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Are there A-levels Oxford doesn't accept?

Is there any subjects that Oxford don't take? I.e General Studies etc


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Reply 1
Oxford don't accept General Studies or as a rule frown upon the likes of 'tourism' or 'health and social'. Anything with 'studies' at the end is likely to be frowned upon ! As a general rule if you have one subject that is not academic, like Drama or Textiles or something, make sure the other two are core subjects! Stick to Maths English Chemistry Biology Physics Languages History Philosophy Geography Music for absolute safety, but usually they don't have a problem with the likes of psychology or something! There is hardly anything they actually don't take so if there's a non academic subject out there you wanted to do, support it with two strong academic ones and a great personal statement and grades!
Original post by stevensays
Is there any subjects that Oxford don't take? I.e General Studies etc


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http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=604

This should be a helpful general guide. To play very safe, I would just take the subjects from A1 and/ or A2. :smile:
Reply 3
Well some subjects there explicit and name (like general studies) others they don't state on the website yet look down upon and call soft (like media studies). If you go to the sutton trust they're pretty good at explaining it.
Reply 4
I'm not sure any universities accept general studies do they?
Original post by mishieru07
http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=604

This should be a helpful general guide. To play very safe, I would just take the subjects from A1 and/ or A2. :smile:


A list published by one college at Cambridge is hardly a model fro what Oxford accepts.

Not only have you then taken this Cambridge college's list but you have gold plated it. As far as Trinity Cantab is concerned, sociology is suitable for arts subjects. As far as mishieru07 is concerned, it isn't.

Again, although this is Cambridge rather than Oxford material, and thus needs to be approached with caution because they are not twins, the Cambridge The Subject Matters leaflet and presentations give a better general overview of subject choice.

http://notrenet.ndhs.org.uk/articles/documents/91430915120927-The%20Subject%20Matters%20%28post%2016%20subject%20choices%29.pdf
Original post by nexttime
I'm not sure any universities accept general studies do they?


Yes they do. Amongst others, Glasgow, Lancaster and Leicester widely accept it. -It represents an opportunity for them. It gives them access to a pool of talent who have either made a poor choice of a third A level or muck up one of their A levels.

As university applications have become more competitive, university admissions have increasingly come to be based on a candidate's results in the weakest of three subjects. Accepting general studies allows a university to break away from that without significantly compromising quality.
On the letter I received with my offer, the only subject that they said was excluded was General Studies. So you're right :smile:

But of course, they have "preferred" subjects. A clue is given in this Russell Group guide. http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/media/informed-choices/InformedChoices-latest.pdf
where they say that Maths, English Lit, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, History, and Languages are "facilitating" ie. having them tend to help with any application. Hope that helps :biggrin:
Original post by okonomiyaki
On the letter I received with my offer, the only subject that they said was excluded was General Studies. So you're right :smile:

But of course, they have "preferred" subjects. A clue is given in this Russell Group guide. http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/media/informed-choices/InformedChoices-latest.pdf
where they say that Maths, English Lit, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, History, and Languages are "facilitating" ie. having them tend to help with any application. Hope that helps :biggrin:


The Russell Group probably wishes it had never released that list given the way it has been subsequently misrepresented. It has re-written its "Informed Choices" booklet more than once and the present version differs substantially from the original one.
Original post by nulli tertius
Yes they do. Amongst others, Glasgow, Lancaster and Leicester widely accept it. -It represents an opportunity for them. It gives them access to a pool of talent who have either made a poor choice of a third A level or muck up one of their A levels.

As university applications have become more competitive, university admissions have increasingly come to be based on a candidate's results in the weakest of three subjects. Accepting general studies allows a university to break away from that without significantly compromising quality.


But they don't include General Studies in their offers - it was excluded in my Lancaster offer.
It does NOT represent an opportunity for them!!! It represents an opportunity perhaps for a minority of students who do well in General Studies but not in something else, perhaps. But even then, very few good unis will accept General Studies as an alternative when a candidate has messed up one of their more academic A levels. It is definitely not good as one of your main A levels, only as a 4th or 5th.
Yes, university applications have become more competitive. This does not mean that universities are looking at General Studies to identify the strongest candidates! They are looking at those who did badly in General Studies and may use this information to reject applicants as doing badly in General Studies indicates that you are: a - very stupid, b - very lazy, or c - rebellious as you are refusing to take seriously a subject your college has forced you to do. They are not using General Studies to give offers to applicants, only to reject them.
Original post by dragonkeeper999
But they don't include General Studies in their offers - it was excluded in my Lancaster offer.


It was excluded from your Lancaster offer but it is included in others.

