I currently have 6 5s in AP tests (European History, American History, World History, English Language, Spanish Language, Biology), no lower scores, and predict 4-5 more 5s this year. I haven’t taken the ACT, however, and my SAT is subpar (1390 due to weak math, unsure if I must/should submit it). Is applying to Oxford for English a reasonable bet? It’s a dream of mine, but I don’t want to get my hopes up if my chances are slim to none.
From their website:
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Advanced Placement (AP) qualifications, with the following grades:
For courses requiring A*A*A:
Either Four APs at grade 5 (including any subjects required for the course you are applying to)
OR
Three APs at grade 5 (including any subjects required for the course you are applying to) plus a score of 33 or above in the ACT or 1480 or above (out of 1600) in the SAT. We do not require the optional essay for either the ACT or the SAT.
Please note that Calculus AB and Calculus BC cannot be counted as two separate subjects for the purposes of meeting your offer, whether taken as separate tests or by receiving the AB sub-score when taking Calculus BC.
If you are applying for a course that requires Mathematics you should take Calculus BC if you are able to do so. However, courses will accept Calculus AB if you are unable to take Calculus BC.
AP Pre-Calculus may not be used to fulfil the mathematics requirement for courses specifying this in their offer, but may be used to meet the one of the four (or three) grade 5s required to meet the offer for other courses.
The following combinations of Physics courses can be counted as two separate qualifications for the purposes of meeting your offer:
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Physics C: Mechanics, and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
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Physics 1 and Physics 2
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Physics 1 and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
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Physics 2 and Physics C: Mechanics
If you are taking both Physics C courses, or both Physics 1 and Physics 2, you will not be able to count any additional Physics courses towards your offer requirements. In addition, only the specified combinations of Physics 1/2 and Physics C are permitted.
For courses requiring A*AA:
Either Four APs at grade 5 (including any subjects required for the course you are applying to)
OR
Three APs at grade 5 (including any subjects required for the course you are applying to) plus a score of 32 or above in the ACT or 1470 or above (out of 1600) in the SAT. We do not require the optional essay for either the ACT or the SAT.
Please note that Calculus AB and Calculus BC cannot be counted as two separate subjects for the purposes of meeting your offer, whether taken as separate tests or by receiving the AB sub-score when taking Calculus BC.
If you are applying for a course that requires Mathematics you should take Calculus BC if you are able to do so. However, courses will accept Calculus AB if you are unable to take Calculus BC.
AP Pre-Calculus may not be used to fulfil the mathematics requirement for courses specifying this in their offer, but may be used to meet the one of the four (or three) grade 5s required to meet the offer for other courses.
The following combinations of Physics courses can be counted as two separate qualifications for the purposes of meeting your offer:
-
Physics C: Mechanics, and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
-
Physics 1 and Physics 2
-
Physics 1 and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
-
Physics 2 and Physics C: Mechanics
If you are taking both Physics C courses, or both Physics 1 and Physics 2, you will not be able to count any additional Physics courses towards your offer requirements. In addition, only the specified combinations of Physics 1/2 and Physics C are permitted.
For courses requiring AAA:
Either Four APs at grade 5 (including any subjects required for the course you are applying to)
OR
Three APs at grade 5 (including any subjects required for the course you are applying to) plus a score of 31 or above in the ACT or 1460 or above (out of 1600) in the SAT. We do not require the optional essay for either the ACT or the SAT.
Please note that Calculus AB and Calculus BC cannot be counted as two separate subjects for the purposes of meeting your offer, whether taken as separate tests or by receiving the AB sub-score when taking Calculus BC.
If you are applying for a course that requires Mathematics you should take Calculus BC if you are able to do so. However, courses will accept Calculus AB if you are unable to take Calculus BC.
AP Pre-Calculus may not be used to fulfil the mathematics requirement for courses specifying this in their offer, but may be used to meet the one of the four (or three) grade 5s required to meet the offer for other courses.
The following combinations of Physics courses can be counted as two separate qualifications for the purposes of meeting your offer:
-
Physics C: Mechanics, and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
-
Physics 1 and Physics 2
-
Physics 1 and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
-
Physics 2 and Physics C: Mechanics
If you are taking both Physics C courses, or both Physics 1 and Physics 2, you will not be able to count any additional Physics courses towards your offer requirements. In addition, only the specified combinations of Physics 1/2 and Physics C are permitted.
Superscoring
Please note that to meet the requirements of an offer to the University, your SAT Total Score for the SAT Evidence-based Reading and Writing, and SAT Math sections must be from the same session; we will not consider scores from multiple sessions (‘superscoring’). This also applies to scores for the ACT, so we will only consider the ‘Highest Full Battery’ score, and not the ACT Superscore.
Candidates are asked to enter all their scores for any tests taken when they complete their UCAS application, showing the relevant dates for each. This gives tutors a complete picture of a candidate’s academic record, rather than just the ‘superscore’ of best results for the different sections of any test taken on multiple occasions.
Candidates are also asked to include any pending test scores on the UCAS application: that is, details of any test they intend to take up until the end of Senior Year. Again, this is to give tutors a complete picture of the candidates’ academic record, including studies which are still in progress.
