Kingsley's Oxford application journey
I'm in year 12 at the moment, and I'm looking to study Russian with philosophy at New College, Oxford.
I got all 9s (though I only did 9 subjects) at GCSEs, I did an EPQ 2 years early so I didn't have to do 10 GCSEs--- I got an A* in that but it is TOTALLY unrelated to what I want to do at uni so that was probably a bit stupid.
I got 96% in Russian GCSE though so I might be cooking there.
I do Russian, History and RS (which is basically philosophy) A level. I did art A level for a bit and then dropped it- I hope this won't harm my application.
We have had 2 exam cycles so far
Nov- --- I literally only revised for RS in this for some stupid reason
Russian- A* (scraped)
RS- A* (highest in the year)
History- A* (Scraped)
Feb-
Russian- A* (Second highest in the year)
RS- A* (highest in the year)
History- A* (I'm pretty sure it was one of the highest in the class--- it was 15% higher than everyone else in my class anyway)
Super curriculars-
- 1st prize in ISRSA national philosophy essay prize 2022
- Finalist in Northeastern university essay prize 2025
- Merit in Immerse education philosophy essay prize 2024
- Lead editor of school philosophy publication
- school philosophy reading group
- speaker at sixth form philosophy society
- speaker and committee member of senior languages society
- Anthea bell translation competition (haven't heard back about it yet)
- Anthony Cross Slavonic literature essay prize Fitzwilliam college, Cambridge--- not hear back yet
Extracurriculars
- 2nd XI football for school
- Amateur boxer
- Model United Nations secretary general
- MACE and BP debating
- played cricket for school a couple years ago
Books read so far
- Hegel: Past masters by Peter Singer
- How to read David Hume by Simon Blackburn
- Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
+ a bunch of journal articles and sections from books for reading groups and essay competitions
Books I have that I will promptly be reading
- Groundwork on the metaphysics of morals by Immanuel Kant
- Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill
- The heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
- Ethics by J.L. Mackie
- On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I'm about halfway through)
- Problems of philosophy by Bertrand Russell (I'm about 10% in)
Books that I'm going to buy to read this summer
- Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
- Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
- One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
- What is to be done? by Nikolai Chernyhevsky (THIS ONE IS SUPER IMPORTANT BECAUSE MY PERSONAL STATEMENT WILL BE ABOUT IT)
- introduction to logic
I got all 9s (though I only did 9 subjects) at GCSEs, I did an EPQ 2 years early so I didn't have to do 10 GCSEs--- I got an A* in that but it is TOTALLY unrelated to what I want to do at uni so that was probably a bit stupid.
I got 96% in Russian GCSE though so I might be cooking there.
I do Russian, History and RS (which is basically philosophy) A level. I did art A level for a bit and then dropped it- I hope this won't harm my application.
We have had 2 exam cycles so far
Nov- --- I literally only revised for RS in this for some stupid reason
Russian- A* (scraped)
RS- A* (highest in the year)
History- A* (Scraped)
Feb-
Russian- A* (Second highest in the year)
RS- A* (highest in the year)
History- A* (I'm pretty sure it was one of the highest in the class--- it was 15% higher than everyone else in my class anyway)
Super curriculars-
- 1st prize in ISRSA national philosophy essay prize 2022
- Finalist in Northeastern university essay prize 2025
- Merit in Immerse education philosophy essay prize 2024
- Lead editor of school philosophy publication
- school philosophy reading group
- speaker at sixth form philosophy society
- speaker and committee member of senior languages society
- Anthea bell translation competition (haven't heard back about it yet)
- Anthony Cross Slavonic literature essay prize Fitzwilliam college, Cambridge--- not hear back yet
Extracurriculars
- 2nd XI football for school
- Amateur boxer
- Model United Nations secretary general
- MACE and BP debating
- played cricket for school a couple years ago
Books read so far
- Hegel: Past masters by Peter Singer
- How to read David Hume by Simon Blackburn
- Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
+ a bunch of journal articles and sections from books for reading groups and essay competitions
Books I have that I will promptly be reading
- Groundwork on the metaphysics of morals by Immanuel Kant
- Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill
- The heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
- Ethics by J.L. Mackie
- On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I'm about halfway through)
- Problems of philosophy by Bertrand Russell (I'm about 10% in)
Books that I'm going to buy to read this summer
- Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
- Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
- One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
- What is to be done? by Nikolai Chernyhevsky (THIS ONE IS SUPER IMPORTANT BECAUSE MY PERSONAL STATEMENT WILL BE ABOUT IT)
- introduction to logic
Reply 1
Are you sure you want to apply to New College, Oxford???
Please take a look at: "The Oxford University - Alternative Prospectus"
College Suggester - Oxford University Alternative Prospectus
You are a well rounded applicant.
Remember Oxford won't care about your extracurricular activities!!! ☹️
However, Oxford do care about supercurriculars. So, 90% of your UCAS Personal Statement must be 'academic' and you can include one line about sports. 🙂
Your grades for Russian, History and Religious Studies look like being A*A*A* and so you should be shortlisted for interviews really without a doubt!!! 😀 lol
Remember to "think out aloud" and practice this with friends, teachers and parents or even brothers or sisters. Because the admissions tutors will model the interviews on a tutorial.
