Help me in deciding Oxford or Cambridge

Oxford interviews a smaller percentage of its applicants than Cambridge, I’m not sure why you think you’d be more likely to get randomly rejected prior to interview there.

If you prefer Cambridge, apply there

Do you know anyone who has studied at either? If yes you should ask them to share their experience.

I personally chose Cambridge over Oxford for my Mathematics degree, because I knew at least 3 or 4 people who had studied there, and they all told me that they loved the course.

On the other hand, I don't know anyone who studied at Oxford, so I felt like I would be taking a greater "leap of faith" by applying there.

At the end of the day, apply to the one that you want, even if it is the harder choice.
After all, imagine you applied to Oxford, actually got in, and then regretted your decision to not apply to Cambridge.

Thanks for the reply. The thing is that I do not have qualifications like international A levels or IB. The ISC curriculum is which I study wasn't even accepted by Cambridge until some years ago. Therefore, I think my qualifications might be considered subpar.

Oxford interviews a smaller percentage of its applicants than Cambridge, I’m not sure why you think you’d be more likely to get randomly rejected prior to interview there.

If you prefer Cambridge, apply there

Some things to consider:

Cambridge Mathematics with Physics is a first year only course that is part of the mathematics degree there. After the first year may either continue in the maths degree there, or change into the natural sciences degree to specialise in physics. Consider whether this is what you are expecting/wanting from a course. At Oxford you can study either maths or physics separately, however there is a fourth year course jointly between the two (the MMathPhys) which I understand can be entered from either side. Oxford also allows you to combine philosophy with physics.

Something to note is for Cambridge maths with physics you would normally be set a STEP requirement for your offer which is usually 1,1 in STEP II and III. This is quite a hard requirement to meet and on average about half of offer holders for Cambridge maths (including maths with physics) fail this requirement. It is possible that if you are sitting a non-UK curriculum you will be asked for S,1 or S,S in STEP which is even harder.

I think for Cambridge the hard part is not being rejected pre-interview (which I think, unless you apply to Trinity College for some reason, is probably unlikely if you otherwise meet their entry criteria), but meeting the STEP requirement after getting an offer. With Oxford it's more a case of trying to get the interview in the first place, for which the PAT will make a big difference for physics there (or the MAT for maths).

The big difference otherwise is, based on what you've said, you are considering physics for Oxford or what is functionally maths for Cambridge. There is a lot of difference between these two degrees so you should carefully investigate that and decide which is best suited to your interests - if you don't want to be writing proofs about abstract algebra and real analysis then maths may not be your cup of tea.

Could you tell me which type of applicants does Cambridge reject without an interview?

Unless there's an admissions test prior to interview (for maths I believe there is not), then grades. If your grades do not meet the standard offer then you probably won't be interviewed. Personal statement will also likely be considered, but not to the same extent. I'd say you'd only get rejected prior to interview if it was literally for the wrong subject.
They'll also take your academic record into account (so GCSE equivalents most likely), but for Cambridge this isn't really as important as A-leTT

Hello everyone !I am an international applicant(Indian).I am thinking of applying for Cambridge for Undergraduate Mathematics and Physics. But I am afraid that I might be rejected without an interview. However, Oxford conducts PAT before the interview and having sat it under timed conditions, I am pretty sure to score good marks (80+) on it. But I prefer Cambridge in terms of the city, course and everything. Now if I apply for Oxford and score a great score on the PAT(of which I am confident),I would be sure to get an interview. However Cambridge might reject me arbitrarily without an interview. But my heart is really set for Cambridge.
I have really good grades as compared to my country's standards but do not have international level olympiad medals .Apart from that I am thinking of taking international A levels as a private candidate. So if I have the required predicted grades ,will there be a real great reason for me to worry about Cambridge rejecting me without an interview?
So please help me in deciding which one to apply to. Is my worry justified?

Thanks. Do you know anyone who was rejected without an interview?

