Oxford Chemistry Students and Applicants

The interview for most MChem courses are generally straight forward. I went to Manchetser and all I got asked was what interests me in the course, am I finding my A-levels fun and what do I hope to achieve at the end of the University course. As long as you can string a sentence together you should be fine. Were are you from and to what uni are you applying to?

Hello everyone !!

What does the questions look like for those who want to study an undergraduate chemistry course ??

Another point, I'm an international student and I wonder if I haven't a good english ! is that will be a serious problem or I'll will be judged only on my chemistry skills ( cause I have to take IELTS anyway) ?

The main problem with this is that TSR has thousands of members. If someone posts that you should write a certain thing in your PS then everyone will see that and include it in their PS - which means that thing isn't individual and unique any more. It won't mae you stand out.

So the best thing that anyone here can tell you is to be passionate about your subject. Read around it as much as possible. Get as many UMS marks as possible. Get work experience if you can. Burn a hole in your pyjamas with your chemistry set. But do it because you want to, and not because TSR told you to.

I'm not looking for something specific though, I'm referring to 'general' things to include. Take medicine for example, very few would write a PS without talking about work experience. I think the best thing to do would be to look at the Physics guide and base it on that because I imagine them to look at chemistry and physics similarly.

What are UMS marks? I am not from the UK.

Thanks for your reply.

I applied this year, and the sort of things I was told to include were:


Obviously there's other things that could be included, and you don't need all of them, but hopefully this gives you an idea.

May I ask how it went? If you were shortlisted for an interview, how did that go? What kind of questions were you asked?

Also, I have never taken part in a Chemistry competition (never really been interested in competing against others in any subject in that way). Do you think they would care much about it? Logically speaking, work experience in chemistry shouldn't be expected. It's not really a field you can get a job in without any expertise. In Sweden at least, there are no jobs even related to chemistry that would be obtainable.

I applied for Cambridge (for natural sciences with chemistry as my main subject), but, from what I've heard, the oxford application process is basically the same.

In my chemistry interview, I got a few questions about the structure of metals and band theory, and I had several questions about trends in the periodic table. I also had an interview testing my maths skills, which I found more difficult (It was mostly just deriving equations and questions relating to statistics and calculus). But somehow I got an offer despite all the mistakes I made in that interview.

And they won't mind about whether you have done competitions as long as you have other ways of showing you are interested in chemistry.

And they seem to understand how hard it is to find work experience - I didn't feel disadvantaged because I didn't have any.

1. Would me choosing St. Hugh's College in my application disadvantage me in any way, because I was allocated to that College in the past and rejected (pre-interview)?

2. Since Oxford interviews +95% of all Chemistry applicants, there's a very good chance of me being interviewed. Do you think the tutors would judge me more harshly because I've already studied Chemistry at university level (note that my courses were 'independent' and each was roughly 3 months), or would they simply see it as something positive because it shows that I am indeed interested in studying Chemistry and judge me on the same basis as all the other applicants?

3. Would the fact that I have studied Medicine for almost a year now disadvantage me? I am concerned that they will assume that Chemistry is my 'second' choice when that really isn't the case. I simply preferred Medicine at first because of the more career options (I will obviously address this in my PS).

About the interviews, I've seen people mention that questions regarding reaction mechanisms are often asked. Is this true? If so, what type of reaction mechanisms are we talking about?

It would only be something straightforward like a Friedel-Crafts reaction. Maybe find an A level syllabus and see which mechanisms students are expected to know. (e.g. here)