I wonder are you a private school applicant? Or are you indeed a state school applicant? 😧
Last but not least, ONLY 3 BOOKS should be included in your UCAS Personal Statement.
I wonder are you also applying to the LSE? UCL? KCL? Durham? Warwick? Bristol? Edinburgh? Manchester? Leeds? St. Andrews?
Please take a look at: "The Oxford University - Alternative Prospectus"
College Suggester - Oxford University Alternative Prospectus
You are a well rounded applicant.
Remember Oxford won't care about your extracurricular activities!!! ☹️
However, Oxford do care about supercurriculars. So, 90% of your UCAS Personal Statement must be 'academic' and you can include one line about sports. 🙂
Your grades for Russian, History and Religious Studies look like being A*A*A* and so you should be shortlisted for interviews really without a doubt!!! 😀 lol
Remember to "think out aloud" and practice this with friends, teachers and parents or even brothers or sisters. Because the admissions tutors will model the interviews on a tutorial.
I wonder are you a private school applicant? Or are you indeed a state school applicant? 😧
Last but not least, ONLY 3 BOOKS should be included in your UCAS Personal Statement.
I wonder are you also applying to the LSE? UCL? KCL? Durham? Warwick? Bristol? Edinburgh? Manchester? Leeds? St. Andrews?
(edited 1 month ago)
Reply 2
Original post by thegeek888
Are you sure you want to apply to New College, Oxford???
Please take a look at: "The Oxford University - Alternative Prospectus"
College Suggester - Oxford University Alternative Prospectus
You are a well rounded applicant.
Remember Oxford won't care about your extracurricular activities!!! ☹️
However, Oxford do care about supercurriculars. So, 90% of your UCAS Personal Statement must be 'academic' and you can include one line about sports. 🙂
Your grades for Russian, History and Religious Studies look like being A*A*A* and so you should be shortlisted for interviews really without a doubt!!! 😀 lol
Remember to "think out aloud" and practice this with friends, teachers and parents or even brothers or sisters. Because the admissions tutors will model the interviews on a tutorial.
I wonder are you a private school applicant? Or are you indeed a state school applicant? 😧
Last but not least, ONLY 3 BOOKS should be included in your UCAS Personal Statement.
I wonder are you also applying to the LSE? UCL? KCL? Durham? Warwick? Bristol? Edinburgh? Manchester? Leeds? St. Andrews?
Please take a look at: "The Oxford University - Alternative Prospectus"
College Suggester - Oxford University Alternative Prospectus
You are a well rounded applicant.
Remember Oxford won't care about your extracurricular activities!!! ☹️
However, Oxford do care about supercurriculars. So, 90% of your UCAS Personal Statement must be 'academic' and you can include one line about sports. 🙂
Your grades for Russian, History and Religious Studies look like being A*A*A* and so you should be shortlisted for interviews really without a doubt!!! 😀 lol
Remember to "think out aloud" and practice this with friends, teachers and parents or even brothers or sisters. Because the admissions tutors will model the interviews on a tutorial.
I wonder are you a private school applicant? Or are you indeed a state school applicant? 😧
Last but not least, ONLY 3 BOOKS should be included in your UCAS Personal Statement.
I wonder are you also applying to the LSE? UCL? KCL? Durham? Warwick? Bristol? Edinburgh? Manchester? Leeds? St. Andrews?
New College accept a lot of people from my school for Russian and we have a really good reputation there, and since I am one of my school's top Russian students, I think I would have a much better chance of getting in there than most other colleges (I don't really care that much about the college- I just want to go to Oxford). I only included the extracurriculars on there because I think it may show them, besides the academic rigor that I will show in the other parts of my statement, I will enrich uni life (that's the third question on the PS I think).
Most of the books I am going to read are mainly just to gain a broader knowledge of the subject, not all of them are for personal statements. The books I am going to use in my personal statement for russian are: what is to be done, notes from underground and maybe fathers and sons. For philosophy: Utilitarianism, groundwork on the metaphysics of morals and maybe ethics by Mackie.
Reply 3
Original post by kingsleyartha
New College accept a lot of people from my school for Russian and we have a really good reputation there, and since I am one of my school's top Russian students, I think I would have a much better chance of getting in there than most other colleges (I don't really care that much about the college- I just want to go to Oxford). I only included the extracurriculars on there because I think it may show them, besides the academic rigor that I will show in the other parts of my statement, I will enrich uni life (that's the third question on the PS I think).
Most of the books I am going to read are mainly just to gain a broader knowledge of the subject, not all of them are for personal statements. The books I am going to use in my personal statement for russian are: what is to be done, notes from underground and maybe fathers and sons. For philosophy: Utilitarianism, groundwork on the metaphysics of morals and maybe ethics by Mackie.
Most of the books I am going to read are mainly just to gain a broader knowledge of the subject, not all of them are for personal statements. The books I am going to use in my personal statement for russian are: what is to be done, notes from underground and maybe fathers and sons. For philosophy: Utilitarianism, groundwork on the metaphysics of morals and maybe ethics by Mackie.
More importantly, the books you've listed are fantastic for Russian. 😉
I am applying for Law at St. John's College, Oxford but I also think New College, Oxford is an amazing college as well. 😉
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