Oxbridge Application

UCAS Application

The first stage of an application to Oxford or Cambridge is submitting an application via UCAS. At this stage it is worth noting that it is not possible to apply for both Oxford and Cambridge. As well as choosing whether to apply to Oxford or Cambridge, you will need to decide on your course and college before applying. This application will include your Personal Statement, as well as an academic reference from your HM. The Guidance Department offers in depth advice on the UCAS application more generally to pupils at the following points in the cycle:

· Lent Term Higher Education Briefing (EGN)

· Summer Term UCAS Application Briefing (EGN)

· Summer Term Personal Statement Briefing (EGN)

· House sessions at close of Summer Term and start of U6 Michaelmas Term (Guidance beaks)

· Follow-up Individual Consultations (Guidance beaks)

The application deadline for Oxford and Cambridge courses is earlier than other universities: applications for 2023 entry must be submitted by 15th October. Your application, however, must be put together and submitted to Guidance at the end of September to allow for checking and polishing, and also to give your HM the opportunity to fashion their reference so that it dovetails with your application.

Personal Statement

The Personal Statement is a chance for you to articulate why you would like to study a particular course or subject, and what skills and experience you possess that show your passion for your chosen field. It is a document that can be no longer than 47 lines, or 4000 characters, long – around one side of A4 typed.

There will be further guidance on writing Personal Statements in the Summer Term, but note that for Oxbridge, your Personal Statement must be significantly academic and outline the reasons why you would be an excellent candidate to study your chosen course. See the below advice from Oxford:

“Tutors at Oxford are only interested in your academic ability and potential. They want to see that you are truly committed to the subject or subjects you want to study at university but it’s not enough just to say that you have a

King’s College Chapel Cambridge

passion for something: you need to show tutors how you have engaged with your subject, above and beyond whatever you have studied at school or college. This can include any relevant extra-curricular activities.”

From this, it is clear that you must focus on evidence of your passion and aptitude for your subject. You may be interested in your course, but what research have you done beyond the A level/Pre-U syllabus? What did you gain from doing this research? What talks and lectures have you attended? What did you learn from them? What relevant extra-curricular clubs and societies are you involved with? The key for the latter question is the relevancy of your extra-curricular endeavours to your chosen academic field. A Grade 8 trumpet qualification is an outstanding feat, but not directly relevant for an application to read Classics; this, similarly, applies to sporting achievements. Work on your Personal Statement should be guided by your tutor, an expert beak in your subject, and your Oxbridge mentor; the Head of Oxbridge can also be a point of feedback. A member of the Guidance Department will read over and give advice on each Personal Statement once it’s been submitted, and the Head of Oxbridge will cast a final eye over each Oxbridge Personal Statement before submission to UCAS.

Admissions Tests

For the majority of courses at Oxford, and many at Cambridge, an Admissions Test is a required element of the application. You can check whether the course in which you are interested requires an Admissions Test in the ‘Entry Requirements’ section of the course website for Cambridge courses, and the ‘Admissions Requirements’ section of the course website for Oxford courses. For applications to Cambridge, whether you need to sit an Admissions Test or not, as well as its content, may depend on the college to which you apply.

Admissions Tests give the universities another piece of data to identify the strongest candidates by testing subject relevant skills. Preparation for this is, therefore, just as important as preparation for other areas of the application, such as your Personal Statement and interviews. This preparation will be significantly guided by expert beaks.

This year, Admissions Tests continue to play a vital role. Consistently, our successful applicants have high marks in their Admissions Tests, and those who are not invited to interview often receive low scores.

Many Admissions Tests will take place in early November, but you must register to take the test before 15th October. Guidance will be in touch about this in due course. Some Cambridge Admissions Tests will take place at interview – you will hear about this from the college to which you apply.

Written Work

A number of courses also require the submission of written work as part of an application. You can check whether the course in which you are interested requires any written work in the ‘Admissions Requirements’ section of the course website for Oxford courses. The deadline for the submission of written work to Oxford is 10th November – this should be submitted to your chosen college. If you are applying to Cambridge, whether or not you will need to submit written work is dependent not only on the course, but also the college. The college to which you apply will be in touch once you have submitted your UCAS application if you need to submit any written work. This written work is generally required to be written as part of your A level or Pre-U course, not specifically for this application, and should be marked by your teacher. This should be the best possible piece of written work that you have completed that is relevant to your course. It should demonstrate your analytical, reasoning, language and writing skills, as appropriate for your chosen degree course. It may be that this piece of work is used at interview to springboard a discussion.

Interviews

As mentioned previously, one of the aspects of Oxbridge that distinguishes these universities from others in the UK is the tutorial system. Interviews are a valuable way of discerning whether an applicant will suit this system of teaching, and so the interviews really are very much like a tutorial or supervision – a discussion about your chosen subject. Given the above, interviews are not about answering questions correctly, and the preparation that you will carry out in the lead up to these is not intended to give you the ‘right answers’. Interviewers will challenge you to think independently by asking questions about areas of your subject that you may have never considered before. The mark of a successful interview is for the discussion to progress, and for you to learn something; this will evidence your academic potential, which is really what tutors are aiming to uncover in an interview. They will want to see some conviction in the justification of your opinions, but if you realise that your position is untenable, they will also appreciate some intellectual flexibility. Think carefully and spontaneously.

See below a couple of quotes from Admissions tutors:

“Interviews give us the chance to see whether an applicant has the intellectual capacity to learn and be stretched by our teaching system; fundamentally the question is this: can we teach this person in a tutorial situation and will they thrive in this environment?” (Italian tutor, Oxford)

“Interviews tell us important things about a candidate which are not captured by grades or test scores. We can see candidates think, not merely parrot information.” (Medicine tutor, Oxford)

Interviews are held at the beginning of December, and you should hear about whether you have been invited or not by early December, though usually closer to the end of November. Usually, the interviews are held in Oxford and Cambridge at the college to which you applied. Last year, however, interviews were held online due to COVID. You should expect to have at least two interviews, and you may be interviewed at another college, particularly at Oxford.

If the tutors at your chosen college see you as a candidate who is strong enough to deserve a place at the university, but are unable to offer a place at their college, due to a number of other more impressive candidates, you may be pooled. Pooling offers other colleges the chance to consider your application and give you an offer, and they will often interview you if this is the case – at Oxford this will tend to happen while you are there for interview, but at Cambridge you may be interviewed by another college in January.

See the below website links for more information on interviews, from Oxford and Cambridge themselves:

Oxford Interview Guidance

Cambridge Interview Guidance

Decisions

Decisions will come in January, with either a place being offered or not, but getting to interview alone is a significant achievement and something of which you should be proud.

Applicants to Oxford and Cambridge will receive news of an offer, or a rejection, in January 2023, though exact dates are yet to be confirmed.