The University of Oxford is one of the most prestigious universities in the world. With 20,000+ applicants each year competing for a very limit number of places, we know that the average chance of getting a place is very low compared to other universities.Â
This information is measured through rates for offers and acceptances, something we like to call success rates. These rates give us an amazing insight into which courses at Oxford are the easiest and most difficult to get into, as well as understanding how many applicants got their place in general.
In this guide, we’ll be exploring Oxford’s Admissions Statistics report to understand the acceptance rates of every undergraduate course taught there. Let’s get started!
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University of Oxford Acceptances Rates - overall
For those who don’t know, a university’s “acceptance rate” is the percentage of applicants who are admitted to study at said university in a given year. This is calculated as:Â
Number of admitted applicants/Total number of applicants
While acceptance rates are important, it’s also important to consider a university’s offer rate, being the percentage of applicants who receive an offer. This figure will always be a bit higher, as applicants who receive an offer may not actually attend the university if they reject their offer or do not meet the required grades.Â
When it comes to Oxbridge applications (Oxford & Cambridge), many find the offer rates more important as actually getting your offer is usually the hardest part of the application. As you’ll see in the data below, most applicants who receive their offer will end up getting their place.Â
With that in mind, let’s first take a look at the overall acceptance rates at Oxford for the past few years:Â
Oxford Acceptance Rates (2019 - 2023)
2023
Applicants: 23,211
Offers: 3,721
Acceptances: 3,219
Offer Rate: 16.0%
Acceptance Rate: 13.9%
2022
Applicants: 23,819
Offers: 3,645
Acceptances: 3,271
Offer Rate: 15.3%
Acceptance Rate: 13.7%
2021
Applicants: 24,819
Offers: 3,645
Acceptances:Â 3,271
Offer Rate: 14.7%
Acceptance Rate: 13.2%
2020
Applicants: 23,414
Offers: 3,932
Acceptances: 3,695
Offer Rate: 16.8%
Acceptance Rate: 15.8%
2019
Applicants: 23,026
Offers: 3,895
Acceptances: 3,286
Offer Rate: 16.9%
Acceptance Rate: 14.3%
As we can see, Oxford’s statistics have remained fairly consistent, except for the notable drop in offers and acceptances in 2021 (likely influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic). However, acceptance and offer rates have remained within the 13% – 16% range during this time.
What Are Cambridge's Acceptance Rates?
Compared to Oxford, the University of Cambridge usually has a higher offer and acceptance rate in general as the tend to admit more students. This means that Cambridge is slightly less competitive. Here are the statistics for the 2023 Entry admissions cycle:Â
2023
Applicants: 21,445
Offers: 4,553
Acceptances: 3,557
Offer Rate: 21.2%
Acceptance Rate: 16.6%
The acceptance rate at Cambridge was roughly 3% higher in 2023. However, Cambridge’s success rates have been more inconsistent than Oxford’s, as they reported offer rates of over 23% in both 2019 and 2020. This may partly be due to a sharper increase in applicants during the COVID-19 pandemic.Â
You can see all of the important statistics for Cambridge in our Cambridge Acceptance Rates Guide. We’ve also covered the success rates at Imperial College London in our Imperial Acceptance Rates Guide.Â
These statistics cover all admissions at Oxford, so they don’t necessarily represent your chances of success on your specific course. Acceptance rates tend to be very different across different degrees, so let’s review the 5 courses at Oxford with the most applicants.
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Oxford Admissions Statistics - Top Five Subjects
There are the five most popular courses taught by Oxford ranked by the number of applicants (based on 2023 Entry admissions). How difficult are they to get into? Let’s find out:Â
Oxford PPE Acceptance Rate
PPE stands for Philosophy, Politics & Economics and is one of Oxford’s most iconic courses due to the amount of famous alumni it produced. It’s not a surprise that was the most applied for Oxford degree in 2023, but with this level of notoriety, one would expect PPE to be highly competitive, so let’s see:
2023
Applicants: 1,864
Offers: 265
Acceptances: 229
Offer Rate:Â 14.2%
Acceptance Rate: 12.3%
Seeing as the course had nearly 1,900 applicants, the offer and acceptance rates are fairly low, although nowhere near the lowest that we will see at Oxford.Â
Oxford Law Acceptance Rate
Law is another of the most popular courses in the UK, generally seeing more applicants than Medicine overall. However, at Oxford, it’s in second place, but is it more competitive?
