Oxbridge 2009 applicants

Ding here..pretty devastating..Oxford is the only school I wanted to attend and the only one I applied to. Can't figure out what went wrong. I thought the interview went well..I flew over from the states so I could put myself in front of them..it ran 40 solid minutes and we covered a lot of ground. My weakness were no big name companies on my resume (though a decent sized start up) and a couple bad years of university nearly 15 years ago. My main years of uni when I earned my degree were a 3.75 and I had a 740 gmat. Good recs too. Just don't get it. Now it's back to job hunting for jobs that don't exist.

To Abhaypratapsingh
Don't be discouraged. I believe you still have a very good chance with Cambridge: their post-interview admit ratio is considerably higher... and also, you'll probably will hear from them just a couple of days after your interview.

To Jobywan
Indeed, sounds strange... I don't think that there was some single factor that worked out against you. I never worked for MNC either, and have no international experience - but they forgave me this. Your GMAT should have compensated for your bad years at uni... Perhaps, they have admitted too many people from your demographic in R1, and that has spoiled your chances.
What are your plans now? Will you still try your luck with some other schools this year?

Greenoak,

I guess I'll start the job hunt. I can go to the local university (south florida) for free w/ my GMAT, but I fear that an MBA from a crap school could actually hinder me in certain situations...though there is something to be said for free and easy. It's tricky as I could go for a lesser school in the states, but uprooting and moving (selling the house in this market) has to be worth it. Might just suck it up and try again next year..but that could be the other thing..I'll be 36 in July..so maybe my age was a turn off. Oxford's mean age has been drifting up..close to 30 now..they may or may not like that trend. Maybe you can hire me when you graduate and take over some big company .

Congrats buffdaddy -- a well-deserved victory!!! Looks like the partying the night before was really an early celebration -- and another one is in order once we get to the UK...

Congrats on the admit, sumidi - hope it will be the first of many! If I remember correctly, you are originally from Australia? Are you here now or overseas at the moment?

And sorry to hear about the R2 dings, guys. Hope things work out for everyone in their b-school journeys...

Thanks for the good wishes guys.

Congratulations to sumidi!

To the folks who didn't make it, all I can say is keep going. All it takes is that one admit. I have been dinged everywhere else I have applied and this one admit makes it all worth it. Your time will come.


Regarding colleges, I did a whole lot of research yesterday and I have narrowed it down to 3 Colleges. Like greenoak, I will hold these close to my heart. My criteria was simple. A combination of age/tradition, sports/extracurricular, large (networking), but something that is not too popular (like ChristChurch) but is just as quirky.


BTW, In a few hours i will go watch the Boat Race along the Thames in London. For those of you who don't know, it's a rowing race that is held between Oxford and Cambridge for 150odd years.. Today it attracts a crowd of about 250 000. Just something special in there this year. The Oxford crew have a Kiwi MBA who won Bronze in the olympics last year. https://www.theboatrace.org has more details and here is a sample of what's on offer.

A bit overdue - but congrats!!!

For those who weren't able to watch - Oxford has won!
See the report here:
https://www.theboatrace.org/article/newsandmedia/latestnews/2009report
BTW, there's info on Said website that no less than 6 people in the team are SBS students!
***

Hi Jobywan; sorry that I didn't answer at once. Yes, the age can be an issue... But there were some admits close to 40 at both Ox and Cam. You still might try Cambridge for R4 (especially if you have something unique in your profile) - it's late a bit, but at least the app is free. Their average age was historically a year higher than that at Oxford.
And thanks for believing in my glorious business future But in fact I plan to go to non-profit in long term.

CONGRATS!!!!!!!

Hi Guys,

Just submitted my R3 apps y'day.
and congrats to Buffdaddy and Greenoak...

Thanks Prashun, Isa and Walker!

A couple of general question for all, will it make sense to follow the lead of the USA MBA forums and do one or both of the following

1) Create post-admit threads (similar to the ones on the USA forum) where discussions such as housing etc specific to Oxford/Cambridge can take place
2) Splitting of the Oxbridge threads into two threads.

I ask this because to be honest I feel awkward posting only Oxford specific post-admit stuff on this thread. Any suggestions please let me know.

Hi Buffdaddy!



You know, I don't think we need another thread: there are not so many of us to justify such a split. So, IMHO, it will be better to keep all of our discussion in one place.

Besides, it looks like the number of gmatclub applicants to both schools significally decreased; so, I think there's nothing awkward in turning this thread into muilti-purpose one (for applicants and admits). In fact, I believe it will be a natural progression.

Hi folks,

Sorry I have never been too involved in any forum but am a silent reader. So this whole weekend we were moving into a new apartment so I really had no chance to celebrate and then sunday night happenend and I got a bit on the happy side which became a "talk to everybody" kinda night before I woke up with a massive hangover (those G+T get ya)

Firstly, thank you for the best wishes, I still can't believe I am accepted......happy shock.

