Is it too late to think about Oxford? A real dilemma...

I presume you are missing a "not" - although strictly speaking the 'best' applicant is indeed guaranteed an offer, but they won't know they are the best until later

Wait what is this meant to mean haha

Are the applicants deemed by the these unis that are deemed the "best" given an advantage so to speak, where they know they might be the one?

No. All I meant was, by definition, someone will be the 'best'. Nobody knows who the 'best' is until the (entire) process is complete. That's all.

No drama...

Grade requirements for Medicine are not the same as grade requirements for any other subject.

Grade requirements for Medicine are not the same as grade requirements for any other subject.

Thanks,I thought that your post was unsubstantiated,but those are interesting statistics anyway.

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https://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics

as you can see, the average number of A*s for a SUCCESSFUL applicant is 10.5, and the average percentage is of A*s is 93% lol and the average BMAT is around 63% which equates to 6.0, 6.0 and 3A roughly I think, the actual average for the BMAT in general across the country is usually around 4.5 4.5 3A, so even with amazing GCSEs you still need to be significantly above average to get an interview, so it's even harder if your GCSEs aren't up to scratch. For other courses at Oxford, it's probably slightly less competitive, but I'd still imagine that you'd need around 5-6 A*s at least for courses like Biology.

My daughter has just graduated in Biology at Oxford. Edinburgh and Exeter were on her shortlist, and we we did a fair bit of research on them - including offer holder visits etc.

As far as your "main points of discussion" go, I'd suggest that there may be more important criteria.
On the question of GCSE grades, even if you didn't get an interview, you still have 4 choices left and you can only go to one university anyway.

The differences between Zoology and Biology at U/G level are quite small. To the extent that one can exclude plants from your understanding of animal biology, this can be achieved through your options choices. And for most topics - ecology, evolution, biochemistry, cell biology, statistics....the rather artificial zoology/botany distinction is pretty nonsensical.

I'd say that the Unis you mention are different in much more significant ways than this. For example, Exeter has a good "whole animal" approach (eg behaviour and ecology is well represented there, with the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the Penrhyn campus site), whereas Edinburgh seems more oriented towards "old fashioned" basic science. Edinburgh's is also a four-year course. You could also hardly have a bigger contrast in terms of location than the metropolitan buzz of Edinburgh and the rural TellyTubby world of Penrhyn.

Oxford's college structure, weekly tutorials and heavy workloads are its main distinctions (rather than the subject content per se).

So I would suggest looking at these things to guide your decision.

I think it's like a teenager dream you have and now you are not judging things adequately
Talk to your parents and decide what Is better for you
Choose the subject not the place/city etc

I get you man, "I have a dream" to go to Oxford as well

Honestly, unless you went to a poor performing schools, I would be surprised if you got in for chemistry when looking at your GCSES

THAT BEING SAID

Work super hard this year, with a high achieving end goal in sight. Get high UMS in any AS exams you take and get top notch predicted grades. If you do this and really invest into your subject that you want to study, you have a very good chance at Cambridge university.

THAT BEING SAID

It doesn't hurt to try for Oxford (Just dont get your hopes up too much, make sure everything else on your application is stellar but I think your GCSES will get you rejected unfortunately).

Good luck and don't be disheartened - keep going! prove us wrong!

Even the 'best' applicant is guranteed an offer. Do your research and apply, you have four other UCAS spots. You're guranteeing yourself a rejection by not bothering to apply and there's nothing much you can do about your GCSEs now.

thank you so much for this! The course I'd apply for at Exeter is 4 year anyway (study abroad) and seems amazing, but I'm really worried about the location as it really is out in the sticks (I used to live in the absolute middle of nowhere and really didn't like it). Thanks for the comments on Edinburgh, I'll probably discount it from the list as I'm much more interested in the more behaviour side of things.