12/19/2020 hwachong | Oxbridge admissions for Singaporean applicants

Oxbridge admissions for Singaporean applicants

Things which you probably want to know

TAG ARCHIVES: HWACHONG

Oxford and Cambridge application for

Singaporean students
Hello reader,

I am an applicant to Oxford/Cambridge, and sometime after I was informed about whether I was
accepted/rejected, I decided to write up on the application process for new applicants who may not know too
much about Oxford and Cambridge. I have recently done some research, whipped up some numbers which I
hope can help you in your application. Most people start o thinking about applying to Oxford and Cambridge
(and other famous universities) without anything except their ambition to start with, and I hope this guide can
provide you with useful information for your university applications.

This is written mostly from a Singaporean student’s perspective, although some information is applicable to
applicants from other countries as well.

Overview of Oxford and Cambridge

Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest and 2nd oldest universities in the English speaking world respectively,
and 2nd and 3rd oldest in the world after the University of Bologna in Italy. (Sorbonne is excluded as its
existence was not continuous.) The University of Oxford was rst founded in the town of Oxford, but violence
between the university scholars and townsfolk caused some scholars to ee to the town of Cambridge, where
they established themselves as the University of Cambridge.

Both Oxford and Cambridge are very similar universities, and are famous for being collegiate universities:
individual, self-governing colleges united under one university name. Courses are conducted university-level,
and departments are also university-level. Knowledge is imparted via the lectures/tutorial method. Lectures are
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held at department-level,
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courses. Undergraduate education in Oxford and Cambridge is world-famous, as tutorials/supervisions are
small and focused, and have a very low student to faculty ratio of typically 3 to 1 or less. Close and accept

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Across the globe, Oxford and Cambridge’s reputation is roughly equivalent to HYPSM, as both Oxford and
Cambridge regularly rank within the top 5 universities in most rankings. However, within local overseas-
application circles such as RJC/HCI, they are seen as being easier to get into as compared to HYPSM since US
schools o er much fewer places to Singapore students.

But who are we as students to talk about reputation anyway.

You should apply to Oxford and Cambridge if you have a very intuitive grasp of the subject you intend to major
in. They are concerned only about academic potential. If you lack CCAs and extra-curricular achievements, it
makes more sense to apply to Oxbridge as they do not care for that, as compared to US universities, who care
a LOT about that, or other UK universities, who care about extra-curriculars within your related eld. Even if
you don’t have many achievements (Olympiads etc) in the subject you want to study, you should still try if you
believe you are talented at the subject, as they are concerned about how much potential you have, and less so
about your achievements thus far.

Understanding the concept of Colleges

In general, colleges come together to form a university. However, the college-university system in Oxbridge is
very di erent vis-à-vis that of other universities such as University of London, or universities in the US.

Oxbridge colleges are akin to “houses” found in your secondary schools and JCs, but include a residential
component since you live in them and use their facilities. They compete amongst themselves in sports and
academics. Oxbridge faculty members are also split amongst colleges. Like being in a class in school, being in a
certain college would mean that you will have a tutor from that college for your tutorials/supervisions.

Meanwhile, in the University of London, the a liation of its constituent colleges with the UOL entity itself is
rather super cial as UCL, LSE, King’s, SOAS etc are practically individual universities, each o ering di erent
courses. By the way, Imperial also used to be part of UOL until they became independent in 2007. The quality of
colleges in the University of London also greatly di ers. UCL, LSE, King’s and SOAS lead the pack, with some
other colleges which perform less favorably trailing behind, plus a few specialist schools which are very niche in
nature.

In the US, the de nition of a college is also di erent. Colleges in the US refer to strictly the undergraduate
division of a university (which comprises of undergraduate and graduate). For example, for an undergraduate
going to Harvard University, he is not actually studying in Harvard University per se, but studying in Harvard
College, which is a part of Harvard University. US universities typically consist of an undergraduate college,
together with di erent graduate schools which specialize in di erent subjects, such as law and medicine.
Liberal Arts Colleges consists of mainly the undergraduate division and do not have signi cant graduate or
postgraduate programmes, and are hence termed as such.
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US vs UK admissions

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US universities tend to try to maximize international student variety (since each student brings in his own
culture to the school), and will hence try to take in applicants from a larger number of countries while keeping
in check the numbers from each. Singapore elds a large number of highly competitive (and to a certain extent,
homogenous) applicants, despite (and due to) our small population and geographical size, and are hence
slightly disadvantaged. UK universities are less subjective in their admissions approach as they make their
o ers mostly based on grades, and they also recognize our A levels, and hence are easier to get into for the
Singaporean applicant.