Anyway, about me, I truly am an aussie(not born though) "I still call australia home". no matter where I am.

I was still in a bit of a shock after my initial rejections from Cambridge & LBS (w/o interviews) so Oxford came to the rescue and made all the efforts worth it in the end.

To all the folks who got rejected, keep your chin up, getting upset and sad is natural.(trust me I know) but you need to be flexible and work around the offers you have. Hopefully you applied to only the schools you ACTUALLY want to matriculate. I only applied to 4 schools. So I was running out of chances. In regards to the secrecy of colleges, i am not too fussed, I applied for Green Temp (for which I have heard nothing) and my second choice was New College.

In regards to the my 4th and final school that is a secret and not planning to discuss till I hear back.

I am about 80-90% sure I will be going to Oxford though.....just need to sort out the money. 46kGBP FFS........I do find it funny that you can put the whole amount(31k GBP) on your credit card. If my credit card allowed it, which they wont, it would have given me enough points to fly to Heathrow twice. hehe

see some of you soon.

cheers,

-sumidi

Welcome to Oxford team, Sumidi!

Hope that you will resolve your financing issue eventually (and I'm hoping the same for myself).

Regarding your college choices - if you visited Intranet, you probably saw that New College is now full (as is Christ Church). But Green Templeton is not, because they take a lot of MBAs - and I wish you best of luck there. Also, don't forget that they offer some scholarships for MBA (GT college, I mean), so, if you're really fast, you'll still be able to catch that train Check the News section on the Students Intranet to learn more details about schollies.

***
As for JBS waitlisters... if there are any... Their promised wl review deadline was today. Needless to say, they missed it again

I was lucky to be invited to visit the Oxford and Cambridge club (https://www.oxfordandcambridgeclub.co.uk/) by a Oxford MBA alum this evening.



As I was approaching the glamorous Victorian building on Pall Mall, I noticed two proud looking flags - The dusky red of Cambridge and the Steely Blue of Oxford - fluttering in the blue London sky. I went through with apprehension because I didn't know what to expect. With artefacts like portraits of Twain and emblems of the various colleges on the wall, the reception was a hive of activity at 6pm on a Tuesday. Guests were rolling in for business meetings, members were coming in with their partners for a meal, and I bet some old timers were coming in for a weekly game of squash. A sign proudly said "No Mobile Phones" and everyone was strictly adhering to the "tie and jacket" dress-code. I felt that I was thrown back to the 1900s when "gentlemen's clubs" like these were popular with the British eccentric.



After a few minutes, my host arrived and took me up to the bar on the 1st floor. We walked up the grand staircase, with yet more portraits of old famous men gloriously looking down on us. "This place costs me £90 a month" I got told. A price tag that brings with it many opportunities to wine and dine business guests. The bar was a smorgasbord of early 1900 memorabilia. From red leather chairs that littered the room, to yet more paintings of noblemen and a 8ft wide marble fireplace made me think that I was onboard the titanic. But this place was still floating.
My host and I talked about everything to do with the Oxford MBA experience. But maybe those details in later posts. I was still in awe of this institution. Afterwards I got a tour of the building. The library was the best room. Leather armchairs, a couple of guys sipping their scotch and reading a leather book or two. Books stacked from floor to 15ft high ceilings. Is this what to expect from an ancient college at Oxbridge? The next room was the bridge and chess room. Lessons and Bridge competitions were taking place. Alongside, In the restaurant, every table except the centre 4 meterlong "Members Table" was booked and full. "Reservations are a must, and the food is much better than the colleges". Perhaps I ought to try out the college food first I thought. Then came the funniest sight of the night. A room full of wined out gentlemen and gentlewomen. It was only 8.30pm and these men and women needed taxis home, now. This was a very civilised wine tasting night.



I enquired how does one get into the club. Well of course the base requirement is a degree from one of these two great universities. "Then what?" I asked. One also needs to be invited by a current member. My host pointed out to me a notice board near the entrance. It had 7 names that were new members for the month, about 100 names that were on the waiting list, and 1 name on the "Dead person's list". Apparently if you don't pay, they name and shame you by putting you on the "No Payment list" before ceasing your membership.

Although I am not totally convinced that I would join the Oxford and Cambridge club, I am kind of glad that places like these exist in today's society. They have their own function, and their quirkiness makes the world an interesting place.

great post buff. Reminded me of the gentleman's club in Yes Minister I wonder whether LBS has affiliations with any.

The club is also mentioned on wikipedia :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_and_Cambridge_Club

btw buff do invite me once you become a member

buffdaddy -- that's quite interesting! I didn't know there was such a club, but come to think of it, there is the Yale Club, etc. in the USA -- so it makes sense that the same would have existed for Oxford and Cambridge.

So, do they have space available for hire? For a GMATclub London meetup venue?