What makes a good oxbridge candidate

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The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". When I was applying to university, my dream was to go to Cambridge. There were lots of different subjects that I would have been more than happy to study, but I wanted to maximise my chances of going to Cambridge. This meant choosing geography, which was a subject that I loved and was very good at. But, it was also a subject that was less competitive to get a place for than my other top choice, English Literature.

In Oxford's Annual Admissions Statistical Report, , they list the courses with the most applicants per place as follows:. From this list, you can see that there were half the number of applicants per place for mathematics than there are for economics and management. My suggestion here would be to look at your motivation for choosing a particular course. For instance, if you want to study economics and management to get a career in the City of London in banking, accountancy or the like, you're likely to be just as successful, and in some cases, more in demand, with the maths degree.

Most of the maths graduates I know have ended up in that kind of career and are highly in demand because of their highly quantitative skills and their ability to create complex computer models. So, if you have the skills and aptitude and getting into Oxford is important to you, then choose maths over economics and management. Similarly, for Cambridge, their admissions reports show the success rates of applicants to each specific course. In , applicants to study classics had a You need to be very aware of these odds when you're applying so that you can set your expectations accordingly.

You can also compare courses between the universities. For example, in Cambridge took students onto their Computer Science course, whereas Oxford says on their website that they take 31 students per year. If the courses at the two universities are broadly appealing, then it would make sense to apply to Cambridge rather than Oxford as you're statistically more likely to get in It's tough deciding which college at Oxford or Cambridge you apply to.

There are so many factors that might impact your decision, such as:. The first thing you need to look at is whether there is a Director of Studies, if you're applying to Cambridge, in your subject at the college you want to apply to. If there isn't, you're less likely to get into the college for that subject and you won't be as well supported by your college. The colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge receive a range of applications, but understandably some colleges, and courses, are more popular than others.

Applicants would do well to consider the historically less well known colleges to have an improved chance of being offered a place. Application statistics for Cambridge can be found here , and for Oxford here. Oxford and Cambridge have different entrance requirements depending on the subject and college.

Likewise Cambridge are now requiring applicants to sit entrance exams for the first time in thirty years.

Before applying to Cambridge do some research into what you will be required to do at interview, since it can vary significantly between colleges.

As important as your choice of college is, it is possible to overstate its importance. Much of what you do at Oxford and Cambridge will involve students from other colleges.

Lectures are not college specific, and there are hundreds of musical and theatrical performances each year that involve performers from across the university.

It's also possible to submit an open application. The answer is no. There are a few situations in which you might end up with a place at Oxford or Cambridge but not at your original college of choice.

These are:. Most Oxford applicants are interviewed at more than one college. This is to make sure that if one college has a particularly high number of applicants for your subject you can still be considered for the university by other colleges that might not have had enough applicants.

When it comes to receiving an offer, you might be offered a place at any of the colleges that you have been interviewed at. At Cambridge you generally come up to be interviewed solely at your main college of choice, though it might be the case that you are invited to another college for interview while you are in town.

Your application is made available to all the other colleges, and one of them may then decide to either invite you to another interview, or to make you an offer without the need for interview. You can learn more about our Oxbridge applications consultancy here. Choice No. Choice 3: Which college should I choose? These are: 1 Being invited to interview at a different college to your first choice and subsequently receiving an offer for a different college Oxford Most Oxford applicants are interviewed at more than one college.

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