2023
Applicants: 1,858
Offers: 219
Acceptances: 192
Offer Rate: 11.8%
Acceptance Rate: 10.3%
Once again, these success rates are fairly average for an Oxford course. These rates are also significantly lower than Cambridge Law, which boasts a 17.7% offer rate and 14.6% acceptance rate from a cohort of 230 students, slightly bigger than Oxford’s.
Oxford Mathematics Acceptance Rate
Another popular course in the UK, Mathematics at Oxford very in-demand. How do the success rates look?
2023
Applicants: 1,807
Offers: 193
Acceptances: 179
Offer Rate: 10.7%
Acceptance Rate: 9.9%
As we can see, Mathematics has the lowest success rates yet, with an acceptance rate of just under 10%. Mathematics courses are generally quite competitive, although the success rates for Cambridge Maths are much higher, with an offer rate of 33% and an acceptance rate of 16.2%.
Oxford Medicine Acceptance Rate
With Medicine being one of the most popular courses across the UK, it’s not surprising to see it in among top five at Oxford, but how competitive was it?
2023
Applicants: 1,712
Offers: 162
Acceptances: 149
Offer Rate: 9.5%
Acceptance Rate: 8.7%
With how competitive medicine is across the whole country, it’s no surprise to see success rates this low. Interestingly, these rates are over 5% lower than the success rates for Cambridge medicine in the same year, mostly due to the fact that Oxford has a much smaller first year cohort of 162 students versus Cambridge’s 231.Â
Oxford Economics & Management Acceptance Rate
Economics is another of the most popular courses in the UK, and Oxford’s take has a unique spin, being both an Economics and Management course. How difficult is it to get onto this course?Â
2023
Applicants: 1,542
Offers: 91
Acceptances: 83
Offer Rate:Â 5.9%
Acceptance Rate: 5.4%
Economics & Management is one of the most competitive courses at Oxford due to its very small cohort size of under 100 students. This is unusual for a major course like this, but it goes to show that your application is going to have to really stand out to be a part of the those 5% of successful applicants.Â
All of these courses are pretty competitive, meaning applicants need to work hard to stand out from the 1,000+ other prospective students in a given year. But what about the other courses Oxford offers? Some of these have far fewer applicants, so are they less competitive? Let’s take a look!
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Oxford Acceptances Rates 2023 - A-Z
There are over 40 more courses to cover, so let’s go through them from A – Z
Oxford Ancient & Modern History Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 98
Offers: 23
Acceptances: 20
Offer Rate: 23.5%
Acceptance Rate: 20.4%
Oxford Archaeology & Anthropology Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 125
Offers: 25
Acceptances: 22
Offer Rate: 20.0%
Acceptance Rate: 17.6%
Although these success rates are fairly high by Oxford standards, Cambridge’s Archaeology course had a 56% offer rate and a 39% acceptance rate, although there were 40 fewer applicants.Â
Oxford Asian & Middle Eastern Studies Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 109
Offers: 46
Acceptances: 35
Offer Rate: 42.2%
Acceptance Rate: 32.1%
Oxford Biochemistry Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 875
Offers: 115
Acceptances: 100
Offer Rate: 13.1%
Acceptance Rate: 11.4%
Oxford Biology Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 742
Offers: 128
Acceptances: 109
Offer Rate: 17.3%
Acceptance Rate: 14.7%
Oxford Biomedical Science Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 490
Offers: 46
Acceptances: 41
Offer Rate: 9.4%
Acceptance Rate: 8.4%
Oxford Chemistry Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 1,015
Offers: 207
Acceptances: 175
Offer Rate: 20.4%
Acceptance Rate: 17.2%
Oxford Classical Archaeology & Ancient History Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 152
Offers: 32
Acceptances: 25
Offer Rate: 21.1%
Acceptance Rate: 16.5%
Oxford Classics Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 313
Offers: 118
Acceptances: 100
Offer Rate: 37.7%
Acceptance Rate: 31.9%
Oxford Classics & English Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 60
Offers: 15
Acceptances: 13
Offer Rate: 25.0%
Acceptance Rate: 21.7%
Oxford Classics & Modern Languages Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 23
Offers: 10
Acceptances: 10
Offer Rate: 43.5%
Acceptance Rate: 43.5%
Classics & Modern Language was one of only two courses at Oxford to see all offer holders accepted. This only tends to happen with courses that have very low application rates, which is certainly the case here.Â
Oxford Computer Science Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 866
Offers: 59
Acceptances: 52
Offer Rate: 6.8%
Acceptance Rate: 6.0%
Computer Science was one of the top five most popular subjects for applicants in 2023 at Cambridge, seeing over 1,500 applications. Despite this, the success rates for the course at each university remain consistently low (although Cambridge’s is slightly higher).Â
Oxford Computer Science & Philosophy Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 129
Offers: 15
Acceptances: 12
Offer Rate: 11.6%
Acceptance Rate: 9.3%
It’s a strange combination on the surface, but applicants for this version of Computer Science were generally more likely to be admitted, although the actual number of offers and acceptances were very low.
