Oxford and International Students

3

Hello guys, I am Qabas from Iraq. I aspire to study at Oxford University, majoring in Biomedical Sciences or Biology. I am nervous about what activities I should do since there are no activities or competitions in my province in Iraq, especially for girls and public schools.

Reply 1

xyz1234567

11

You don’t need to do activities. You just need to show passion and aptitude for your subject and a willingness to explore it beyond the school curriculum. This can involve reading books or listening to podcasts, and then reflecting on how that changes your understanding of the subject. It is not necessary to do competitions or participate in external activities and there is not a checklist of things you should have done.

Reply 2

jaerot

OP

3

Original post

by xyz1234567

You don’t need to do activities. You just need to show passion and aptitude for your subject and a willingness to explore it beyond the school curriculum. This can involve reading books or listening to podcasts, and then reflecting on how that changes your understanding of the subject. It is not necessary to do competitions or participate in external activities and there is not a checklist of things you should have done.

This makes it even more difficult. I currently participate in science fairs in my city and take courses from Coursera. I have three certificates so far. I also write short articles on science topics and co-edit my school's student magazine and write articles for it. Is this ok? Do you have any ideas?

Reply 3

xyz1234567

11

It’s not about what you do, it’s about how you reflect on it. Doing Coursera courses or writing essays or even winning a prize in a competition is not the thing that matters by itself - but if you can write and talk convincingly about what you learned from that experience and how it helped you develop as a biologist, that is what will make the difference.

Reply 4

user2008653

8

Original post

by jaerot

Hello guys, I am Qabas from Iraq. I aspire to study at Oxford University, majoring in Biomedical Sciences or Biology. I am nervous about what activities I should do since there are no activities or competitions in my province in Iraq, especially for girls and public schools.

hi, i recently applied for biology( idk if I’ve got an interview yet) but for Oxford they put a lot of emphasis on super curricular which is basically anything that relates to ur course and goes beyond ur school curriculum. For example, reading books ab biomed/biology. I think that writing ab how u write for ur schools magazine would be rlly good if u link it to the course you apply for, but make sure you talk about what you learnt from it. good luck!

Reply 5

Mr Tangle

8

Hey, Oxford law student here. I don't know about the sciences but one of my tutors says that for law apps they don't pay much attention to personal statements and supercurrics. They mainly care about the core academic work you've done, and how you do in the LNAT and whether you can talk the talk at interview. Might be similar for bio (do you guys do a test?), but I dunno. Good luck!

Reply 6

xyz1234567

11

No written work or tests for biology so the ps is important in getting shortlisted for interview.

Reply 7

Dolce Vita

10

Original post

by jaerot

Hello guys, I am Qabas from Iraq. I aspire to study at Oxford University, majoring in Biomedical Sciences or Biology. I am nervous about what activities I should do since there are no activities or competitions in my province in Iraq, especially for girls and public schools.

If you aren’t already aware, these course are subtly and yet significantly different in both content and admissions criteria. Biology doesn’t have an admissions test and therefore does place strong emphasis on the ps, stating this: ‘In order for your application to be competitive, it is essential that you display genuine passion for Biology in your UCAS form. You are unlikely to be shortlisted for interview if your personal statement does not make it clear that Biology is your preferred course of study’

Whereas Biomedical Sciences does have an admissions test and their view re ps is likely to be somewhat closer to that which Mr Tangle describes above. You might find it helpful to sign up for some of the Oxford admission webinars that will offer insight, particularly those that are subject specific.

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