Need Advice for applying again to Oxford/Cambridge

- Resitting your A levels probably won't help. It's enough to have AAA (or whatever your subject's offer is).
- Reapply to whichever you prefer, although if your A level scores aren't high, doing well on an Oxford admissions test might be your best bet of getting in.
- Reapplicants aren't discriminated against but it's advisable to apply to a different college than you applied to first time round.
- I got in second time round. The fact I was (re)applying post-A level wasn't brought up in my interviews.

- Resitting your A levels probably won't help. It's enough to have AAA (or whatever your subject's offer is).
- Reapply to whichever you prefer, although if your A level scores aren't high, doing well on an Oxford admissions test might be your best bet of getting in.
- Reapplicants aren't discriminated against but it's advisable to apply to a different college than you applied to first time round.
- I got in second time round. The fact I was (re)applying post-A level wasn't brought up in my interviews.

Hi. I was wondering: does it feel different to be a year older than others? Has it affected university life?

Not reapplying but interested!

Hi. May I ask what you did to kind of 'make sure' that you get an offer the second time round?

Hi. I was wondering: does it feel different to be a year older than others? Has it affected university life?

I applied for a different subject, which I was better at — that probably helped a lot. The only other major difference was having more confidence, so that I didn't fall to pieces at every stage of the admissions process.



As Kolasinac138 has pointed out, there are a lot of students who are older than 18 when they start. One year isn't a noticeable difference at all; even five years needn't make a big difference. It is slightly sobering looking back to think that, owing to course lengths and when people's birthdays fall, some of my friends at university were still 20 when they finished, whereas I was 23. That feels like a much bigger gap!

What did you apply for first time and second time?

Maths first time, chemistry second time. It turns out that GCSE and A level scores are a very bad indicator of how good you are at a subject.

Nice, I'm thinking of (potentially) reapplying but I really want to make certain that I don't get rejected again if I do. Did you have any other offers on the table that you threw away?

Yes, I had a place at Warwick, which I turned down after I'd met the offer. It's not a decision to be made lightly, and I'd probably have regretted it had I not gotten in to Oxford second time round.

What did you do in your 'gap' year, and did they like it? I presume it was chem-related?

I worked in a lab doing not very exciting things. I don't think it helped my application very much but it was good to keep busy.

Could you accept an offer from another uni, but still apply for Oxford in October?

Nope.

Also, resitting your A-levels might give you an advantage for Cambridge, where having high percentages gives you a clear advantage. However, I'd advise against this unless you have extenuating circumstances.

Why? What if it was a university outside the UK?

Why? What if it was a university outside the UK?