<p>This is what one of the Cambridge colleges has to say about American applicants:</p>
<p>Pembroke</a> College : Overseas students : Applying from a North American High School</p>
<p>The general message is that it's very tough and at least as difficult as Harvard... the whole university only admitted 6 American undergraduates last year and that's not because nobody was applying. </p>
<p>Also, make sure you understand that you can apply to either Oxford OR Cambridge, but not both.</p>
<p>^ thats weird, because my friend from Singapore got rejected at MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and other such schools but was accepted at Cambridge. I think the key is to doing A Levels...because apparently Cambridge has set a GPA requirement for students doing A Levels. And as long as they pass that requirement, the rest is relatively easy. Well thats why my friend told me, and shes going there next year.</p>
<p>
[quote]
^ thats weird, because my friend from Singapore got rejected at MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and other such schools but was accepted at Cambridge.
[/quote]
That may have been the case with your friend, but I'm sure there were many others that had the opposite happen. Hence why anecdotal evidence is always biased. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I think the key is to doing A Levels...because apparently Cambridge has set a GPA requirement for students doing A Levels. And as long as they pass that requirement, the rest is relatively easy. Well thats why my friend told me, and shes going there next year.
[/quote]
That couldn't be further from the truth. The 'set GPA requirement' you're talking about is simply the statement that Oxbridge expects its applicants to have a least three A's at A Level. Most people will get admitted with conditional offers where they need to get at least three A's (and if they don't then they don't get in). The A-Level exams are taken after the general admissions process is over so it's impossible to 'pass that requirement' and then have the rest be easy to get admitted. You first need to get an offer (the tough part) and then meeting the requirement of at least three A's on the exams should be the easy bit for students of that caliber.</p>
<p>no some dealbreakers. don't worry about the awards. ur academic excellence and ecs would supplement pretty well tho.</p>
<p>so do you guys think a Chinese and/or Arabic essay would help my app a bit?</p>
<p>To be blunt: if Oxford is only 10th in your order of preference, and you seem to be seeing it as a makeweight in case you don't get into your preferred US colleges, then I don't think you should bother applying:</p>
<p>a). you almost certainly won't be able to show the enthusiasm for the place and your proposed course of study that the interviewers will be expecting to see;</p>
<p>b). you will just be wasting the colleges' time as you will turn down any offer you may get as soon as one of your preferred US universities makes you an offer. The Oxford college will then need to offer your place to another applicant who could have got in the first time round without all the angst.</p>
<p>yea i don't even think I have enough time to make the early october deadline.. besides oxford is better for grad school and I want to stay near my family :)</p>
<p>i find it funny that one of your ECs is being president of the mandarian club and planning that trip to china-- yet you did so poorly on your chinese SATII, no offense, you yourself put a cute little smiley next to it (:
you should definetly select the most important ECs to you rather than just listing all of them
and i agree- there's no need AT ALL for you to retake your SATs, you're so close to perfect!</p>
<p>hey i tried my best! :) jk</p>
<p>my chinese wasn't so hot back in junior year but now it has improved quite a bit. I want to go to China so that I can get better at it.. duh! :P</p>
<p>I would say an above average shot at most of the schools with the possible exception of MIT...(not enough interest in math and sciences) </p>
<p>btw, hope you have the money to go to oxford/Cambridge if you get accepted.</p>
<p>well my parents have already allocated 200K for me and we have a 2.7 million dollar house, of which 1.6 has been paid off so money is the last thing i have to worry about..</p>
<p>and to clarify, i'm NOT applying to UPenn or Cambridge now, seeing that I have higher chances at Chicago and Chicago is better than UPenn for econ.. furthermore, I don't want to deal with going to a specific school at Cambridge..</p>
<p>thanks for all of your advice!</p>
<p>i've updated my scores in a new thread, maybe it helps my chances? : <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/528856-we-aim-above-mark-hit-mark-emerson-2.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/528856-we-aim-above-mark-hit-mark-emerson-2.html</a></p>