Is Oxford harder to get into than Cambridge?

1) Cambridge has higher A level requirements - they can afford to give out more offers and possibly have more students miss them as compared to Oxford who give out offers which are very likely to be achieved by someone who is realistically looking @ applying to Oxbridge.

2) Oxford seems to have more of an intl pull in that more ppl have heard of it (imo) and therefore I feel - and this is entirely a personal opinion - that Oxford also gets a lot of poor-quality applications and applications from intl students who arent well versed with the Oxbridge application process (don't know what Oxbridge is looking for). Again, that's not to say that Oxford has poor quality applicants (quite the opposite) but that apart from the excellent candidates, Oxford also probably takes the bulk of the "lets just give it a shot" type of applications which are obviously factored into their total applications & therefore result in a lower acceptance rate.

This is interesting! So do you think that for ‘serious’ applicants the odds are relatively similar? Is the theory about Oxford putting more emphasis on GCSEs fact or broscience?

This is interesting! So do you think that for ‘serious’ applicants the odds are relatively similar? Is the theory about Oxford putting more emphasis on GCSEs fact or broscience?

I hear lots of discussion about GCSEs, and how if they aren’t near perfect your chances go down. Also, looking at admission statistics, Oxford courses seem to be way more competitive. Why is this?

What subject are you interested in?

Mathematics

For serious applicants, yes I would say the odds are similar although there are certainly subtle differences in the admissions process:

1. Oxford do genuinely place more emphasis on GCSEs over Cambridge - no broscience here. It is a part of their pre-interview selection process since it is (for most candidates) the last actual exam sat before their A levels. If you have good GCSEs and a good A level score predicted, you're equally well placed at both. However, if you have poor GCSEs (I mean average/above average not straight Cs) then you can still have a shot at Oxford but Cambridge may be easier given they place comparatively less emphasis on GCSEs.

2. Cambridge generally interview more applicants than Oxford. If you're eager to get a chance to show off your skills face-to-face (i.e., you think you aren't very strong on paper with grades/PS/admissions tests) then Cambridge is probably better in terms of odds. Then again, this does mean that because more people are getting a chance to come to interview, you have a stronger competition @ interview stage since someone who you might have beaten on paper with better grades/test scores might actually make up for their weaknesses in interview and thus become a real competitor.

Again, these are very minute differences. In the grand scheme of things, both unis consider GCSEs but don't use them as a deal-breaker, both unis interview candidates they believe would have a good shot, just that Oxford is slightly stricter pre-interview and thus, post-interview they have less candidates to consider and competition becomes slightly reduced since you're likely only up against 3 other candidates max whereas w Cambridge it might be 5-6, and so the cut-throat competition may come AFTER the interview.

I don't know if you're asking for yourself or just in general, but I think the courses and unis themselves are different enough that stats should not play too much of a role in your decision making process. The admissions staff are pretty well trained in both unis to pick out the best candidates and bring them to interview, and then make the decisions from there on out.

If you look at the average A level achievement for people who end up at Oxford and Cambridge, they're near-identical - i.e. neither is more competitive.

There are a couple of courses at Oxford where GCSEs are used as a filter for getting an interview. But mostly the reason that if your GCSEs aren't perfect your chances go down isn't because Oxford are mean and cruel and use it to randomly discard brilliant candidates, it's because they take about 3300 people per year and a whole lot more than the top 3300 people in the country (well, and 3300-ish at Cambridge, and people who decide to go to neither) have near-perfect GCSEs. If you're not in the top 10,000 or so students at age 16, you're probably not in the top 10,000 or so students at age 18 either. For instance, in 2021 about 3300 students took 8 or more GCSEs and got straight grade 9s. I'd suspect that a lot more than double that got straight 9s except for one or two subjects which were 8, but I can't find statistics for that.

One other reason that Oxford may get more applicants is that their standard offer is AAA. That feels a lot more achieveable then Cambridge's offers involving multiple A*s, even if it's just that the filter is being applied in different places (e.g. entry tests, interview performance...)

Oxford maths barely cares about GCSEs. The two unis’ application processes are very different for maths. Look into those.

Nice : D

I hear lots of discussion about GCSEs, and how if they aren’t near perfect your chances go down. Also, looking at admission statistics, Oxford courses seem to be way more competitive. Why is this?

Mathematics

No appreciable difference between the two.

i think the general consensus is for maths its harder to get an offer from oxford than cambridge (or at least, a lower percentage are given out, as cambridge can afford to give out more due to more people being more likely to miss their grades), but the offer from oxford is much easier to meet.

For oxford you need to do well in the MAT, which is sat in november (which will then be used among other factors to decide if you should be interviewed or not, and used after interviews as part of your whole application when deciding who to give offers to). Oxford's typical offer is A* in maths & further maths and an A in a third subject. No STEP needed.

On the other hand, cambridge has no pre interview test, but if you get an offer from them, you will have to do well in STEP, which is generally considered harder than the MAT, and is sat around the same time as your A-Levels.