<p>Correction to Coriander23 and xFirefox: UK universities (except St Andrews) do not care about your grades / transcript. Because more American students are applying more UK universities are putting in things such as"3.0 GPA", b/c US students keep asking about it, but in reality what matters is your standardized test scores. </p>
<p>Harvarddreamer, Oxbridge are NOT holistic in their applications. If you go to the Oxford Admissions podcasts on iTunes you will hear a History tutor say explicitly “we don’t care about all the other things you have done- we want you to love our subject as much as we do”. </p>
<p>Understand that in England you essentially go straight into your major (bit less true for the Scottish unis, which are typically 4 year programs), and with a very few exceptions (notably PPE) you ONLY study the subject you apply to. So, if you apply to History you will take history and only history for your entire degree. </p>
<p>You will be asked to put down your grades on the UCAS app, but Oxford will never ask to the transcript b/c they have no meaningful way to compare the grades: there is no standardized curriculum in the US, so what you did in Honors Physics may be more- or less- than what another student in another school did in plain old Physics. Or, did you get the super-hard marker / never gives more than 2 As English teacher, or did you get the one where only the slackers got Bs? So, it is all about the standardized testing, which at least compares like with like.</p>
<p>So, for Oxford or Cambridge, the first thing is to have SAT 2200+ (or the re-scaled equivalent), and a <em>minimum</em> of 3 relevant, category “A” AP scores of “5”. </p>
<p>Relevant means something that would have some similarity to the subject that you are applying to study. Also, read the subject page for whatever you are applying to exhaustively. For example, for Law at Oxford you will see that although they don’t list specific subjects, buried in the description is a reference for a preference for math to GCSE level- so the Math I SAT subject test would be a nice addition to your resume. </p>
<p>Category “A” refers to the UCAS tariff list:<br>
<a href=“http://www.ucas.com/how-it-all-works/explore-your-options/entry-requirements/tariff-tables/app”>http://www.ucas.com/how-it-all-works/explore-your-options/entry-requirements/tariff-tables/app</a></p>
<p>xFirefox is correct about aptitude tests that are given around application time- they are usually make-or-break for getting an interview- and that the Personal Statement is where you can put in ECs that are relevant to the subject you are applying to study. It is also true that the interview is critical: by the time that you get to the interview they are pretty sure that you are clever enough to handle the work, now they need to see if you will do well in the tutorial format- and (crucially) what you would be like to teach. Unlike the US, where interviews are done by admissions people or alums, at OxBridge you are interviewed by the people who will be teaching you- who most likely be spending an hour a week one-on-one or two-on-one with you. </p>
<p>However, xFirefox is mistaken about the interview questions being available online. Although there are variations, it is common for you to be given work that is unfamiliar- a math problem that is a step or two ahead of what you have covered in math, a history reading from an obscure time or place, etc- and asked to work it through or discuss it. The purpose is not to test whether you know the answers but to see how you think, how you approach a new problem, how you learn in a tutorial format. There are other pieces- you may be asked about a book that you mentioned in your PS for example, but there are no standard questions that you can prep for.</p>
<p>Also, while the average of applicants receiving interview offers across all subjects is 70% (not 80%), that masks a wide range by subject. PPE averages 60%, Fine Art 30%, Classics 98%. More relevantly for US applicants, though, is that it varies tremendously by where you are applying from*: in 2013, 67% of applicants from the UK received interviews, but only 21% of non-UK/non-EU applicants did. Similarly, 25% of UK applicants ended up receiving offers, while only 12% of non-UK/non-EU applicants did. </p>
<p>*note that it matters where you are living when you apply, not your citizenship </p>
<p>And Coriander is dead-on about the student room: it is where you will find great information and great support!</p>