Oxford and Cambridge have ancient foundations and a global reputation for excellence in teaching and research. An Oxbridge education is dominated by intellectual endeavour, personal research, high academic achievement, and very, very hard work. The philosophy is master and apprentice. This means that Oxbridge is not for everybody and high academic achievement does not guarantee you a place. Both universities have a clear idea of who they are looking for and they are able to pick from a huge field of academically gifted candidates. Every year thousands of students, who go on to achieve the highest grades at A Level, are rejected. In the past few years many Avanti students who are not even invited to attend interview or are rejected after interview achieved excellent scores at GCSE and predicted A*AA, A*A*A, A*A*A* or higher at A Level. Competition is fierce and it is clear that excellence at GCSE and A Level predictions is not the only requirement.

It is vital to remember that there is no one successful applicant profile. You have to fulfil any combination of the criteria mentioned below. If you gain outstanding GCSE results, if you perform well in the admissions test you are not guaranteed a place. We have seen Avanti students with a stronger academic profile than others not perform well enough at interview and not be offered a place.

What are the Oxbridge colleges looking for in their applicants?

The right person for that course! Oxbridge students cannot create themselves overnight.

Research shows that it is those pupils who have a genuine desire to learn and who have shown commitment to their studies from the start, commitment to broadening their horizons, “thinking outside the box”, who make the best application to the Oxbridge colleges and who have the best chance of success.

You must be genuinely interested and enthusiastic about your subject. Without this you will fail to impress at the interview in which you will be required to think on your feet and discuss aspects of your subject you have never thought about before. If you are genuinely interested you will already be reading well beyond the A Level syllabus and will be excited about discovering new ideas. You cannot prepare for an interview at the last minute.

You must be able to cope with the demands of independent learning. You need to be a self-motivated, independent, highly organised learner who is able to work under pressure. You will need physical and mental stamina to succeed in this pressurised academic environment.

You must have outstanding academic potential. This is indicated by a record of exceptional, preferably all 8-9, grades at GCSE and exceptional performance during Year 12. You will need 90% in the three subjects you are continuing to A Level to be of mild interest to Admissions Tutors.

You will require at least one predicted A Level grade at A* though the most competitive courses for September 2020 asked for A*A*A. It is not unusual for Cambridge students to have at least 2 A* grades and many achieve 3 A* at A Level.

Remember that you are not competing against the entry requirements, rather competing against the other applicants. Even if you secure what the Admissions Tutors wish to see this is not sufficient to secure you a place. You have to have that spark, be able to think for yourself, apply your knowledge to unfamiliar situations, have your own opinions, not simply regurgitate what you have been supplied in class.

You must have written a first class personal statement and you must have given your teachers enough evidence of your endeavour and potential for a strong school reference to have been provided.

What causes applicants to be rejected?

Doubts regarding your academic potential, revealed by weaknesses at GCSE or A-Level predictions, or by a poor performance in an admissions test. This can result in immediate rejection: you will not be called to interview.

Doubts regarding your intellectual motivation and maturity, revealed by a disappointingly dull and stilted performance at interview.

An unconvincing personal statement: little independent learning, little intellectual enquiry.

An unconvincing school reference. Your teachers have done their best to praise everything you offer, but you have not offered enough, certainly not, in the Admissions Tutors’ opinion, in the face of strong competition from other applicants.

Unfortunately, luck also plays a role

There are so many very strong candidates. If you are selected for interview you can be sure that you also are a very strong candidate. If you do not secure an offer this does not mean you have failed: you simply did not perform as well on the day as another candidate. There are many other excellent universities at which you will achieve your academic potential and have great fun. You can always concentrate on your A Levels and re-apply to Oxbridge in your gap year.

How to maximise your chances of getting in

Be sure which subject you wish to study: it matters more than anything else. You must have a genuine interest in what you wish to study, or you will fail.

Choose which of the two universities to apply to. The subject you choose dictates whether you go to Oxford or Cambridge. You might consider the advantages of the Cambridge Tripos system, whereby your degree is split in two and you can change focus/course either after year one or year two, depending on the course of study, or the Joint Honours courses offered by Oxford. There are significant differences in the courses offered by each university. Find out which subjects are offered by each university, as some of them are quite unusual. Read about them thoroughly. Make sure you are properly qualified to apply. Find out about any additional admissions test or additional work required.

Choosing your college

All colleges have, largely, the same facilities. You are applying to the university, not to the college. If you are just not up to the standard required by the university, even though you might be the best a college has interviewed, you will be rejected. If your college has not found good enough students it will import students who have applied to over subscribed colleges.

It would make sense, for example if you have mobility problems, to apply to a college near to the faculty. Otherwise you are probably being too fussy.

If you are too prescriptive about which college you prefer you stand the chance of being disappointed. Admissions tutors do not mind whether you choose a college or you make an open application, see below. If you are prepared to go to great lengths to find a college there are a few criteria you can apply:

• Find out the admissions criteria for your chosen subject, such as additional tests at interview. Eliminate any colleges with whose admissions criteria you are not comfortable.

• Geographically central colleges are far more difficult to enter than peripheral colleges. They have impressive architecture and people think often wrongly that they are significantly nearer the university facilities. The more modern colleges are further out and often less competitive.

• The competitiveness of a college is indicated by two sources of information: Cambridge: Tompkins table; Oxford: Norrington table.

Now ask for the prospectus of colleges you have left on your list. Visit the college, either at an open day or by contacting the college and asking for a guided tour. Open days are best as you will be able to talk to tutors and students. You will be surprised at how you react. Some colleges you will instantly like, others you will dislike. Bear in mind the college chooses you, however, not the other way round.

You could make an open application:

At both Oxford and Cambridge you can make an 'Open Application'. You will be assigned by the Admissions Tutors to a particular college. The basis of the allocation is to even out the distribution of applicants across the colleges. Once allocated to a college your application will be treated in exactly the same way as any other application. For equally well qualified applicants, making an open application or applying directly to a specific college makes no difference to your chances of being made an offer. Read this for yourself on the websites.

The Cambridge “Winter Pool” and Oxford College reallocation

Be sensible! If you apply to Oxford you will most likely be sent on to another college for interview. If you apply to Cambridge you could well be pooled after interview.

Approximately a fifth of the candidates Cambridge invites to interview will not receive an offer from their first choice college but will be placed in the “Winter Pool”. About half of these will subsequently receive an offer from another college. Oxford does not operate a “Winter Pool”, but many subjects often choose to reallocate certain candidates to another college before interview to even out the numbers of potentially successful applicants. Both systems work on behalf of the colleges, ensuring that all colleges have their places filled with high quality candidates. Both systems also work on behalf of high quality candidates who apply to oversubscribed colleges. If you find yourself “pooled” or moved to another college you are not second best, you are lucky!

The bottom line. Would you refuse to accept a place at another college? If the answer to this in “no” you are well advised not to be so fussy in the first place.

Do your research

Study these websites thoroughly:

www.cam.ac.uk

www.ox.ac.uk

www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/podcasts : contains useful information regarding admissions procedures and interviews at Oxford.

You are strongly recommended to purchase:

Getting into Oxford and Cambridge

an MPW guide from: www.trotman.co.uk or www.mpw.co.uk

and

Oxbridge Entrance – the Real Rules

by Elfi Pallis from: www.amazon.co.uk