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Oxford Modern Languages Students and Applicants

HELLO! I want to study Spanish and linguistics/english/italian at Oxford. I am wondering what the best colleges are for these subjects.
I am also very keen on music, drama, creative writing and art. These things I also want to include in my choice of college, but I need some advice from the inside! It's all a bit mind-boggling - :eek3: - Any ideas?
Muchas gracias x :smile:

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Reply 1
Hello :smile: I'm applying for EMEL, Spanish and Arabic respectively (so we are kinda colleagues!) and I have to say that OUSU Alternative Prospectus did me quite good. You can access it somewhere on the university website, I suppose. Although I strongly recommend you visit your chosen colleges as well, the photos and the reality do not correspond very much :biggrin:
RubyJ
HELLO! I want to study Spanish and linguistics/english/italian at Oxford. I am wondering what the best colleges are for these subjects.
I am also very keen on music, drama, creative writing and art. These things I also want to include in my choice of college, but I need some advice from the inside! It's all a bit mind-boggling - :eek3: - Any ideas?
Muchas gracias x :smile:


I'm applying for sole arabic at Oxford, OP :woo:

Firstly you need to go on this site-

http://www.chooseoxfordcollege.co.uk/

and see what colleges offer your subject and has the factors you want (private/state divide, wealth, lots of tutors...ect) and narrow it down from there. Also, you may want to check up the open days you want to visit as soon as you have a good idea of where you want to apply for- as bookings opened back in march and they start in the first week of july! x
What grades would you need at GCSE and at A-Level for this Spanish course btw?? Quote me please thanks :smile:x
sweetascandy
What grades would you need at GCSE and at A-Level for this Spanish course btw?? Quote me please thanks :smile:x


Contrary to popular belief, GCSE grades aren't terribly important even when applying for Oxford. I know someone in their last year of Maths who had mostly Cs! However- even though there is no official 'YOU MUST HAVE 12 A*s' rule, a lot of tutors are strict and may really choose their students on GCSE grades.

And A-level results? For Modlangs- as a general rule, AAA/A*AA, though if you come across as really passionate and are maybe taking a gap year to improve your Spanish- you may get an offer of BB or AB, or even unconditional if they want you baaaaaaaaaad!
Reply 5
RubyJ
HELLO! I want to study Spanish and linguistics/english/italian at Oxford. I am wondering what the best colleges are for these subjects.


I hear that there is no such a thing as "a college being best for a given subject". Obviously, you do need to make sure that your college of choice offers Spanish and X in the first place (you can look it up on the UCAS website), but as far as your education at Oxford will be college-based, it is organised by the University in the first place and a good deal of your subject-related activities is likely to take place outside of the college anyway. Also, I believe you can request to work with a tutor of your choice, so it should not be a problem even if you are at a different college. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Reply 6
ZuzaMagda
I hear that there is no such a thing as "a college being best for a given subject". Obviously, you do need to make sure that your college of choice offers Spanish and X in the first place (you can look it up on the UCAS website), but as far as your education at Oxford will be college-based, it is organised by the University in the first place and a good deal of your subject-related activities is likely to take place outside of the college anyway. Also, I believe you can request to work with a tutor of your choice, so it should not be a problem even if you are at a different college. Please correct me if I am wrong.


Thank you very much :smile:
Reply 7
I am thinking of applying to Oxford to study French and Spanish but I'm not sure if the course is right for me- I love literature but I don't know whether it would be better to go for a course with more variety- On a general note does Oxford put a lot of pressure on its students?
Reply 8
Original post by KatherineGiddins

Original post by KatherineGiddins
I am thinking of applying to Oxford to study French and Spanish but I'm not sure if the course is right for me- I love literature but I don't know whether it would be better to go for a course with more variety- On a general note does Oxford put a lot of pressure on its students?


Woah you must be SO good at both languages to be thinking of applying to Oxford. I'm pretty jealous :frown:

And i'm pretty sure that all Oxford students have to cope with ridiculous amounts of pressure from their course. It's a top and prestigious university! I heard that they are discouraged from getting part time jobs whilst at uni? This might just be a rumour though.
Original post by Lekker

And i'm pretty sure that all Oxford students have to cope with ridiculous amounts of pressure from their course. It's a top and prestigious university! I heard that they are discouraged from getting part time jobs whilst at uni? This might just be a rumour though.


According to my friend who has firmed her Oxford offer, they actually aren't allowed part-time jobs whilst at uni!
Reply 10
Original post by Bella Occhi

Original post by Bella Occhi
According to my friend who has firmed her Oxford offer, they actually aren't allowed part-time jobs whilst at uni!


That's pretty hardcore. I think Cambridge do the same...
It seems fair enough seeing as the work for the course must be pretty intense, but on the other hand both Unis aren't exactly located in the cheapest of places, and they are going to be charging the maximum fees.
Original post by KatherineGiddins
I am thinking of applying to Oxford to study French and Spanish but I'm not sure if the course is right for me- I love literature but I don't know whether it would be better to go for a course with more variety- On a general note does Oxford put a lot of pressure on its students?


