Oxford Applicants 2016 Entry & Interview chat

Well each to their own, nothing wrong with having this approach. Personally, I already have my offer from Bristol and I would drag myself through a pit of glass shards infested with deathstalker scoprions just to get an interview at Oxford.

We sell our soul to the devil for our university tuition.

[QUAOTE]Ooh, do you have the link to the page?

http://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/students/undergraduates/admissions/candidate-information

Pretty much accurate

Are you applying to the United States as well. Their tuition is even higher.

Oh hell no. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in debt to my parents

Are you applying to Australia, Canada, other English speaking countries? What about China or Hong Kong?

I am only applying to US and UK.

Which universities in US?
Why aren't you considering HK/China?

MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Caltech, Penn, Columbia, & Cornell

My parents want me to study abroad. And I don't really care where I go as long as it is highly ranked ...

That is.... intense. Are you doing IB or 高考?
Also: good luck! You're going to need it

Depends on if I get in one of those 9. I already took the SAT (2320) / AP.

Thank you. You too

How did you do on the HAT.

Oh, so like an American international school? The max is 2400 so your SAT score is actually quite good! Which APs did you do/are you doing? I'm taking quite a lot this year.

Haha, one of the reasons I applied for Arch & Ancient History instead of Ancient & Modern is that I don't need to take the HAT - and that the acceptance rate is pretty high lol.

Did you need to take an aptitude test?

MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Caltech, Penn, Columbia, & Cornell

My parents want me to study abroad. And I don't really care where I go as long as it is highly ranked ...

Nice, I'll be applying to several American schools to appease my parents who don't really want me to study abroad. Although they want me to go somewhere I could get a bunch of scholarships (i.e. not highly ranked). Which would you say is your top choice? (excluding Oxford) I was thinking about Princeton or Cornell if going to the UK doesn't work out.

Wadham, I've not received any email about interview decisions yet tho, Hbu?

MIT is actually the 3 rd easiest to get into. MIT: 8 Cornell: 14 Oxford: 18%

Acceptance rate isn't purely how difficult it is to get into a university. Plenty of universities are under-subscribed or oversubscribed based on plenty of other factors other than those that are used to determine admissions. I'd argue that Cambridge and Oxford are THE hardest universities to get into, but receive less applicants because of the structure of the admissions process, which creates an image of intellectual exclusivity, and leads only the most qualified applicants to even consider applying.

I think I remember that you're a Chinese applicant, correct? Think about Tsinghua University, they have the lowest acceptance rate in the world by a long shot for Chinese applicants, but that's because of the sheer number of applicants and relatively low number of spots for admissions.

Acceptance rate should never be used as the primary gauge for whether a university is good. Oxbridge are definitely up there with the Ivies in terms of standard. Acceptance rate is deceivingly high because of the fact that one can only apply to Ox or Cam and not both, so that means half of the top students would pick either one, and also because of the Ucas limit on number of applications, hence the weaker students will not apply to maximize their chances elsewhere. Whereas in the US one can apply to as many colleges as they want to.

However, if the restriction where you can only apply to one of Ox or Cam is lifted the acceptance will also become higher for both uni.