I’m looking at the oxford math department requirements, and it says this:
“A-levels: AAA with the As in Mathematics and Further Mathematics (if taken). For those whom Further Mathematics is not available: either AAAa with A* in Mathematics and a in AS-level Further Mathematics or AAA with A in Mathematics.
Advanced Highers: AA/AAB
IB: 39 (including core points) with 766 at HL”
Would someone translate this into American? Thanks.
You’ll need at least three APs with scores of 5, including Calc, or SAT2s over 700.
Actually this page specifically states their expectations for US students: https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduate-study/our-offer
Realistically you should have got 5 in Calc BC and most likely 800 in the Math SAT and SAT 2 if you are good enough at math to do this course. But these requirements are just giving the minimum level to even bother applying. What gets you in is the test and the interview. Further math A level is a far broader and deeper foundation than Calc BC (most UK students are spending their last 2 years of school doing nothing but math, further math and physics) so it would be a very steep learning curve as an American if that’s all you’ve done in high school.
How did you do on the AMC 10/12? If you got to the AIME then that’s a good start.
The good news is they don’t care if you can write an essay or speak a foreign language because you won’t do any of that.
PS Cambridge math is more prestigious than Oxford math, but I’m biased
The short list for interviews depends a lot on the MAT- you can see past papers here: https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduate-study/maths-admissions-test. As you can see
Tagging @HazeGrey, whose son just started in Math + CompSci. S/he can say more, but iirc his offer scores were 5s on Calc BC, CompSci & Physics C-M (he had other APs as well). I think he did national math competitions as well.
Other commenters have hit the minimum US standardized test requirements for you. Best case would likely be a 5 in AP Calc BC and Physics C-M plus either a 700+ on SAT2 Math II or 5 in AP Physics-E&M for straight maths.
My son had all of these in the bag before he submitted his UCAS application in Fall 2016.
As @collegemom3717 said, the biggest factor in getting shortlisted for interview is your performance on the MAT. You should definitely start reviewing and practicing past papers. My son didn’t request admissions feedback since he was successful so he doesn’t know his exact MAT score, but he was hitting high 70-low 80 on the practice papers. You can benchmark your performance versus the stats quoted above. If you get shortlisted, the next biggest admissions factor will be your interview performance.
My son is a strong math student. Just as a guide for you, he took the Stanford OSX MVC on-line class as a senior. He qualified for the AIME three times, was on our state’s ARML team three times, and won our state’s annual HS math competition as a senior. He also competed in the PuMAC, HMMT & Yale competitions last year.
He also had the benefit of having an Oxford grad (one of his HS math teachers) write his UCAS LoR for him.
He really enjoyed his first term and found the math classes manageable. His college (Worcester) has a large core of math students and they are very collaborative, which makes getting through the problem sets easier.
He says that there are a lot of very talented math students there. A fair number of kids from Central/Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria) who have specialized in math for a number of years.
I know of two other US math students there (one straight math & one other math & comp sci).
Just as a quick point of comparison, I believe there are 400-500 total places for Maths at Oxford and Cambridge combined. That means about 300-400 for domestic UK students, so the top ~1000 maths students in the UK (top ~0.1% of the population) should be well positioned to secure a place since a fair number will choose other subjects/universities.
With five times the population the US equivalent would be the top 5000 math students (obviously very few apply, that’s just in terms of raw talent, though the standard of preparation may not be equivalent). About 4000-5000 students qualify for and take the AIME each year, so that is a good benchmark of being well positioned to secure a place. Remember this is not a holistic process, it is all about talent in maths.
You need to be really good at math. Probably, you should have 5s in BC Calculus, Statistics, and preferably C Physics. Computer Science and Chemistry might be good too. In addition to AP scores, for maths having 800 or close on math SAT I and IIs would probably help. Really good math competition results would be huge. Many students take BC Calculus sophomore or junior year, and take additional courses such as Calculus III, differential equations, or linear algebra at their schools or colleges. While technically English schools could not evaluate the grades, as they are only looking at test scores, the additional work would put you more at the level of “Further Maths” and they value preparation.
“Really good” is not captured well by the AP and SAT scores, as those tests don’t have enough of a long tail, which is critical in math. The 5s and 800s are simply a by-product of being sufficiently talented in the subject. S18 has 790 SAT 1 math and 800 SAT II math, but is not likely to be an AIME qualifier and wouldn’t be at all happy trying to keep up in an Oxbridge math degree (he wouldn’t get in so that is besides the point).
Easiest screen - look at a recent MAT and see if you have a reasonable idea how to solve the problems. If not, then it’s probably not for you.