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Hello LMH

I'm aspiring to study English literature, preferably at your college! :smile:

Even though I'm IB graduate, I will be taking the November resit exams in order to get the desired grades.
I am aware that I have lower chances of getting an offer as this is my second examination attempt, however, I've talked to numerous retake students who've received offers. How does LMH view 'retakers', - do I have any chance at all?

Very best!

Hi there,

Many people retake parts of their exams in order to bring their application up to the required standard, for just as many different reasons! You would need to ensure you made it clear in your application that you would be retaking elements of your IB, and any circumstances which may have prevented you from achieving the required grades the first time around.

For English, you would have to submit written work and sit the ELAT test as well as produce a personal statement, so admissions tutors have quite a full profile of your dedication to the subject and academic potential, even before shortlisting for interview. They would also consider your reference, and any other academic performance such as GCSEs. The college (and indeed university) does not discriminate against retakers, especially as that extra year can be necessary for the brightest and best of applicants. Give each element of the application your best shot; providing you receive the grades you need in your retakes, you shouldn't rule out Oxford yet if you don't want to.

Best of luck!

India

Reply 221

HagueBlue

How important are facilitating subjects for English? On the website they say students come with a range of subjects, but I still haven the found anyone who only did 1 ( being English) and still got an offer. I'm doing English RE Class Civ by the way

Reply 222

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by AnkitKapoor

Hi there,

You certainly shouldn't be disheartened by your selection of subjects - whilst you may not have encountered anyone with only one of the (very traditional) "facilitating subjects", that's not to say there aren't plenty studying at Oxford. RE and Class Civ can be really good subjects to aid your study of English, as they encourage the same kind of analytical skills but broaden your understanding of different cultures and pieces of literature. For Arts subjects in particular, a rigid facilitating subjects list can be quite misleading for sixth form students. Class Civ, for instance, is sometimes left off lists because it is less traditional than its classical language counterparts, but is incredibly well-respected by universities because of its interdisciplinary and academic nature. Keep working hard in your A-Level subjects and exploring your interest in English! :smile:

Hope this helps,
India

Reply 223

lordrohan731

Hi there,
I'm thinking about applying to Oxford recently.
My GCSEs were fairly strong as I got 13A* and an A. I've heard that Oxford focuses quite a lot on GCSE grades. However, I did AQA IGCSE Further Maths (Level 1/2 Certificate) which has a grade A^ (A* with distinction) as the highest grade possible with A* being the grade underneath it. If I were to put the "A* with distinction" using the other field, would it be taken as an a* and used in the percentage a* or not? I'm thinking whether just to put it as an A* or not.

Reply 224

MCPClark

Hello, I am thinking of applying for Classics with Oriental Studies, which I imagine is fairly similar to Classics with Modern Languages and that LMH offers. I was wondering how massively the admissions processes differ between Classics and Classics with a joint subject? Thanks

Reply 225

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by MCPClark

Hi there,

Admissions for all joint school subjects has one key difference - you need to be interviewed for both subjects, so you end up having more interviews (and for some courses, submit two lots of written work, sit two tests etc)! Your interview content will have a lot of similarities with single honours applicants being interviewed by the same tutors (obviously, every tutor is different), but you are likely to find that the conversation offers you opportunities to talk about both subjects. If you are applying for Course II (no Latin or Greek at A-Level), you will study one language intensively for your first year. Whether you are a Course I or II Classicist, you will still have to sit the appropriate Classics Admissions Test (so make sure you register for this).

As a Classics & English alumna, my best piece of advice for applying to a Classics joint school is to make sure you link the two subjects in your personal statement, and be ready to discuss these links in any interviews. The other thing to keep in mind is that joint schools have small intakes each year, so the places for each niche course have to be juggled around between the colleges capable of offering them. This means that you are more likely to be pooled to a different college (or colleges) at interview as colleges work out where they can host joint school students that year - it doesn't mean that the best students are any more or less likely to get in or that they are less valued by the university!

In some instances for joint school subjects, it is possible that an applicant can be offered a place on a single honours course following their interview (e.g. Classics instead of COS). This can happen if admissions tutors feel a candidate is markedly stronger in one of their subjects. It's not worth using this as a tactical application approach, as it's still fairly unusual, but is worth knowing before you apply.

Hope this helps!

