Oxford Acceptance Rates by College

A common question we receive from students is, 'Which Oxford college is the easiest to get into?' Colleges 'pull' students at interview stage in order to ensure an equal number of interview candidates per place at each college, and if, after interviewing their candidates, a college feels like they interviewed a surplus or deficit of capable candidates, they will send candidates to or request candidates from other colleges for a further round of interviews, in order to ensure each Oxford college is equally difficult to get into. As such, the short answer to our opening question is 'none of them.'

Consequently, we recommend that students take the time to learn about each Oxford college, and apply to the one that most appeals to them, accepting the fact that they may end up at a different college instead if they apply to a more popular college.

However, it can be worth knowing which the more popular colleges are. For one thing, it informs you of your likelihood of being pulled to a different college, and also, it could be argued that the most popular colleges attract a higher calibre of student, and so, even if you are up against the same number of candidates per place, the standard is higher, making it harder to gain an offer.

For this reason, we have analysed statistics from 2022-2024 to bring you the breakdown: how many applications does each college receive, and how many offers do they give out?

Number of applications and offers with offer rates by Oxford college, 2022-2024

College	Applications	Offers	Offer Rate
Balliol College	1965	299	15.2%
Brasenose College	2148	319	14.9%
Christ Church	1885	369	19.6%
Corpus Christi College	764	181	23.7%
Exeter College	1267	271	21.4%
Hertford College	1597	304	19.0%
Jesus College	1474	290	19.7%
Keble College	2360	331	14.0%
Lady Margaret Hall	1137	282	24.8%
Lincoln College	1286	255	19.8%
Magdalen College	2503	291	11.6%
Mansfield College	811	205	25.3%
Merton College	1253	244	19.5%
New College	2036	353	17.3%
Oriel College	941	223	23.7%
Pembroke College	1346	293	21.8%
Somerville College	1249	313	25.1%
St Anne's College	1146	315	27.5%
St Catherine's College	1596	369	23.1%
St Edmund Hall	1113	280	25.2%
St Hilda's College	1074	317	29.5%
St Hugh's College	1146	307	26.8%
St John's College	2074	321	15.5%
St Peter's College	1012	281	27.8%
The Queen's College	1153	242	21.0%
Trinity College	1283	227	17.7%
University College	1291	291	22.5%
Wadham College	1484	333	22.4%
Worcester College	2623	336	12.8%

It is striking that some colleges have offers rate of less than half those of other colleges. Magdalen (11.6%), Worcester (12.8%), Keble (14.0%), and Brasenose (14.9%) are the most competitive, while St Hilda's (29.5%), St Peter's (27.8%), St Anne's (27.5%), and St Hugh's (26.8%) are the least competitive.

Now, before you send off your application to St Hilda's, it is worth remembering that this reflects the offer rate for applications to the college, but many applicants to the more popular colleges will have been pulled to these other colleges, meaning that they will have sent out offers to students who did not apply to them, thus pushing up the offer rate. Furthermore, each college has a different makeup of courses, with varying levels of competitiveness. Therefore, a college may be more competitive than other college simply due to it making more offers for competitive courses, and so if you're applying for the same course at each then it makes no difference.

And so, as observed at the beginning, while it may be useful to know how competitive each college is, the main factor in deciding which college to apply to should simply be the one that appeals to you the most.