Oxford college for PPE

Try this tool made by the Oxford SU: https://apply.oxfordsu.org/colleges/suggester/

I think @The_Lonely_Goatherd was at Worcester during her time there?

I'm in Yr 12 and going to apply for PPE at Oxford next academic year, so although it's a long way off I'd still like to start seriously thinking about which college I'm going to apply for. I'm still not entirely sure what criteria you should base your college choice off (and of course you may get moved to another college if you're successful)! so I'm not sure if some colleges are "better" for specific subjects?
If I'm being super picky, I would like to go to a college with good outdoor spaces, accomodation for 3 years that's not based off grades (I've heard this is a thing?) and with kitchen access. Close access to a gym would also be great!
Looking online, Magdalen, Worcester, St. John's and St. Anne's are coming up, but if anyone has any advice on what criteria I should be using etc. or other suggestions that would be great!!

I studied music but yes, I was at Worcester College. It fits your criteria very well. It is one of the more competitive colleges in terms of applicant numbers but you shouldn't let the competition throw you off if you end up deciding you like it and want to apply! It's well worth a visit

Do you think it's worth considering the applicant numbers? I'll definitely have a look at Worcester and St. John's (as someone else pointed out) but at the moment I really like the look of Magdalen college, not just because it's got such beautiful buildings (which all Oxford buildings are) but more so because it's set in such a huge and stunning green space and seems to have a lot of humanities students.
I've been advised on a school trip to Oxford not to base it off speculation around entry grades but equally a few people on YouTube do recommend factoring it in (and afterall these are people who do know what the application process is like), and for PPE Magdalen is one of the hardest to get into (based off 2021). But then you can get moved to another college anyway I think if you get accepted so maybe it doesn't matter??

There can be advantages and disadvantages to applying to an oversubscribed college. The disadvantage is, of course, that you might easily be pooled to a different college pre-interview or post-interview, due to the sheer number of applicants applying to Magdalen. However, the advantage of applying to an oversubscribed college is they have more clout in farming out their students to different colleges if they have a lot of good, Oxford-worthy applicants.

Let me give an example to show what I mean. When I applied to Worcester for music, about 39 applicants were shortlisted to interview for 3 places (is my understanding!) My college tutor liked 10 of us but was only allowed to take three (the fourth place having already been given to the organ scholar). Due to Worcester's popularity with music applicants and clout within the application process due to that, my college tutor was able to choose his top 3 applicants and then secure places for the remaining 7 at different colleges. Meaning those colleges would have had to lose some of their own favoured applicants, to make way for Worcester's whims.

So say you apply to Magdalen, interview at Magdalen but are pipped to the post by other applicants, in terms of securing a place at Magdalen. Magdalen would probably have the clout to make some other college take you - whereas if you applied to, say, St Hilda's, and they wanted you, but Magdalen were pushing them to take another student, you'd lose out. If you see what I mean?

It is advisable not to get too set on particular colleges but in my own experience (albeit unknowingly - I had no idea I was applying to the most oversubscribed college the year of my application!), it can be worth going big

Where did you hear about this? Seems like there are only benefits to applying to an over-subscribed college?

This is what I've extrapolated from information I gathered during and after my interview period at Oxford in 2006, about what happened at my college that year

I am 90% sure in PPE you cannot be reallocated post-interviews. You either get an open offer or you are moved to a different college before the interviews take place.

So I don't think a college of "high caliber" could push a smaller college to let you in over their own candidates -- as if you do get re-allocated, it would be the smaller college interviewing you.

I'm in Yr 12 and going to apply for PPE at Oxford next academic year, so although it's a long way off I'd still like to start seriously thinking about which college I'm going to apply for. I'm still not entirely sure what criteria you should base your college choice off (and of course you may get moved to another college if you're successful)! so I'm not sure if some colleges are "better" for specific subjects?
If I'm being super picky, I would like to go to a college with good outdoor spaces, accomodation for 3 years that's not based off grades (I've heard this is a thing?) and with kitchen access. Close access to a gym would also be great!
Looking online, Magdalen, Worcester, St. John's and St. Anne's are coming up, but if anyone has any advice on what criteria I should be using etc. or other suggestions that would be great!!