Oxford has a substantially lower admit rate for US citizens (around 8%) than those of certain other countries, or of course domestic students. My question is, do Americans get to the interview stage at roughly the same rate as others and then get cut, or are they weeded out earlier in the process? Overall, for the course my child is considering, about 36% of all applicants get interviews, and about 12% get offers. So if an interview were to be granted, it would make sense to us to hop on a plane for the admission chance ( about 1/3) at that point, but not if the weeding of Americans occurs largely after that point, so that many are interviewed but few offers made. Any insight?
I’m not sure it is that low, the data (https://public.tableau.com/views/UniversityofOxford-AdmissionsStatistics-NationalityandDomicile/NationalityandDomicile?%3Aembed=y&%3Adisplay_count=yes&%3AshowTabs=y&%3AshowVizHome=no) shows 11.6% receive an offer for 2015-17 (but a third fail to proceed to final acceptance, presumably in many cases by turning down the offer, unlike in the UK when almost all of the much smaller gap between offers and acceptance is failing to get the requisite A levels).
In any case, most if not all of the additional weeding is likely due to unqualified Americans applying, unlike in the UK where their school wouldn’t allow that, and failing to get a decent score in the admissions tests or failing to have the right AP grades/predictions. They won’t interview candidates who don’t have a reasonable chance of getting an offer and the 3 to 1 ratio of interviews to offers is the right one to use. However, it is possible that some number of Americans won’t perform as well in the interviews, simply because they don’t have the same interview and academic preparation as UK schools offer.
Very helpful, thank you
You also have the additional screening provided by the Oxford course specific admissions tests which are in most cases a large factor in the interview short list decisions.
My son made the trip over for his interview. A lot of down time over the better part of four days, but he had a great experience, made friends with students who are now his course mates and got much more comfortable with his college choice and the idea of going there.
Yes, there’s no question that you should do the interview in person. It’s a wonderful experience and key to feeling comfortable about going there for three years. Though it does make a rejection all the more painful.
More importantly, unless there is a good reason not to go, it could also make the college more reluctant to allocate you a place, because it may be perceived as a lack of commitment to attending and Oxbridge colleges really hate being turned down.
Agree with the above, esp @Twoin18. One of the bigger difference in admissions between Oxford and Cambridge is that Oxford uses aptitude tests to cut the field down before the interview, whereas at Cambridge many of the tests are done at interview (and for subjects, after interview- thinking of the STEP papers). So Oxford interviews about 1/2 of applicants, v ~75% at Cambridge.
A lot of Americans see the comparatively “easy” pre-reqs for Oxford and think that it’s easier to get in than it is. The genuine depth in the subject that Oxford expects and looks for is unfamiliar to many students who have been trained to be generalists / all rounders.