<p>So I am an American junior that wishes to apply to Cambridge in the fall. Can I feasibly do this? What kind of examinations do I need to take? I looked at their website but it was a bit confusing as I don't know the terminology and standards for the British system. So essentially a primer on applying to Cambridge (and presumably similar institutions). Do I have to take special tests? What are these AAA tests? Do they accept international applicants and how hard is is for a US applicant to get in? I hear firm and safety but I only want to apply to Cambridge and possibly Oxford (If I for some reason didn't get the three As or whatever I'd need I would go to an American university and I might even if I got in) so where does this leave me?</p>
<p>I am very confused on the process of an American applying to Cambridge so thank you for any help you can give me! A general timeline, requirements, suggestions, anything you can give me.</p>
<p>My typical (American-type) stats are:
1540 SATI
3.9 unweighted (4.0 math/science) It's a 4.8 or sometihng weighted (>5.3 or so math/science)
Top 10 in class(will be top 5 hopefully after the end of my junior year)
AP Human Geography- 5
Tentative AP Grades- US History- 3 or 4; US Government- 4 or 5; BC Calculus- 5; Chemistry- 4 but most likely 5; English Language and composition- 5
I've done some other Academic things like SAT team and Mock Trial but I don't know how important these would be? I have no idea what the UK universities even look for or if I have a shot, but these are what most people list for US universities.</p>
<p>Thank you again!</p>
<p>Edit: Sorry for the thread hijack. If you want me to make a new thread I can. Or someone could start a "Guide to applying to UK Universities" thread or something.</p>
<p>Well i am at oxford and i have to disagree with the initial message</p>
<p>I think most people in the UK would say oxford and cambridge are equally prestigious, not many would say that cambridge is more prestigious than oxford, or vice versa.</p>
<p>Cambridge being ahead of oxford in league tables does not reflect the "prestige" of the university, only the current form.</p>
<p>Oxford is more famous in the US because of the Rhodes scholarship, that is all.</p>
<p>Hello everyone. I would just like to share a little story about my sister, who is a freshman at Harvard, and her Oxford facebook friend. </p>
<p>Sister: I go to Harvard. I just wanted to facebook someone from Oxford.
Oxford Guy: Harvard, eh? That's cool.
Sister: I love Harvard, but I've heard so many things about how amazing Oxford is.
Oxford Guy: Harvard is good. But when Harvard was simply a little farm in some far off colony in America, Oxford was already a wordly University. </p>
<p>Ha ha. Just thought I'd share this Oxford arrogance. I laughed for so long when my sister told me about it.</p>
<p>Yeah. i've always considered oxford to be some great university (better than harvard because I know people that go to Harvard and they're just.. real people to me), but i think that's because it's in England, and has been around longer. I'm not sure why, but whenever people think about foreign schools and getting into a foreign school, it's either McGill (in Canada... not very hard to get into) or Oxford (the "impossible" goal). Nobody says anything about Cambridge. I have no doubt it's an amazing school, but normally people only know one school from each country. I suppose it'd be Oxford for you, Harvard for us.</p>
<p>By the way, about that whole giving a limb or something to be at Harvard instead... why??? I think someone accurately described Harvard before in another post.. about how for every person she met that loved Harvard, there was another that couldn't wait to graduate. Harvard was ranked as one of the top schools for having the unhappiest kids. Well, that's my two cents.</p>
<p>patrick-
you wouldn't be able to apply to both oxford and cambridge to begin with. you'd have to choose between the two. from what I've heard, admission to oxbridge is generally dependant on ap tests and the scores you get on them. you'd have to decide also what course you wanted to apply for - it's not like in america when you decide once you get there, you have to decided before you apply and it's not easy at all to change courses. so don't apply unless you're sure about what you want to do. you would also have to choose a college that appeals to you. you might be familiar with the collegiate system at yale. this is similar but you have to decided what college you want to apply to. however, most americans choose to submit open applications, which means that they are randomly allocated to a college.
oxbridge also don't care about ecs - although they might find them interesting, if they're not related to your course and therefore to your academic development they won't find them useful.
it is quite difficult for international applicants to get in but by no means impossible. they tend to like international students because they pay more than domestic ones.
don't worry about the AAA bit that I was saying before, that's only relevant to english student that take exams called alevels at the end of senior year. you won't need to take any 'english' exams.
