Applying to Oxbridge is not similar to applying to other universities in the UK for a number of reasons. These reasons have been discussed at various phases below:

Phase One: Making Your First Decisions

You might have a thousand dreams about doing your dream course in the college of your liking. But this alone won’t help you get through. Application to Oxbridge needs a little bit of additional effort when compared to the other universities in the UK. In the first place, you need to perform a meticulous planning and a perfect mapping of your objectives and destination.

Now that you have started planning, you now need to decide on two factors: the exact course that you would like to apply for and your preferred college where you would like to take up this course. You must be aware of the fact that both the Oxford and the Cambridge universities operate on the collegiate system. Though you still belong to the university, your academic life will be revolving around the college to which you belong.

If you have all this, you can be sure that you are all set to apply to one of the two greatest universities in the world. Remember that you will not be able to apply to both the Oxford and the Cambridge universities in the same year. It is a tough decision to make at this point.

Phase Two: The Form Filling Process

There is a chance that you can afford to forget your birthday, but you should not forget the 15th of October, which apparently happens to be the last date of submission of your application forms.

• UCAS Forms: The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service forms need to be filled up and submitted to the university office by the 15th of October. The UCAS form that you fill up for Oxbridge is pretty similar to those forms that you use to apply to other universities in the UK. However, you may have to fill up an additional column for your college of preference for the Oxbridge UCAS forms. You need to do this because Oxbridge follows a collegiate system whereas most of the other universities in the UK do not.

You also need to check and fill up forms for external tests that you might need to undertake such as the Biomedical Admissions Test [BMAT] or the National Admissions Test for Law [LNAT], in case you decide to take up one of these courses. The application forms for these tests need to be submitted along with your UCAS forms on or before the 15th of October.

• Oxbridge Forms: Both the Oxford and the Cambridge universities have their own set of application forms that you need to fill up. The deadline for filling up of these forms is again the 15th of October. While the Oxford application forms are referred to as the OAF, the Cambridge forms are referred to as the CAF.

The filling up of the CAF is usually considered more tedious and daunting than the OAF. Both the CAF and the OAF will ask for the same information as that which had been asked for in your UCAS form. Both these forms will have additional sections where you can provide more information about yourself. Though not known to many, you can use these sections to state your selling points.

Phase Three: Get Ready For the Interviews

Interviews at Oxbridge are an integral part of the selection process for the various courses. The purpose of these interviews is to adjudge the ability of a student and to test on his intentions of taking up the course seriously. The idea is to give a fair chance to all the applicants.

Your personal statements play a very vital role in these interviews. The personal statements can be used as a basis for all the questions put forward in the interview. At times, the interviewer screens the personal statement during the interview process to see if you own every word in it. Sometimes, personal statements are scrutinised after the interview. Hence, it is essential that your personal statement is your very own and is highly focussed.

Phase Four: The Celebration

If you really deserve to be there, you will receive your offer letters around Christmas. Consider it as Santa’s gift to you. Good luck!