Analysis of numbers, part 1: Oxford and Cambridge versus US universities

Oxford and Cambridge: 17.8% and 21% respectively

US: from 5.9% for Harvard, up to 16.2% for Cornell.

Most people use admission rates as a gauge of how di cult it is to make a successful application to the
university. This is not a good method. I hence would like to give a more accurate view of the admissions
di culty, as opposed to blindly comparing these numbers.

On UCAS (the centralized admissions system used by all UK universities), the mean rate of acceptance across all
302 UK universities/colleges is 17.3%, while the median rate of acceptance is 22%. This is opposed to that of US
universities, where the admissions rate increases as the reputation of the university decreases, with Harvard
having an admissions rate of 5.9% and some state universities having a 90+% admission rates. For example,
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign is one of the top public universities in the nation, and has a world-
famous engineering programme. However, it has a very large 68% admission rate, which is by no means a
measure of its standard. It is clear that UK and US admissions di culty cannot be accurately compared using
admission rates.

At 20% or so, the admissions rate for Oxford and Cambridge is actually deceptively high. The main reason for
this is because you cannot apply to both universities. Given the similarities in both universities in social and
academic standing, undergraduate teaching, collegiate life and history, it can be reasonably assumed that
anyone who applies to Oxford or Cambridge too would, if given the chance, apply to the other university. In
fact, Oxford and Cambridge are probably two of the most similar universities around. The admission rates can
hence hypothetically halve and fall to 10% e ectively if you remove the rule, as the applicant pool to each of the
two universities is assumed to be doubled. This is a good theoretical admission rate you can use if you want
compare them against US universities, since in the US system you can apply to as many universities as you
want to maximize your chances (and admission rates are hence lower, but enrollment/yield rates
correspondingly lower too).

Another reason is that in the US, you can apply to as many universities as you want, while in UK, you can only
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US students are more likely to apply to the top universities as it doesn’t come with any cost (other than the time
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spent on the application).

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The presence of a test as well as multiple interviews with faculty members, as well as the clear (and sole)
criteria of academic competency, and also the lack of nancial aid also cause some form of self-selection within
the candidates, reducing the size of the applicant pool and hence increasing the percentage of admissions. This
is contrasted against US universities where a rmative action policies, subjective admissions (US universities
like to say that you might just have the subjective ‘edge’ that complements the university’s character, be it in
athletics, academic achievement or social work etc) and generous nancial aid (including need-blind aid for
international applicants at HYPM-Dartmouth-Amherst) actually increases the number of applicants, hence
lowering their admission rates.

Another way to look at it is that Oxford and Cambridge admissions are actually like a restrictive Early Action
application, as restrictive EA/ED prevents you from applying to other universities. A comparison with the
admission rates for the EA/ED admissions rate can also give you a better comparison between US universities
and Oxford and Cambridge.

For Oxford and Cambridge, you also cannot apply to the di erent courses in the same university, except in very
speci c scenarios. For example, Oxford is willing to reconsider your application for Physics and Philosophy as a
pure Physics application if you fail to make it into Physics and Philosophy.

Oxford and Cambridge US Universities

Generally no nancial aid (Cambridge o ers a small Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Amherst and MIT o er
scholarship for students with demonstrated nancial need – need-blind nancial aid for international applicants.Cornell /

a separate application needs to be made, after Cambridge Georgetown are need-blind for internationals but do not
has made you the o er for a place) guarantee to meet the full demonstrated need.

>Not as many applicants from less-developed countries as >You are signi cantly disadvantaged if you apply for
they require nancial aid. nancial aid in non-need-blind universities.

>Need-blind universities are very competitive.

