New found love for Cambridge and Oxford

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I’m a HS junior in the US Northeast in a pretty privileged area, I recently discovered a love for Cambridge and Oxford, I want to improve my odds of going and learn about them. I may want to study mathematics or biochemistry.

GPA: This is my biggest weak spot, 8th and 9th grade were lazy for me, straight A’s soph year and so far this year, will end junior year with a probable 3.88

SAT: 2350
ACT: 36

SAT II: Math Level 2: 800
Math Level 1: 800

AP World: 4
AP Environmental (Self studied at end of soph yr): 5

Still taking many AP exams and maybe SAT IIs at end of this yr

This year course load:
AP Chem
AP Calc BC (took precalc 1 & 2 over the summer at a summer school, transferred over to transcript. A.)
AP Comp Sci
AP English Language
AP USH
AP Statistics
Spanish V

Next year will be rigorous

ECs:

  • President of yearbook
  • Quiz bowl team
  • FIRST Robotics
  • Will be president of mock trial next yr. Been in it since 10th.
  • President of my grade last year and this year.
  • President of entire school this year
  • I speak at schools in a program that a charity offers for a disorder that my family is affected by (little brother)
  • Founded a 501(c)(3) for that disorder. We've raised ~$2,300 but I will raise more.
  • Founder and president of club in my school supporting my charity and planning fund raisers etc.
  • In the works of writing and publishing a childrens' book about that disorder
  • NHS
  • Chess club
  • Peer tutoring, a lot of it

Awards:

  • Intel semifinalist
  • Geometry academic award
  • Chemistry academic award
  • Algebra 2/trigonometry academic award
  • my NHD paper is doing well, I may make it pretty far
  • won mock trial states
  • maybe I should spend this summer researching this disorder?

White, no legacy, parents went to Brandeis and GW. No one else in my grade is looking at colleges like these (my school actually is competitive, I have a really dumb grade). No one from my area even considers Oxbridge, so not much competition in the general area but I know they only accept 1300 non-brits a year sooooo…

High income bracket.

2

You will get in…but why go there? So much money gone to waste just because of some “new found love”. If you are going to want to work there then I guess. I can honestly say that some “new found love” doesn’t justify spending that much money even if you do have a lot of it. Go look at other Ivies and colleges like Oxford. It just doesn’t make sense…Girls in my grade are committing to schools in the UK as well and it makes me mad because the quality of education isn’t nearly as good as in the US and they are only doing it to be “different” and “unique”. I understand you like Oxford. But understand this. Going there isn’t worth it. It might look nice, and I swear to you it is (I’ve been there). But getting your education there over another US school of higher caliber makes no sense.

3

@moneybag121‌ , he comes from a priviledged area anyway. He will be paying full price no matter where he goes (for top schools). If you’re saying Oxford/Cambridge aren’t comparable to HYP, you’re simply wrong. They are stellar schools and there is no doubt about that.

In terms of admittance, they are VERY stat based in the UK and since you have a 36 I don’t know why you wouldnt get in.

4

Moneybag121 is quite mistaken that “you will get in”* - and equally mistaken that “the quality of education isn’t nearly as good as in the US” or that there are many US schools of “higher caliber” than Oxford or Cambridge- given that they are in every top-5 list of universities in the world.

Yaleismylove (noting the name…), there are a couple of things to know about Oxbridge: you can only apply to one of them, and you apply to and study just one subject. Good news is that the websites are amazingly thorough. You will find details about each course, right down to the required and optional modules for each year of the course.

