Can I get into Oxford/Cambridge even without Further Maths

I am currently doing maths, physics, computer science and an EPQ. And I am not sure if this will be enough to get into Top Universities. Although I do Understand that getting into these universities is extremely difficult and only a small minority get through. Would doing FM and getting an A in it increase my chances of getting in?
Thank you for your help.

I am currently doing maths, physics, computer science and an EPQ. And I am not sure if this will be enough to get into Top Universities. Although I do Understand that getting into these universities is extremely difficult and only a small minority get through. Would doing FM and getting an A in it increase my chances of getting in?
Thank you for your help.

What subject do you want to study? In general they prefer you to get three excellent A levels, rather than doing four and getting less that stellar grades. But for maths itself, FM is a requirement.

What degree are you looking to study?

Computer Science

Computer Science. Sorry my bad

Entry requirements for CS are here:

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/computer-science

Where you can see that FM is not a requirement (some colleges may be an exception). But for the Cambridge course, it might be wise to do FM - and possibly in preference to CS A-level, which is not a requirement!

But if I drop CS, wouldn't I struggle at Uni

I am currently doing maths, physics, computer science and an EPQ. And I am not sure if this will be enough to get into Top Universities. Although I do Understand that getting into these universities is extremely difficult and only a small minority get through. Would doing FM and getting an A in it increase my chances of getting in?
I want to do Computer Science at Uni by the way.
Thank you for your help.

I am currently doing maths, physics, computer science and an EPQ. And I am not sure if this will be enough to get into Top Universities. Although I do Understand that getting into these universities is extremely difficult and only a small minority get through. Would doing FM and getting an A in it increase my chances of getting in?
I want to do Computer Science at Uni by the way.
Thank you for your help.

For Cambridge (I believe Oxford is similar) doing FM would help a lot. You would certainly need an A in it and most people who get offers will end up with an A*, but that's an issue for after you get an offer. A lot of successful applicants will have 4 A-levels (I expect the Maths/FM/Physics/CS combo is most common nowadays) but it's certainly possible to get in with three. If it's possible, I would definitely consider dropping CS and/or the EPQ and taking FM instead (or taking FM as a fourth subject if you'll still do well in all subjects -- which in this case really means straight A*'s or something close to that). Replacing Physics with FM would also be an improvement, although Physics is generally regarded as more useful than CS.

In the past, A-level CS wasn't very well regarded, I think because the syllabus wasn't regarded as very relevant to university CS. Nowadays that's not the case, but some colleges' admissions tutors still view it relatively unfavourably (as in, no better than a random unrelated subject like English) either because they don't realised that the spec is changed, or for the opposite reason -- there is too much overlap with the first year of university CS. But mostly I think it's seen as fairly useful, but not as much as Maths/FM/Physics.

Thank you for your time and effort to help me. I really appreciate it. But I also have another big problem. I am not sure whether I want to do medicine or Computer Science at University. And I was thinking to do Chem instead of FM. Don't really know though.

You're welcome! Are you year 11/12 or year 12/13?

year 12

As in, you just started and will be applying to universities in October 2020? In that case it's definitely reasonable not to have made up your mind about which subject you want to study, although it does make it harder to pick A-levels. Assuming that's the case, I think the best 3 subject combinations that keep both CS and medicine open as options are Maths, FM, Chemistry and Maths, Physics, Chemistry. The first one would be quite a bit better for CS but the second one might be stronger for medicine (I don't know that much about how universities view subjects for that beyond which ones are required).

But if you can do 4 subjects, or do 4 subjects and then drop one after year 12 (not doing the EPQ to allow this would be totally fine) then you would be able to do Maths/FM/Chemistry plus Physics, CS or Biology which I think would put you in a significantly stronger position. Doing Physics as a fourth option would give you one of the classic combinations for CS and probably the extra science would help a bit for medicine. Doing Biology wouldn't help much for CS but would give you the classic medicine combination of Maths, Biology, Chemistry. Doing CS would probably be less useful than the others in terms of admissions, but you might find it more interesting.

Thank you very much, I can see what sort of steps to take next much more clearly. My only question would be that do top Universities expect pre programming knowledge, and if not would this mean that they will start the CS course from the basics (i.e printing, declaring variables...)?

Neither offer a year in industry though which would be useful ,,,

A lot of cambrige students do summer internships through the university, and loads actually get permanent job offers this way

It's nowhere near as good as a year in industry though

Cambridge still lag behind on the international competition Formula Student compared to Bath and Oxford Brookes:

"Formula Student (FS) is Europe's most established educational engineering competition and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. Backed by industry and high-profile engineers such Patron, Ross Brawn OBE, the competition aims to develop enterprising and innovative young engineers and encourage more young people to take up a career in engineering.

The project usually forms part of a degree-level project and is viewed by the motorsport industry as the standard for engineering graduates to meet, transitioning them from university to the workplace. It is a kite-mark for real-world engineering experience, combining practical engineering experience with soft skills including business planning and project management.

Each year, Formula Student sees over 100 university teams from around the globe travel to Silverstone to compete in static and dynamic events that will test their preparation and hard work: who will be crowned the winner of Formula Student 2020? ."


https://www.imeche.org/events/formula-student