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[kalinixta]

Hello! Wannabe-Oxonian (but who isn't one, really).

(I was recently directed here from a friend at college_help and I was just looking for some tips.)

I'm still a lowly high school student but have been dreaming of Oxford since I was an eight-year-old. Since it's now my time to start the college search crack down, I've begun to seriously look into it- and now I'

Comments

[tyopsqueene]

You need to focus before you'll get good answers to any of those questions.
'Medical' or 'educational' is much too vague - the UK educational system is much more focused and specialised than the US one, and something that undefined will probably not get you anywhere. Do you want to study medicine? Or education? Or psychology? or what? And when you know which of those really interests you, ask yourself if Oxford is actually the best place to go.

I do admissions for graduates coming to Oxbridge; we get a lot of US students applying. If you want to guarantee that you'll get rejected, then make us think that the only reason you want to come here is for the 'prestige'. You need to want to come because it's educationally right for you, and you've really thought through your options, not just because it's a famous name you heard as a kid.

[sebastienne]

I do admissions for graduates coming to Oxbridge

..I almost certainly work in the same office as you, sometimes.

[smellingbottle]

There should be a secret LJ handshake...

To the OP - exactly what typosqueene said. Why do you want to study at a university at a university you know nothing about in a country you've never been to? If you are shortlisted for interview, you will need to convince the interviewers that you are the right match for the course, appropriately qualified and committed, as well as intellectually capable of its demands - having some unfounded romantic fantasies about the town or the university won't cut any ice there. As you've already heard, Oxford undergraduate courses, like most undergraduate courses in the UK, aren't the kind of large generalist thing you are able to do in the US, where you can wander about a bit before accumulating modules towards your major - here, you apply for a specific course in one subject (or two, if it's a Joint Hons degree). And medicine, for instance, is an undergraduate, not a postgraduate degree - you normally enter straight from school. You need to decide exactly what you want to study, and if it's, say, medicine, make

Probably not.

[tyopsqueene]

Departments screen candidates too :) and I'm more, uh, of a fens girl.

[anagrammatical]

'Going into it totally blind'...'As experienced students, what kind of qualifications are we really talking about here?'...'Obviously, I'm totally lost.' I'm not trying to be nasty at all, and there's no reason why you can't get into Oxford, but you really need to do some basic research first

[anagrammatical]

http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/international_students/index.html

[ladyjulian]

International qualifications: SAT 1 scores of at least 1,400 in Critical Reading and Mathematics and preferably also 700 or more in the new Writing Paper, giving a combined score of at least 2,100. OR ACT with a score of at least 32 out of 36.

AND

Grade 5 in three or more Advanced Placement tests in appropriate subjects OR SAT II in three appropriate subjects at 700 or better.

If you can get the grades, and you get an interview, you then need to convince the interviewers why it is that you want to do the particular subject you've set your heart on. Good luck!

There were international students from the US when I was there, but there were also visiting students who just came over for a year. If you're applying to US colleges too, then find out whether they offer an exchange program with Oxford.