20 yr old American wanting to go to Oxford

I can't answer all your questions, but...


I don't know, because I don't know what your grades mean. They will expect you to get an equivalent of AAA at A-level or have a damn good excuse for not having done so...

is it not A*AA now?

Nope, that's Cambridge

Cambridge seem harder to get in to, they look at your UMS grades and retakes
is Cambridge more popular?

Cambridge seem harder to get in to, they look at your UMS grades and retakes
is Cambridge more popular?

I'm 2 years removed from school. I have no APs(not that I'm not capable) and my GPA is like 2.8, I think. I'm not the same person that I was in high school though, and feel my grades are really meaningless in a sense because things have changed a lot. i grew up in a very dysfunctional home and school was rough for me in that way. I always did great in English and have more than enough intellectual ability and comprehension to succeed at Oxford. Its just a matter of them seeing that ability. i'm just going to apply and write a damn good essay and see what happens.

Ah, they'll only look for potential to a certain degree -- by almost necessity, the top universities aren't as progressive as their prospectuses. Go for it though, sure; just don't be disappointed if it doesn't work out.

Of course they're looking for potential. It's just that people occasionally get a bit confused as to what "potential" in this context actually means. It doesn't necessarily just mean "cleverer than you'd think by looking at his grades" it means "very likely to perform well (if pushed a bit) and achieve at least a 2.1 at the end of his degree", because that's what ultimately counts.

Isn't that a somewhat circular argument? The implication being that if Oxford picks someone, he must be likely to perform better than someone they don't (i.e. have more potential), therefore, those who believe that rejected applicants with greater potential than accepted applicants are sometimes rejected must be wrong.

No; the admissions tutors simply aren't always right. It's not really their fault, either - if a candidate has loads of potential but not the right grades or doesn't do well enough at interview, they're probably not going to spot it.

Exactly, if you read my second paragraph, I said, in effect, exactly that.

I just wanted to share my experience with you.

I'm a 25 year old from the US and I'm studying Medicine at Imperial College School Medicine.

I was not a good student in high school by any stretch of the imagination. I barely passed my grades, hardly showed up, and was ranked in the high 600's out of 730. I did vocational classes in the last two years (Auto Tech) and just the bare minimum state requirements. I also had bad conduct and got in a few altercations at school. I actually didn't even finish as I left before the 2nd semester in my senior year. Just withdrew and walked out. Hardly glowing.

I married an English girl and turned my life around. I moved to London and decided I wanted to become a doctor; as you do. So I went to a local 6th Form private college and did a fast track GCSE course and did 6 subjects (bio, chem, physics, maths, ICT, English) and got 6 A*s in 1 year. That's generally the minimum needed to apply for medicine. GCSE's were what I perceived to be at a US high school level of difficulty.

I then did a normal 2 year A-Level course in Bio, Chem and Physics and got 3 A's. A-levels were what I perceived to be basic US college level or at least the AP high school classes; though I wouldn't really know as I was never in either.

In my 2nd year of A-levels I applied to 4 medical schools; Oxford being one of them. I got rejected from Oxford though, but that could've been for a few reasons [minimum number of GCSE's and I got a mediocre BMAT (a separate entrance exam for medics)]. I got rejected from 2 others but I got and interview at Imperial. After the Imperial interview, I was rejected. I was **** at interviews and didn't really know what I was doing.

I re-applied the following year and got 4 straight rejections without an interview.

After that, I went and did as many hospital attachments as I could. I also managed to get a long term placement in a research lab for Muscular Dystrophy at a prestigious Imperial-linked hospital. It was unpaid and on a voluntary basis but it looked damned good on my personal statement.

I then applied for a third time (are you counting? that's 1 year of gcse's, 2 years of a-levels and 2 more years after that with a 3 application attempts; that's 5 years total). I got another interview at Imperial and an interview at Liverpool. I seriously worked on my lacking interview skills and I got offers from both.

Imperial was the only school I applied for each of the three attempts. It's the only one I really wanted to go to. Oxford would've been nice, and Imperial is not Oxford, but Imperial is still one of the top medical schools in the world. Some rankings have put Imperial above Oxford; but I don't really trust rankings much.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. But if you really want to make it happen, things can be done. I'm not sure you will be able to get into Oxford with your current qualifications but it doesn't hurt to apply anyway.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

I don't see how hobnob's argument was circular, then. She said nothing more than "Oxford are looking for students who will do well".

Well, she implied that the system is equitable and those who believe that applicants with potential are sometimes rejected (necessarily or otherwise) must have an invalid idea of potential -- because Oxford tends not to reject people with potential as she defines it -- why? presumably because the system is equitable. At least that's what I got from it.

as noone has said so yet.....


well done. that is a phenomenol achievement considering your time in US High school. You knew what you wanted, and put in 5 years of solid concentration and effort to achieve it. I'm sure you will be an excellent doctor.

Wow. Well, I'm fairly sure that's nothing like what she said; she didn't mention who got accepted or rejected, just what they were looking for. Not how successful they were in their search.

Well, you might like to have a look at their website - you'll see that you can only study one subject, with a few preset exceptions. So you'd be studying English Language and Literature.


Well, ok. I don't know anything about American grades, but if you don't have the grades, you won't get the interview, unless you have some kind of extenuating circumstances.


If you have the grades they are asking for, and passion for your subject, you have as much chance as anyone else. Remember that it's stiff competition, and admissions is frequently (slightly pejoratively, but only slightly) compared to a lottery. No one can predict whether anyone will get in or not.


Same way as anyone else - through UCAS. As this is Oxford, you'll also need to fill in a few extra forms and so on, and you have an earlier deadline - you'll need to apply by the middle of October this year for 2010 entry (rather than the middle of January, which is the deadline for most courses). I'm sure this page will explain it better than I can, and with much less effort on my part. Though do write back if you have any questions.

One final thing I should mention is the personal statement that's required of you to apply to any British universities - it's absolutely nothing like the American style of personal statement, and that kind of thing sounds really odd to us. There are examples all over TSR (see links at the top of the page), and there's a dedicated personal statement help forum - go and have a look there.