Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if predicted grades / scores are required for the UCAS forms and the central Oxford admissions people, they don't seem to be used by the decision makers.

Oxford tutors don't trust predicted grades, even from UK teachers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oxforduni/comments/1e6cfr1/ama_i_did_ppe_admissions_for_5_years/

This link says they rely on GCSEs (which few US students would have), TSA scores, and -- most important -- interview results.

High SAT scores are necessary but not sufficient. AP scores too.

Near-perfect SAT scores seem to correlate with very high TSA scores. That's what gets students through the first cut. Then the interviews are determinative. About 30% of students interviewed are offered offers.

If your school does not predict all 5's for the AP's for Oxford, then the application simply does not progress. You will be put on the waiting pile and when the interviews are set up you just won't get one.

If your school won’t predict a 5 on all your APs, you probably shouldn’t be applying to Oxford anyway.

A college counselor who would do that —unless the kid has no 5s from junior year AND doesn’t have a prayer at a 5 in senior year — is out to get the kid.

I can’t see it happening.

A counselor who doesn't predict that a kid will get all 5's, should tell the kid they can't predict 5's, and that the kid should apply elsewhere. Predicting 5's, when that's not what they actually expect, can result in a kid getting a conditional offer, and then finding themselves without a school when AP results come out. A counselor who facilitates that is the one who is acting unprofessionally. Predicting multiple for a kid who had 1 or 2 in junior year and "a prayer" of getting some in senior year, is dishonest and unethical.

And how would missing your Oxford offer leave you without a school? Almost every kid in that position would have other offers in the UK, and lots of options in the US. Keeping a US option live might involve forfeiting a deposit, though.

Deadline to commit to US schools is before you get your scores?

Yes, which is why I said that a kid who missed an Oxford offer could lose a deposit at a US backup.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if predicted grades / scores are required for the UCAS forms and the central Oxford admissions people, they don't seem to be used by the decision makers.

Oxford tutors don't trust predicted grades, even from UK teachers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oxforduni/comments/1e6cfr1/ama_i_did_ppe_admissions_for_5_years/

This link says they rely on GCSEs (which few US students would have), TSA scores, and -- most important -- interview results.

High SAT scores are necessary but not sufficient. AP scores too.

Near-perfect SAT scores seem to correlate with very high TSA scores. That's what gets students through the first cut. Then the interviews are determinative. About 30% of students interviewed are offered offers.

If your school does not predict all 5's for the AP's for Oxford, then the application simply does not progress. You will be put on the waiting pile and when the interviews are set up you just won't get one.

If your school won’t predict a 5 on all your APs, you probably shouldn’t be applying to Oxford anyway.

A college counselor who would do that —unless the kid has no 5s from junior year AND doesn’t have a prayer at a 5 in senior year — is out to get the kid.

I can’t see it happening.

A counselor who doesn't predict that a kid will get all 5's, should tell the kid they can't predict 5's, and that the kid should apply elsewhere. Predicting 5's, when that's not what they actually expect, can result in a kid getting a conditional offer, and then finding themselves without a school when AP results come out. A counselor who facilitates that is the one who is acting unprofessionally. Predicting multiple for a kid who had 1 or 2 in junior year and "a prayer" of getting some in senior year, is dishonest and unethical.

And how would missing your Oxford offer leave you without a school? Almost every kid in that position would have other offers in the UK, and lots of options in the US. Keeping a US option live might involve forfeiting a deposit, though.

Deadline to commit to US schools is before you get your scores?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if predicted grades / scores are required for the UCAS forms and the central Oxford admissions people, they don't seem to be used by the decision makers.

Oxford tutors don't trust predicted grades, even from UK teachers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oxforduni/comments/1e6cfr1/ama_i_did_ppe_admissions_for_5_years/

This link says they rely on GCSEs (which few US students would have), TSA scores, and -- most important -- interview results.

High SAT scores are necessary but not sufficient. AP scores too.

Near-perfect SAT scores seem to correlate with very high TSA scores. That's what gets students through the first cut. Then the interviews are determinative. About 30% of students interviewed are offered offers.

If your school does not predict all 5's for the AP's for Oxford, then the application simply does not progress. You will be put on the waiting pile and when the interviews are set up you just won't get one.

If your school won’t predict a 5 on all your APs, you probably shouldn’t be applying to Oxford anyway.

A college counselor who would do that —unless the kid has no 5s from junior year AND doesn’t have a prayer at a 5 in senior year — is out to get the kid.

I can’t see it happening.

A counselor who doesn't predict that a kid will get all 5's, should tell the kid they can't predict 5's, and that the kid should apply elsewhere. Predicting 5's, when that's not what they actually expect, can result in a kid getting a conditional offer, and then finding themselves without a school when AP results come out. A counselor who facilitates that is the one who is acting unprofessionally. Predicting multiple for a kid who had 1 or 2 in junior year and "a prayer" of getting some in senior year, is dishonest and unethical.

And how would missing your Oxford offer leave you without a school? Almost every kid in that position would have other offers in the UK, and lots of options in the US. Keeping a US option live might involve forfeiting a deposit, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if predicted grades / scores are required for the UCAS forms and the central Oxford admissions people, they don't seem to be used by the decision makers.

Oxford tutors don't trust predicted grades, even from UK teachers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oxforduni/comments/1e6cfr1/ama_i_did_ppe_admissions_for_5_years/

This link says they rely on GCSEs (which few US students would have), TSA scores, and -- most important -- interview results.

High SAT scores are necessary but not sufficient. AP scores too.

Near-perfect SAT scores seem to correlate with very high TSA scores. That's what gets students through the first cut. Then the interviews are determinative. About 30% of students interviewed are offered offers.

If your school does not predict all 5's for the AP's for Oxford, then the application simply does not progress. You will be put on the waiting pile and when the interviews are set up you just won't get one.

If your school won’t predict a 5 on all your APs, you probably shouldn’t be applying to Oxford anyway.

A college counselor who would do that —unless the kid has no 5s from junior year AND doesn’t have a prayer at a 5 in senior year — is out to get the kid.

I can’t see it happening.

A counselor who doesn't predict that a kid will get all 5's, should tell the kid they can't predict 5's, and that the kid should apply elsewhere. Predicting 5's, when that's not what they actually expect, can result in a kid getting a conditional offer, and then finding themselves without a school when AP results come out. A counselor who facilitates that is the one who is acting unprofessionally. Predicting multiple for a kid who had 1 or 2 in junior year and "a prayer" of getting some in senior year, is dishonest and unethical.

Disagree. It's highly unlikely that a counselor will have enough knowledge of an individual kids' performance on any particular exam, especially one that is -- like most AP exams -- highly responsive to hours studied.

A kid has to be a great tester to get an interview at Oxford: very high SAT, consistently high APs, and very high Oxford subject tests.

There's almost no way that a kid who will be invited for, and perform well enough in, an interview to get an Oxford offer has no shot at a 5 on any given AP exam.

In any given year, only a handful of students with Oxford offers do not meet the required exam scores on the A levels, and Oxford often lets them in anyway with a near miss.

Given that US college counselors don't have experience or expertise in predicting AP scores, I think that it would be unfair and very unwise for any counselor to make a prediction that might wipe out a student's chances for bureaucratic reasons. If the kid is likely to be unable to handle Oxford, the tutor will ferret that out in interviews.