Oxford Earth Sciences Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 163
Offers: 42
Acceptances: 34
Offer Rate: 25.7%
Acceptance Rate: 20.1%
Oxford Engineering Science Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 1,031
Offers: 196
Acceptances: 163
Offer Rate: 19.0%
Acceptance Rate: 15.8%
Engineering was Cambridge’s second most popular course in 2023 and had a lower acceptance rate of 13.8%. Although Oxford’s Engineering Sciences degree isn’t quite as revered, it’s still a great option if you’re not as confident in your application.
Oxford English Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 975
Offers: 249
Acceptances: 212
Offer Rate: 25.5%
Acceptance Rate: 21.7%
Oxford’s English Literature & Language course is a bit more in-demand than Cambridge’s offering, which only received 756 applicants in 2023 and only admitted 187.
Oxford English & Modern Languages Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 91
Offers: 37
Acceptances: 35
Offer Rate: 40.7%
Acceptance Rate: 38.5%
Oxford’s English & Modern Languages course saw a large increase in its success rates in 2023, with 2022 having only a 25% offer rate and 23% acceptance rate.
Oxford European & Middle Eastern Languages Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 40
Offers: 15
Acceptances: 13
Offer Rate: 37.5%
Acceptance Rate: 32.5%
Oxford Experimental Psychology Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 379
Offers: 56
Acceptances: 43
Offer Rate: 14.8%
Acceptance Rate: 11.3%
Oxford Fine Art Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 255
Offers: 31
Acceptances: 28
Offer Rate: 12.2%
Acceptance Rate: 11.0%
Oxford Geography Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 339
Offers: 90
Acceptances: 70
Offer Rate: 26.5%
Acceptance Rate: 20.6%
Oxford History Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 958
Offers: 254
Acceptances: 214
Offer Rate: 26.5%
Acceptance Rate: 22.3%
Although the success rates are around 5% lower, Oxford accepted roughly 50 more applicants for standard History than Cambridge in this application cycle.
Oxford History & Economics Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 158
Offers: 19
Acceptances: 18
Offer Rate: 12.0%
Acceptance Rate: 11.4%
Oxford’s History & Economics course was around 15% more competitive than the standard course despite having just over 16% of the of the applicants. It’s the most competitive variant of History that Oxford offers (in terms of acceptances).Â
Oxford History & English Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 104
Offers: 13
Acceptances: 12
Offer Rate: 12.5%
Acceptance Rate: 11.5%
Oxford History & Modern Languages Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 72
Offers: 19
Acceptances: 18
Offer Rate: 26.4%
Acceptance Rate: 25.0%
Oxford History & Politics Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 381
Offers: 54
Acceptances: 48
Offer Rate: 14.2%
Acceptance Rate: 12.6%
Oxford History Of Art Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 107
Offers: 16
Acceptances: 14
Offer Rate: 15.0%
Acceptance Rate: 13.1%
Oxford Human Sciences Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 193
Offers: 32
Acceptances: 26
Offer Rate: 16.6%
Acceptance Rate: 13.5%
Oxford Law/LSE Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 341
Offers: 28
Acceptances: 26
Offer Rate: 8.2%
Acceptance Rate: 7.6%
Law with LSE (meaning Law Studies in Europe) is slightly more competitive than the standard course and is taught to a much smaller cohort.