Hey. I’m also an Indian and want to study maths/physics at Oxbridge. Cambridge does not accept ISC alone, whereas Oxford does. For Cambridge, you need to be doing ISC + 5 relevant AP’s/rank of less than 2000 on JEE advanced/STEP. Since you want to apply for maths, you will have to do STEP II & III. From what I have seen, Cambridge are very anti ISC/CBSE. For some reason, they don’t accept these curriculums by themselves. Most Indians students at Cambridge would have done IB/A levels, although some do get in from ISC/CBSE. It is harder to get in from isc,so just keep that in mind. If you do very well on the PAT and decent at interviews, you’re pretty much guaranteed an offer from Oxford Physics. As far as I know, Oxford doesn’t have a problem with isc/cbse applicants. Cambridge interview about 75% of the applicants. If you have the right predicted grades, good gcses(10th grade scores) and a decent personal statement, it’s very likely that you will get an interview. Because you are doing ISC, I would highly recommend that you take AP’s/CIE A levels if you want to apply to Cambridge. They might reject you pre interview if you haven’t done these. The only college that often rejects candidates for maths for arbitrary reasons is Trinity, because of the high volume of applications they receive. It is not necessary to have international Olympiad medals. Those are mostly required for MIT/Caltech/Stanford etc. Most people at Oxbridge haven’t done Olympiads(some will have done a few national ones, but there are very few who have done international ones). It is by no means a necessity to have Olympiad medals. Although, most applicants to trinity for maths would have done some kind of big Olympiads/competitions, so keep that in mind. It’s important to show a passion for the subject by engaging in super curricular activities (activities related to your subject) and be good at problem solving. Olympiads help to develop problem solving skills, but there are many other ways of doing that. As long as your problem solving skills are good, you should be quite okay. STEP is known to be incredibly difficult. For this reason, Cambridge gives out twice the number of offers than they have places for maths, because 50% of the candidates miss their step offer. In general the offer rate is 36% and the acceptance rate is 18%. You should look at some step past papers and start preparing for it. See how you find it. If after a lot of practice you still find it impossible, then you probably shouldn’t apply to Cambridge. Many people find it extremely difficult the first time they see it, but with practice you can get better. For Oxford, the offer and acceptance rate for physics is around 13-14%. They interview around 33% of the applicants. Oxford physics is more competitive, there are around 9 applicants for each place. But the level you need to be at is lesser than Cambridge maths. The offer is quite easy for Oxford physics, (A*AA) which would be 90% overall with 95%+ in some subjects for ISC. The main thing is the PAT and interviews. What were your 10th grade board results and what are your predicted grades?

Yeah, a few. In one case it was because his A-level combinations were a little awkward for the subject he was applying for and he didn't do to well in the admissions test (he applied for physnatsci). In another case they applied with a B in one of their 3 A-levels, so didn't meet the standard offer.i

Thanks for the reply. I don't find STEP undoable as I believe I am a bit good at Maths. As for my 10th board results they were
English-96
Physics-98
Chemistry-98
Maths-97
History-100
Biology-100
Geogrpahy-100
Computer-100

I have not yet gotten my predicted grades but I believe they will be good as I was the second topper in my state and all.

But the problem is that I have not given APs or anything. I have read on the Cambridge site that only school leaving qualifications are not suitable and has to be accompanied by additional qualifications. Therefore I have decided to take the APs next year and include predicted grades in my application. Will that be okay? Does Cambridge essentially require the applicant to have achieved these qualifications at the time of making the application?

Are you applying this year?Thanks again bro.

Thanks a lot for your helpful response. For Cambridge,I am thinking of applying for Maths with Physics and then changing to Natural Sciences in the second year .I hate sciences like chemistry and material science while I love Maths (writing proofs and all as you said).I am choosing this route because I think it would be giving me a flavour of both Maths and Physics. As for the STEP, I think I can clear it. Could you answer my question regarding taking A levels as a private candidate? And does the thing you said for trinity applies to St. John's also? Because I am thinking of applying there.Thanks again.