I am an American Junior looking at applying to Oxford next year (l’m aware that starting to look at Oxford as a junior is already a little late for planning). I want to apply to Mathematics and Philosophy or Mathematics and Statistics. The website says I need three appropriate APs/SAT II to compensate for A-levels. I know that most people that apply have at least five.
What are three appropriate AP tests for M/Philosophy? M/Statistics? Plus extras APs to get to five?
What are three appropriate SAT IIs for the same as above?
I’m taking Calc BC, so AB’s out of the question, and Stats is pretty obvious for M/Stat.
They also count SAT 2 tests as well as APs and the Mathematical Institute will count the Math SAT 2 as a separate qualification. So you could do AP Calc BC, AP Stats and the Math II SAT 2. My son was a successful Maths & CompSci applicant and the APs they relied on for him were BC, CompSciA and Physics C. He didn’t take AP Stats.
Check out the Mathematical Institute web site - lots of information about the undergraduate application process.
And start looking at the MAT past papers - you will have to sit for that at the end of October and a good score there will be crucial to getting shortlisted for interview.
But if you do choose Math + Phil, you also need an essay based AP (Lit or a History) and will have to submit a piece of graded written work- an essay, homework, exam. The topic won’t matter- they will mostly be looking at the quality of the reasoning and analysis. Start looking now at options you might have in your various classes- it has to be submitted with your application in October,.
For Philosophy I think AP Lang (and if possible Lit) would be most helpful to convince them you can write. For stats I’d choose Physics as well as AP Stats for the applied math (mechanics/EM) elements.
As extras, most if not all UK students would have a GCSE in a foreign language and English language, so I’d advise picking up APs in those. But remember you may end up with a conditional offer and you’d better be predicted (and achieve) a 5.
This year I’ll be taking:
AP English Lang
AP Calc BC
AP Bio
AP Microeconomics
I think 5s are pretty likely, if prep is accuarate.
What should I prioritize to get into my schedule for Senior year?
If I do Physics, it will only be 1, since I didn’t start that track this year. Is that undesireable?
Same with the AP CS tests, since I never took Computer Programming, I’m not allowed to take either of the courses.
Am I likely to get only a provisional acceptance (if accepted at all [assuming good MAT scores/essay/interview])? Or will I have enough for M/Phil to get an concrete acceptance?
In UK lingo, it’s an offer, which will either be conditional or unconditional. The norm is for conditional offers, as most students apply with ‘predictions’ for the exams that they will take in June.
With a really strong MAT and 5s in those APs you could get an unconditional offer (as @HazeGrey’s son did), but the Oxford tutors can be unpredictable, and in a joint subject both sides have to agree on the offer. if either the M or the P side think that any of the exams you are taking senior year are relevant, they can make an offer that is conditional on whichever of your senior year tests it pleases them to specify (up to 3).
BTW the math side of Maths and Philosophy at Oxford is mainly pure math with no statistics, which is rather different from the maths and stats course there. I wonder if perhaps straight Mathematics might be a better option for you, as that would give more flexibility I terms of the type of math you end up focussing on?
Can @Twoin18 advise on that aspect from a mathematician’s pov?
Although I’m not intimately familiar with Oxford math, based on the Cambridge structure the straight math course will give you a broad, fixed curriculum in pure and applied in year 1 then allow you to go towards pure, applied or to a lesser extent applicable (stats/optimization) by year 3. There is a fair bit of physics assumed too, particularly EM/mechanics, although I understand the new math A level curriculum is being tilted more towards pure math (based on the upcoming STEP changes).
Either way doing MVC senior year would be a big help if you’ve already done Calc BC. That’s more important than AP stats, but if you can do both then that’s ideal. Do as much physics as is feasible. And to preserve the philosophy option you’ll probably want to add in English Lit.
The UK uni I’d applied to wanted an AP or SAT II exam in English, since we don’t have GCSEs in the US. Regardless of what course you plan to do in the UK. For example, I was looking at computer science, and they wanted an AP in English and one in Math, as specific subjects. The third could be any one of my choosing. They preferred five. They didn’t care about foreign language.