Oxford Graduate Application 2012/13

quite right - edited my other post to mention this in case of confusion! Good luck all, off I go to make my writing sample shorter and sweeter.

If your undergraduate degree was in History I would submit your best essay from that. Don't worry too much there is quite a lot of overlap and it's your academic skills they're looking for.

I'm going to send them a quick email to confirm we need to submit 2 x 2,000 word essays...

This is wonderful! Thank you so much. I was in a similar fix about the whole 2000-word each problem. Now, I can work in peace.

Does anyone have any idea about the topics of the written work? I mean, I am a history major but I'm applying for IR. So, can I post anything from my course work or do I need to write on an IR/Political Science related issue?

I would also suggest your best work from your current degree, rather than worrying about it being IR.

Hi everyone - English, 1550-1700 MSt. Also applying to similar courses at Cambridge, York, Warwick and Edinburgh. Warwick is looking like a strong 2nd choice...3 months erasmus placement in Venice!

Essays and refs all ready to go, having a meltdown over the research proposal/personal statement. I read my friend's who got into Cam - it was just a very brilliant essay plan, basically. I'm working full time and so completely out the academic loop. Where to even start? How much info do they want - concepts, or specifics - I think mentioning previous work is a good idea, but bibliographies?!

GAH.

Wherever I end up, I can't wait to start....

x

IIRC you can make a first and second choice? If so, I believe the conventional wisdom is to put down a rich, old and centrally-located college followed by a less popular, poorer, newer and more remote college that you still like.

Hi everyone - English, 1550-1700 MSt. Also applying to similar courses at Cambridge, York, Warwick and Edinburgh. Warwick is looking like a strong 2nd choice...3 months erasmus placement in Venice!

Essays and refs all ready to go, having a meltdown over the research proposal/personal statement. I read my friend's who got into Cam - it was just a very brilliant essay plan, basically. I'm working full time and so completely out the academic loop. Where to even start? How much info do they want - concepts, or specifics - I think mentioning previous work is a good idea, but bibliographies?!

GAH.

Wherever I end up, I can't wait to start....

I found the personal statement really tricky too, for the same course. If you'd like to see mine (with identifying info redacted, as I am already a bit too obviously myself on here ), PM me - the downside is that, of course, I am in exactly the same boat as you and applying now, so mine may not be any good at all! It certainly doesn't have the seal of approval that your friend's Cambridge one has.

I'm applying to go back to my original college, so it's college choice isn't much of an issue for me - but both Merton and Lincoln are lovely; I'm sure you'd have a great time at either!

Also, I am so envious re: York and Edinburgh! I can't apply anywhere too far from home (in the South), and it cuts out some great options. Warwick was on my list, but the funding situation there doesn't seem too great, unfortunately.

You did Oxford undergrad? Yay, you can help us all pick colleges Seriously, this is quite a peculiar aspect of the Oxford application, and I really don't understand how one goes about it. I mean, I get that there are scholarships particular to colleges, but I did tick the little box that says override my choice if a scholarship comes up. So I don't really know what to pick, nor do I want to think about it too much and obsess. Still, I'm visiting Oxford soon so might get a better feel for what it's all about.

Sad to hear you're restricted in your choices. York and Edinburgh are great cities with some very cool scholars. But Oxford's not too shabby either.

You did Oxford undergrad? Yay, you can help us all pick colleges Seriously, this is quite a peculiar aspect of the Oxford application, and I really don't understand how one goes about it. I mean, I get that there are scholarships particular to colleges, but I did tick the little box that says override my choice if a scholarship comes up.

Getting a feel for it through visiting is definitely wise! I think most people end up liking their colleges, to be honest, and you're less tied to it at grad level than you are as an undergraduate - so you're unlikely to end up miserable about your choice. If it feels pleasant and fits any basic requirements you might have (location, accommodation, &c.), then you will probably have chosen very well. Which ones are you leaning towards now?

I'm sorry but am I misunderstanding the form? Doesn't it ask you to tick the box if you do not wish them to override your college choice even if you can get funding from another college?

The application says -
We may override your preferred college choice (if you have indicated one) in order to enable you to take up funding you are awarded by a different college. This may apply to Clarendon scholarships as described above, and other funding. If you do NOT wish to have your preference changed to take up a funding offer, please tick this box.

So, ideally, if you want them to override your college choice, you leave the box unchecked, isn't it? I know it sounds like a silly question but the above post confused me.

I think there's no option of second choice. All they have is one column for college preference. So, I am assuming that putting a college means only one choice.

Ah, in that case it's either changed, or -- and this is much more likely -- my memory's off. Sorry!

Not sure, as it's years since I was last in Oxford. I used to have a good friend at New and visited quite a bit. We went round Magdalen once and I thought it was magnificent, I had one of those Wordsworth earth-hath-not-anything-to-show-more-fair moments. But I was a lot younger then, I wonder if my tastes have changed. I need to go and have a little wander around and see if the gut-wrenching beauty of Magdalen still works for me, or if the intervening years have limited my susceptibility to such things.

I do, genuinely, worry that that is happening. I'm sure I used to feel more as a teenager. I need to get out of England and go and see some really great mountains or something, you know, or some particularly excellent stretch of spruce forest or maybe some Aztec ruins or something like that. Does the constant drive to prove oneself really deaden you inside? Maybe.

But this is highly irrelevant ...

I think you need to travel to some continental landscapes, that would reawaken your sense of the sublime! Or, indeed, maybe Magdalen will.

I mean, I know that sounds as though I'm joking, but actually I do rather know what you mean - there is a sort of absorption in things (not literally 'getting and spending' when one's an English student, but broadly akin) which does draw one away from that immediacy of response, I think. I don't believe that your capacity for it is killed or erased, though; perhaps just because I can't bear to believe that.