Oxbridge applicants 2026??

[Justlurkingmostly]

Is there a thread for this year’s applicants - I can’t seem to find with a search. Thanks for signposting 🙏

@ClaireBlunderwood - I agree college choices can seem testing, but I think they work hard to ensure that who they believe to be the strongest applicants for subjects receive offers. About a quarter of Cambridge offers are from the winter pool - ie lots of applicants get an offer from a college they didn't originally apply to.

Speaking from an Oxford perspective (I don't have enough Cambridge experience to generalise), the college you apply to will not affect your chances of getting in to the university. There is a lot of reallocation done both before and after interviews, and a lot of effort put in to make sure that candidates aren't disadvantaged because they have chosen a college that is more competitive that year.

And of course anyone who wants to can make an open application. If college choice causes any stress, I'd recommend doing that. Though overall, I'd say that given you get the chance to express a preference, you might as well do so.

If the rejection email comes out, does the Ucas site automatically show as a rejection having been made? How long before it starts to show on there?

I think sadly it's not that crazy, is it? I would imagine most if not all applicants have straight A/A* predictions?

Yes, exactly. Most courses don't interview a majority of applicants. Most will have a string of top grades. It may often come down to supra-curricular experiences and the personal statement.

I don't think this is true at all. About the 'supra-curriculars' and personal statement. Thank goodness.

Ah ha! That actually answers the (stupid!) question I had. Whether which college you apply for affects your chance of getting in. Thanks for that reassurance

We were told by a Cambridge tutor that it's all about super curricular stuff - they don't care about extra curriculars at all. It's about showing you are passionate about your subject, have immersed yourself in it and can think about and around it in an interview. Everyone applying will have outstanding grades (as per my two friends DCs, both with four A star predictions who didn't get interviews this year.....)..

It's absolutely about that. What else do you think they have to go on at the stage of inviting people for interview? There are those things and also the reference from the applicant's school which will also have weight (though obviously no school is going to write someone a negative reference for this). Most of the applicants have a string of top grades/predicted grades. They want to talk to people who have spent their actual free time doing things that are related to what they want to study.

Supra-curriculars doesn't necessarily mean 'I've done a billion internships and work experience'. It can also mean 'I've read a lot of books about this and watched some online lectures' - free and accessible to everyone.

'Supra curriculars' on MN is generally a shorthand for expensive opportunities created by ambitious parents. It's a fairly pompous phrase too, particularly if you simply mean reading around a subject. In fact it's so over inflated for that sort of self directed intellectual curiosity that I took you to mean the expensive-not accessible-to-all variety of opportunities.

That said, personal statements are useful at interview to some extent, but not as a tool of selection.

As a tool of selection for those interviews is what I meant.

Super curricular is how it is referred to in all of the Oxbridge literature and the online resources that are designed to help applicants so it is a term that potential students need to know well. My DS super curricular consisted of a number of books he had read, online videos he had watched and olympiad he took part in. None of them were exclusive or particularly expensive

Super-curricular and supra-curricular are the same thing. Some use one and some the other. Supra is the Latin prefix and super is the English prefix. I'm just going with what DD's school used as that is where I first heard about it. It is very clear in all available resources that these things are important and that they don't need to mean 'expensive opportunities created by ambitious parents'. DD certainly hasn't had any expensive opportunities. She's read a lot and entered some (free to enter) competitions for essays and other stuff.

Personal statements are supposed to include a lot of stuff about supra-curriculars and other preparation for eventual study of the subject that is being applied for. That is why they are important. They can absolutely be a tool for selection, though some universities place less or no weight on them (not Oxbridge).

I wonder what your experience of Oxbridge is, @Sevillian? Maybe it would be helpful if you offered some experiences of your own instead of rubbishing what both Oxbridge tutors and schools agree is a good way to stand a chance of getting an interview.

My DD also read Classics (the ab initio course) and one interview was based solely on an obscure early 17th century English poem which they were given 20 mins to read. She said that some of those going for the ordinary Classics course were raging about this over supper (she missed online interviews by a squeak, mercifully). For Classics, they can literally throw anything at you and they certainly seem to like to mix it up (at DD's college at least - which was one of the heavily oversubscribed ones). DD loved her subject, always did the interview help and Open Day stuff, graduated with a Double First, despite being incredibly down to earth and 'normal'. Happy to attempt to answer any questions if anyone has one.

MonGrainDeSel I probably won't share exactly what my experience is but it certainly extends well beyond the above mentioned DD. Indeed I only mentioned her because I was reading the thread from the start a moment ago and saw a reference to people asking about Classics.

Is your DD applying for the first time or is she a re-applicant?

As far as school advice goes, this seems to differ wildly. As does advice from different tutors at different colleges and for different subjects. It makes sense to throw all you have at a personal statement, of course it does, but at the end of the day tutors know only too well that certain schools give massively over hyped references and that personal statements can be written by companies or even parents, relatives or friends. The personal statement is useful at interview, sometimes. It can be completely ignored too. Again, different subjects, different colleges, different styles.

She is applying for the first time. I don't think I would encourage a second application. Oxbridge is not the be all and end all. Better for these things to make it a low-stakes process, as much as anyone can.

Well I guess a parent can't force a DC to feel it's low stakes. Some DC seem to think it's high stakes even without a Tiger Mom at the helm. Some DC are meh but might as well give it a go. Too many shapes and sizes of DC to generalize. I certainly agree that getting fevered as a parent is an absolutely terrible idea but if a DC is very anxious and feels keenly that that is where they want to be, probably best to not keep banging on about how there are lots of other great places to go. Keeping one's counsel is probably smart in that situation.

Yes, 'banging on' about anything is usually unhelpful.

Yeah, the child and family still couldnt understand, not even an interview( 3 As-not predicted A- maths, Biology and Chemistry), 9 -9 gcse and 1-7 gcse, so not all 9s, but almost. The child loves the subject. There wasnt entrance test, currently in a state(grammar) school. I can understand if the entrance test wasnt great. We were told that Oxbridge only cares about academic. So it must have taken PS as part of the application selection too. I cant see how a PS can go so wrong.

Wow, she's got an interview!

I don't know why I'm surprised! She's predicted 4 A-stars and I know how bright she is. I suppose I was just telling myself it was a long shot so as to be ready just in case.

Apparently (according to the school) she may also be contacted by a second college that she didn't apply to (this is the one she chose) which may also want an interview. Rather difficult to manage with days off work and booking hotels, but it may all be worth it in the end!

When you say 3 A grades, do you mean he got no A-stars? That would explain it if so.

Congratulations! Oxford interviews are all online which makes things easier (and cheaper!)

The minimum requirement for Biochem is A*AA and if predictions are below that, a student won't get an interview without extenuating circumstances. An applicant doesn't get past the first hurdle.

It's also a serious downwards trajectory from a very strong sweep of 9s to be predicted only AAA. And no student from a grammar will get that much leeway unless, again, there are personal circumstances to explain a middling row of predictions.

Cambridge interview for my DS. Nerves are wracked. He has very little in the way of extra curricular so that didn’t prevent the interview. He has ASD so finds being out and social difficult but we will see how it goes.