feel free to pm me for further info. just to warn to I am quite biased towards cambridge... :D</p>
<p>Firstly, i think theres a sizeable proportion of english who wont have heard of harvard. thats just the way it is, i mean we are quite backward in some respects!</p>
<p>But out of those who have heard of them, almost all will have also heard of yale and princeton, and anyone who knows science will have heard of MIT.</p>
<p>Thanks, jkh! I don't know why it never occured to me to apply to Cambridge before. Well, actually, I do-- it's the ethnocentric type culture in the States. Everything we have has to be better. :rolleyes: But Cambridge is one of the finest universities in the world and I think it would be amazing to go there. It seems like a much better fit than most universities in the States. I am rather nervous about applying though. I don't know what to expect or what a typical applicant is, how hard it is to be accepted, etc. It couldn't be any worse than applying to Harvard, though. And it's more merit-oriented, which I like.</p>
<p>u seem like youve got good grades (i dont really know much but i know what a good GPA is), GO FOR IT!
From what I gather, cambridge has slightly higher admissions requirements than oxford so its going to be just a little bit tougher, but you cant go wrong with applying!</p>
<p>My grades are good. In high school I'll have a B in 9th grade English and AP US History (around a 92, which is an A most places but not at my school). I have very high As in all of my math and science courses, though. I'm going to give it a shot. I feel since it's more merit-based I'll have a better chance there than at the Ivies.</p>
<p>Patrick, I think the emphasis is on APs, as in they would be making offers based on your APs grades. So it is worthwhile to find out what APs are needed for your subject.</p>
<p>And Cambridge is only slightly, just very slightly more difficult to get in for sciency subjects. I would say all other subjects being equally difficult to get in at both. If it helps, the overall average entry (A level) grades at Oxford is actually slightly higher than at Cambridge.</p>
<p>Just a word of advice: If you are applying as an undergrad, I think it will be very important for you to nail the interview. A friend of mine who works for the mathmatics dept at Oxford tells me that when he started working on admissions he found out that they had X number of spots and well over X number of first choice candidates. He then asked 'why do they then need a list of second choice candidates?' The department replied that most first choice candidates do not have what they look for after the interview despite being splendid on paper....so thats something to keep in mind.</p>
<p>"When's the last time anyone got a "Rhodes Scholarship" to Cambridge?"</p>
<p>But Rhodes scholarships are just for oxford, they were set up by some rich guy for foreign students to study there! So of course no other university in the world accepts rhodes scholars!</p>
<p>"It's just off the radar screen, just like all other European universities. Hey, most Americans don't know what a Dartmouth or a Brown are either, and certainly not a Williams or an Amherst."</p>
<p>"Television and Books...."</p>
<p>But how come they (tv and books) talk about Oxford so much more than Cambridge? id have thought with ppl like Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Wittgenstein, watson+crick, Rutherford, bertland russell, charles babbage (invented computer), john venn (the diagram!), Erasmus, Francis Bacon."</p>
<p>But that's the whole point. Most Americans wouldn't know these folks from a hole in the wall (I'd bet there isn't one American in a thousand who has ever heard the name "John Venn") no less the university they went to. </p>
<p>But many more have heard of Rhodes Scholarships, because of Bill Bradley and Bill Clinton. So you made my point for me.</p>
<p>Worcester A.M. '76 (I occasionally use the Esq., but never purchased the silver dress sword for my left side.)</p>
<p>I e-mailed Cambridge Admissions and give them some information and asked for guidance. It says on their website to e-mail them as soon as possible for advice, etc. Hopefully they will say what I need. That's very good that a lot is based on the interview because I feel I could represent myself very well in one. I usually have an easier time talking with adults than teens anyway, haha.</p>
<p>People in the U.S. most associate England with literature because British literature is studied in most high school cirriculums, in which Oxford is more prominent than Cambridge. Even the greatest writer in history (Dr. Seuss) went to Oxford! And of course, don't forget Great Gatsby.</p>
<p>in the rap song "the whole city behind us" by the game, kanye west, and ludacris, one of them mentions that he
"has the IQ of a rhodes scholar"
even in rap, a rhodes scholarship (for oxford) can be seen as the epitome of intelligence.<</p>
<br>
<p>I know, thats why you are sometimes disappointed when you actually meet one (or a whole army of them)...Some are brilliant, some are destined for great things, some are just 'what the heck was the committee thinking?'</p>