The Student Room Group
Reply 1
I worked for them last summer. Reviews were generally positive, with a few exceptions since some people had to be thrown out.

Please bear in mind that it is not an official Oxford University course, but it is taught by graduates and teaching staff from the university.
Reply 2
So do you think it's a useful thing to do then? Do you get the opportunity to meet Oxford tutors etc.?
Reply 3
jamieraser
So do you think it's a useful thing to do then? Do you get the opportunity to meet Oxford tutors etc.?


Useful for what? It's not going to give you an edge in your Oxford application any more than staying at home and reading round your subject will. In fact, you'd probably be better off staying at home and reading if you wanted to improve the strength of your application. You'd save a lot of money by doing that, too.
Reply 4
jamieraser
So do you think it's a useful thing to do then? Do you get the opportunity to meet Oxford tutors etc.?

Without specific knowledge of this course, I'd say it's not going to improve your academic CV in terms of getting into university or whatever (although if you learn stuff and expand your mind that'd be good of course). If you think you'd enjoy and can afford it then go for it though :smile:
Reply 5
Really, is it worth it? I mean, is it a serious program or is it more like a sumer of fun program?

I've been looking at this program and also considering a bussiness program at Cornell U. Could they compare?

Please Chemgeek, you were there, can you recomend it? BTW, why were those students thrown out? Are they tough on security and rules?

I'll apreciatte any coments and or reviews of the Oxford Royale Academy Summer Course for 16-18 yo.

Many thanks in advance
Reply 6
HI there,

Apologies for taking such a ling time to get back to you all.

Is it a serious program or a fun program?

Well its both! There are lots of fun activities in the evenings and trips to go on at the weekends, but it is primarily a pretty intense academic course. The intention is to take people outside what they are likely to have covered at school and spend lots of time really exploring a subject that you are passionate about. This is helped by the fact that all the teachers are people who are really involved with their subject, either as grad students or tutors so they are really inspiring!

The academic side of things always got really positive reviews from parents and students since it is generally quite a different experience to school.

There was an Oxbridge application course. Though this was mainly geared at foreign people who really had no idea how the system worked. SO I don't think that side of things will directly help with an Oxbridge application.

They are pretty tough on rules, although the people who got thrown out were really quite a long way out of line (eg sneaking out to get drunk and being really disruptive in the small hours, repeatedly.) it was also over a prolonged period of time so they don't react strongly without good reason. Also bear in mind that when there are something like 650 students on the course, one of them is bound to be a bit wayward!

Another bonus is that there are usually something like 40-50 nationalities represented on the courses, so it is a great way to meet people from totally different backgrounds and cultures without traveling there.

Overall I would definitely recommend it, everyone seemed to have a really good time, and there are plenty of repeat customers over the years.
I went two years ago! I really loved my courses (English Lit and British History), but not much else about the program. My English Lit teacher is one of the main reasons I applied to Exeter and she was very useful in answering questions about applying and such. I don't know much about the other classes though, or how it would compare to Cornell's program. I did enjoy it more than Summer@Brown, mostly for the location and my classes (I think a lot of people enjoyed other classes they took at Brown, but mine didn't compare to Oxford's). The reason I went to Oxford Royale was that I went to Oxford Prep through Oxbridge Academic Programs the year before and loved it a lot. The dates didn't work out for me to return the following year but I still wanted to go to Oxford so I chose Royale. I liked Oxbridge as a whole more though. Do keep in mind that this was a couple of years ago, so maybe they've worked out some of the kinks that I didn't like when I was there. Feel free to message me if you have any questions though :smile:
If you have never been to Oxford and are a foreigner then it's OK if you can pay the fees. There are cheaper programmes though and you should only really treat it as a travel experience more than anything.
I did it two years ago and I had loads of fun but it is extremely expensive. The lessons were good and I really loved my teachers and all the extra stuff was pretty amazing (theatre trip and punting etc).

However, it's very much an international course and whilst I met so many people from all around the world, I was literally the only person I met from England and I did get the feeling that I had applied to something which I wasn't the main demographic for. As well as this it's very expensive.

If you can afford it though I say go for it because it really was a fab experience and I made friends and great memories, and (because I did it the summer after GCSE's) I think my English lit course did prep be well for a level.
It's also true that while Oxford Royale is good for the experience, it isn't actually affiliated with the Universities. The Oxford Royale course at Yale, for example, is not Yale run, and may misleadingly suggest it does. Yale does offer their own (Yale Young Global Scholars), which is selective and offers true experience.

This is also shown by 'Our Summer Courses are Inspired by the World-Famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.'. Note, this is inspired, not run by.

I would recommend not looking towards a 'cash cow' like Oxford Royale, and instead, try for one of the official summer programmes offered by the universities.