don't want me, what am I going to do.....i'll have to settle for my crap degrees from crap universities
Congrats to all those who got the grades they expected. mrn, welcome to my ignore list.
Mr High horse.I'm doing perfectly well with a desmond and well on my way to Chartership, perfect example of how a desmond isn't bad in the slightest
Really?
Realistically why on earth would someone (who we are supposed to assume is intelligent) turn down Oxford or Cambridge. Its fairly normal to visit the place, go through a tough interview process, sit additional exams while studying for A-levels... why bother with all that if you don't actually want to go there? It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that you'd do on a whim, apply there just for fun or if you're not too sure...
Of course these people that you know couldn't possibly be lying at all after having told everyone they were going for the interview and then getting rejected.
I went through all that crap because I was told I had to by my school. They wanted the statistics. "We had x number of students apply to Oxbridge this year, how awesome are we!" etc etc.
I didn't even bother attending the interview and I don't regret that, ever. Of the 4 people I know that went to Cambridge, 2 have passed out from exhaustion, 1 is fairly happy but says he wishes he'd gone elsewhere and the other can't wait to leave, the last time I spoke to him about his second year he merely said "Sleep is optional".
There are quite a number of my mates who've all said/done the same thing on my course.
For me, I don't think it's worth it. Compared to the amount of work I'm doing at Bristol, when I come out at the end of 4 years I WILL have more industrial connections, I WILL have had more of a good time (With respect to spending time chilling out on the weekends with my mates etc.... if your idea of a good time is working 24/7 then fair enough....) and I WON'T be anywhere near as far behind career wise in 20 years to justify the extra work. In fact, one of my lecturers said to me that he believes Oxbridge breeds workers... albeit hard workers... but more leaders come from the other top red brick universities.
All a matter of opinion of course, but from my perspective, the reasons for not going to Cambridge were in fact quite clear.
I didn't even bother attending the interview and I don't regret that, ever. Of the 4 people I know that went to Cambridge, 2 have passed out from exhaustion, 1 is fairly happy but says he wishes he'd gone elsewhere and the other can't wait to leave, the last time I spoke to him about his second year he merely said "Sleep is optional".
There are quite a number of my mates who've all said/done the same thing on my course.
For me, I don't think it's worth it. Compared to the amount of work I'm doing at Bristol, when I come out at the end of 4 years I WILL have more industrial connections, I WILL have had more of a good time (With respect to spending time chilling out on the weekends with my mates etc.... if your idea of a good time is working 24/7 then fair enough....) and I WON'T be anywhere near as far behind career wise in 20 years to justify the extra work. In fact, one of my lecturers said to me that he believes Oxbridge breeds workers... albeit hard workers... but more leaders come from the other top red brick universities.
All a matter of opinion of course, but from my perspective, the reasons for not going to Cambridge were in fact quite clear.
They certainly were not lying
There are three factors which come into it.
1) Oxford and Cambridge are small, boring towns. University is about socialising and exploring in every possible way. Thus, said people wished to go to more lively towns, which also have a good reputation.
2) Some of said people had lived in Oxford previously and wanted to move away from home. This, combined with the incredibly boring nature of Oxford, made me not even begin to think about attending either Oxford or Cambridge - not that I would have necessarily got in of course.
3) The course at Oxford was not for them, and they wished to take a course which interested them more at another well regarded University, such as Warwick.
Soldato
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but from a 3rd rate university
dont really think much of degrees from crap unversistes - standards aren't the same, one of my friends struggled on Computer Sciense course at Imperial (ie fail 1st year) only to go to UWE and get a 1st!
uea is the top uni in eurpoe for environmerntal sciences. I got my env degree there!!! your talking rubbish!!
oh and to anyone who feels abit dissapointed with there results, your degree mark wont mean a lot after a few years in work. Your then judged on work performance, team working etc etc as well as qualifications.
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Soldato
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yes exactly, im 5 years into my career, but have decided to change career this year so going back to UEA for a masters, but thats a different story.
I just had a quick scan over the thread and read your posts. I get the impression that your looking at Computer Science degrees and labelling some places rubbish, is that the gist of it?
I am merely pointing out that UEA may not be the worlds best for computers, it maybe good I don't know. It is however one of the leading uni's for climatic research and environmental sciences in europe if not the world. BBC quotes them as sources a lot on the news etc etc etc.....
What I'm saying is uni's have there strength departments and there weaker ones, this I imagine is typical of a lot of places including dare I say it Oxford and Cambridge.
I think the reaction came from your first post, saying UEA was effectively a gloryfied high school is the impression I got.
These all seem like excellent reasons not to apply to Oxbridge - but it would seem bizarre for someone to have these opinions and then still go to the considerable effort of turning up for several interviews and admissions tests!
I'm certainly not going to suggest your friends are fibbing, but it's very rare for people to apply, come to interview, get an offer and then turn it down (as the official admissions reports indicate). So your experience of knowing several people who've rejected an offer from either Cambridge or Oxford is a slight anomaly. [A small note: you mentioned you knew people who turned down Oxford and Cambridge, which would have course be impossible since undergraduates can only apply to one or t'other. I assume I've misunderstood what you wrote though.]
Sadly many, many people find it much easier to say they got an offer and turned it down, rather than say they didn't receive an offer after interview. This is very understandable, and especially when many of these stories arise when people first meet at a new University when people are trying to assert themselves academically. The vast majority of people who apply to Oxbridge get turned down, and many of these people are extremely smart and it's the first time in their lives they've met rejection/failure of any sort. As such, there are some strange reactions and low-and-behold, every Tom, Dick and Harry knows loads of people who turned down offers from Oxbridge.
What irritates me about the fibbers is their actions undermine those who apply and are happy to say "I gave it a really good shot, but didn't quite make the grade". If you're going to apply, you need to live with the possibility that there might be people out there better than you at your chosen subject. Even worse than the fibbers, are those that make out they could have gone to Oxbridge had they chosen to do so. Such people rarely use the phrase "I could have applied to Oxbridge". This comment isn't half as strong: it's most likely that if you apply, you'll get rejected.
And breath... personal rant over. I can't stand people who fib about this sort of thing.
It isn't that strange. I apply for work experience and jobs at places I am only half interested in to cover my bases. Secondly, I imagine they changed their minds after visiting all places. It would be very silly to be accepted for an interview and not go.
The people who turned down Cambridge turned it down for reason 1. In total, I know 5 people who turned down either Oxford or Cambridge. I know at least double who got rejected. I can't say I would see why anyone would lie, it would be a bit strange.