Oxford Material Science Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 148
Offers: 48
Acceptances: 44
Offer Rate: 32.4%
Acceptance Rate: 29.7%
Oxford Mathematics & Computer Science Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 593
Offers: 65
Acceptances: 51
Offer Rate: 11.0%
Acceptance Rate: 8.6%
Oxford Mathematics & Philosophy Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 163
Offers: 20
Acceptances: 19
Offer Rate: 12.3%
Acceptance Rate: 11.7%
Oxford Mathematics & Statistics Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 142
Offers: 5
Acceptances: 3
Offer Rate: 3.5%
Acceptance Rate: 2.1%
Oxford Modern Languages Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 309
Offers: 171
Acceptances: 145
Offer Rate: 55.3%
Acceptance Rate: 46.9%
Oxford Modern Languages & Linguistics Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 91
Offers: 41
Acceptances: 39
Offer Rate: 45.1%
Acceptance Rate: 42.9%
Oxford Music Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 169
Offers: 91
Acceptances: 81
Offer Rate: 53.8%
Acceptance Rate: 47.9%
Oxford Philosophy & Modern Languages Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 56
Offers: 24
Acceptances: 21
Offer Rate: 42.9%
Acceptance Rate: 37.5%
Oxford Philosophy & Theology Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 146
Offers: 28
Acceptances: 25
Offer Rate: 19.2%
Acceptance Rate: 16.9%
Oxford Physics Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 1,494
Offers: 190
Acceptances: 174
Offer Rate: 12.7%
Acceptance Rate: 11.6%
Although missing out on the top 5 most applied for courses by around 50 applicants, Physics is by far the most popular of the core sciences, with 400 more applicants than Chemistry
Oxford Physics & Philosophy Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 139
Offers: 15
Acceptances: 12
Offer Rate: 10.8%
Acceptance Rate: 8.6%
With roughly 9% of the applicants and 6% of the available places of Physics, this variant has slightly lower success rates.
Oxford PPL Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 275
Offers: 48
Acceptances: 38
Offer Rate: 17.5%
Acceptance Rate: 13.8%
PPL stands for Psychology, Philosophy & Linguistics and had fairly average success rates in 2023 despite the small cohort.Â
Oxford RAMES Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 3
Offers: 1
Acceptances: 1
Offer Rate: 33.3%
Acceptance Rate: 33.3%
RAMES stands for Religion & Asian & Middle Eastern Studies and was by far the least popular course at Oxford in 2023. With just 1 accepted student out of 3 applicants, it has a fairly average acceptance rate. In 2022, the course received 8 applications and admitted 1 student, meaning the chances of success in 2023 were much higher. Despite these admissions statistics, the course continues to be open for applications.Â
Oxford Theology & Religion Acceptance Rate
Applicants: 116
Offers: 54
Acceptances: 46
Offer Rate: 46.6%
Acceptance Rate: 39.7%
That’s the acceptance rate for every undergraduate course at Oxbridge. We’ve also covered the undergraduate acceptance rates from each Oxford college, so discover the stats here. However, now it’s time to unpack this information and see what we can learn.Â
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Oxford Admissions Statistics - What Can We Learn?
Before we continue, it’s important to note that all of this data and more can be found in the Oxford Admissions Statistical Report for 2023 admissions, as well the corresponding public Tableau page. If you want to explore all the data further, be sure to check out these documents.Â
With that in mind, let’s look at some of the most important and interesting details we can learn from the Oxford Admissions Statistics.
Oxford's Most Competitive & Least Competitive Courses
If you’re undecided about what you want to study, you may be keen to learn which courses are the easiest and hardest to get into. Bear in mind that no course at Oxford is “easy” to get into, but some certainly are less competitive due to fewer applicants or more places.
You should apply to the subject that you’re most interested in, but having a better understanding of these things may still influence your decision somewhat, so let’s take a look:
Hardest Oxford Courses To Get Into
Firstly, let’s look at the courses with lowest offer and acceptance rates:
Lowest Offer Rates At Oxford 2023
| Course | Applicants | Offers | Offer Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematics & Statistics | 142 | 5 | 3.5% |
| Economics & Management | 1,542 | 91 | 5.9% |
| Computer Science | 866 | 59 | 6.8% |
| Law/LSE | 180 | 13 | 8.2% |
| Biomedical Sciences | 490 | 46 | 9.4% |
Lowest Acceptance Rates At Oxford 2023
| Course | Applicants | Acceptances | Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematics & Statistics | 142 | 3 | 2.1% |
| Economics & Management | 1,542 | 83 | 5.4% |
| Computer Science | 866 | 52 | 6.0% |
| Law/LSE | 341 | 26 | 7.6% |
| Biomedical Sciences | 490 | 41 | 8.4% |
This data shows that Mathematics & Statistics is the most competitive course at Oxford, with a staggeringly low 3.5% offer rate and 2.1% acceptance rate – the lowest of any Oxbridge course in 2023. However, this is partly due to it it being a more niche course combination with fewer places.
