申请牛津剑桥：本科课程的申请

For undergraduate study in Oxford & Cambridge you must apply by the middle of September in the year before you want to study (so 12 months in advance). First of all you must decide what course you want to apply for and then you must send a university application form to the university. You also must complete a UCAS application from and send this to UCAS (the deadline for this is mid October but you must already have completed the university application form). All students must be interviewed to be accepted by either university. Oxford interviews all their students in China in November (except Medicine & Fine Arts). Cambridge will probably interview you in China at the end of October but sometimes, where this is not possible the interview will be in Singapore or Malaysia.

When making you application you will see that you are asked what college you want to attend. Do not worry about this too much. It is an old tradition of these 2 universities (plus Durham). The university is composed of colleges. Your college will be where you live and where you do your extra study but it is not related to what you study. You can be in any college and still study any subject. As your college will be your home you will become proud of it but in reality no college is better than any other. You will be asked to state your preferences for which college you belong to (2 or 3 choices) and usually if you have a relative who has studied in Oxford/Cambridge before you will have a preference. However if you don’t have a preference you can just leave this ‘open’ (for the university to assign you) and this is probably the best thing to do.

Your interview will be about 30 minutes. It will be purely related to your subject of study (all questions will be technical), there will be no questions like ‘why do you want to come to Cambridge’ for example. You should prepare for it but be aware that the main thing the interviewers are looking for is the ability to think for your self. This can be a difficult concept for Chinese students but you should avoid reciting what you have read in a book or what your teacher has taught you. The university will be asking questions that specifically give you the chance to show what YOU think or what you have been TOLD (you should do the former). For Oxford you will be given 30 minutes to read a passage in English about your subject, the interview (about 30 minutes) will then be based on this passage (but remember if you just recite what you have read you will not impress – you must give YOUR opinions).

You will receive a decision in December/January. If you are required to take an extra test you will be notified and these are done in Oct/Nov.

To be successful is not easy only 10% of undergraduate students at Cambridge are International Students (it is 40% at postgraduate level). About 1 in 3 applicants from China are successful. To give an example, Oxford specifies that you must be in the top 1% of the Gao Kao examinations.

The most difficult courses to be admitted to are Architecture, Law & Medicine. For Medicine the universities are restricted, by Law, as to the number of International students they can accept (for Cambridge it is 20, for Oxford just 7 and you must interview in Oxford). For Law you should already have Law experience to be accepted (e.g. you have shadowed a Lawyer). For Architecture you must already have a portfolio of your artwork to show

NOTE: Oxford offers a Bachelors degree in 2 years in many cases (not Law) if you already have a Bachelors degree from another excellent university and you have exceptional grades.

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