Admission process involves Admission process involves

> UCAS application (simple essay, 1 referral) >Commonapp (except MIT and UC) (commonapp essay, 2
referrals), plus SATs or perhaps APs

>Application is course-based
>Supplementary application (speci c to individual schools) –

> Admissions tests, be it Thinking SkillsAssessment or short response questions, perhaps more essays, etcetera
subject-speci c aptitude tests which are more aligned towards the school’s “character”

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>Interviews >Admissions is done on a college-wide level (i.e. the same
To nd out with
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(Cambridge), or Skype (Oxford, with the exception of admissions team processes all the applicants for
medicine) undergraduate studies regardless of intended major)
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>Admissions is done at a departmental/course-level for

Oxford, and college-level for Cambridge

Highly specialized courses with little/no opportunity to take Liberal arts – You only need to meet the general distributive
‘modules’ outside of your subject area.Admissions hinges requirements, as well as the requirements for your major.

entirely on academic aptitude, academic potential, passion

and interest in subject. Admissions is holistic – Focuses on leadership positions,
extra-curricular achievements, essay (personal voice and
drive), and demonstrated achievement (for example,
>You are disadvantaged if you are not exceptionally
olympiads etc).
good/talented in the subject you applied in, no matter how
well-rounded you are. Explains why many, many ‘Straight A’
students are rejected. >You are disadvantaged if your extra-curriculars are
lacklustre, no matter how intelligent / academically strong
you are. Academic strength cannot be shown in a US
application except through demonstrated achievement in
academic competitions.

Explains why some extremely talented ‘deans lister’

students are rejected.

Deadlines –Mid Sept – Cambridge COPA+UCAS Deadlines-Start of Nov – Early Action, Early Decision

submission
Mid Oct – Oxford UCAS (no COPA equivalent)

Early-Mid Dec – EA/ED results

Late Oct – Early Nov – Cambridge Interviews and TSA

Late Dec-Early Jan – Deadline for Regular Decision

Early Nov – Oxford aptitude tests

Feb – March – Alumni interviews (casual interviews / not

Early Dec – Oxford Skype interviews entirely essential – nothing like Oxbridge interviews)

Early Jan – Release of o ers/rejections + Cambridge Winter Late March / Early April – Release of o ers/rejections +
Pool Waitlist

Late Jan – End of Cambridge Winter Pool Early May – End of waitlist results

Analysis of numbers, part 2: Oxford and Cambridge versus other excellent UK universities

Once again I must clarify that I am not writing this to defend Oxford and Cambridge’s high admission rate; I
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only wish
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educate potential
including applicants
how to that Oxford
control cookies, and
see here: Cambridge
Cookie Policy are signi cantly harder to get into than
what their admission rates suggest. If a less able applicant super cially compares the admission rates, and
chooses to discount the more competitive (applicant to place ratio-wise) UK universities and Close
apply and accept
to Oxford or
Cambridge thinking they are easy to get into, he is committing a rather foolish mistake.

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However it must also be noted that it is not rare to see some applicants landing an o er in Oxford or
Cambridge while getting rejected by all other universities. Some of these applicants are termed as ‘ agged’
candidates; they may not be from schools with strong academic programmes, and may be in di cult
circumstances which a ect their overall academic performance. Oxford and Cambridge hence ag these
applicants, and will o er them preferential entry over applicants with similar or even marginally better
achievements, as the agged candidates have overcome a lot to come so far, and hence possess more
potential than those who achieve the same but with much more resources at their disposal. It is also part of
Oxford and Cambridge’s aim to widen access and diversity its student population, as a sizeable amount of them
have extremely privileged backgrounds and come from famous private high schools.

On the other hand, it is also a norm for straight A applicants to Oxford and Cambridge to receive rejects, but
receive o ers from other universities. This is because Oxford and Cambridge admissions are heavily based on
their admissions tests and interview results, and A level grades are merely used as a secondary quality check.
This is opposed to that of other universities, whose only information used in the decision-making process is the
UCAS form and predicted grades, with the occasional interview (which in uences the admission decision much
less than the Oxbridge ones).