The same cannot be said for some of the other courses on this list, including very popular courses like Biomedical Sciences, Computer Science and – the second most competitive course at Oxford – Economics & Management. Being one of the most applied for Oxford courses, E&M’s success rates are held back by the very limited number of places available on the course. The LSE variant of Oxford’s Law degree is also a notable addition to these lists.
Easiest Oxford Courses To Get Into
On the opposite end, let’s look at the courses with the highest offer and acceptance rates:
Highest Offer Rates At Oxford 2023
| Course | Applicants | Offers | Offer Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modern Languages | 309 | 171 | 55.3% |
| Music | 169 | 91 | 53.8% |
| Theology and Religion | 116 | 54 | 46.6% |
| Modern Languages & Linguistics | 91 | 41 | 45.1% |
| Classics & Modern Languages | 23 | 10 | 43.5% |
Highest Acceptance Rates At Oxford 2023
| Course | Applicants | Acceptances | Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Music | 169 | 81 | 47.9% |
| Modern Languages | 309 | 171 | 46.9% |
| Classics & Modern Languages | 23 | 10 | 43.5% |
| Modern Languages & Linguistics | 91 | 39 | 42.9% |
| Theology & Religion | 116 | 54 | 39.6% |
Typically, courses with higher success rates are more niche with fewer applicants. This is certainly true here, with none of the entries hitting more than 350 applicants.Â
Modern Languages and Music top the lists here with the highest offer and acceptance rates seen at Oxford in 2023. Modern Languages also had the highest success rates of any course at Cambridge this year (known as Medieval and Modern Languages there).Â
 Other than that, the rest of the entries here are consistent between the two lists, other than some slight placement changes. It’s worth noting that there aren’t any STEM subjects featured here, showing that those degrees are generally more competitive (the easiest STEM course at Oxford was Material Science with a 30% acceptance rate.Â
This information is incredibly useful for those planning on applying to any of these subjects, but let’s look at a few more general data points to see what we can learn about how Oxford tackles their admissions process.
Oxford Admissions Statistics: State Vs Private School
One major talking point surrounding Oxbridge admissions has been the differences between admissions of students from State/Maintained Schools and Private/Independent Schools, as well as the proportionality compared to student numbers in the UK. Previously there were complaints about how many applicants from state schools were being admitted, but it’s now standard to see a much higher percentage of state school applicants being admitted over private school.
Oxford State School Application Statistics 2023
Applicants: 10,150
% of Total Applicants:Â 72.8%
Offers: 1,935
% of Total Offers:Â 69.3%
Acceptances: 1,662
% of Total Acceptances: 67.6%
Acceptance Rate:Â 16.4%
Oxford Private School Application Statistics 2023
Applicants: 3,797
% of Total Applicants: 27.2%
Offers: 858
% of Total Offers:Â 30.7%
Acceptances: 796
% of Total Acceptances: 30.4%
Acceptance Rate:Â 21.0%
This data only covers home applicants and excludes 4.9% of applicants from other backgrounds. From the data, we can see that state school applicants outnumber private schools in each metric. This is to be expected since state school applicants far outnumber private schools in the UK, but it is also worth noting that private school applicants had a nearly 5% higher acceptance rate overall.Â
There are a number of reasons as to why this may be the case, but at least we can we can dispel the myth that “No one at Oxbridge is from State Schools”.Â
Oxford Application Statistics: International Applications
Although there’s a financial incentive for universities to admit more international applications, overseas applicants are generally in for a rougher time when applying to Oxbridge. This could be for a number of reasons, but it seems that both universities generally have a preference to admit those living in the UK.Â
Below are the overall figures for UK, EU and Non-EU applicants in 2023:
Oxford UK Applications 2023
Applicants: 14,636
% of Total Applicants:Â 63.1%
Offers: 2,905
% of Total Offers:Â 78.1%
Acceptances: 2,560
% of Total Acceptances: 79.5%
Acceptance Rate:Â 17.5%
Oxford EU Applications 2023
Applicants: 1,572
% of Total Applicants: 6.8%
Offers: 150
% of Total Offers:Â 4.0%
Acceptances: 119
% of Total Acceptances: 3.7%
Acceptance Rate:Â 7.6%
Oxford Non-EU Applications 2023
Applicants: 7,003
% of Total Applicants: 30.2%
Offers: 666
