<p>As for recs, my son has had to get recs for two outside scholarhips and his tutors were very willing to write them. However, instead of providing a lot of meaningful detail, as one might be likely to expect from an American professor (or for a college app, for that matter) they were quite succinct - “Mr. _____ is an excellent student and is coping very well with an extremely demanding course.” I do hope he can obtain more words per rec for the grad school apps! :0 </p>
<p>One of the rec writers was the equivalent of a full professor, the other the equivalent of an associate professor - neither put D. Phil. after their names or any other titles except “Tutor” - this seems to be typical of the understatement at Oxford. And the university does not provide transcripts until after graduation. Don’t know how my son will work with this for graduate school applications. I’ve told him to work up a list of all of his papers in all three subjects, as well as the primary reading material. This is not that easy to do, because typically there are few textbooks; the tutors list tons of articles as primary elements of the paper reading list.</p>
<p>The systems are very different, no question. However, he selected Oxford primarily for “The Education” and “The Education” is absolutely being delivered, in spades. What comes after may require some translation and a bit of tap-dancing.</p>