Oxford Applicants for 2012 Entry

Hey, i'm thinking of applying to the BA geography entry 2012 at oxford, I think achieving a degree at oxford is highly presitgious and worth the debt, etc.

I've done some research and would like to make sure what i've found is correct, as well as some new questions.

Firstly; Oxford have openly said that extracurricular activities don't have much weighting in their admissions, I'm in the eco committee though among various other EC stuff.

Second; the terms, which in total, per year, add up to only about 3.5 months? During the 'breaks' is work set? What way do the contracts for accomodation work, say If I go home during the breaks, or is a set 38 week one or whatever.

The interview takes place at oxford right? The deadline for UCAS application is 15 of september?

Also, would taking a gap year, building up £5k or so , so that I can study without having to worry about money (at least for a while) decrease my chances?

The deferred entry itself; do you take an interview at the same time as you would for normal entry, then wait a year?

Also;the geography course has no exams, only marked papers?

Lastly; is it really that difficult? I understand that it's one of the best on the world, but I hear people saying 'you'll have to teach yourself whole subjects', err...isn't that what lecturers are supposed to do? Is getting a 2.1 in Oxford as hard as getting a first, say, in QUB?

Oh and what's the nightlife like! I hope I can make friends because i'd be moving from NI and it would be a big change :/ .

Cheers.

Reply 5662

Ray of Light

Hopefully everything will be a go-go next week, with my reference written etc.

Is anyone here doing their LNAT after sending off your UCAS application?

Reply 5663

BeritV

9

Original post by law-bug

Hey, i'm thinking of applying to the BA geography entry 2012 at oxford, I think achieving a degree at oxford is highly presitgious and worth the debt, etc.

I've done some research and would like to make sure what i've found is correct, as well as some new questions.

Firstly; Oxford have openly said that extracurricular activities don't have much weighting in their admissions, I'm in the eco committee though among various other EC stuff.

Second; the terms, which in total, per year, add up to only about 3.5 months? During the 'breaks' is work set? What way do the contracts for accomodation work, say If I go home during the breaks, or is a set 38 week one or whatever.

The interview takes place at oxford right? The deadline for UCAS application is 15 of september?

Also, would taking a gap year, building up £5k or so , so that I can study without having to worry about money (at least for a while) decrease my chances?

The deferred entry itself; do you take an interview at the same time as you would for normal entry, then wait a year?

Also;the geography course has no exams, only marked papers?

Lastly; is it really that difficult? I understand that it's one of the best on the world, but I hear people saying 'you'll have to teach yourself whole subjects', err...isn't that what lecturers are supposed to do? Is getting a 2.1 in Oxford as hard as getting a first, say, in QUB?

Oh and what's the nightlife like! I hope I can make friends because i'd be moving from NI and it would be a big change :/ .

Cheers.

Well I'm going to try to respond to some of the questions you asked, although obviously I don't know the answers to all of them :-)

About the ECs - do mention them ONLY if there's some relevance to your course. If the link between the EC and the course you want to mention is not very obvious, just make something up - the good old "it taught me dedication/organisational skills/team work" always works :wink:

Yes, you get work set during the breaks - it's most likely going to be reading, maybe some problem sheets or essays, depending on the subjects. Most colleges have accommodation for term-time only, normally you move everything out after each term. Internationals and sometimes UK students get storage space, but that really depends on the college.

The interviews take place in Oxford, usually in the beginning of December. If I'm not mistaken, the deadline is October 15th, but you should check UCAS to confirm that.

I know that they definitely have less spaces for deferred entry, although I'm not sure how this compares proportionally, so you should again check the stats on the Oxford website or something like that (not sure if they publish this, but you can give it a try). And if you are applying for deferred entry then you will take the interviews at the same year as people who are not - i.e. if you were applying now for deferred entry in 2013, you would sit the interviews in December 2011.

Nightlife and the difficulty of the course I can't really speak about yet, sorry :P

Hope I helped a bit x

Reply 5664

Original post by Banoffeepie16

Even though it'll probably be a while before we get any offers etc, does anyone else feel overwhelmingly excited? :biggrin:

YES can't you tell how excited I am? :biggrin:

I felt like an absolute champion at school printing off my form, and I was just bouncing off the walls after handing it all in :biggrin:

Reply 5665

Banoffeepie16

Original post by such_a_lady

YES can't you tell how excited I am? :biggrin:

I felt like an absolute champion at school printing off my form, and I was just bouncing off the walls after handing it all in :biggrin:

Me too! The ladies at the UCAS desk at my college drew smilies on my hand :colondollar:

apparently it was the first one in that was complete and not half done :tongue:

Now to wait for the UCAS letter to log into track! :woo:

Reply 5666

barrister_2000

1

Original post by Tsunami2011

Did they say anything significant about GCSE/A-Level results apart from the obvious?

