I’m a sophomore, going to school in the US, and my dream undergrad school is Oxford, but I’m incredibly skeptical that I’ll get in based on past statistics of students from my school getting admitted.
If I were to apply, I would apply for Mathematics and/or Computer Science; what exams would I have to take within the next two years and what standardized test scores would I have to achieve to be considered/admitted?
And do schools in the UK admit students based off of the same factors that schools in the US do? Or is it a whole different process? Like how much weight do they put on GPA and extracurricular activities?
ECs are not helpful at all except if they relate directly to your proposed subject. Only your academic ability in math counts. GPA isn’t important as such, but your teacher’s recommendation is.
@JY2727 my son is a second year reading maths & comp sci at Oxford. As @Conformist1688 noted, the basic requirement for entry is 3 AP 5 scores and the ACT/SAT score. In my son’s case, the APs that they “counted” for his offer were Calc BC, Comp Sci A and Physics C Mechanics. Oxford never asked for my son’s HS transcript, so GPA was meaningless as were his ECs other than perhaps his HS math and computer science teams. It helped greatly that his LOR was written by one of his HS math teachers who is an Oxford grad who had taught for many years at Westminster School in London (one of the top OxBridge feeder schools in the UK).
It is a much different process for admission. Passing the first hurdle (being invited for an interview) will depend largely on how well you score on Oxford’s own admissions test - the MAT. After that, it will be down to how well you perform during your interview.
Also Oxbridge looks very favorably on achievements in competitions such as AMC/AIME and AMO qualification would make you a near automatic admit. So this is worth pursuing, and it can be helpful in interviews too since the question style is somewhat similar to the AMC format. For example an AMC question a couple of years ago that I found neat: what are the last two digits of 2015 to the power of 2016 minus 2017? That’s the sort of thing you should be able to do in your head by spotting patterns in the numbers. Similarly math interviews are often about visualizing curves, number series, etc.
If you haven’t done already, get your school to register you for AMC-10 before winter break (deadline is Jan 8th). Then spend some time practicing over the holidays. Most admitted students ought to be capable of qualifying for AIME (put another way, if you are not at that level then you would have a tough time there).
Try to do Calc BC as a junior then MVC senior year. That way you will be eligible for an unconditional offer and will be at a similar level to UK students with further maths A level. And don’t take too many APs if you aren’t going to get all 5s. 8 APs with five 5s and three 4s looks worse than 5 APs that are all 5s.