% of Total Offers:Â 17.9%
Acceptances: 540
% of Total Acceptances: 16.8%
Acceptance Rate:Â 7.7%
Here, we can see that UK applicants made up the vast majority of applications offers and acceptances. When combining all international applicants, they made up 36.9% of applicants, 21.9% of offer holders and 20.5% of accepted students, just over 1/5.Â
We can see this disparity most in the difference in acceptance rates, with UK applicants having an acceptance rate of 15.6% and non-UK applicants having roughly 7.6%. We’ve already explored which colleges at Oxford had the highest and lowest success rates, with that data lining up well with this figure. While Oxford accepts applicants from most countries in the world, there are a few that stand out on top in terms of applicants and admissions:Â
Top 10 Countries For International Oxford Admissions (2021 - 2023) - Applications
| Country | Applications (2021-2023) |
|---|---|
| China | 6,691 |
| USA | 2,774 |
| India | 1,883 |
| Singapore | 1,744 |
| Hong Kong | 1,342 |
| Canada | 867 |
| Germany | 832 |
| Malaysia | 752 |
| France | 618 |
| Spain | 599 |
Top 10 Countries for International Oxford Admissions (2021 - 2023) - Admitted Students
| Country | Admitted Students (2021-2023) | Acceptance Rate (2021 – 2023) |
|---|---|---|
| China | 538 | 8.0% |
| Singapore | 247 | 14.2% |
| USA | 164 | 5.9% |
| Hong Kong | 141 | 10.5% |
| India | 74 | 3.9% |
| Australia | 54 | NA (Data Unavailable) |
| France | 51 | 8.3% |
| Canada | 50 | 5.8% |
| Germany | 45 | 5.4% |
| South Korea | 38 | NA (Data Unavailable) |
As you can see, over this 3-year period, the countries with the most applicants and admitted students are roughly the same, with a few outliers.Â
The countries at the top are all ones that you would expect to see bringing in lots of applications, including China and the United States of America, although Singapore is also a major contributor to Oxbridge applications (Singapore applicants had the best success rate for both Oxford and Cambridge applicants, according to the data available).Â
One thing that remains consistent between Oxford and Cambridge international applications is that these larger countries that bring in the most applications usually have very low success rates, as the number of admitted students doesn’t tend to be proportional to how many apply. This goes to show just how competitive international Oxford applications can be.Â
The country with the lowest success rate on this list was India, with just 3.9% of its 1,883 applicants being admitted. While applicants from India should still apply to Oxford if you are certain that you want to study there, it’s important to consider these success rates so that you can work to make your application truly stand out or seek support from an external source.Â
Now that you have a better sense of the success rates at Oxford, you should use this data to help you in the application process. While it may be helpful to consider when choosing your course, it’s always a better idea to choose the course that you’re more interested in as having a genuine desire to study will elevate your application, especially during the interviews.
No matter how high or low the acceptance rate is on your chosen course, it’s still important that you put as much effort as you can into your application, as it’s still highly competitive to get into any Oxford or Cambridge course. Even in the least competitive courses at Oxbridge, you have a less than 50% chance to be admitted, so your application needs to be up to the Oxbridge standard either way.Â
If you want to learn more about the Oxford admissions process, be sure to explore our huge selection of guides that cover everything from college selection to interviews. If you want to go even further, explore our Oxbridge Programmes to learn how you can enrol and receive the most comprehensive and effective Oxbridge application support around. We’ve achieved a 57% success rate, meaning we can more than triple your chances of success. Either way, we wish you the best of luck with your Oxford application!
Less than 16% of Oxford applicants were offered a place, but we got 57% of our students into Oxbridge.
If you want the best chance of getting into Oxford, enrol on an Oxbridge Programme to receive industry-leading support for your application. Each of our students have access to comprehensive resources, one-to-one tuition sessions, intensive courses and much more, all designed to give them the best possible chance of success.Â
Discover our Oxbridge Programme by clicking the button below to learn how you can enrol and triple your chances of success.
