PITFALLS TO AVOID IN YOUR OXBRIDGE APPLICATION

Clare Bridge, Cambridge

 

If you are an able, high-achieving student, you may now feel that your entire school life has been a preparation for the next stage, a degree course. This can lead you to assume that your UCAS application needs to be a mere summary of what you learnt, hope for or achieved.  If your targets include Oxbridge (or any other top Russell Group university), though, rather more is expected. So, well before going online to fill in that application form, make sure you have avoided at least the most common pitfalls:

 

     1. Not checking which A-level subjects are essential for your course: 

     there are rigid subject rules when it comes to some Oxbridge courses, while others, including Law, accept quite a wide range. Unless you read the entry requirements first, you may be throwing away one of your four or five UCAS choices. 

 

2   2.Failing to independently explore a degree subject taught at school: good applicants are avid readers. Especially (but not just) in the humanities, an applicant who has only ever read set texts is unlikely to impress admissions tutors. So, try to list  at least one interesting book, article or relevant online feature you have come across, then say what it taught you. 

 

3. Not bothering to read the full course description in the Oxbridge prospectus: before mentioning a subject-related aspect you are particularly keen on (such as medieval studies), make sure it is actually offered by Oxbridge in conjunction with the course you picked, in this case probably History or Archaeology.  Getting this wrong may count as laziness.

 

4. Thinking about your degree subject only in the context of your future career: far too many Oxbridge applicants write that they chose Economics because they are "hoping for a career in finance”. What admissions tutors want to know is which subject areas are of interest to you and how you are already exploring them.

 

5. Giving too much space to extra-curriculars: you just want to show that you are organised enough to keep up with a couple of activities alongside your studies. It would be nice if one of these was also vaguely relevant to your course, has offered you some great insight or given you useful skills. Merely listing five different activities is pointless.

 

6. Being too impersonal in your UCAS statement: admissions tutors want to know about you as an individual. By mentioning personal strengths, concerns, achievements or life experiences you may become more convincing, as well as more memorable. 

 

7. Asking a well-educated relative or family friend to write your statement for you:  any admissions tutor can tell the writings of a middle-aged graduate from those of a sixth former. Also, the type of student Oxbridge seeks has somewhat changed over the years.

 

8. Copying a UCAS statement found online: admissions tutors have for several years had the software to identify such statements. Do you want to be marked down as a plagiarist?

 

9.Sloppy writing: there is no need for formal language, but applicants are expected to use proper subject terms. Also, your statement must be grammatically correct and without spelling mistakes. Make sure to reread it more than once, and don’t just rely on the spell checker!

 

Still unsure how to make a strong, memorable application? For more detailed and  course-specific advice, read the 2016 edition of OXBRIDGE ENTRANCE: THE REAL RULES.