Oxford/Cambridge

Why aren't we allowed to apply for both? Surely they are both prestigious and different uni's with no links (apart from one thing known as "Oxbridge"). They are different just like how Imperial is different from Kings or UCL.

Reply 1

username4144838

I think you aren't allowed to apply for both, firstly because they get so many applicants and secondly, they want people to think what university they would be best suited at between the Oxbridge, instead of just applying for both for the sake of it, as they are very different universities when you push past the prestige.

Reply 2

username4144838

I don't think that makes sense lol- sorry! :smile:

Reply 3

Sinnoh

Maybe it's some kind of mutual professional loathing

Reply 4

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Can you imagine if most of the people who applied to Cambridge could also apply to Oxford, and vice versa? It'd be a logistical nightmare for the whole interview process, probably resulting in far fewer people being invited to interview, which would be a great shame. I mean, they have enough trouble sorting out the organ scholarships between them, and that's a small number of candidates :rofl:

Reply 5

Doones

Original post by neluxsan

Go for an Organ Scholarship and then you can apply to both :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 6

nulli tertius

Original post by neluxsan

Why aren't we allowed to apply for both? Surely they are both prestigious and different uni's with no links (apart from one thing known as "Oxbridge" :wink:

. They are different just like how Imperial is different from Kings or UCL.

Back in the day, when applications to both were allowed, very few candidates who were rejected by one received an offer from the other. No-one received an offer from both as you had to assign a priority and your papers were only reviewed at your second choice if rejected from your first.

That isn't surprising. What you would end up with is double applications from a large number of weak candidates and a much smaller number of marginal candidates who just fell the wrong side of the line.

Reply 7

nexttime

Oxbridge is different from other unis in a number of ways. Probably the most significant, in terms of proportional difference in spending, is the applications process. Oxbridge puts millions into its selection process, creating and managing its own admissions tests, running multi-day residential interviews which interview each candidate multiple times for every subject. Other top universities like UCL or Imperial don't even interview outside of medicine! For me this is probably the most notable thing which sets Oxbridge apart.

And its also the reason you can't apply to both. They spend too much money on their candidates to allow more than half to subsequently pick the other one.

Maybe if other unis were bothered about the candidates they were picking they'd do something similar.