
Feeling brave? These are officially the hardest courses to get into Oxbridge for
May the odds be ever in your favour x
Now, you could pick which subject to study at university based on career prospects, or academic curiosity, or passion for the topic. Alternatively, you could just pour over Oxbridge admission statistics and pick whatever is easiest to get in for. If so, we’ve got you covered. Has anyone developed a sudden passion for Classics?
Here’s a list of the 40 hardest subjects to get into Oxbridge for. If you choose one of these and don’t make it past the dreaded interview stage, you’ve only got yourself to blame x
There’s a massive difference between how likely you are to get into Oxbridge for different courses. You are 16 times more likely to get in for the easiest subject, modern languages at Oxford, than you are for the hardest subject, Mathematics and statistics at Oxford. Really.
STEM courses are generally harder to get into Oxbridge for than the humanities subjects are. Nine out of the 10 hardest Oxbridge courses are STEM subjects, and the other one is Law (which most humanities girlies take offence at being called an arts subject). Presumably, this is because most Oxbridge hopefuls are clever enough to know that humanities degrees are fairly useless, so they don’t bother applying for them.
These stats come from Oxford and Cambridge’s websites, and refer to the current freshers.
So, here are the 40 hardest courses to be let into Oxbridge for in 2024, ranked by the percentage of applicants who get in:
40. Archaeology and anthropology, Oxford – 20.0 per cent
39. History and politics, Cambridge – 19.6 per cent
38. Philosophy and theology, Oxford – 19.2 per cent
37. Engineering science, Oxford – 19.0 per cent
36. Geography, Cambridge – 18.9 per cent
35. Chemical engineering and biotechnology, Cambridge – 18.0 per cent
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34. Education, Cambridge – 17.9 per cent
33. Psychology, philosophy and linguistics, Oxford – 17.5 per cent
32. Biology, Oxford – 17.3 per cent
31. Human sciences, Oxford – 16.6 per cent
30. Philosophy, Cambridge – 16.3 per cent

Getting into Oxbridge is almost as hard as punting
29. Mathematics, Cambridge – 16.2 per cent
28. Medicine, Cambridge – 15.6 per cent
27. History of art, Oxford – 15.0 per cent
26. Experimental psychology, Oxford – 14.8 per cent
25. Law, Cambridge – 14.6 per cent
=23. Philosophy, politics and economics, Oxford – 14.2 per cent
=23. History and politics, Oxford – 14.2 per cent
22. Engineering, Cambridge – 13.8 per cent
21. Biochemistry, Oxford – 13.1 per cent
20. Physics, Oxford – 12.7 per cent
19. History and English, Oxford – 12.5 per cent
18. Mathematics and philosophy, Oxford – 12.3 per cent
17. Fine art, Oxford – 12.2 per cent
16. English, Oxford – 12.1 per cent
15. History and economics, Oxford – 12.0 per cent

At least Oxford looks nice once you’ve got there
(Credit: Francesca Gunner)
14. Law, Oxford – 11.8 per cent
13. Human, social and political sciences (HSPS), Cambridge – 11.6 per cent
12. Architecture, Cambridge – 11.5 per cent
11. Land economy, Cambridge – 11.3 per cent
10. Mathematics and computer science, Oxford – 11.0 per cent
9. Medicine, Oxford – 9.5 per cent
8. Biomedical sciences, Oxford – 9.4 per cent
7. Psychological and behavioural sciences, Cambridge – 9.1 per cent
6. Law Studies in Europe, Oxford – 8.2 per cent
5. Computer science, Cambridge – 7.6 per cent
4. Medicine graduate course, Cambridge – 7.3 per cent
3. Computer science, Oxford – 6.8 per cent
2. Economics and management, Oxford – 5.9 per cent
1. Mathematics and statistics, Oxford – 3.5 per cent