India

Reply 226

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by lordrohan731

Hi there,

Oxford would count your A^ as an A*, but tutors do not generally work out an "A* percentage" for candidates to use as a cut off point for selection (percentages are often used by external sources, and are in general quite a crude measure of applicants' success). The university does like to look quite closely at GCSE grades to build a profile of each applicant, but does so more holistically than mathematically. Your GCSEs are obviously very strong, but you should also ensure that the other elements of your application (personal statement, any tests or written work, etc) are as strong as you can make them too.

Best of luck with your application,

India

Reply 227

lordrohan731

Thanks for the reply. On Oxford's site for medicine, they say that they do shortlist based on GCSE results. I'll try to ensure that other parts of my application are just as strong.

Reply 228

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by lordrohan731

Thanks for the reply. On Oxford's site for medicine, they say that they do shortlist based on GCSE results. I'll try to ensure that other parts of my application are just as strong.

Hi there,

Yes, Medicine are particularly keen on looking at candidates' GCSE results (I am sure yours won't pose a problem, especially as you seem to have sat more than most GCSE students (average of 10-11, I believe)) - they also look very closely at the results of pre-interview tests to shortlist applicants, so it's particularly worth preparing well for these.

Best wishes,
India

Reply 229

bigwang

Hi LMH,
I'm going to be applying for Russian this year and i'm a bit stuck on picking a college. Would you be able to give me a rough figure of how many people are studying Russian at LMH, or any other college?

Reply 230

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by bigwang

Hi there,

It's quite difficult to give you an answer to this one, because Russian sole (or MFL courses including Russian) are not as commonly taken at Oxford as languages such as French, German, etc, but are included in each college's "Modern Languages" cohort (which is what you will find in published statistics). Students can also choose to study Russian or another language with Philosophy or Linguistics, which makes it even more difficult to pinpoint individual numbers! Oxford have an intake for Modern Languages of (currently) 168 students per year, which are divided between pretty much all of our colleges. Not every college will have in-house tutors for every single language offered, although at LMH we are fortunate enough to have a lovely Russian specialist tutor :smile:

All languages students are part of the same community within a college, regardless of which language(s) they study, and you will also have centralised classes with others on your course even if you happen to be the only one on your particular course in a college. In short, you won't need to worry about finding a like-minded peer group. :smile:

If you click here and scroll down to "Russian", you can find a list of the colleges which currently offer Russian sole - this narrows your choice down a bit, but there are still quite a few colleges on the list! My advice is to pick a college that you like the look of, for any reason at all (you won't be asked about this at interview, and a college won't care if you picked them because they have their own gym/good food/en suites/a punt house of their own - LMH has all of these, by the way :wink:

). Not every successful applicant will end up at their first choice college, and wherever you go if you get in, you will love, so it's not worth making the decision stressful! And, if you really can't decide where to choose, then you can also make an open application and let the university allocate you a random college - although I think the vast majority of applicants do prefer to have that little bit of control over where their applications are going.

Hope this helps,

India

Reply 231

bigwang

Hello again LMH,
You've been quite helpful before in clearing some stuff about so I guess this is the best place to ask this alongside that I'm heavily inclined to apply to LMH (seems a friendly college). I've had a look at some admission statistics and found that for several years that no one has been admitted to the single honours Russian course and some years the intake is very low (perhaps 1 or even 2 across all colleges). This is slightly worrying and raises some questions as to the outcome if very few people apply, would the college be inclined not to offer the course for only 1 or 2 students (or does it not work that way, excuse my confusion). Also is there such thing as alternate offers given, such as Philosophy and Modern Languages where only half of the languages course is to be taken? I understand that there would be more modules to cover in the single language and if there are relatively few people willing to do the course would the college decide against running the full course and only offer for half of it (covered by something like P+ML) or have I got this whole process mixed up completely? :biggrin:

Thanks again for the help in the last post!

Reply 232

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by bigwang

Thanks again for the help in the last post!

Hi there,

I wouldn't be too worried - the main factor in a college deciding to take on a student for a less popular course is whether or not enough people apply! I studied a "minority" degree myself at LMH, Classics & English, which receives a lot of individualised teaching (as well as things drawn from the single hons side of both courses), and was the only person in my year doing it - indeed, for most of my degree I was the only person in college! Sole languages are amongst the least popular MFL courses offered by the university (it's quite unusual for someone to study, say, French sole, rather than French and German) - it doesn't mean applying for one is a "bad" thing, it just bucks the most common application trends.