Both schools will be largely uninterested in your GPA. To get into Cambridge you will need a minimum of 5 relevant APs with a score of 5; for Oxford a minimum of 3 relevant APs with a score of 5 (or non-duplicated SATIIs with scores in the strong 700s). There are likely to be admissions tests as well. The “relevant” part means subjects that relate to what you are applying to study. In many cases, there will be explicit requirements (for math or biochem you can be sure that you will need CalcBC, for example)- those requirements will be noted in the course descriptions. Note that most UK applicants will sit their exams at the end of senior year, so are given “conditional” offers- that is, they are offered a place conditional on their achieving specific marks on the exams that they are scheduled to take. Looking at your AP list, comp sci & stats are considered as 1/2 an AP, so together, plus chem & math you would have 3 good APs- if you got 5s on all of them, and did well on the MAT and interview, you could be in very good shape.

A word on the personal statement: this is where you sell yourself as a great candidate for the course you are applying to. How you got interested / how that interest extends beyond the classroom / what about it interests you- that sort of thing.

A word on the interview: your application is reviewed, and you are interviewed by, the people who teach that subject, not an admissions committee. The interview is not a test of knowledge- they will deliberately ask you about or give you problems to solve that you have not studied. This is not to trip you up: it is to see how you think and learn. If (when) you get stuck they will ask questions that are meant to help you think it through. Although you will have lectures, the core teaching takes place in tutorials, and they also need to know if that is a learning approach that works for you- it doesn’t work for everybody, even super-clever people. It is a learning style.

Neither school is particularly interested in your ECs, either- except as they relate to the subject you are applying to study. So, most of your awards would be worth mentioning in your essay (aka Personal Statement).

They also pay no attention to legacy, regionality**, race, etc. They just want the best.

The UK suits people who are self-motivated, good exam takers and know what they want to study, and Oxbridge is that in spades.

Hope that helps.

not saying you won’t either: just that great stats are necessary but not sufficient for admission
*there are some of the same prejudices that moneybags was expressing on the UK side- there are quite a few who don’t see the US secondary school system as being as rigorous as the UK :slight_smile:

5

Great post above by @collegemom3717. In addition to the above, keep in mind that you will have to apply to a specific college within Oxford/Cambridge. There are some colleges which are easier to get into than others. Also there is a pool for students who don’t have a preference for individual colleges.

I took a look at the Oxford requirements for international students, and here is what is written:

So based on the above it looks like you will meet the ACT requirement, but not the AP/SAT II requirements.

6

I don’t know about oxford, but you’ll get in at Cambridge as a full pay with those scores. They hardly look at anything else but scores. Cambridge is Top notch for Science, for engineering it’s way up there with MIT and Stanford. But I agree, unless you want to work in england or in Europe, which is a shit idea (trust me i’m european), you might as well go for stellar US schools.

7

More misconceptions.

  1. It is not easier to get into one Oxford or Cambridge college than another: the pooling system works within subjects across colleges. Applications are reviewed by the department, specifically to make sure that good candidates aren’t missed. For Oxford, up to 1/3 of any given intake year are accepted into different colleges than they apply to. It is true that you can either apply to a specific college or make an ‘open’ application. If ‘open’ you will be allocated to a college- but you may still be pooled to another college for interviewing.

  2. Meriks is mistaken. You will not “get in as a full pay with those scores” at Cambridge. First of all, as an international there is pretty much only full pay. Second, at this stage you don’t even meet the minimum number of test scores for Cambridge. Third, at many of the colleges at Cambridge there are further admissions tests, which will obviously count. Fourth, the interview is crucial: many people with top scores do not fare well in the interview. So, it is not a given. Again, that does not mean it won’t happen, just that it is important to know the facts.

Except for law and medicine, degrees from Oxford or Cambridge are as useful in the US as in Europe (more useful for the OP, actually, as a UK degree does not confer the right to work in the UK or the EU).

8

One more thing: the application deadline for either is 15 October, and if you are applying for a subject with an admissions test you need to register for it by then - and they can be a hassle to organize, so start researching that early.

9

collegemom3717 is right. As someone who researched and applied to Cambridge, I know that tests scores are important, GPA is less so, and ECs are hardly looked at. Interviews and the tests you take there are crucial. I’ve heard anywhere from 1% to 10% international acceptance rate, so it’ll be tough. Good luck!