I'm a Fine Art first year student at Oxford - AMA

I'm really enjoying my time at Oxford so far, and I wanted to share this experience with the students on this site as I imagine many of you are eager to get accepted into Oxford and want to find out what it is really like.

Obviously I can give general information on Oxford itself too, so any questions, feel free to ask :smile:

Reply 1

username2391309

14

What questions were you asked at interview?

Reply 2

bloated_utopia

17

what were GCSE and A level grades?

what kind of art do you make?

do you think your fine art course is very academic in comparison to other courses?

how's the anatomy drawing course so far?

where else did you apply?

Reply 3

tampontampoff

OP

3

Original post by AB710344

What questions were you asked at interview?

the interviewer asked me to bring in a portfolio of all my works and then she moved on to ask me my favourite genre's of art, my favourite artists, etc.

it was actually really chill (maybe because it's art, idk, but she was a lovely interviewer)

Reply 4

Starlight22

13

did you do a foundation course and would not having one be detrimental ?

Reply 5

tampontampoff

OP

3

Original post by bloated_utopia

what were GCSE and A level grades?

what kind of art do you make?

do you think your fine art course is very academic in comparison to other courses?

how's the anatomy drawing course so far?

where else did you apply?

I got 7 A* and 2 A's at GCSE. A*AA in A Level (Fine Art, Film and English Literature)

I do surrealist paintings mostly, I find the works of Dali and Magritte really inspiring.

What do you define as academic? Not practical? Our course is very practical, whilst we do have to tackle a lot of theory stuff too, I'd say that the course is well balanced in terms of having a mix of practical and theory involved.

We haven't done the anatomy drawing course

I also applied to Plymouth, Norwich, Durham and St Andrews

Reply 6

tampontampoff

OP

3

Original post by Starlight22

did you do a foundation course and would not having one be detrimental ?

Yes, I did a foundation course as it was required in the entry requirements.

And if you're hoping to apply to the best Unis for art, I would definitely recommend taking an art foundation course!

Reply 7

The RAR

21

Do you hope to become Pablo Picasso one day?

Reply 8

Starlight22

13

Original post by tampontampoff

Yes, I did a foundation course as it was required in the entry requirements.

And if you're hoping to apply to the best Unis for art, I would definitely recommend taking an art foundation course!

I applied for 2018 entry and am waiting to hear back form Oxford on whether Ive been rejected/have an offer. Considering I got to the interviews without a foundation course ( Im on a gap year) do you think they're disregarding it?

Reply 9

bloated_utopia

17

Original post by tampontampoff

I got 7 A* and 2 A's at GCSE. A*AA in A Level (Fine Art, Film and English Literature)

I do surrealist paintings mostly, I find the works of Dali and Magritte really inspiring.

What do you define as academic? Not practical? Our course is very practical, whilst we do have to tackle a lot of theory stuff too, I'd say that the course is well balanced in terms of having a mix of practical and theory involved.

We haven't done the anatomy drawing course

I also applied to Plymouth, Norwich, Durham and St Andrews

dali and magritte are cool, dali is more my tempo tho. also congrats on your grades.

i read on the website that there was an exam at the end of the course and there was a drawing course that had loads of anatomy type stuff, tho maybe that was the second year.

also i didn't know st andrews had an art school.

Reply 10

tampontampoff

OP

3

Original post by The RAR

Do you hope to become Pablo Picasso one day?

Nah, I'm not delusional. I don't plan on becoming a Pablo Picasso, because a Pablo Picasso of today would be ignored.

We need something more innovative in 21st Century art now. Something bigger. Something badder.

Reply 11

tampontampoff

OP

3

Original post by bloated_utopia

dali and magritte are cool, dali is more my tempo tho. also congrats on your grades.

i read on the website that there was an exam at the end of the course and there was a drawing course that had loads of anatomy type stuff, tho maybe that was the second year.

also i didn't know st andrews had an art school.

Technically i applied for Art History to St Andrews. :smile:

And thank you! Are you an artist yourself, sir?

Yeah, I think we're gonna be doing anatomy stuff soon, but we're not doing that right now.

Reply 12

bloated_utopia

17

Original post by tampontampoff

Technically i applied for Art History to St Andrews. :smile:

And thank you! Are you an artist yourself, sir?

