6 Ways Oxbridge Applications Tutors Can Help You Achieve The Dream
Oxbridge application tutors
As two of the most prestigious universities in the world, Oxford and Cambridge are renowned centres of academic excellence, selecting only the very best candidates for undergraduate admission.
Cambridge offers places to only around 20% of applicants, and Oxford’s latest acceptance rate was just 18% in 2014.
With the deadline for applications fast approaching, Oxbridge applications tutoring is an invaluable endeavour for improving your chances of acceptance.
Although procedures at both Oxford and Cambridge are designed to not disadvantage those who have not had tutoring, tutoring can help you in several very practical ways.
With that in mind, here are just six ways that our Oxbridge applications tutors at William Clarence can support with the application process and help you to get that dream placement...
Oxbridge applications tutors can support you with:
1. Their own experience as Oxbridge graduates
Oxbridge admissions consultants, including those at William Clarence, have themselves been through the application procedures – successfully, obviously!
Applications to Oxbridge are a little different to other university applications, and you will need to present yourself in a different light in order to stand a chance of success. An Oxbridge tutor who knows the ins and outs of the university in question is best placed to advise you.
2. Crafting a stand-out personal statement
With so many thousands of top-notch candidates, you will need much more than just straight A* grades in order to grab attention at Oxbridge. Your personal statement is of key importance, and it must showcase your subject knowledge and enthusiasm above all else.
There is much less emphasis with Oxbridge applications on your hobbies and volunteer work, and much more on your subject understanding and your desire to learn.
An Oxbridge counsellor can help you to present your knowledge and your reasons for applying in the best possible light, and can advise you on which books, articles and journals to read in order to broaden your subject mastery.
3. Selecting written work for submission
Both Oxford and Cambridge require many applicants to submit samples of completed, marked written work or essays – but they are not necessarily looking for your highest marked or “best” work.
The essay may well be used as a jumping-off point for your interview, so it’s best to select an essay which has inspired you, or about which you have much more to say – again, an experienced application tutor can advise you on this.
4. Facing the interview with confidence
Oxbridge interviews are notoriously tricky – you must be able to display mastery of your subject to date, and the analytical and intellectual skills required to go further with it. Add in genuine enthusiasm, good debating skills and the ability to think fast on the spot.
An Oxbridge applications tutor will be able to offer you plenty of interview practice and will coach you in presenting yourself well; you’ll also get plenty of experience of having your views and opinions challenged, and having to think on your feet.
Oxford and Cambridge universities both use tutorial systems to teach, where you will work in small groups directly with your tutor, and you will be expected to defend your work, challenge others and constantly test your own knowledge.
Oxbridge interviews are designed, in part, to see whether you respond well to this kind of teaching, so it’s vital that you are fully engaged in the interview process – again, this is something which plenty of practice with your Oxbridge application tutor can prepare you for.
5. Preparing for Oxbridge entrance tests
Many subjects at both Oxford and Cambridge require candidates to sit an entrance test, which is designed to test your academic potential.
Working with a tutor to familiarise yourself with these kinds of tests is an essential way of ensuring that there are no nasty surprises for you on the day. Oxbridge tutors can also help with logical thinking, language clarity and other high-level skills which will prove invaluable to you in these tests.
6. Choosing the right college and course for you
Last but by no means least, an Oxbridge graduate tutor or Oxbridge counsellor can advise you on your choice of course, and of college. Your course choice is absolutely crucial because if you don’t choose a course you are genuinely passionate about, you will not make it through the selection process.
Your college choice doesn’t particularly matter during the application process; interviewers are forbidden from asking you why you have made that choice, as this would disadvantage open candidates.
If your application is successful, however, you’ll want to be sure that you’ve chosen the college which will best suit your expectations of Oxbridge, and from where you can most happily begin your life as an Oxbridge undergraduate.
An Oxbridge applications tutor cannot guarantee that you will be accepted by your chosen university, of course.
However, they do bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the table, which can only help to present yourself in the best possible light and maximise your chances of winning a place.
William Clarence Education is the leading Oxbridge applications consultancy service in the UK.
With an unrivalled reach into the UK Schooling and University network, we help and advise families from around the world to reach their maximum potential and gain access to the very best of British education.
William Clarence’s Oxbridge admissions consultants put the student’s needs and welfare at the centre of every programme of study we deliver, with a focus on integrity and discretion. As a result, 85% of our Oxbridge candidates are invited to interview!
For more information on our Oxbridge applications services, contact our experts for an initial consultation today.
