The Oxford UNIQ Summer Schools Thread

Welcome to the University of Oxford forum: where prospective and current students can discuss anything about Oxford.

Announcements Posted on
TSR launches Learn Together! - Our new subscription to help improve your learning 16-05-2013
A note of caution regarding personal information 10-05-2013
The Universities forums need new moderators - nominations please! 06-05-2013
IMPORTANT: You must wait until midnight (morning exams)/4.30AM (afternoon exams) to discuss Edexcel exams and until 1pm/6pm the following day for STEP and IB exams. Please read before posting, including for rules for practical and oral exams. 28-04-2013
Sign in to Reply
  1. LEJ's Avatar
    • New Member
    • Posts: 13
    The Oxford UNIQ Summer Schools Thread


    Was just wondering whether anybody had attended
    one of the week long courses with UNIQ & what they thought? I was thinking of applying for French, and the opening deadline is coming up
    pretty soon, so I just had a few questions like what is the
    app. process like, and is the personal statement they ask for
    like a 'real' personal statement? Thanks (: xx
  2. infernalcradle's Avatar
    • TSR Idol
    • Location: Erm...
    • Posts: 8,024
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    hey,

    I'm also interested in this, albiet for medicine

    any help???
  3. anoif_'s Avatar
    • Benevolent Member
    • Location: Manchester
    • Posts: 893
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    Also hoping to apply for one of these but it'd be Law so would like to know. I know they used to be part of Sutton Trust so maybe change the question to that because UNIQ's only come in this year as Oxford have basically created their own Sutton Trust Summer School
  4. infernalcradle's Avatar
    • TSR Idol
    • Location: Erm...
    • Posts: 8,024
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    /bump
  5. Kuriso's Avatar
    • Peer Of The TSR Realm
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    I thought UNIQ was basically taking over from the sutton trust scheme :holmes: either way I'll probably be applying for the maths one.
  6. Ro91's Avatar
    • Junior Member
    • Location: london
    • Posts: 27
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    What do you think the gcse requirement for the summer school would be for medicine?
  7. LEJ's Avatar
    • New Member
    • Posts: 13
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    ahh I didn't know about the sutton trust thing, thanks! (: The website is pretty useful generally, and it says students who excelled in GCSE so I'm guessing A* in whatever
    you wanted to do? Or at least relevant for law......
  8. Kuriso's Avatar
    • Peer Of The TSR Realm
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    (Original post by Ro91)
    What do you think the gcse requirement for the summer school would be for medicine?
    The 'Selection criteria' section on page 27/28 of http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/uniq/ says "In the past, participants on the medicine course have had a minimum of 5 A*."
  9. Sheriann's Avatar
    • Junior Member
    • Location: Gloucester
    • Posts: 53
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    its says looked after children will be considered as individual circumstances which i am :yes:
    i wanna apply for medicine i got A* RS AAAAAAA(all 3 sciences, maths, IT, History, Art) BBB(french eng lang eng lit) redoing eng lang tho

    shall i even bother applying as thats nowhere near 5A*s
  10. llys's Avatar
    • Overlord in Training
    • Posts: 3,245
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    (Original post by Sheriann)
    its says looked after children will be considered as individual circumstances which i am :yes:
    i wanna apply for medicine i got A* RS AAAAAAA(all 3 sciences, maths, IT, History, Art) BBB(french eng lang eng lit) redoing eng lang tho

    shall i even bother applying as thats nowhere near 5A*s
    Of course you shall bother applying, You can't win if you don't try. A defeatist attitude will never get you ANYWHERE.
    + It doesn't cost you anything (I assume - if there is an application fee you can probably get it waived)
    + will be a useful experience even if all you learn is how to write a personal statement (in case they don't accept you)
  11. kas85's Avatar
    • New Member
    • Posts: 4
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    Hello guys! I work for the UNIQ Summer Schools and am happy to answer some of your questions.

    The Personal Statement is intended to be like a mini-UCAS personal statement, to prepare you for writing a 'real' personal statement. You should write about why you've chosen the summer school course i.e., why you like Physics or Maths, what you've done in school and outside to support this. Also we want to know why you want to come on UNIQ, what you think you'll get out of it etc. There isn't a golden formula - just be yourself.

