Oxford chances?

collegemom3717
Wed, 03 Sep 2014 19:57:37 +0000

If it is far from your first choice, why apply?

The standardized test scores are basically a hurdle- a minimum. At other UK unis getting those scores will pretty much get you in, but not at the top unis. You can be very sure that every single UK applicant who applies to BioSciences has been predicted to meet the required A*AA in Bio, Math and another science- and will lose their place if they don’t meet it.

You have an A,A, B, B/C, and whatever you have been predicted for Chem. If you got an offer, it would be almost certainly conditional on a 5 in AP Chem. From this vantage point, given your record on science & math APs, that would seem rather a risky bet.

To get to the interview stage you will need to write a personal statement (you can find lots of help for that over at the student room). This is not something that you will be able to whip off: it is a thoughtful essay that demonstrates why you are a great BioSciences student (not why you are a great person / a high achiever / well rounded / deserving, etc). The interview itself is like a mini-tutorial, where the tutors (professors) who will be teaching you ask you questions and set you problems to see how you think, how you learn, and how suited you are to both the subject - as it is taught at Oxford!- and the tutorial format. They want students who are passionate about their subject and show great ability and motivation.

Which brings us back to: given that you don’t particularly want to go there, why would you go through all of this?