Chances for bio at oxford

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hi everyone, I’m currently a junior in the US planning to major in bio. I want to know my chances at oxford. Here are my stats.

APS
AP World history: 4
AP chemistry: 4 (dropped)
AP Calc BC: 5
AP US Hist: 5
AP bio: 5
AP stats: 5
AP Comp Sci Princ: 5
AP Physics 1: 5
AP Physics 2: 5
AP psych: 5

SAT: 1520

APs I plan on taking senior year: Physics C, English lit, Environmental science, Economics, and maybe retake the chemistry exam.

Subject tests:
Math 2: 800
Chemistry: 720
World history: 710
Biology: 800

Relevant Extracurriculars:
Intern at biology lab
Participating in prominent science fair (don’t know my results yet)
Participating in this years Biology Olympiad.

I know a large part is also the interview, but in general, how do you think I’ll do? Any tips and recommendations?

2

Listing a bunch of APs you haven’t taken yet and assuming you’ll get all 5s is quite presumptuous. Come back next July when you’ve got actual results, but remember it’s better to get 4 5s from 4 subjects than take 7 APs and get 4 5s and 3 lower grades.

Your chemistry result isn’t helpful, do you mean you dropped the course but still took the AP exam??? Your senior year plan also looks light on math, unless you are taking MVC at community college?

3

thanks for the feedback, I originally got a 4 on chemistry, but under the recommendation of others i had the score dropped (collegeboard allows any score not archived to be completely erased). In senior year I will be taking a community college math class, Calculus 3. As for the ap exams, I can consistently score 5s on mock exams for every class except physics 1.

4

lol, the APs just qualify you to be invited for an interview; the interview is make or break.

Serious question: why do you want to study biology?

5

There is no admissions test or written work required to apply for straight biology, so as @collegemom3717 suggests, you are really going to need to state clearly why you want to study bio and at Oxford in order to make the short list for interview. Your personal statement will be the key for that. Having 5s in AP Bio, BC and Physics 1&2 in hand at the time of application would help your case. The nice thing is that Oxford just started a four year bio program. My S 17’s GF is reading bio and she’s bummed that she’s going to have to leave after three years and go through the process all over again for her masters.

6

thanks so much for all the advise. I know bio isn’t very lucrative, but I honestly find it super interesting, along with the fact that my parents are biologists. I also focused most of my extracurriculars to be biology centered to make writing my personal statements easier

7

True comment from an Oxford tutor about applicants: “we want students who love our subject as much as we do”.

Sorry you felt you had to preface your ‘I love bio as a subject’ with an ‘even though I am less likely to get rich doing it’…