Hi! I’m a prospective American student applying to Oxford to read PPE (nothing to do with the prestige, I just love philosophy and politics deeply) and was wondering whether anyone had any knowledge as to my chances of admission given the following test scores:
SAT I:
2360 (M 760, CR 800, W 800)
SAT Subject Tests:
Math II 800
US History 740
Physics 750
Spanish 640
English Literature 780 (predicted)
AP Tests:
BC Calculus 5
Statistics 5
Physics C - E&M 5
Physics C - Mechanics 5
English Language 5
US History 5
Spanish 4 or 5 (predicted)
English Literature 5 (predicted)
Chemistry 5 (predicted)
Psychology 5 (predicted)
+what I feel is a strong personal statement and ECs related to the subjects (competitive high school debate on a national level)
I think you have a good chance of being invited for an interview. Make sure you write an appropriate PS and work with your counsellor on a letter of recommendation. Cambridge, for example, has very good overview of what is expected from the letter. If you ace the interview, you will probably get a conditional offer that will include 5 on lit. AP Gov would have been more appropriate subject, imho.Best of luck.
You more than exceed the standardized testing requirements, which you can think of as clearing the first hurdle.
Assuming a decent PS and rec, the next hurdle is the TSA.
If you clear that hurdle, you will get invited to interview, at which point statistically you have about a 1 in 3 chance of getting an offer (which, given your APs would most likely be unconditional).
However, the first three hurdles- standardized testing, TSA and PS/Rec just get you to the interview- in a close decision between 2 candidates a higher TSA score could tip the balance, but mostly it’s all about the interview.
So really, nobody can give you anything more than to say you are competitive
Gov would’ve been a better choice, yes, but I did not yet know I would be applying to Oxford when choosing courses. Interestingly, though–and slightly ironically–I feel as if my chances of getting an unconditional offer increase if I’m not taking any more courses relevant to PPE. Anyways, thanks for the input!
I would email admissions tutor and ask if your current courses and AP results are relevant and if there are other tests that Oxford would like to see. Tutors in the UK are very helpful and respond to emails promptly.
@bottomkek, you do NOT need to email your college. Your APs are fine for PPE: you have Calc for the Econ side; for the others you need essay-based courses, with history being usual but NOT required- and you have English and History. The Gov course would have been handy b/c it is good prep for the 1st year Politics module, but it only counts as 1/2 an AP anyway, and not having it is no big deal. Oxford is explicit that you do NOT need to have done Econ in secondary school, and I have been told that they don’t think much of the AP Econs (and they are 1/2 APs each as well).
The test that they will really really care about is the TSA.
