What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Reapplying to Oxbridge?

Advantages of Reapplying

          One of the main benefits of reapplying is that you're almost certain to be a stronger candidate the second time around. This is because you'll have had a year longer than most applicants to research and read around your subject, refine your personal statement, and practice for the interviews. This isn't even to mention the fact that you've already gained experience in most, if not all, aspects of the application, meaning you are likely to be less nervous than first-time applicants.

          Additionally, if you are reapplying having completed your final year of school, then you will need to have gained the requisite grades already (otherwise, if we're being honest, there is no real point in making a reapplication). This means that you will be completely free to focus wholeheartedly on building your application and gaining useful skills, knowledge, and experience, rather than juggling your application with studying for your A-level or equivalent exams. 

          In our experience, we’ve found that reapplicants are generally more dedicated and better prepared than the average first-time applicant, giving them a solid leg-up when it comes to the application process. Don't just take our experience as evidence though: the statistics agree with us. Of course there is variation between courses, but in general reapplicants are more likely to receive an offer than first-time applicants; the average across courses at Cambridge, for example, is an uplift in offer rate (i.e. the chances of getting an offer) of about 10%. For Oxford reapplicants in 2021, for example, 18 out of 46 courses saw an offer rate above 30%, with the overall reapplication offer rate of 26.8% being vastly higher than the average offer rate across all applicants of 14.6%.

          In short, reapplying can increase your chances of success through the experience you have gained the first time around, provided that you use the extra time you have gained to improve your knowledge, stay in touch with the world of academia, and build on your application from the year before. Reapplication is not for everyone, and most candidates who don’t receive an offer from Oxford or Cambridge would be very happy at another university. It is, however, a path hundreds of students choose every year, and one we have guided many on. Without an academic schedule being provided by schooling, it’s essential to be thinking about and developing your reapplication in the right way, to make sure being a year older and more experienced becomes an advantage to your candidacy.