I am an American student who will be graduating in 2025. My goal is to go to the University of Oxford and study law. I have done some research into the international requirements that Oxford requires and for an AAA level certification, I need four AP exams at a level five. By May of this year, I will have reached that. I also know that I will have to take the LNAT in September. I have an unweighted GPA of 3.8 and a weighted GPA of 4.45. I also have plans to take the SAT and ACT this summer.
For extracurricular activities, I am a nationally ranked debater, I was the president of my nation wide Latin club, the president of my 4H club for two years, member of my school’s national honors society, have over 250 hours of community service and I serve as a youth lawyer for my town’s teen court I also was home schooled for my entire school experience besides my last two years of highschool and live in a small Colorado town of about 700.
The APs I have taken:
AP Human Geography -5
AP English Language - 3
-AP English Literature -3
-AP European History -3
-AP Psychology -5
-AP Microeconomics -TBD
-AP Macroeconomics -TBD
-AP US History -TBD
-AP US Government -TBD
-AP Comparative Government
With these stats, do I have a chance of getting into Oxford and what do I need to do to get a better chance?
Hello and welcome. As an aside, why law? Are you planning to practice law, and if so where?
Anyway, I note one issue with Oxford is they are going to require you to report all your AP scores, and frankly I do not know what they might think about some of the lower scores. I note that the Law course at Oxford, like anywhere, is going to be a reading-intensive course, and so the 3s in subjects like English and History may be of some concern to them. I don’t think that means you should not apply, but I think it is a good thing to understand.
Obviously you already know about the LNAT, which is good.
Otherwise, you will need to be granted an interview, and then you need to do really well in the interview. I suggest you check out this page generally, and specifically the video on interviews:
The good news is their law course is not one where you need to know about the law already. But you do need to show you are going to be someone the tutors interviewing you would like to have in a tutorial. There is lots of advice online, but I always think the best idea is to make sure you are being an active and valued member of classroom conversations, maybe do some one on one time with your teachers as appropriate, basically practice being that sort of student.
I don’t have much advice about applying to Oxford, but the threads linked below may be of interest as a student who was interested in math ended up applying (and getting accepted) to Oxford. There were sections of the thread that also discussed attire, the format of the interviews, etc. So although it’s not in your field of interest, it may also be helpful to you.
Paging @Twoin18 he may also have some helpful advice.
Interestingly, the Law course (actually Jurisprudence) at Oxford may be best suited for Americans NOT intending to be practicing lawyers.
Even in the UK, it has, shall we say, not the best reputation in terms of practical training. And while it is fine to go to Oxford for undergrad and apply to US law schools, for that purpose I would pick something less on the nose, like say PPE (really a greatest hits of majors popular before US law school), or Classics (arguably the best single major to actually prepare you for legal reading, and at Oxford!), or Geography (a legendary, and really cool, interdisciplinary course at Oxford). Or just something fun!
But if you were thinking of going into government or business or something, I could actually see Oxford’s Jurisprudence course being a kind of cool outside the box choice. You’d actually get a kinda broad overview of a variety of different legal systems, and I could see that actually being a valuable background for careers which are less about practicing law, but do involve frequent dealings with a variety of legal authorities, or indeed creating law.
This is why I’ve asked the question. I know kids who think “Oh, law degree from Oxford, White Shoe Law Firm in NYC here I come” and I try to help those kids hone their legal research skills by encouraging them to do their homework.
I think the 3’s in core APs (history, English) will be a problem, and you will need 5’s in all the remaining subjects. Law at UK universities, but esp Oxford is reading and writing intensive. You will be writing several papers a week, with several sources to read for each, and then presenting your work in a v small group (2-3 students plus prof) to discuss and defend your point of view. All this in an 8 week semester.
Getting an A in the course but a 3 on the exam doesn’t bode well for a high stakes exam based grading system. All those essays I mentioned above? they don’t count for your grade - its based largely on end of term exams.
Does this way of working appeal? Have you read the course description which will tell you what you’ll be studying for the next 3 years? Do any of the following texts sound interesting to you? have you read any?
Unfortunately, scores of 3 in core courses (English Lit, English Language, and European History) for Humanities&Law are likely to disqualify you from Oxford Law or any other “course” (degree program) at the most selective UK universities. Hopefully you get a 5 for APUSH, Economics, and Government - if you have Calculus BC you could apply to “courses” that require maths.
Agree with other commenters. Don’t bother with Oxford. These AP scores are disqualifying. It is very unfortunate that you seemingly took them in sophomore year because you have to send all scores. You might get away with one 3 in sophomore year but not three of them (my S18 got a PPE interview with a 3 in Euro but the remaining five were all 5s, and had four more predicted 5s for senior year, he didn’t get an offer). I suppose you could try retaking, but it sounds like you have plenty on your plate for this year already. And as others have said, it is hard to persuade UK universities to offer a place for law unless you have the right to work in the UK or in a Commonwealth country that follows UK law.
Thats super interesting and something I didnt come across when researching. My goal ironically was to get my undergrad at Oxford/a similar UK school and then come back for a United States law school and to then work in the US (specifically in New York). Do you know of any other schools that have law courses that would be more fitting for this? Thanks!
US Law schools are comprehensive-- you will learn EVERYTHING you need to become a lawyer in the US during your three years at law school. The best preparation for law school is something reading and writing intensive- philosophy, history, political science. Some of the most successful lawyers in the country (including Supreme Court judges) never took a single undergrad class in law. That’s not how it works in this country- undergrad legal courses will not cut short the three years you will need for a law degree (and then studying for and passing the bar).
I agree, I would recommend against a law degree before US law school.
Anything reasonably academic that you really like and get really good grades in is fine. If you want more guidance than that, anything that involves a lot of essays is good, and anything that involves reading really difficult texts is the best possible preparation.
But don’t force it. Hopefully you do enjoy difficult reading and essays, but you can still do whatever you really love and do well in.