For example

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/law/prospective/undergrad/admissions.php

It does NOT represent an opportunity for them!!! It represents an opportunity perhaps for a minority of students who do well in General Studies but not in something else, perhaps. But even then, very few good unis will accept General Studies as an alternative when a candidate has messed up one of their more academic A levels. It is definitely not good as one of your main A levels, only as a 4th or 5th.
Yes, university applications have become more competitive. This does not mean that universities are looking at General Studies to identify the strongest candidates! They are looking at those who did badly in General Studies and may use this information to reject applicants as doing badly in General Studies indicates that you are: a - very stupid, b - very lazy, or c - rebellious as you are refusing to take seriously a subject your college has forced you to do. They are not using General Studies to give offers to applicants, only to reject them.


You are extrapolating from the most competitive of universities and treating that as the norm. For a university that is somewhat less competitive, Lancaster for example, it allows them to pick up excellent candidates who have misfired with one A level rather than go for candidates who are more mediocre across the board. A candidate with A*AD is neither fish nor fowl. He isn't going to get into somewhere that wants AAA or probably AAB. His points score is 320. He might persuade an ABB university to give him an offer. However, particularly if the A* is in the subject he wishes to read, he is really a very good candidate. If he has an A in general studies, a university counting general studies but normally seeking say AAA or AAB will have him.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by nulli tertius
A list published by one college at Cambridge is hardly a model fro what Oxford accepts.

Not only have you then taken this Cambridge college's list but you have gold plated it. As far as Trinity Cantab is concerned, sociology is suitable for arts subjects. As far as mishieru07 is concerned, it isn't.

Again, although this is Cambridge rather than Oxford material, and thus needs to be approached with caution because they are not twins, the Cambridge The Subject Matters leaflet and presentations give a better general overview of subject choice.

http://notrenet.ndhs.org.uk/articles/documents/91430915120927-The%20Subject%20Matters%20%28post%2016%20subject%20choices%29.pdf


Ummm I fully agree with you that the guide is not representative of what Cambridge, let alone what Oxford would accept. I said it was a USEFUL GENERAL GUIDE. I never said it was the "be all and end all" and an authoritative guide on subject choices. I would hardly dispute Trinity saying that subjects like Geography or Mathematics (their A1 and A2 lists effectively) are widely seen as acceptable. Which is why I suggested taking subjects solely from those lists (of course, bearing in mind individual subject requirements like Chemistry for Medicine)!

Just to clarify for all: I am not gold-plating. I do not think that Trinity's list is definitive. I am simply suggesting a resource that I hope may be of some use to OP. If OP wants a definite answer, the sure-fire way is to email the colleges asking whether a certain subject combination will be deemed acceptable for a specific subject that OP is interested in (obviously, taking into account the subjects that Oxford itself lists as necessary/helpful etc)

Apologies if I have unintentionally caused offence.
Original post by mishieru07
Ummm I fully agree with you that the guide is not representative of what Cambridge, let alone what Oxford would accept. I said it was a USEFUL GENERAL GUIDE. I never said it was the "be all and end all" and an authoritative guide on subject choices. I would hardly dispute Trinity saying that subjects like Geography or Mathematics (their A1 and A2 lists effectively) are widely seen as acceptable. Which is why I suggested taking subjects solely from those lists (of course, bearing in mind individual subject requirements like Chemistry for Medicine)!

Just to clarify for all: I am not gold-plating. I do not think that Trinity's list is definitive. I am simply suggesting a resource that I hope may be of some use to OP. If OP wants a definite answer, the sure-fire way is to email the colleges asking whether a certain subject combination will be deemed acceptable for a specific subject that OP is interested in (obviously, taking into account the subjects that Oxford itself lists as necessary/helpful etc)

Apologies if I have unintentionally caused offence.


Thank you for this.

Perhaps this letter from a grammar school head (albeit about the RG list of facilitating subjects rather than the Trinity list) explains the problem.

http://www.tiffinschool.co.uk/index.php?mod=page&page=RussellGroupLetter
Reply 13
I would imagine Oxford would accept any A Level as long as it's your fourth choice and the other three are relevant core subjects.

(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 14
I just looked at the website and so long as it is your fourth subject it doesn't seem to matter what it is. So long as your first two subjects are arts and humanities coupled with a maths or science you can pretty much choose whatever you like to make the third and fourth choice.
Personally I would choose three academic subjects and one that was a bit more wayward.
Check it out for yourself http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=604 Mind you that's Cambridge not Oxford though I'm sure Oxford is pretty much the same.
(edited 11 years ago)

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