Choosing an Oxford College

someone told me that x college is undersubscribed so it would be a good shot applying there. Is that a good gamble ?

No. How undersubscribed a college is makes no difference to how likely you are to get into Oxford.

However, if you like that college, apply there - after all you're much more likely to end up at a college you apply to than any other. And if it actually is undersubscribed then you're even more likely to get your preference of college.

Application statistics are very unpredictable. Even if a college is particularly undersubscribed, the course you're applying for might have more applicants than average. Just pick the college you like the most and see how your application ends up. If everybody listened to Woody Webster's daft advice, nobody would apply to Worcester this year, and then everybody would apply next year. Trying to play the numbers game is self-defeating.

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone knows whether all of the Oxford colleges have a 'parent' system where you are paired up with a college 'Mum' and 'Dad'? Thanks

Pretty sure they all do yes.

What you are expected to do with said family might vary, though.

I was going to go with but thought better of it....

I was going to go with but thought better of it....

You people make me sick.




Was also my first thought reading it back, but went with it anyway

Hi, come across this very old thread but just wondring, where I can find information of how many places for medicine for each college. Searched everywhere but couldn't find anythig... Thanks

Hi, come across this very old thread but just wondring, where I can find information of how many places for medicine for each college. Searched everywhere but couldn't find anythig... Thanks

Damn.

If your just asking out of interest, then the biggest 'tourist' colleges are probably the most popular (Christ Church, Magdalen, etc) with a few exceptions (can't remember the source but a few smaller ones like Jesus and Queens seem to have become incredibly popular over the last few years).

If your asking in a tactical 'looking to maximize your chances of getting in' kind of way, then don't. I won't repeat too much as the forum is full of these kind of questions, but you can't play the numbers game. Applicants per place refers to the number of people applying or allocated to that college as their first choice. Consequently it doesn't reflect the number of people actually interviewed there, nor does it reveal anything about the quality of the applicants. The open application, multiple interview and pooling systems minimize the effects of any applicant numbers bias so whichever college you apply to you'll be competing against a similar number. The only thing you can predict is that there will inevitably be a greater number of international applicants at the larger, more well known colleges. But since no one knows if they are typically 'better' than home students (in fact popular opinion would suggest non-UK students self-select from applying to Ox/Cam less) this is irrelevant. In short, just chose the college you like the best and that offers the things you require - your much better off doing this than looking to the statistics, because your unlikely to gain any advantage and may well end up applying to somewhere that wouldn't suit you as well.

If you go here:

http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate_courses/colleges/undergraduate_numbers_by_college/

you can find number of students by college and subject. If you divide the pre-clinical medicine numbers by 3 you'll have a sense of how many places per year there are.

After a long while, narrowed it down to two colleges. Brasenose and Univ. I quite like the features of both (Centre, 10 places for the subject that I want to take, high amounts of academic staff for the course I want to do, medium sized college.) so I am really unsure which one I should pick.

Could anyone tell me more about the two colleges?

This is interesting and contradicts advice some of our teachers give, that it's best to apply for the "less attractive" colleges as they get fewer applicants.

I saw a thread somewhere about the applicants per place ratio, but that was only about Mathematics.
I remember Magdalen having one of the highest ratio's with 4:1 (which is still very doable imo)
My college, St.Catz, had 2.2

Of course, I don't know how accurate the information in that thread was.

I saw a thread somewhere about the applicants per place ratio, but that was only about Mathematics.
I remember Magdalen having one of the highest ratio's with 4:1 (which is still very doable imo)
My college, St.Catz, had 2.2

Of course, I don't know how accurate the information in that thread was.

seems rather low. For maths i was told by admissions tutor the average applicants per place was around 7:1 over all colleges