Not really...it was just the same old thing about how all you need to get is what they require (as stated in the prospectus). They did say though that AS Levels weren't that important, which I thought was kinda weird :confused:

Reply 5667

Original post by Banoffeepie16

Me too! The ladies at the UCAS desk at my college drew smilies on my hand :colondollar:

apparently it was the first one in that was complete and not half done :tongue:

Now to wait for the UCAS letter to log into track! :woo:

I felt like such an accomplished woman writing my cheque :redface:

)

Reply 5668

Original post by Tobedotty

I'm having the opposite issue, 3400ish characters and nothing more to say :frown:

A philosophy tutor at Univ told me on Friday that just because there are 37 lines, doesn't mean you have to fill them. If you only have 15 lines to write, that's fine. Or so he said.

[Sidenote: this isn't serious advice, but it is what was said :tongue:

]

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5669

Original post by such_a_lady

Unfortunately this morning I ended up having an argument with my boyfriend because he believes the British system of personal statements and stuff is "stupid" and that we have to write ours as if the people reading them are stupid -.- "I did this and it was a great experience because"...needless to say I absolutely ripped into the American system with its emphasis on ECs rather than actual academics, and its liking of people who can donate millions to the college, and the alumni system...oh, and then to add insult to injury, because American unis demand like $75 per university application, he's speanign his wages on that, meaning he's not coming to visit me in October as we'd planned. I'm fairly upset :frown:

Arguing is never fun, but I wondered if you'd seen this video? It's pretty long and very one sided, but it was quite interesting. Even if it seems quite repetitive... (just watch the first five minutes or something)

Reply 5670

Original post by saeyan

It certainly is! None of my friends is applying to CS so I can't compare PSes or stress out together with them, ha. We're not the only ones here, are we?

Thanks much for the reassurance. I'm just a bit anxious about how my PS would compare to the kids who start coding at age 12 and have produced many programs to their name - I only started coding last year when I joined Computing and working with text files and objects in C++ is about the limit of my skills :s-smilie:

There's one or two "Maths and CS" people around, although they're not very active. I'll admit now: I'm pretty likely to go for "CS and Philosophy" cos I think that'll be great fun :biggrin:

I don't have huge coding experience, they say you don't need any at all! As long as we do okay in the MAT there's a chance for us :smile:

(and if the hardcore programmers do badly in the MAT... well it sucks to be them :wink:

)

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5671

Banoffeepie16

Original post by such_a_lady

I felt like such an accomplished woman writing my cheque :redface:

)

Oooh

I paid online so I didn't feel particularly accomplished :tongue:

Reply 5672

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n10/howard-hotson/dont-look-to-the-ivy-league

Original post by fluteflute

Arguing is never fun, but I wondered if you'd seen this video? It's pretty long and very one sided, but it was quite interesting. Even if it seems quite repetitive... (just watch the first five minutes or something)

It is a good video, but it's kind of dissuading the viewer from applying to uni altogether, when what he really needs to see is why British unis are better than American :tongue:

I think he's a bit of an American-dream idealist though, and he's more willing to pay something like $600 to apply to colleges which rely on rich students, Olympic athletes and sons of famous politicians to make themselves great, than £22 to apply to universities here which are equally as impressive, but perhaps look more at your brain than how many sporting awards you've won. Just sayin'.

Edit: found something :wink:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5673

radio1

anyone starting trinity in october? ideally econ and man =]

just have lots of questions so I am well prepared for 2012

Reply 5674

Brand New Eyes

Original post by radio1

anyone starting trinity in october? ideally econ and man =]

just have lots of questions so I am well prepared for 2012

Why would a fresher be on the applicants thread?

Reply 5675

Original post by Brand New Eyes

Why would a fresher be on the applicants thread?

Because they stalk us :ninja:

Reply 5676

JordieJ

1

Original post by fluteflute

Arguing is never fun, but I wondered if you'd seen this video? It's pretty long and very one sided, but it was quite interesting. Even if it seems quite repetitive... (just watch the first five minutes or something)

I for one enjoy a good argument :biggrin:

Reply 5677