AP Capstone Programme
Where applicants have undertaken the additional AP qualifications making up the AP Capstone Diploma (AP Seminar and AP Research) these will not be a condition of any offer. However, the University recognises that they may provide an applicant with the opportunity to develop research and academic skills relevant for higher education. Where relevant, candidates may draw upon relevant subject understanding and interest explored via the AP Capstone Diploma when writing their personal statement.
Score cancellation/withdrawal
We are aware that students taking APs can apply to College Board to have their scores cancelled or withdrawn. However, it is a requirement of the UCAS application process for students to declare all results, including any that have been cancelled or withdrawn, so that tutors are able to consider students’ full educational profile. Failure to declare all qualifications could result in Oxford withdrawing any offer made to you.
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Associate degrees
College Level Examination Programs (CLEPs)
GED (General Education Development)
Dual enrolment
I hope to have a higher score for my next SAT, but if not, would it be wise not to submit it, as it isn’t required?
I’ll let others answer familiar - but if I’m reading this correctly, because you have more than 4 APs at 5, you won’t need an SAT. That’s at least how I read it.
Others will talk to you about Oxford and the experience because what I’ve read of on here, it’s very different…it’s not a similar educational experience to here.
So I’m sure tomorrow, you’ll get all sorts of good info from people.
Best of luck.
Thank you, I appreciate the help.
UCAS requires you to submit all test scores taken including APs, SAT etc.
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Won’t “need” it for admission but will still have to enter it on UCAS so they’ll see it. As noted Oxford also says they want to see the whole academic record, not just cherry picked scores.
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If they see it, will they use it in their admissions decision?
One assumes it will be taken into account, given that they explicitly say they want a complete picture of the applicant’s academic record.
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Your application needs to be in, including the statement and your Literature teacher’s recommendation, by Oct 15 by 10am EST (time difference+ giving yourself a bit of leeway). It likely means your teacher would need to upload their recommendation a few days before, typically on Friday if application is due on a Monday.
You don’t need to submit the SAT for admission but all scores (SAT, AP) need to be entered into the application. They won’t care about the Math score but will want to see high English scores.
Your timed essay or paper excerpt needs to be sent by Nov 10.
I recommend you also look into
Each year 1/3 coursework is interdisciplinary seminars and 2/3 your choice of literature, history and/or language courses. It would likely fit with your interests well.
As well as
You could also consider
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Yes, are you not taking any other APs in math or science subjects? UK applicants have a core set of GCSEs (exams at age 16) which include math, a science, english, history and a foreign language (typically they’d take 8 or 9 subjects including these five). I’m not sure how they will look at an American applicant who would normally be assumed to have a broader set of subjects than U.K. applicants (who just do three subjects after age 16). I assume the 1390 SAT is ~790 English/600 math?
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Oxford do not consider the post-16 breadth of the American system to be a strength over A levels; therefore having their A levels be relevant to their intended subject will not be a negative.
To give an analogy, if a UK student took a varied choice of A level subjects and did well, would top US universities look down on it? Obviously not
I’m not sure what point you are making. If a UK student didn’t take or got a poor grade in maths GCSE (say a 6) then they wouldn’t get into Oxford, whatever degree they applied for, absent some very compelling explanation.
If a UK student took a random set of (especially non-core) science and humanities A levels then they likely wouldn’t be a viable candidate for Oxford (my nephews and nieces effectively ruled themselves out by doing A levels like geography and art). I don’t think we know if a top US university would look down on doing something like that, it would certainly require a lot of explanation in the application.
Consider that the weight given to GCSEs is primarily due to a lack of A level results (students only have predicted results when applying, which can be as optimistic as US GPAs), whereas OP already has their AP results in hand, which are the analogue to A levels.
When you mentioned the example of a 6 in GCSE maths, I disagreed as I believed a 6 in an unrelated GCSE would not be a devastating blow to an Oxbridge application. It took me a while but I did find some evidence (if you can call it that): Are my gcse results good enough for Oxford - The Student Room - and this is for a course that is more mathematically demanding than English.
Typically, when GCSE results unrelated to ALevels are required, it’s a 5 (or even 4, ie., Pass, at lower level universities) in English and/or Maths. There’s no such requirement for English and similar, since an A* in ALevel English is assumed and Maths GCSE is irrelevant to success. This varies depending on “course” and there’s now a new AS Level Maths that can be added to 3 ALevels and and EPQ (not sure how the the AS Level Maths will be used in terms of subject qualifications or evaluation.) Oxford expect 8+ GCSEs with a majority 7+ but they don’t really care if a student got a 6 or even a 5 in an irrelevant subject. In addition, there are contextualized offers meaning the school overall results, the area’s socio economic situation, the student’s individual hardships, etc , are all taken into account. In other words, results from a private (“independent”) school are not reviewed the same as results from a state school where the high aspirational goal is having a 5, many don’t even have 4s, and 6s are uncommon.
None of this would apply to OP anyway, since OP is enrolled in the US system.
For British pupils: yes, if you have 3 unrelated A-Levels, US universities will welcome you. You can even apply “Undecided” if you don’t know what you want to study! They generally DO expect A Level Maths for STEM majors but sometimes not even that depending on theirselectivity and your standardized test scores (SAT/ACT).
Yes, I agree with all of this.