As you can see from the data below, it would appear as if Oxford and Cambridge are the easiest universities to
get into. (I can assure you they are not)

University Applicants Successful Success rate

LSE 17654 1271 7.2

Bristol 39305 3688 9.4

King’s 38009 3881 10.2

UCL 34476 3617 10.5

Warwick 31687 3846 12.1

Southampton 37109 5189 14.0

Manchester 57830
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St Andrew’s 12196 1741 14.3

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She eld
34227 5197 15.2

Durham 24800 3800 15.3

York 23725 3701 15.6

Imperial 14801 2377 16.1

Oxford 18194 3237 17.8

Cambridge 15507 3261 21.0

While many other UK universities, especially the London ones, may seem to be more competitive than Oxford
and Cambridge, but it is pretty much fact that it is harder to get into Oxbridge due to their highly quali ed
applicant pool, which is smaller than one would expect due to the above-mentioned reasons such as mutually
exclusive applications (either Oxford or Cambridge), prohibitive costs, aptitude tests and multiple face-to-face
interviews.

Note: There are some rumors online that say that LSE is trying to prove that it is equally selective as Oxbridge and will
reject you if they see on your UCAS form that you have applied to Oxford or Cambridge. This is UNTRUE. You CAN
apply to LSE (or any other prestigious universities) even if you were applying to Oxford or Cambridge. Your UCAS
options are not revealed to the schools you applied to, until you have chosen to decline their o er or after the cycle
ends. However, if you have applied to 2 or more courses within the same University, say, Mechanical Engineering and
Chemical Engineering at Imperial, the di erent departments will be aware that you have applied to multiple courses in
the university. I do not know whether your chances of getting admitted will be a ected, however, although chances are
that individual departments will still make their o ers independently and objectively. However, the rule still stands; it
is impossible for you to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge on UCAS, and you cannot apply for more than one
course in either university.

Choice of University: Oxford for humanities, Cambridge for sciences?

Don’t think too much about Oxford for humanities, Cambridge for sciences stereotype. There is no point being
choosy because:

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1.)    It is already very di cult to gain admission into any course in both universities
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2.)    Undergraduate teaching styles are entirely similar Close and accept

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3.)    In general, whatever Oxford is 2nd in, Cambridge is rst, vice versa. (for UK, that is)

Is Cambridge’s PPS inferior to Oxford’s PPE, because Oxford was rst to o er PPE and has 26 British Prime
Ministers within her alumni? Or Oxford’s physics not as good as Cambridge’s, because Cambridge currently has
Stephen Hawking in her ranks, and Isaac Newton studied there?

Random samples of admission rates from di erent courses

Engineering – Cambridge 16.6% admission rate for 335 places Oxford 19% admission rate for 156 places

Economics – Cambridge 12% admission rate for 171 places Oxford 8.2% admission rate for 89 places

Mathematics – Cambridge 20% admission rate for 263 places Oxford 15% admission rate for 174 places

Neglecting the slight di erences due to crowd’s colored perception, as well as the fact that applicants are being
forced to apply exclusively to one university, the admission rates of both universities are still highly comparable
with each other’s.

In my opinion, the only valid reason to choose one university over the other is for due to course concerns. For
example, Cambridge o ers pure Economics, while you can only study Economics under Oxford’s Economics
and Management course, or their agship Politics, Philosophy and Economics course. Another example would
be that Cambridge o ers Natural Sciences, where anyone taking the course must undergo a general education
in all aspects of science before choosing his specialization (in Physics, Biology, etc), while Oxford o ers
individual courses such as Physics, Chemistry etc which are separate and specialized from the start. Both
universities may also o er courses which the other university does not have; for example, Cambridge does not
o er any equivalent to Oxford’s Physics and Philosophy course.

Any other reasons you give for choosing one of them over the other will probably not be well-justi ed since
you, as an overseas applicant, are making it on very limited information (most likely you haven’t visited the
universities). So just follow your gut-feeling since there is no real di erence, honestly.

The same goes for your choice of college; you will mostly be choosing based on college scenery, location,
convenience etc, which will a ect your daily college life, but are ultimately not very consequential as you will
learn to live around all of these circumstances. If your college is further from the city centre then you will end
up cycling more often, no big deal.

If you are thinking whether certain colleges are more competitive than others, the answer is yes. Historically-
established colleges like Balliol of Oxford and Trinity of Cambridge etc are more sought after and hence have a
considerably larger applicant pool than smaller, newer colleges.Extending this question, you may ask whether
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student from New College, Oxford, actually did a very long research paper regarding admissions process in
Oxford, which included research on this matter). Close and accept

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Check this out:

http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/facts_and_ gures/undergraduate_admissions_statistics/college_choi
ce.html

As you can see, the admission rate to the college as well as to the university are broadly comparable across the
colleges, and it is quite clear that your college choice does not really a ect your odds for admission.

