The Student Room Group

Applying to the UK as an American?

I am an incoming junior in America and am wondering how to apply to Oxford for PPE. Can someone walk me through the process of applying as an international?
Complete and submit UCAS form by 15 October.
Remember you have five university choices.
Remember Oxford is interested in a personal statement that illustrates your interest in the subject rather than your extra curricular activities.

There's plenty of other information here as well as on the UCAS site:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/content.php?r=3049-applying-to-uni

https://www.ucas.com
Original post by ParkJiSung777
I am an incoming junior in America and am wondering how to apply to Oxford for PPE. Can someone walk me through the process of applying as an international?


Check out the Oxford website - plenty of info there.

Make sure you expect to have the ACT/SAT and AP/SAT2 scores to qualify. Write a good PS, find a good teacher to write your reference and focus on studying for your course's aptitude test - the TSA. Figure out where you will take the TSA.

Getting invited for an interview will depend primarily on the TSA score.
Original post by skitheeast
Check out the Oxford website - plenty of info there.

Make sure you expect to have the ACT/SAT and AP/SAT2 scores to qualify. Write a good PS, find a good teacher to write your reference and focus on studying for your course's aptitude test - the TSA. Figure out where you will take the TSA.

Getting invited for an interview will depend primarily on the TSA score.


I did some work for a professor at my local UC. Do you think I can submit their recommendation rather than my teachers?
Reply 4
Why not Harvard? I would love to go to Harvard but applying from England is so complex! 😢😢😢
Original post by ParkJiSung777
I did some work for a professor at my local UC. Do you think I can submit their recommendation rather than my teachers?


That is not how it works

UCAS references for students entering from School /FE are expected to provide a reference from their current place of study , same if you change courses ...

please for pities sake put any of the stupid patronage and bribery things that the US considers normal out of you mind
Reply 6
So someone has been really rude when there is no need to be! We are meant to be helping eachother out on here not trying to offend each other or try to make anyone feel embarrassed or stupid. 😠😠

I'm so sorry people are being rude on your post! I promise you we are not all like that in England & I hope you get into oxford & you enjoy living in England.
Original post by zippyRN
That is not how it works

UCAS references for students entering from School /FE are expected to provide a reference from their current place of study , same if you change courses ...

please for pities sake put any of the stupid patronage and bribery things that the US considers normal out of you mind


Thank you for telling me this. I was not aware of this. Can you explain to me how asking a professor who I've done work with for a letter of reference is bribery or patronage? I did not do work for her for a letter of reference but rather to collaborate with university professors on research.
Original post by ParkJiSung777
Thank you for telling me this. I was not aware of this. Can you explain to me how asking a professor who I've done work with for a letter of reference is bribery or patronage? I did not do work for her for a letter of reference but rather to collaborate with university professors on research.


Don't worry, it isn't either of those things - just ignore that user's unhelpful comment about that. The professor's reference will probably useful, but you should also have one from your teacher as well :smile:
Original post by sels22
So someone has been really rude when there is no need to be! We are meant to be helping eachother out on here not trying to offend each other or try to make anyone feel embarrassed or stupid. 😠😠

I'm so sorry people are being rude on your post! I promise you we are not all like that in England & I hope you get into oxford & you enjoy living in England.


Thank you so much for your kind words. I think they tried to expound on a point but came off a bit brief. Everyone has moments like this but your kind words made up for that. Thank you so much for them!
Original post by Batgirl98
Don't worry, it isn't either of those things - just ignore that user's unhelpful comment about that. The professor's reference will probably useful, but you should also have one from your teacher as well :smile:


Thank you for your help. I was under the assumption that you can have only one letter of reference but is it possible to have more than one?
Original post by ParkJiSung777
Thank you for your help. I was under the assumption that you can have only one letter of reference but is it possible to have more than one?


Well strictly speaking it's a UCAS application just one reference from your teacher, but you can always get a letter or something from the professor and get your teacher to include it in your official reference :biggrin:
Original post by Batgirl98
Well strictly speaking it's a UCAS application just one reference from your teacher, but you can always get a letter or something from the professor and get your teacher to include it in your official reference :biggrin:


So just to clarify, there is one official reference but it can have two reference letters in it?
Original post by ParkJiSung777
So just to clarify, there is one official reference but it can have two reference letters in it?


Pretty much, yes :smile:

Spoiler

Original post by Batgirl98
Don't worry, it isn't either of those things - just ignore that user's unhelpful comment about that. The professor's reference will probably useful, but you should also have one from your teacher as well :smile:


UCAS requires one reference for most courses ,

https://www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/apply-and-track/how-get-ucas-undergraduate-reference

letters of recommendation and other such forms of patronage are not required or accomodated by UCAS.

the situations where more than one reference is required are specific and tend to reflect certain specialised courses or applicatiosn routes ( e.g. pre-reg., teacher training or conservatoire).
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by ParkJiSung777
So just to clarify, there is one official reference but it can have two reference letters in it?


The UCAS form allows for only one reference to be included from teachers. This should be written by a teacher at your school (preferably with input from the teachers that teach you for the subjects most relevant to the course you're applying for). There is no reason why you couldn't ask the teacher writing your reference to include a bit of the reference from the professor (this is only worthwhile if the work you did with the professor was relevant to your degree!).

Should also point out, it would be best if the final reference reads as if it is one reference, rather than a teachers reference with the professors words stuck on the end!

Whatever work you did with the professor is probably worth mentioning in your personal statement too! (Again, providing it is relevant to the course you're applying for)
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by ParkJiSung777
Thank you for telling me this. I was not aware of this. Can you explain to me how asking a professor who I've done work with for a letter of reference is bribery or patronage? I did not do work for her for a letter of reference but rather to collaborate with university professors on research.


He could have expressed it better, but the point he was trying to make is that who you know carries no weight in the UK university application process. What is important is who you are.

Original post by MexicanKeith
The UCAS form allows for only one reference to be included from teachers. This should be written by a teacher at your school (preferably with input from the teachers that teach you for the subjects most relevant to the course you're applying for). There is no reason why you couldn't ask the teacher writing your reference to include a bit of the reference from the professor (this is only worthwhile if the work you did with the professor was relevant to your degree!).

Should also point out, it would be best if the final reference reads as if it is one reference, rather than a teachers reference with the professors words stuck on the end!

Whatever work you did with the professor is probably worth mentioning in your personal statement too! (Again, providing it is relevant to the course you're applying for)


Keith's point is a good one. Your best use of your work experience will be to build into your personal statement what you did and how it confirmed your interest in your subject. That is of far more interest in your application that the fact that you have a reference from a professor. After all, the university is recruiting you as a student, not the professor.
Original post by Crumpet1
He could have expressed it better, but the point he was trying to make is that who you know carries no weight in the UK university application process. What is important is who you are.



Keith's point is a good one. Your best use of your work experience will be to build into your personal statement what you did and how it confirmed your interest in your subject. That is of far more interest in your application that the fact that you have a reference from a professor. After all, the university is recruiting you as a student, not the professor.


Oh ok. I was thinking that having a statement from the professor would expound more on the things that I did and maybe her statement about me could explain my work ethic.

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