Will my grade be okay for Cambridge?

What is the minimum grade you were required to have in order to pursue a PhD at Oxford or Cambridge?

• Answer:

  First class honours in your undergraduate degree should be sufficient (roughly top 15% of your year for American systems), also you might want to get industrial sponsorship depending on your area. You can probably get an offer with a 2.1 if you shop around. Be a bit careful though - often the finances of the department are such that it benefits the department to take you on as a PhD irrespective of how capable you are, or whether you will actually graduate. They might make you an offer because it suits them to do so from an economic perspective regardless of whether it is right for you. I've seen weak students at Oxbridge get "thrown away" or shunted onto Masters degrees that they didn't actually apply for, or just take many years to graduate, after the department had enriched itself from the labour of the students and fulfilled their end of a contract with a funding organisation. The department wins financially whether you succeed or fail, whilst you are assuming most of the risk. Know what you're getting yourself into and whether it's actually a sensible option. The prime time to apply is in October of the year before you graduate. Oxbridge run three "fields" of applications, roughly one a term. If you're applying now for a start this coming October you're already potentially flagging yourself as a weaker applicant.