How do you choose between Oxford and Cambridge?

[Justneedaflippingtemporaryname]

Namechanged for this as DD would not be happy if this post was too identifying.

She has been fixed on applying to Cambridge since year 10 (is in year 12 now) after going to a few talks and residentials at Cambridge university. She has never had the opportunity to visit Oxford and so is fixated on Cambridge due to familiarity. It is in her nature to not want to try new things at all.

She wants to study physics, so it would be Natsci at Cambridge and Physics at Oxford.

How does one go about choosing which to apply to?

We live in Manchester.

Thank you!

Errol, I agree.
Numbers dont tell you how self selecting applicants are either.

DC were at school in London, which made Imperial an easier fall back than it might have been for applicants from elsewhere.

I dont know why Cambridge is preferred, though do know that a friend's child, at a very academic boarding school, was steered towards Oxford as a less risky choice. Whilst a couple of DDs friends who reapplied to Oxford post A levels did get places, but again they might have got Cambridge second time round.

These are small differences. Good students will do well at Oxford Imperial or Cambridge. More important is liking the course, liking the teaching style and liking the place.

Agree with the above.

Applicants with AAA will not apply for Physical Natural Sciences at Cambridge as they do not meet the typical offer. Thet will apply for Physics at Oxford as the standard offer for Physics at Oxford is AAA.

Relative competitiveness is hard to judge without a detailed analysis of who you're competing against
That is so true. You don't know what the quality of the applicants are. Though as someone said, someone with A* AA predicted presumably would apply to Oxford so I'm guessing Cambridge applicants may have higher predicteds on average. Or this might not be the case at all. Who knows?! 🤷🏽‍♀️

Yes Errol we've heard about Trinity! It's for God's, apparently!

*Gods

Some pupils from DDs school were given a 4 A offer - basically because they weren’t the strongest of candidates and the college wanted to ensure they were up to scratch.*
Wow! Did they really?

Agree the grades requested from other uni's were perplexing: DD got AAA from Exeter which she detested and ABB from Manchester, Edinburgh and Bristol.

Hi @OhTheRoses how do you mean by they were perplexing? I'm surprised at the Manchester offer... what course was that for? Did DD not like the sound of Imperial?

Groucho as has been often said including on this thread, the A level grade offers are made after the triage by either Cambridge or Oxford. The standard grade offer does not reflect the level of successful applicants.
Cambridge filter further by grades requested. Oxford don’t generally want / need to due to their entrance tests and longer interview system.

justneed apols - mine are liberal arts rather than science/mathmos. DD's Edinburgh offer was v low compared to those received by friends for similar courses.

Imperial not really on the radar of my DC. Both looked at UCL briefly but tjey are London children and the London Uni's didn't float their boats. Having said that ds is doing a Masters in London.

Cambridge makes high offers - if you are likely to get the grades then you are competing against a smaller pool but successful applicants often exceed their offers. Oxford have more applicants because they make lower offers and the average grades of those they take is lower than at Cambridge. Some of the super bright rather like the idea of being with other "gods", hence the preference for Cambridge and Trinity. Trinity has the most Nobel Laureates and a disproportionate number of mathmos. They are a breed apart .

If your child's predictions are not high enough to meet a Cambridge offer then it's worth applying to Oxford. If their predictions are high enough for Cambridge then they need to consider if they want to specialise from the off or have more variety. In this case there is quite a difference in course content.

You have to be the Oxford type to be accepted at Oxford - Boris, David Cameron, Theresa May, Margaret Thatcher. For Cambridge you just need to be highly intelligent and capable of benefiting from their style of teaching.

Are you taking the pee completelytaken? Oxford isn’t the poor relation to Cambridge — ad discussed upthread they set entrance tests in most subjects therefore they’ve already selected and don’t use A-levels to do the sifting.

Ludicrous to suggest you need to be an “Oxford type” along the lines of Boris Johnson et al in order to get in. The people you quote are a minuscule minority (and — while at Oxford — are often the butt of jokes for their naked ambition and smarming).

The nonsense on here tonight. I suggest some of you do some FOI checks on the grades actually obtained/predicted for Oxford students. Although the offer grades may be lower the actual offers tend to still be made to those with higher than standard offer predictions!

Actually alreadytaken Cambridge makes more offers and invariably more miss the grade offers.

You have to be the Oxford type to be accepted at Oxford - Boris, David Cameron, Theresa May, Margaret Thatcher.

Oxford may, for better or worse, be where many politicians are bred, but that has to be one of the daftest things I've read on an Oxbridge thread.

The entire post is ridiculous, not merely that sentence Errol.

I’m just annoyed because, as an Oxford graduate, my identity as a high-flying Tory is now revealed

I suggest some of you do some FOI checks on the grades actually obtained/predicted for Oxford students.

You can get a reasonable estimate from unistats or the achieved tariff column in ranking tables, FOI is surely overkill. A few minutes with the guardian table (wow... a use for it!) suggests that the grades obtained by the Cambridge students are usually the highest on average but honestly there's not much difference so really not worth getting exercised about.

I haven't done my own FOIs but if you google them you can find ones already done by other people (subject specific) and they are quite interesting reading.

I think if our children are to become well rounded, well educated adults their parents need to let them find their own wings and stop googling foi's.

I think if our children are to become well rounded, well educated adults their parents need to let them find their own wings and stop googling foi's.

I disagree. Not everybody starts from a level playing field. You do you and we'll do us.

I had a quick google of FOIs related to Oxford and all I could think was what a colossal waste of money that is. Hundreds and hundreds of them. The amount that Oxford must have to spend on them.

all I could think was what a colossal waste of money that is. FOI requests are for all public institutions including of course hospitals. Occasionally though it is for public food.
OhtheRoses I am not sure what difference it makes whether parents are accessing information from FOI rather than MN or even studentroom. At least the former is accurate. Most parents here are acquiring info to help in case it is needed by their DCs rather than dictate choices.

Good rather than food

Obviously in some cases they are genuinely useful and expose info that is definitely of public benefit and yes, the burden falls on all public institutions. But the volume addressed to Oxford seems exceptional.

For the sort of thing we were discussing, do these FOI requests reveal anything significant that couldn't be deduced from the reams of data already in the public domain plus a bit of nous?