The process that Oxford goes through to review applications

Okay, so this is something that is it’s I can’t probably go too into detail about this, because it does vary a lot, department by department at Oxford, it’s not, there’s not one way that all departments review their, their application. So I’ll give a bit more of a maybe a general overview. And so when your application, I guess, arrives to the university via UCAS. And I guess the first the first thing is you have to apply by the deadline, if you do not apply by the deadline, then your application goes, Yeah, will not get looked at all. So that’s the first filter. If you’ve applied by the deadline, your application will go to the academic department and the academic tutors who are reviewing the applications to their desks. So it doesn’t go to the admission staff desk, there is no application ever went to my desk when I worked at Oxford, it’s not something that the undergraduate admissions department have any we don’t have any power, or we didn’t have I didn’t when I was there, and they still don’t have any power over selection, unless you don’t apply on time in which they can get rid of your application. So we’ll go to the academic departments who are reviewing them. And they kind of they will get spread around the colleges. So if you have put a particular college on your application form, your application will get sent to the academic tutors of your subjects within that college to to look over. But they also go to the department in general. So the departments usually will always will have an overview of all applicants to their, to their subject to. And then what happens, let me think, so, so yeah, so they will go to the academic department and the academic tutor. So the admissions tutors, who are all academics who will teach you on the subject will then do I guess, the initial filter, but they won’t filter the applications until they get I think, the admissions test. So when they’ve received the admissions tests, the written work, if that’s included in the subject you’ve applied to this is when they’ll do the first filtering. And obviously, if you if you’re not predicted, or haven’t achieved the grades that they require for the course, then you’re then your application will get filtered out too. Because you’ll you won’t get a place if you’re not if you if you haven’t if you’re not at the at the grade standard either. And so I guess the first election will come after the admissions tests where they will look at the look at personal statements, they’ll look at your teachers reference, they’ll look at your grades, they’ll look at your admissions test results and kind of come up with you know which students they want to bring in for interview, which they don’t. But like I said departments do this quite differently. And some departments will score so they might score your admissions test result they might score your teachers reference, for example, and kind of come up with a list but others might do it slightly differently. So I can’t say a complete way that they will do it. And so that’s the first filter. And then if you are successful in this round, you get invited to interview and interviews currently take place online, whether they will in the future so they used to always take place in in Oxford, but now online. And then you have the interview there the interviews which I think we’re talking about a little bit later and after interview and everything be looked at, again, pretty much. So again, your interview will be usually they’ll maybe give you some kind of grade for your interview, some kind of grade for your admissions test, and, and then kind of have an overall picture of which students they want to. They want to take or not. So really, it’s very, very holistic way of looking at students. Very long winded answer.

Yeah, and I kind of think one of the reasons that the Oxford do this is because they want to make it as fair as possible. So they want to make sure that actually they are giving everybody the opportunity to really, really show themselves and, you know, you can’t see everything on paper, which is why they have the interviews, you can’t see everything from a personal statement, you don’t know how much help students have with it. And so this is where the these extra kind of admissions tests and interviews come in. So I think the idea is to really try and give this applicants as much opportunity as possible to really show themselves.

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