I’m one of the “went there 25 years ago” tribe. I think the advice that I want to give is still pertinent from observing recent years of juniors coming through my department, and with nephews at/recently departed from Oxford and Cambridge.
Neither institution is homogenous. The colleges are different, and college selection might make a difference both to chances of an offer and to experience once there.
I went to a state school, and there was no Oxbridge guidance through school. In fact, I hadn’t intended to apply for Oxford as I didn’t think I was posh enough or that I had stellar brains. However, a friend’s brother had gone to Oxford for the course I wanted to do. He was normal, and he said his college was full of normal people. So I applied there.
It was LMH. I got in. I had an amazing time, and I think that I was very well educated, certainly at pre-clinical. And he was right, it was full of normal people as well as some posh people. I also learned that posh people are people too, and some of them are very nice.
However, I am fairly sure that, as a shy, gauche, unpolished, very obviously state school girl, had I applied to Christ Church or Teddy Hall, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.
So if you don’t go to a school with an “Oxbridge tradition”, try to find out things like state:private ratio and the stereotype of the college. This is a big generalisation, but if I were advising someone like me (state/rough around the edges), I would say to have a look at the ex-women’s colleges and perhaps think twice about the big names.