Return of the Oxblogster (for two weeks)

After a year of inactivity on the blog, and with the interview period upon us again at Oxford, it seemed appropriate to reactivate the Oxblogster account, and once again provide some insights into the selection process. Over the next two weeks, I will be observing a number of subject interviews, including law, medicine, theology,English literature, and that almost unique of Oxford combinations, PPP (Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology), as well as providing some more general musings about the admissions process.

To start with, I would like to draw your attention to a couple of other recent developments within Oxford admissions information. The first is the series of podcasts, which you can access at www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/podcasts The podcasts cover all sorts of areas relating to undergraduate admissions; of particular note are the discussions about the interviews for medicine, law, biological sciences and history, conducted with tutors.

The other web-based resource is the site developed by Oxford University Students Union (OUSU) which includes all sorts of material about admissions from the perspective of current students. In particular I would want to draw your attention to the case-studies on interviews written by some of Oxford's current undergraduates. The OUSU admissions site can be found at www.ousu.org/prospective-students.

Finally for today, one of the questions that I am sometimes asked is "Why can't an applicant apply for more than one subject at Oxford?" The answer, which should become clear as the blogs mount up, is that the tutors at Oxford are focusing on the applicant's engagement, enthusiasm and potential for success in their subject, not the applicant's wish to study at Oxford. If an applicant applies for two or even three individual subjects, it doesn't give a convincing impression that they have a genuine and focused commitment to the subject discipline.