For those who don’t understand the statistics:

Imagine each college to be a ‘portal’ into the university. Each college admits a certain no. of students into the
university, “Z”. These students are guaranteed a place in the UNIVERSITY, but not necessarily within the college.
So, the college retains “Y” no. of people (based on no. of people admitted per course and the no. of places they
have per course), and spills extras “X” to the less-applied-to colleges (course-speci c, too).

Z = X+Y. Easy? Anyway, the rates for X and the rates for Z are broadly comparable.

Anyway, it is also actually possible for the least-subscribed college to spill people into a more subscribed
college, if they have too many applicants for a certain course. For example if they only have 10 places for law
while they made 15 o ers, 4-5 of them will probably be re-allocated to another college.

Oxford and Cambridge also have pooling and re-allocation mechanisms to ensure that the best applicants are
admitted to the university, regardless of whether the college they applied to has a space for them. Pooling
mechanisms are outlined later.

Admission process

Di erences in admission process between UK and US universities and Oxbridge

The most important di erence is that in the UK, those who decide on the admissions are actually choosing
those they are going to teach in the future, while in the US, the admissions o ce are not part of the teaching
faculty. In the UK, you application is made towards a course, while in US your application is made towards the
University as a whole. In the UK your applications are evaluated by the department that o ers the course, while
in the US a centralized admission o ce lters through all the undergraduate applications made towards the
university.

For example in the UK, you can apply to Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Physics to Imperial.
Your application will then be evaluated by each department who each will make you an admissions decision.
Admission is hence by course; you can get rejected for Chemical and Mechanical engineering, but receive an
o er for Physics. To give you a rough gauge of the scale of the endeavor, which is the number of applicants
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each department assesses, there are 1062, 798 and 1176 applications made towards the Mechanical
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Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Physics departments respectively. Interviews are possible; some
departments will invite shortlisted local applicants down for a visit, and may call up overseasClose
applicants.
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Imperial and UCL are also known to conduct interviews via email where you may be asked to answer academic

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questions within stipulated time frames (from 45 minutes to even 7 days). Interview questions can both be
academic ones, which usually involve explaining scienti c phenomena for science-based courses, or general
ones, which involves learning about your general interest and commitment towards the subject, as well as your
future plans and aspirations.

In the US however, you make an application for a university, and your major is merely indicated as a preference
as most, if not all, US schools operate on the Liberal Arts model, where you only declare your academic major
in your sophomore (2nd) year. Let’s say you are applying to Brown, Cornell and Northwestern. The admissions
o ce for these universities will be evaluating 31000, 32655 and 30975 applications respectively.

In Oxford and Cambridge, applications are split across all colleges. Let’s say you applied to Oxford, to a college
with only 4 places (and 1 tutor) for your course. You will probably be up against another 24 applicants or so.
Through the admissions test, the tutor will shortlist say, 15 applicants for interview, although this step is only
applies to Oxford which shortlists based on admissions test results. Cambridge interviews most applicants. He
then conducts the interviews, and o ers places to say, 5 of them, with the fth o er being either a reallocation
or an open o er (like all universities, more o ers are given than the number of places available, just in case
some o er-holders turn down the o er / do not meet the conditions).

As you can see, in the Oxford and Cambridge admissions process is done on a very personal level as it involves
most, if not all, undergraduate tutors. Each tutor selects the students whom he are going to personally teach
for the 3-4 years, instead of merely making the decision on behalf of the department, or university; he will be
facing these students for their subsequent years in very small tutorial groups. Of course, admission decisions
are also discussed on a departmental level to ensure that the admissions standards are moderated. Interviews
and admissions tests are scored to provide an objective evaluation of all candidates for the department.

For example, in Oxford Physics, after the admissions test, candidates are placed into 3 bands, A, B and C. Band
A candidates are most likely to be o ered a place, Band C candidates are not likely to be o ered a place, with
Band B candidates being in the middle. After the interview stage, the department will come to scrutinize the
Band A candidates whom tutors have decided to reject and Band C candidates which tutors have decided to
accept. The decision to accept or reject Band B candidates is left to the tutors’ discretion. Of course, this
process of course di ers across departments.

