Oxford Economics graduate applicants

Sent my application in mid-November and got acceptance letter March 21st. Very excited. No words on college or funding yet. Double BSc in Business & Econ and Mathematics from two Swedish unis. Done TA and RA. GRE 163V/166Q/4.5W. Also hold offer from 1-year LSE MSc, but will likely choose Oxford instead. LoRs from three professors that I've all worked with. Nuffield preference.

Hi everyone, just saw the post on grad café. I got my offer on Wednesday. Nothing about college and funding. Doing Econ in a top 10 UK uni, applied with no GRE, which is crazy lol. Got offers from LSE and UCL as well, but not intend to go anyway since I feel like Oxford is better.

If you're doing your undergrad in the UK they don't need a GRE

Guys what kind of "writing sample" did you send with the application?

Abstract, introduction and some excerpts from my BSc thesis in economics. My advisor just said that they want to see that you can write something that is readable and looks good. They do a holistic assessment ofc but according to my recommenders, their letters is what carries most weight (since most applicants have stellar grades and probably similarly well motivated statements of purpose)

Very interesting - I guess that references do allow the assessors to differentiate between applicants, but is this differentiation along the right dimension? References are probably heavily influenced by how much your referee likes you, and aren't a pure reflection of your academic aptitude.

Wrt writing sample: I doubt anyway that they have the time to read 2000 words for each applicant

So assuming all applicants are wise enough to pick recommenders that "like" the applicant, i.e. have a favourable perception of one's academic potential, I think the assessment of the remaining LoRs is a two-step process. First, how strong is the recommendation (level of detail, how much "this is the strongest student in X years I've had" etc) of the student? Second, how credible is the recommender (i.e. does he know what it takes to succeed)? For the latter question, assessors will, if possible, assess his credibility by looking at the record of former students recommended by the recommender.

I'm sure you would agree that neither standardized tests such as the GRE nor one's grades in microeconomic coursework are particularly reliable predictors of one's ability to produce groundbreaking research. There's probably no formula or way to even proximate that ex-ante (e.g. most Harvard PhD candidates have, I suspect, tons of research experience/publications even before entering the programme) which is why it's a holistic assessment process within which the LoRs carry slightly more weight. Not saying that it's correct but that's what I heard.

Hi everyone! I sent my application on January 23rd (the day before the deadline) and still haven't heard back from them. Does any of you know how/when funding decisions are notified? Do they always do this after the decisions have been sent out? I am a bit concerned about this as I don't think that I would be able to go without some kind of funding (if offered a place). I have other fully-funded offers with deadlines next week, so I was wondering how they have handled this in past years.

Hi everyone! I sent my application on January 23rd (the day before the deadline) and still haven't heard back from them. Does any of you know how/when funding decisions are notified? Do they always do this after the decisions have been sent out? I am a bit concerned about this as I don't think that I would be able to go without some kind of funding (if offered a place). I have other fully-funded offers with deadlines next week, so I was wondering how they have handled this in past years.