Silly question but should I apply for oxbridge?

oxford care more about gcses than cambridge do, as they draw up their shortlist for interviewing from gcse grades. cambridge also interview more people than oxford and reject them post interview. oxbridge both have tests for econ-- tmua for cambridge and tsa for oxford. if you excel at your tests your gcse grades will matter less. as for a ps, they care more about academic involvement than fancy internships, especially as not everyone will be able to access them. if you discuss a lot of wider reading showing some sort of academic journey then that will be more than enough. i'd say look at admissions reports from both oxford and cambridge, and if you're willing shoot your shot!

thank you this is super helpful! i go to an underachieving college so support and knowledge on oxbridge admissions here is definitely limited. my ps mainly consists of volunteering for charity, extra reading and some peer mentoring i’m doing. Hopefully that will be okay. i’ll also definitely take a look at admissions reports I never even thought of that so again thanks for your advice! c:

No problem!!! Another thing— if you come from a school with lower gcse results, oxford contextualises them. If your schoolmates on average had no 8s/9s and you have a couple then that will be taken into account. I'm not sure how it all works so read up on cgcse scores for more info. I'm not sure with cambridge either so check what they do with gcses. Again with ps, read a couple of the econ ones on here to get an idea, but I think oxbridge want about 80% academic and 20% extracurricular, so make sure everything gets linked back to your subject. They also like seeing critical engagement (comparing and contrasting books, bringing your own ideas in). And with tmua and tsa stuff, make sure u register asap and start preparing. Wishing u success with this all xxx

Should i bother applying for oxbridge if my grades are A*AA and I don’t have many extra curriculars / impressive things to put on my personal statement.
I’m in year 13 now so i don’t have much time to pursue work experience or many more extra curriculars before i apply for uni. For that reason and the fact my GCSEs weren’t amazing (6-7s) I always regarded myself as not clever enough for oxbridge (which probably still stands but i’m trying). However, i spoke to an oxford representative at a UCAS discovery event where he told me to study their course relating to business / economics i’d typically need As or A*s, which I have.
Could I get into oxbridge with grades alone or do they really value extra curricular and an impressive personal statement. Would i defintely get rejected? If so i’d rather use my choices on unis i have a shot of getting into.
If anyone can help me with this i’d really appreciate it!

oxford care more about gcses than cambridge do, as they draw up their shortlist for interviewing from gcse grades. cambridge also interview more people than oxford and reject them post interview. oxbridge both have tests for econ-- tmua for cambridge and tsa for oxford. if you excel at your tests your gcse grades will matter less. as for a ps, they care more about academic involvement than fancy internships, especially as not everyone will be able to access them. if you discuss a lot of wider reading showing some sort of academic journey then that will be more than enough. i'd say look at admissions reports from both oxford and cambridge, and if you're willing shoot your shot!

By gcse do you mean a level grades or igcse?