Di erences in the admission process between Oxford and Cambridge

Oxford and Cambridge determine the suitability of their candidates via interviews and written tests for most
subjects. I will not be going through the technicalities in the application process, such as Cambridge’s COPA
form, earlier-than-normal UCAS deadlines, etc.

The main di erence is that Oxford conducts its tests in early November, and shortlists its applicants for
interviews using the
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same time frame (early December) as it interviews those who visit the university in real life.

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Cambridge on the other hand, shortlists its applicants purely using the UCAS forms and predicted/actual
grades, and hence interviews a very large portion of its applicant pool (>80% according to Cambridge website).
Cambridge conducts its interviews for Singapore in late October / early November, followed by their TSA test a
little later. Local UK students who visit the university in real life are interviewed in December.

Tests

Oxford uses mostly subject-speci c tests, while Cambridge uses a general Thinking Skills Assessment with
subject-speci c essay questions. For example, a student applying to study Physics in Oxford will do the 2hr
Physics Aptitude test, which comprises of a 1 hour Physics paper and a 1 hour Math paper, while a similar
student applying to Cambridge will do the general Thinking skills Assessment which comprises of verbal and
reasoning questions, followed by an essay (with a choice of questions) on Physics.

Shortlisting in Oxford is mainly based on test scores. In very rare, speci c and borderline instances, other
factors may also be taken into account. For example, a physics applicant who has an outstanding record in
physics competitions may have scored a little beneath the cut-o score to qualify him for an interview; he will
however most likely still be o ered an interview as he might just has had a bad day on his test date. More often
than not, the decision to shortlist you for an interview will be based solely on your predicted grades and
aptitude test scores.

Interviews

Both Oxford and Cambridge conduct face-to-face interviews with their applicants to determine their academic
potential, as well as for the applicants (those who stay in the campus for the interviews) to better know the
university. As we Singaporean applicants are unable to visit their campus for these interviews, it is important to
know how Oxford and Cambridge conducts their substitute interviews, as both universities do it di erently.
Please ignore whatever UK newspapers have to say about the Oxbridge interviews; they have changed a lot
over the years and are much more objective as compared to the legendary / mythical image the British press
tries to paint.

Oxford interviews Singaporean applicants via Skype or phone. Skype is used for science subjects where writing
of equations and drawing is needed, and phone interviews for subjects such as PPE where conversation will
su ce. The interview will be conducted by the faculty speci c to the subject and college you applied to. It is also
important to note that due to the delay from high ping, it may be a little di cult to converse smoothly with the
interviewer as the signals take time to travel. For example, seeing that the interviewer has stopped talking, you
hence decide to start talking, but actually he has started talking again (over in UK), and hence you will both
interrupt each other in real time. But along the interview you will learn to overcome them as these problems
are not too serious.

Cambridge, on theThis
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teaching the subject you applied for, due to manpower and cost limitations. Typically, a science-based tutor will
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conduct the interviews for science subjects, and likewise for other major branches. Questions will be, however,
branch-speci c.

The interviews of both universities are highly academic in nature and give you plenty of space to demonstrate
your reasoning and problem-solving skills. However, tutors will normally start o with an informal question
related to your academic interest in the subject to make you feel more at ease. For the academic portion of the
interview (90% of it), pre-requisite knowledge is normally not needed as you can ask the tutors to provide you
with information or hints if you are unsure or stuck. For science-based courses, interviews revolve around
mathematical problems, as well as those that are speci c to your course. Graphing questions are also popular.
For subjects such as law, you may be given a reading to scrutinize beforehand, followed by a discussion of the
reading during the interview itself. Tutors normally aim to push you to the limit, to see how you deal with
something you are unable to solve. It is hence perfectly ne to get stuck on a question, as that is precisely what
the tutors are aiming for. For example, for a question related to mathematics, you will start o solving a
deceptively simple graphing question, but you will soon nd yourself being quickly pushed to sketch more and
more di cult functions, until the tutor feels it is time to move on to another question.

You will NOT be asked dumb, time-wasting and pointless questions which most job/scholarship interviewers
enjoy asking, such as: What are your strengths and weaknesses? What was your most challenging leadership
experience? How do you work in a team? Why did you choose to apply to Oxford / Cambridge? etc.

