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can you get accepted into cambridge early if you get all 9s in your gcses

Anonymous #1

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

No, you need to do better.

Reply 2

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Anonymous

can you get accepted into cambridge early if you get all 9s in your gcses

What do you mean by "early"? Do you mean before having done any Level 3 qualifications (e.g. A levels)? Then no, you can't.

Reply 3

username6321277

No, with Oxbridge and many top ranking universities, academia is only a minor part of their consideration to admit.

They consider your extra curricular activities, super curricular activities, volunteering, work experience, actual enthusiasm and determination for the subject you’re applying for.

So no, all 9’s aren’t going to get you in early.

Reply 4

vnayak

No way! LOADS of my friends got all 9s in 12 GCSEs but as far as universities go, they don't care too much. They care far more about their own admissions test and interviews which are a much better filter of applicants as it separates those who show LOADS of merit from those students who had teachers that gave them over-inflated predicted grades (like myself).

Like my predicted grades are 5 A*s in Maths, Further Maths, Computer Science and EPQ and it's all because I did pretty well in my y12 mocks.

I got 3 A*s in my mocks in Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry and then an A in Computing.

My school pushes your UCAS grade up by one from what you get in your mock so if you get an A in your mock, your UCAS prediction will still be an A star.

Realistically, this is what I'll get:

Maths - A*
Further Maths - A*
Chemistry - A/A* (hard to say)
Computing - A (it's so hard to get an A* in CS).
EPQ - A

Reply 5

melancollege

Original post by SK-18

This is quite misleading bordering on untrue.

Firstly, "academia is only a minor part of their consideration to admit". Academia is the number one most important thing in admissions for Oxbridge. If you are not academically competent enough for the course, you will get rejected. Sure, they also look for other things, too, but it is not "only a minor part of their consideration".

"They consider your extra curricular activities, super curricular activities, volunteering, work experience, actual enthusiasm and determination for the subject you’re applying for." Supercurriculars: absolutely. Actual enthusiasm and determination for the subject: sure. Work experience: maybe, depends on the course. It's not a requirement for courses like Medicine or Vet Med but it is often encouraged; however, for a subject like Maths, it would barely make a difference. Most Oxbridge courses are treated purely academically and not vocationally (with exceptions like Medicine). Finally, volunteering and extra-curriculars will not make a difference in admission unless they are directly linked to your course, i.e. supercurriculars.

Reply 6

melancollege

GCSEs are not sufficient for Oxbridge admission. Especially for Cambridge, GCSEs may not even pay that much attention to them. Is a GCSE in Drama really going to help you much in the Maths course? Probably not.

You would need some Level 3 Qualifications (A-Level, Pre U, IB, etc.)

Reply 7

Stiffy Byng

Original post by username6321277

No, with Oxbridge and many top ranking universities, academia is only a minor part of their consideration to admit.
They consider your extra curricular activities, super curricular activities, volunteering, work experience, actual enthusiasm and determination for the subject you’re applying for.
So no, all 9’s aren’t going to get you in early.

As another poster had already observed, Oxford colleges do not take extra curricular activities into account when making admission decisions. They are interested in academic potential. Source: current heads of two colleges at Oxford, current fellows of four Oxford colleges.

Miss S Byng MA (Oxon)

(edited 1 month ago)