I haven't actually started the course yet but yes, I imagine there will be a lot of work, but if you love French and Spanish then I'm sure you'd cope. Indeed, the tutors wouldn't choose to give an offer to someone who they didn't think would cope.

A love of literature would be advisable if you're thinking of Oxford though - it was one of the main draws for me! The first year is very structured, but to my knowledge, it gets much more open after prelims and you can choose specific areas that interest you :smile:

If you have any questions about applying then send me a message :smile:
Original post by Lekker
That's pretty hardcore. I think Cambridge do the same...
It seems fair enough seeing as the work for the course must be pretty intense, but on the other hand both Unis aren't exactly located in the cheapest of places, and they are going to be charging the maximum fees.


But they also happen to be the two richest universities and so have the most generous bursary schemes. If you're good enough for Oxbridge, financial matters shouldn't stop you studying there.
Reply 13
Original post by Bella Occhi
According to my friend who has firmed her Oxford offer, they actually aren't allowed part-time jobs whilst at uni!


Technically you are allowed one, but its severely discouraged because of how the courses are run. If you want extra pennies you can just work for the Uni or use the massive breaks between term time to get summer and christmas jobs :smile: Don't let something like a part time job hold you back from applying to Oxford
Reply 14
Apply
Reply 15
Original post by qwertyuiop1993

Original post by qwertyuiop1993
I haven't actually started the course yet but yes, I imagine there will be a lot of work, but if you love French and Spanish then I'm sure you'd cope. Indeed, the tutors wouldn't choose to give an offer to someone who they didn't think would cope.

A love of literature would be advisable if you're thinking of Oxford though - it was one of the main draws for me! The first year is very structured, but to my knowledge, it gets much more open after prelims and you can choose specific areas that interest you :smile:

If you have any questions about applying then send me a message :smile:
What kind of questions do they ask in the interview? I assume there is a bit of conversation in the foreign language
Original post by KatherineGiddins
What kind of questions do they ask in the interview? I assume there is a bit of conversation in the foreign language


Well if you're applying for two languages you'll have two interviews for each. I applied for French sole though so I had two French interviews.

You'll most likely get a poem/text to read in the language and you'll have 15 or so minutes to analyse it - they give you dictionary (at least at Trinity they do)
The questions asked aren't too wacky, but they do make you think and look closely at language/structure of the text.

They'll probably ask you about literature that you've read in the language (be sure to mention anything you've read in your free time - they want to see passion for literature) Make sure you've really thought about anything you've put down though because they will ask about theme/genre/context/characters - anything really.

The amount of actual French you speak varies I think - I only spoke for about 5 minutes and it was just about my time in France.

My second interview was entirely in English but was a grilling about an extract from some philosophy essay - They seem to love linking everything to literature because I was asked if any book I had read would be relevant to the extract (this caught out some people who hadn't studied much literature in any language).

So overall the message seems to be - show passion for literature in particular but also demonstrate the ability to analyse anything they see fit to bring up, be it stuff about culture or even the nature of language itself. Competence in the language is important (You'll have grammar tests) but you certainly don't have to be fluent.

Hoped that helped a bit, beyond this the actual questions they ask get quite specific to the candidate and so might seem really hard for someone else, but okay for the actual candidate. E.g. I know someone who got asked in French about cello music - but he'd sent in an essay about cellists so I suppose he could handle it :s-smilie:
Reply 17
Original post by qwertyuiop1993
Well if you're applying for two languages you'll have two interviews for each. I applied for French sole though so I had two French interviews.

You'll most likely get a poem/text to read in the language and you'll have 15 or so minutes to analyse it - they give you dictionary (at least at Trinity they do)
The questions asked aren't too wacky, but they do make you think and look closely at language/structure of the text.

They'll probably ask you about literature that you've read in the language (be sure to mention anything you've read in your free time - they want to see passion for literature) Make sure you've really thought about anything you've put down though because they will ask about theme/genre/context/characters - anything really.

The amount of actual French you speak varies I think - I only spoke for about 5 minutes and it was just about my time in France.

My second interview was entirely in English but was a grilling about an extract from some philosophy essay - They seem to love linking everything to literature because I was asked if any book I had read would be relevant to the extract (this caught out some people who hadn't studied much literature in any language).

So overall the message seems to be - show passion for literature in particular but also demonstrate the ability to analyse anything they see fit to bring up, be it stuff about culture or even the nature of language itself. Competence in the language is important (You'll have grammar tests) but you certainly don't have to be fluent.

Hoped that helped a bit, beyond this the actual questions they ask get quite specific to the candidate and so might seem really hard for someone else, but okay for the actual candidate. E.g. I know someone who got asked in French about cello music - but he'd sent in an essay about cellists so I suppose he could handle it :s-smilie:
Thank you so much- This has been a great help
Original post by KatherineGiddins
Thank you so much- This has been a great help


No problem! Good luck with your application :smile:
Is it better to read anything and everything, or find a genre that you really get into and can rave about?

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