Pooling for applicants on the margin / inter-college pooling

Pooling occurs because the university wants worthy applicants to gain a spot in the university regardless of
their college choice. Pooling mechanisms across colleges is something which an applicant should know, as it
di ers across both universities.

For Oxford, the pooling process actually begins when the applicants are interviewed. Applicants undergo
interviews at di erent colleges. For example, an applicant who applies to college A will probably get interviewed
at college A, but will also undergo interviews at college B or perhaps even at a third one, college C. Good
applicants are also ear-marked on the system so other colleges can o er to interview him so they can prepare
to accept him in case the college he applied to is out of space. If college A is out of places, college B may take
the applicant. Sometimes an interviewee who has proven himself to be exceptional, but is unable to receive an
acceptance from any of the colleges he interviewed at, may receive an o er from a college D which he had
never been to. Sometimes, if the decision to allocate a worthy applicant needs to be postponed, the applicant is
given an “open” o er, that is, he is guaranteed a place in the university, but his college allocation will only be
rm after the con rmation of places after the UK A level results are out (when those holding o ers can con rm
whether they are attending Oxford or not).

In Cambridge, the pooling mechanism is called Winter-pool, and begins after the rst round of decisions are
made.
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decision to pool an applicant basically means that the
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him. Sometimes, good candidates are also pooled, as the college wants to see the quality of the overall pool,
before choosing to accept or reject the said candidates. Over the next couple of weeks, pooled applicants are
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left to oat in the pool, where colleges with spaces will ‘pick’ them up and either request for another interview
with them, or o er them a spot immediately. Unlike Oxford’s open o er, only a minority of pooled applicants
receive an o er. The nal decisions for pooled applicants will be sent out in late January.

Basically, it is an achievement to make it onto the Oxford interview (if your course has an admissions test) or
the Cambridge winter pool, as you have proven yourself to be a very strong candidate to whom Oxford and
Cambridge seriously consider making an o er.

Handling rejections: The Oxbridge Reject

To apply to Oxford or Cambridge may be a measure of your self-worth, where an o er is considered a

validation, while a rejection otherwise. It is no stranger to most Oxbridge applicants that the UK media enjoys
portraying those who enroll in top non-Oxbridge universities, such as Warwick, Durham and Bristol, as
“Oxbridge rejects”, and it is a rather dismal term which many of these applicants dread coming under. It is,
however, somewhat true, as most students rejected by Oxford or Cambridge enroll in other top tier universities
as they normally have excellent academics. A scathing article on the Cambridge student newspaper The
Tab(loid) rejecting the use of ‘Doxbridge’, a term suggested by the students at Durham to capture UK’s three
most distinguished collegiate universities, also adds undue insult to the wound.

You may feel a sense of apprehension when applying to Oxford and Cambridge as you may not want to be
labeled as such in the case you do not receive an o er. My advice is to not take this too seriously. Some
students in Warwick actually take it in their stride; their student newspaper actually is called “The Oxbridge
Reject”. In the UK the reputation distribution of the top 20 or so universities isn’t as nicely gradated as the US’s,
as many universities outside of the Golden Triangle (seldom-heard term referencing the Triangle formed by
Oxford, Cambridge and London) receiving disproportionately less recognition. This is in contrast with the US
universities, where the Ivy League brand commands a great deal of respect, but non-Ivy league schools such as
Chicago, Duke, Northwestern, Caltech etc still possess very strong reputations. (Of course, there are many more
universities in the US) In US too, a successful application is duly celebrated; if you had attended Chicago, you
wouldn’t be seen as an Ivy League reject, or if you’d attended Cornell you wouldn’t be called a Harvard reject.

My point is: steer clear of the UK perception that an Oxbridge reject is a second-rate student. The Oxbridge
reject construct is unhealthy and does not exist within the US, or Singapore for that matter. Don’t think too
much about what a potential rejection will have on your ego (which I believe is rather in ated at the moment,
for you to consider applying to such universities), as the skewed UK perception, thankfully, doesn’t a ect you.
So make an application if you think the university is a good t; a rejection isn’t bad at all. UCL Imperial King’s LSE
Durham Warwick York Bristol Manchester St Andrews etc are too really privileged choices; many of these great
universities are more than happy to o er you a place, and your reciprocation would surely be appreciated and
welcomed by them. Life isn’t always about you wanting things; be thankful sometimes.

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