<p>As someone that already has a conditional offer (thats in danger of rescission...but an offer nonetheless) from Cambridge, I think I can answer most of your application questions.</p>
<ol>
<li>Oxbridge's websites say the following about their minimum requirements for graduate students:</li>
</ol>
<p>Oxford-"The normal minimum qualification to be eligible for admission as a student for a postgraduate programme of study is the completion of a Bachelor's degree with a first or upper second-class honours or the international equivalent. An applicant with less is very unlikely to be accepted."</p>
<p>Cambridge-"Graduate work in Cambridge is intense and very intellectually demanding and so the University has high academic entry requirements. You are normally expected to hold or to be about to achieve:</p>
<p>-at least a 2i honours degree from a UK university
-an equivalent standard from an overseas university ....."</p>
<p>What is the American "equivalent" of "first or upper second-class honours (oxford)" and "a 2i honours degree from a UK university"?
Since I have only studied in English-teaching environment for about 2 years, I am worried that it will be very difficult to graduate as honors at Williams... (if that's what Oxbridge want)</p>
<p>I can say that this is sketchy for me because I'm in danger of being rescinded for not graduating with that. However, I can say that when I applied, I was on track for most 'distinctions' and honor societies. They never asked about ANY of that though and I didn't even put that in my resume (I worked something like 10+ jobs and held 29 scholarships so "deans list" didn't really seem like anything amazing to me). </p>
<p>I can say, though, that if you get a high GPA, a lot of those honors are automatic so don't worry about what "honours degree" really means. Just get good grades.</p>
<ol>
<li>how hard is it to get scholarship for these universities as an international student? I found some scholarship resources in both schools' websites, but I don't really know how competitive they are. And I only found a few tht accept Japanese applicants.</li>
</ol>
<p>Its almost impossible to get a scholarship for those universities. For students from America, theres a Gates and Rhodes but I think its only like 100 awards for 10,000 applicants. A Gates doesn't have a GPA requirement but you should expect to get at least a 3.6-3.7 to even begin considering to apply. A Rhodes I think require a minimum of 3.75 or 3.8. Aside from that, there are many disadvantages to being a international student. You <em>are not</em> eligible for financial aid, unlike American schools. If you take out loans, they would have to be BANK loans, not grants. You cannot take an assistantship since most of them are only applicable to UK residents. AND to top it off, you pay the out-of-country tuition. My bill for estimated expenses next year is 22,400 pounds, which will run my parents 45,000 american- enough to go to any ivy here. </p>
<ol>
<li>How competitive is the admission for Oxbridge? Does anyone know the admit stats, if they exist??</li>
</ol>
<p>When I was applying, theres freshman admit stats somewhere if you google it. Theres also admit stats for individual programs so just browse through the websites. I know for mine, it was something like 25%...</p>
<p>You should have <em>at least</em> a 3.5 when you apply, regardless of what school you come from. Its stated in my conditions and I think that the bare minimum.</p>