Hi! For context, I am a white female at large, fairly wealthy public high school in Texas where I am a junior (11th).
Course: philosophy, politics, and economics!!!
Unweighted GPA: 3.75
Weighted GPA: 4.86 (my school has a really weird system but I’d liken it to a 4.3-5 or so on the regular 5.0 scale)
Class Rank: my school doesn’t rank students
ACT/SAT Scores: 1470 SAT (750 reading, 720 math) first try, I’m taking it again this June and I project a 1550 or so based on practice
Coursework:
AP World History: 5
AP Human Geography: 5
AP Seminar: 4
AP European History: pending (predicting a 5)
AP United States History: pending (predicting a 5)
AP English Language: pending (predicting a 4 or 5)
AP Psychology: pending (predicting a 5)
AP Comparative Government: pending (predicting a 5)
AP Statistics: pending (predicting a 4 or 5)
My senior year, I’m taking AP Calc BC, AP Gov, AP Econ, AP Research, and AP French! Maybe it’s overconfidence but I think I will get 5s on all of these
Awards:
Most Achieved Member of National French Honor Society
AP Scholar Award
Extracurriculars:
President of National French Honor Society
President of French Club
Student Council member
Mayor’s Youth Council
IK not all of this is relevant for Oxford but I filled out the outline to the best of my ability Let me know what you think!
Will your teacher reference say you are their most outstanding student in the last 5 years? Does everyone know you are one of the best students in your class? Can you confidently say you are in the top 1% even though your school doesn’t rank (and how does it not rank when you need to know about auto-admit at UT)? Was your PSAT score high enough for National Merit? Think about it this way: there’ll probably be only 1 student in all of Texas that gets an offer for PPE at Oxford next year.
I worry that you took AP Stats instead of Calc BC junior year. Is that typical for the strongest math students at your school? It means any offer would likely be conditional on an 5 in Calc BC. Economics in the UK is a very mathematically based subject, much more so than many US econ majors (more like a math econ major).
In addition to a relatively low GPA, retaking the SAT is also a concerning sign, note you have to report all scores. For reference my S18 applied for PPE 6 years ago. He got an interview but not an offer (with 4.0UW, 5 5s and 4 more predicted, 1540 SAT single sitting). He stayed in the US, went to a T20 college and graduated top in his class with a 4.0 college GPA. One major pitfall in his case was not doing enough interview prep, so I suggest you spend the summer reading as much as possible of the reading list that is expected of admitted students before they start. If it seems intimidating then that’s the point:
We receive quartile rank + 10% + 6%, which I fall into top 6% (my unweighted is low bc I’ve only taken advanced courses) but this doesn’t matter for oxford so why ask?
Yes so I’m in the advanced track for math which includes taking Algebra 1 in the 8th grade, Geometry 9th, Algebra 2 10th, Precalculus 11th (prerequisite for calc), and Calculus 12th. If anything, within my school at least, taking an extra math like AP Stats your Junior year and AP Calc your senior year (we’re not required math senior year so long as we have 4 credits) is the most you can do!
Oxford doesn’t consider GPA (see here, here, and here)
This is entirely true! In my defense, it was Collegeboard’s first Digital SAT that was reported to be skewed against more advanced test takers given the adaptiveness. But still, Oxford doesn’t really care, so I’m hoping to do really well this next time!
I’m also hoping that my relatively high practice TSA scores (I scored one 73 and one 80) will offset this. I haven’t really practiced much, so I’m hoping my scores on the TSA go up even just minimally.
As I said above, you need a referee (typically your AP teacher in a relevant subject) to say you are their best student in the last 5 years. So that’s why it should be clear that you are one of, if not the, outstanding student in your class. US teachers give more attention to grades even if Oxford prefers standardized tests.
More broadly, Bs in irrelevant subjects are acceptable (I read math and no one cared that I had Bs in French and History). But getting Bs because advanced subjects are hard is not. One challenge is that PPE is sufficiently wide ranging that there aren’t many irrelevant subjects. And another is that they have far too many Americans applying so can be very selective.
I hope you are putting in as much time finding fantastic places to study in the US as you are figuring out your chances at Oxford. I know a lot of kids who romanticize studying in the UK, especially Oxford or Cambridge, and they focus on that to the exclusion of some terrific options closer to home.
As another data point, my D18 was accepted to PPE and graduated three years later. When applying, she had a 4.0/4.0 UW and 5 on APUSH and Spanish literature + 4 in Physics and Music Theory. She was accepted conditionally and ended up with 5s on Micro, Macro, BC calc and English lit in senior year. 35 ACT and National Merit Finalist.
She read some of the books on the list and several books not on the list (e.g. The Silk Road, the fountainhead, guns, germs and steel, etc).
She was also the editor in chief of the newspaper in her well known public high school, and very involved in journalism. The newspaper and she individually had multiple awards. I think Oxford cares about ECs that show intellectual curiosity in your chosen field as much as the US colleges even though she might have crushed the TSA and the interview.
One thing she did was to put an open application and the placed her in a college that was perfect for her personality.
She also applied and was accepted to UCL, Edinburgh and saint andrews.
Hope this helps and good luck!
Let me know what you think!