My key message is that if you want to study Russian sole at Oxford, and you are successful in receiving an interview and an offer, the university will find a suitable college place for you. This could involve moving you around a little to find a college where your subject requirements can be met that particular year (this is part of the admissions process and a vital part of ensuring the best students get in), but applying for a particular, rare degree course does not mean it is any harder OR easier to gain a place. (Sometimes people ask me if it's easier to get a place on a rarer degree - the opposite of your question, and just as untrue!)

You can be made an offer slightly different to the course for which you applied, but this only applies to joint honours applicants who may in some circumstances be offered a place for only one of their chosen subjects. As Philosophy and Linguistics are not available as single honours courses at Oxford, this wouldn't happen for language and linguistics/philosophy applicants. It would also not be possible to receive an offer for a joint honours course when you have only applied for a single honours one, as you have to be interviewed for each subject separately.

So - have faith in your subject choice! The fact that you have an unusual preference will not harm your chances. Off the top of my head, I can think of a fair few other courses which regularly have no intake and even no applicants in some application cycles (e.g. Classics & Oriental Studies, and a number of the less common language courses). Oxford responds to demand from its applicants and has a number of strategies in place to ensure that the best and brightest receive offers, regardless of subject or college choice.

Great to hear you are considering LMH! We are indeed very friendly, and have a large undergraduate community (and a large linguist community within that) - so, if you were to study Russian sole here, you would have the benefit of a large peer group, but highly individualised teaching. I had a very similar experience, and couldn't speak highly enough of it!

India

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 233

Konstantinos21

Hi! I'm interestes in applying to Oxford but I can't make it to an open day to see what the experience is like because I live in France. Yet, I will be in the U.K. in mid-October and I was wondering where I can find someone to show me around the college and tell me some important things about the university. Thank you for answering

Reply 234

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by Konstantinos21

Hi there,

As a prospective applicant, you are welcome to visit the university any time! If you have a particular college or department you would like to see, then you would need to contact them directly. (They won't show you around the central university buildings, but you can easily visit the Bodleian Library, the museums, etc without any special arrangements.) If you would like to visit LMH then email [email protected] to arrange a tour of our lovely college - we can find you a friendly current student to show you around, and if you give us an idea of what subject you would like to study here then we can try and match you up with a student studying the same :smile:

Hope you're looking forward to your visit!India

Reply 235

Konstantinos21

Thank you very much for the help!

Reply 236

bigwang

Hi again LMH,
On the website it says that marked classwork is required for the language you want to study (sole Modern Languages). I have a problem as I'm teaching myself the language at home since the school doesn't offer it, should I get a tutor to mark some of my work and submit that as normal classwork or should I not mark it at all and just submit a piece of writing in the language?
Thanks

Reply 237

aprlxo

Hi! I am interested in applying for LMH (Music). I'd like to know more about the tutors & the general music scene in the college and how big the year group is. Would appreciate your reply x.

Thank you

Reply 238

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by bigwang

Hello,
I've had a look into the ins and outs of MFL admissions for this one. I am assuming that if you are self teaching Russian, you will not be receiving an A-Level qualification this coming summer; in which case, you would be admitted to a Russian course as an ab initio student. (Please correct me if I am wrong and you are self-teaching an A-level!) The added complication for this is that Russian sole is not available at Oxford as an ab initio course; it has to be taken with another language in which you've already achieved an A-Level or equivalent qualification. Here is the faculty's webpage for clarity.

If you count as an ab initio student, you would not have to submit work; if you are applying as an A-Level student, you would ideally need to have your work marked by an external tutor - although if this is impossible then make sure you include a note explaining your more unusual circumstances.
Hope this helps!
India

Reply 239

LMH OXFORD

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Original post by aprlxo

Hi there,

LMH is a great place to be a music student! We have a small music intake of around 3 students per year, but a huge musical community: piano rooms are available for those who need them (with music students taking priority), we have an active chapel choir, and even our own orchestra (student run and shared with Wadham). Tutors in and out of college are incredibly supportive, and our music students really enjoy their time here. The best way for you to get a taste for life as a musician at LMH is to come and visit us! Give Marrium, our outreach officer, a shout - [email protected] if you'd like to arrange something :smile:

India