Yeah, I think we're gonna be doing anatomy stuff soon, but we're not doing that right now.

ah that makes sense, i just looked and couldn't find any fine art stuff.

yeah, i am doing art a level now, planning to route myself to uni for fine art eventually. but am not a sir lol.

anatomy is a hellbeast, but also a hell of a lot of fun, good luck pal.

also i agreed with you about the Picasso thing. copying blatantly in an old context won't make anything revolutionary in art.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 13

faloodeh

18

what range of mediums did you use in your portfolio? and what types of art? i.e 2D,3D,4D

how many pieces did you send in?
did you do a drawing exam?
how are your teachers? do you get good critique?
how much work do you do per week and do you spend extra time in the studios?

do you think its possible to get onto the course with lower than average gcses (3 a* 2 a) IF your A-levels grades are AAA+ and your portfolio is successful/to a high standard? I wasnt aware that oxford offered fine art sense my lower than your average applicants gcse grades haha. But I would love to apply, but if I cant due to my grades its better to find out now

can i see ur art

Hi,
I would really like to apply for the Ruskin whilst I’m on my foundation course next year, but I’m worried my GCSE’s are too low. I got mostly As, 2 A*and a few Bs. I hope to achieve the requirement of 3 As on a level results day, but will my GCSE’s pull my application down? Did everyone in the Ruskin achieve their GCSE’s with very high grades? Or are A levels and portfolio more of a deciding factor?

(Also, where did you do a foundation?)

Thanks x

Reply 16

FabricatedSwag

5

If you do the foundation degree in art, can it lower the expected requirement of AAA?

(I am guessing it doesn't, but if it does then I will consider applying if I get into the foundation)

Reply 17

Artfanatic

12

Original post by FabricatedSwag

If you do the foundation degree in art, can it lower the expected requirement of AAA?

(I am guessing it doesn't, but if it does then I will consider applying if I get into the foundation)

Hi - I am a 2nd year Fine Artist at Oxford. I know of a few people who were accepted with grades lower than AAA. So yes, the foundation can be used instead of requiring AAA but you are obviously safer in mind having the grades.

Reply 18

isyisy

3

Original post by Artfanatic

Hi - I am a 2nd year Fine Artist at Oxford. I know of a few people who were accepted with grades lower than AAA. So yes, the foundation can be used instead of requiring AAA but you are obviously safer in mind having the grades.

hi , I'm thinking of applying to Oxford post my foundation art year. just curious to know if its traditional styles of art they value /accept or do they allow for more modern / different art too ? The style of art I enjoy is largely science / research based installation art so am wondering if the course would be suited to this style .
Additionally would be interested to know what the brief was for your practical interview ?

Reply 19

Illyrius

8

I hope you can find my message in good time,

Coming from someone who is wanting to apply for Fine Art at the Ruskin without an Art Foundation (I just want to give it a shot), what would you say the best thing to do for my portfolio would be? Should i be including some of my A level work? (I am really interested in the talk about life and death that i explore in my art and of course in the context of this discourse in contemporary art - my instagram is @richtea_art and you will be able to see a little more of what i am making.) However, as it is A level, in order to reach those higher grades, you have to approach your artmaking a little more literally in that you have to show a high degree of detail. However, i do find that that detail does show significance to areas within my pieces, and particularly the zoomed in textures (fish scales) in that it comments on how we appreciate the beauty of the fish once it has died - the sheen colours and translucency of the scales.

I do have some extra experiments that i have created to inform the process and creative approach of exploring my ideas - for an example, rather than just rendering the quality of the scales in two dimension, i wanted to experiment with creating the forms three dimensionally using Plaster of Paris etc. It may be quite literal, but i am not sure if it is worth showing.

I am unable to attend a Summer school as i will be in Japan, but i I am planning on creating independently-lead work for my portfolio during the summer, but i don't know what i should focus on. Whether that is creating more exploratory and investigative outcomes to use for my portfolio, and or challenging ways in which i should be using media, or trying something outside of the media available at college (i.e. trying to create something digitally, or video/installation.)

I will be applying to foundation art courses as well, but i wanted to give applying for the BFA course a shot!

Thanks :biggrin:

I'm a Fine Art first year student at Oxford - AMA

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