AN Oxford internet sensation has hit half a million views on her blog - completing a remarkable journey from pre-teen Oxford University wannabe to admissions process guru.

Tilly Rose, 26, set her sights on going to Oxford aged just 10 and now finds herself at the heart of a worldwide brand helping others reach the institution.

Miss Rose’s ‘That Oxford Girl’ blog has now amassed more than 507,000 hits since it began in September 2016.

Oxford Mail:

Since then, the Jesus College alumna has published a book of the same name, and accrued more than 31,000 Instagram followers - averaging 150,000 impressions a week.

The first of her family to go to University, the English Literature and Language graduate overcame a series of serious health problems to complete her studies, but is now focussing on her brand - which also boasts 70 student ambassadors, some of whom were accepted to Oxford after reading the blog.

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Miss Rose explained: “Aged 10, I came on a little day out to Oxford with my parents and we stumbled across a sign on Broad Street, outside Balliol College, that said ‘the public can look around’... (after going in) I turned around to Mum and Dad and said ‘I’m going here’.

“I was totally in awe of the place, but no one in my family had ever been to university, I was at a state school and I was told not to bother applying to university because I was too ill to go.”

Now a London-based access activist, she is in Oxford every week and focussing on the brand full time.

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Its success comes against a backdrop of heavy criticism for Oxford, which has been widely denounced for not admitting enough students from diverse backgrounds.

She added: “When I started, I’d been completely shocked by the disparity in help that young people received (in) the application process.”

Oxford Mail:

Though getting a place was ‘an absolute dream come true’, that disparity drove her to start the non-profit blog. The free ‘powerful access resource’s popularity was 'unexpected' - but now her dream is to make the brand ‘completely self sustaining’, while keeping a fun tone and student perspective.

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Miss Rose has also recently been given a place of the ‘pre-accelerator women’s programme with Oxford Foundry, which aims to support and empower entrepreneurs.

For a full profile of Miss Rose, see next week’s Oxford Times.