Hi, I don’t know if this is in the right section but I’m just going to go ahead and write. I want to go to Oxford or Cambridge when I graduate high school. Problem is… I don’t know what to fix or what I should do to become the student they want to accept. I am an upcoming junior in high school from Guam, small island in the pacific. I am a pacific islander if they care about diversity.
Freshman Year (I wasn’t thinking about my future in freshman year)
Algebra 1 80
Biology 90
English 89
Mandarin 85
Modern World History 95
Mythology 90
PE 97
Speech 87
Overall 89
Sophomore Year
American Lit 94
AP US History 98 (I got a 3 on the exam and a 690 on the SAT II Subject)
Chemistry 95
Court Games 100
Geometry 84
Intro To Philosophy 95
Intro To World religions 98
Mandarin 93
I am pursuing the IB Diploma my junior and senior year.
Junior Schedule
IBS Math Studies (I know give me my application to mcdonalds)
IBS Film
IBS Mandarin
IBS Philosophy
TOK
IBH English
IBH Biology
IBH asian Euro Hist
ECs
2nd place in IslandWide NHD Documentary
1st place Nationwide video competition for the Ninth Circuit Civics Contest
Eagle Scout (I am the Senior Patrol Leader)
JV basketball freshman year, Varsity basketball sophomore > senior year
I am starting lawyer for my mock trial team and we made it to nationwide finals
I am photo editor for my school newspaper,
Work Experience
I work for my my local newspaper and make videos for them and get paid
Thank you for all the help! I appreciate everyone who replies!
Do you know which subject you are going to apply for? Because being passionate and invested into it is the most important factor.
I decided that I would apply to Oxford two months before the application deadline, before I was certain that I would study in my homecountry. It worked out, because I had spent almost all of my free time on my subject before that, not because of uni (unis are non competative in my country), but because I enjoyed nothing more than Maths since I was 12. That’s maybe a bit extreme, but what I want to say with that is don’t worry about the details yet, just enjoy your subject, read books, do some competitions or other things related to it, … You don’t need to specifically prepare for applying two years early.
I wouldn’t worry about your school grades, I think you can’t even include them in your application and admission test and interviews are much more important. (Of course you need the right IB scores.)
Thanks for the reply. I’m unsure of what I want to study… I am working on everything right now so that I have options in the future. Congrats on getting into Oxford! I am pretty good at film right now but I don’t know if that’s what I want to study in college. I want to be an engineer or doctor or something.
Don’t worry, you still have lots of time to decide on what you want to study! Keeping options open is certainly a good thing. But if you want to do something related to film, then you have to look for other universities than Oxford and Cambridge, because they don’t offer that course on undergraduate level… Good luck with finding the right subject for you!
Become very well-versed and knowledgeable in the subejct area you wish to pursue study. I am not too familiar with Oxbridge admissions, but I am pretty sure that at least one of the schools involve an admissions interview with scholars/faculty which may be largely based on the discipline you wish to pursue. You probably need to really know your stuff/be very skilled to do well.
Both require an interview (or multiple interviews over the course of a few days), which is about discussing topics and solving problems in your subject area. Depending on your course there is written work to submit and/or an admission test.
The first thing is to be really, really, really sure about what you want to study. Think of a subject that you think you might like to study and go read the course description on the website- you will be able to see most of the modules that you will take. Read the descriptions. If those modules / descriptions get you excited then you are on to something, otherwise you need to re-think your choice. Medicine is pretty much a no-hoper for an international student in the UK, btw, so if that’s your direction look elsewhere (Ireland, for example). Engineering will require Math at HL.
Your admissions essay is about why you want to study that subject, and why you are a good candidate for it- demonstrating your mature understanding of, and passion for, the subject.
Your IB scores (HL), and as @Nyctea says, admission test/written work will be what are used to determine who gets an interview invitation.
@collegemom3717 That’s great help! I’m sorry if my post from earlier sounds a bit naive and was bad advice, it seems a bit like that to me…
I probably wasn’t clear enough in what I actually wanted to say, because I kind of assumed that the OP knows what he/she wants to study, which was probably not a good idea. If he/she had known his subject choice then it would have been a great idea to read books about it and participate in programs or competitions related to it. And, most importanty - enjoy it and get really good at it.
What I meant by saying that’s it’s not yet the time to prepare specifically, was that practising for the admission test and writing the personal statement could wait for the summer holidays. On the other hand, while two months of preparation worked out for me, a sample size of one should not be drawn conclusions from… It was certainly the most stressful time of my life so far and if I had known I would apply I would have started preparing earlier on.
Also, @youngmogul when searching for what you want to study, do not focus too much on what the subject was like in school. Of course you should be good at it, and it’s a positive sign if you enjoyed it, but the way you learn things in school and the way you learn them at university can differ extremely. So if you think that a subject suits you, try to read something related to the actual course to see if it suits you. Maths is actually a great example because in school students are often just putting numbers into formulas, but at university it’s far more abstract and a lot more about understanding and proofs. To me the latter is fascinating and enjoyable, while in school I was bored because lessons were the opposite of challenging. On the other hand, some students are disappointed when they realise what Maths is like at uni.
Additionally, on Youtube there are often videos of lectures, so you could watch and find out what would be interesting for you. Another source of materials would be OpenCourseWare pages. (I’m sorry that I always take Maths as an example, but I did near to nothing else outside school. I guess I would have been an atrocious candidate for US universities )
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