    The UNIQ summer schools will be replacing the Sutton Trust summer schools at Oxford this year, and will run until 2014, getting bigger every year. This year we'll take 500 students on our courses. We are generally looking for higher GCSE grades than the Sutton Trust asked for, but we will look at your GCSEs in the context of the average GCSE grades gained at your school. So if you have done well, but generally your school hasn't got a high GCSE record, then even if you haven't got many A*s it would be worth applying. Basically, we're looking for people who do better than average in the context of their school, and have an interest in the subject they have applied for.

    Hope this helps. Contact me at uniq@admin.ox.ac.uk if you have questions!
  12. ripple_effect's Avatar
    • New Member
    • Location: Romford
    • Posts: 7
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    So if the performance of my school was fairly average should I apply even if my school isn't a target school? What are the chances of gaining a place?
  13. kas85's Avatar
    • New Member
    • Posts: 4
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    There is always a point in applying. For a start, our application system is managed by UCAS, so it's a sort of 'trial' for a 'proper' UCAS form. Remember that some subjects are far more oversubscribed than others, so you've got less of a chance of getting a place if you're applying for Medicine, English, History, Law or Maths - think outside the box!

    About 1 in 4 students on average who apply will get a place - give it a go, you might be surprised. But keep in mind that if you don't get a place, it won't in any way affect any eventual application to the University of Oxford, because the applications are completely separate.

    Hope this helps!
  14. princezrrr's Avatar
    • Respected Member
    • Posts: 174
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    i got 3A* 7A 1B at gcse is it worth for me to apply for the medicine one
  15. SelfishGiant's Avatar
    • Adored and Respected Member
    • Posts: 490
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    (Original post by kas85)
    Hello guys! I work for the UNIQ Summer Schools and am happy to answer some of your questions.

    The Personal Statement is intended to be like a mini-UCAS personal statement, to prepare you for writing a 'real' personal statement. You should write about why you've chosen the summer school course i.e., why you like Physics or Maths, what you've done in school and outside to support this. Also we want to know why you want to come on UNIQ, what you think you'll get out of it etc. There isn't a golden formula - just be yourself.

    The UNIQ summer schools will be replacing the Sutton Trust summer schools at Oxford this year, and will run until 2014, getting bigger every year. This year we'll take 500 students on our courses. We are generally looking for higher GCSE grades than the Sutton Trust asked for, but we will look at your GCSEs in the context of the average GCSE grades gained at your school. So if you have done well, but generally your school hasn't got a high GCSE record, then even if you haven't got many A*s it would be worth applying. Basically, we're looking for people who do better than average in the context of their school, and have an interest in the subject they have applied for.

    Hope this helps. Contact me at uniq@admin.ox.ac.uk if you have questions!
    I'm not entirely sure if I'll even apply to Oxford, do you have to be 100% sure?

    And is it possible to apply if you've applied for Sutton Trust at another uni (and been rejected)?

    Thanks
  16. kai4321's Avatar
    • Banned
    • Posts: 2,288
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    I am thinking of applying but I want to do Economics which they don't have. Not quite sure how to show enthusiasm for something else as Economics is really what I like. =/
  17. SelfishGiant's Avatar
    • Adored and Respected Member
    • Posts: 490
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    (Original post by kai4321)
    I am thinking of applying but I want to do Economics which they don't have. Not quite sure how to show enthusiasm for something else as Economics is really what I like. =/
    They don't have Politics either, which is what I'm probably going to apply for, despite being more passionate about/interested in English Lit (what I'm applying for in this).
  18. Revolution is my Name's Avatar
    • TSR Idol
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    I've still got to get shot of another 459 characters
  19. SelfishGiant's Avatar
    • Adored and Respected Member
    • Posts: 490
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    I got to 30. And I want to be a writer :sad:
  20. Revolution is my Name's Avatar
    • TSR Idol
    Re: Oxford "UNIQ" summer schools.....
    (Original post by micky022)
    I gave up at about 1200. There's only so much you can say about how much I bum Law.
    I really hope they just bin the statements as soon as they receive them.
Sign in to Reply
Share this discussion:  
Article updates
Moderators

We have a brilliant team of more than 60 volunteers looking after discussions on The Student Room, helping to make it a fun, safe and useful place to hang out.

Reputation gems:
The Reputation gems seen here indicate how well reputed the user is, red gem indicate negative reputation and green indicates a good rep.
Post rating score:
These scores show if a post has been positively or negatively rated by our members.