UK DOPERS: Oxford University help.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hey Dopers!

I have put through my Oxford application. I have applied to study Modern History and Politics at Magdalen College.

I am in the process of sending off my written work to be assessed and after that comes the interviews in mid December.

I wanted to ask any dopers out there who have been or are at Oxford University and have gone through the application procedure what the interview will be like and what can I expect (that is, if I get an interview) Also, any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.

2

When I went (this was 20 years ago) the interviews were pretty intense (I had three). IIRC, the interviews were all fairly short as they are seeing a lot of people. They will almost certainly ask you about your written work in detail and probably throw a curve ball (sorry, bowl you a googly) or two. I think the reason they do this is to see how well you can think on your feet. Don’t be afraid to answer truthfully. They are not looking for people who can recite an A level syllabus parrot fashion, but for people who either have an opinion on something or aren’t afraid to say “I don’t know”. The best advice I can give is to try and relax and be yourself.

3

I note that you come from that small market town in the fens to which those ex Oxford scholars fled some time ago!

Best of luck in applying from ‘the other place’. :smiley:

Have lived in both so know a little of the rivaries- never know who to support for the boat race :wink:

4

I’m currently a student at Oxford - but studying physics, so I can only offer general advice. The main point is that, as Tapioca says, they’re primarily interested in how you think rather than in how well you can repeat things. They will probably ask you a question that seems very odd, or at least very challenging - just approach it in the manner you would any historical question, gather evidence for each side, analyse it, and come to a conclusion. Talk them through your thought process as you go.

On a more specific note, I also went to school in Cambridge. If you’re at the Perse or the Perse Girls, they’ll arrange a mock interview for you, which will bring some of these details out. If you’re going to a school that doesn’t arrange these things, I’d suggest e-mailing the Cambridge University Student Union access officer - he/she might well be able to put you in touch with a Cambridge tutor who’s willing to offer you a mock interview or advice to settle your nerves.

Good luck with your application! Let me know if you need anything else.

5

Questions asking for advice belong in the IMHO forum.

I’ll move this for you.

-xash
General Questions Moderator

6

Hey!

This is funny, I’m studying History and Politics right now at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford (3rd year) - Magdalen’s just down the street. History and Politics is a brilliant course, it’s extremely open-ended, the number of topics you can choose between just keeps growing, and basically you get to study just about anything you want. But I digress.

As for the interview, Tapioca Dextrin is basically right. The people who study lots for the interview to be prepared to ramble off a textbook answer at any academic question they get asked never seem to make it in, because none of the tutors want to teach parrots. Everyone I’ve talked to here about our interviews seem to agree that the key is to be relaxed, confident, and be able to quickly form an opinion and defend it. Of the ten or so people I met having interviews for history and/or politics, only one other got in as far as I recall; that was another guy who was just applying for a laugh and wasn’t really expecting to get in, but thought it would be worth a try. All the people who studied to present a big academic thesis in the interview rather than just showing up with their own opinion for a casual chat about history I have never seen since.

That’s the general stuff. In particulars: for my history interview, I came into the room faced with the three history tutors. One of them started with the simple question “Why Oxford?” and some follow-up questions about the Danish education system. Then the second guy cut in, a man who I’ve since discovered is great fun. After finding out that there was no point discussing the history paper I’d submitted because I’d written it over a year ago and couldn’t remember any of the readings for it, he mentioned the basic argument of a book called “The End of History” and asked if I agreed with it. I said absolutely not, and we had a nice 5-10 minute heated argument about it, as this tutor’s tactic for interviews as well as tutorials is to take up the position contrary to your own and see how well you defend yourself. So we kept arguing about this book’s thesis (which I can’t really remember anymore, nor other specifics about what we argued about) until our time ran out, and that was it. The third tutor just cut in twice, with surprise questions from completely different angles of the argument.

For the politics interview, there was just one tutor, and the first question was “How do you define democracy?”, then I was asked to give examples of some democratic and some non-democratic states and why the are/are not democratic. I actually think that was about it, there must have been a few more questions on political theory and practise, but I can’t think of them right now. It was a quick, simple, relaxed interview, so it doesn’t really stick out in my mind.

Anyway, that’s just an in-depth way of saying that the previous posters were dead on. It’s really not a big deal, these people have been working here long enough to know most of the time who’ll make a good candidate and who won’t. Good luck!

Anyway, if you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask. Hell, I might even be around during interview time.

7

Thanks everyone for some great posts!

TOFFE, cheers especially for the long and informed reply. PLEASE tell me you are Danish and that is why they asked you about the education system there!!! Because if that was just a general question they ask, I’m screwed. :slight_smile:

Did you say that you had already studied/read the book “The End of History” and that is why you spoke about it, or are you again just expected to know the book? Do you suggest I read anything (particular books etc) before the interview, to broaden my knowledge and to show wider appreciation for history/politics etc, or not?

If you can remember, what was your answer to “Why Oxford?” I know my reasons, Intimacy of the tutorials and close relationships to tutors, standard of teaching, worldwide respect for an Oxford degree etc, but what were yours?

Thanks very much.

Kris.

8

Yes, I’m Danish (well, Danish father, Swedish mother, born in Norway, grew up in East Africa…) :slight_smile: Don’t worry about getting a question like that.

And no, I had not read the book “The End of History”. The interrogative tutor summed up the main points and arguments of the book as a basis for the following argument and I challenged it on that basis. There’s not really anything you can read or study to prepare for the interview. Since you’ve submitted work it would help to actually remember what you wrote, unlike me, and know a little about that area of history/politics, but I’ve proved that even that isn’t essential. For politics you might want to know your opinion on some issues beforehand (eg the nature of democracy), but even if you’re unsure on what you really believe (like I was, one of the reasons I study politics is to discover what I really believe, and it’s worked) just be prepared to say that and state why with reasons (eg there are different definitions of democracy and different states have different priorities of social rights vs. political rights). I really believe you shouldn’t actively try to prepare for anything they’ll ask, or try to show off your knowledge. One guy I’ve heard of who got in had his interview end with "well, it sounds like you don’t have a clue about this subject [biochemistry, I think]. That’s good, that means we can teach you. You’re in!” I’d expect that if you went into a politics interview quoting Rousseau and Aristotle rather than giving your actual own opinion, you’d be rejected immediately as a show-off with no capacity for original thought. One of the people I met at interviews who didn’t get in had studied Gandhi and Indian independence a lot, and that’s what his submitted work was about. I suspect he didn’t get in because he spent too much time presenting other peoples’ arguments and spouting facts than actually providing his own opinion or showing some original thinking.

Some knowledge of current events might help in a politics interview, but they might not ask any questions regarding current events anyway; one tutor preparing us for our first year exams outright told us not to make use of any events less than a year old in our essays to support our arguments, because Oxford being as it is, he figured most of the tutors wouldn’t have heard of recent events anyway. He said the September 11th attacks might be an exception, but even there we should be careful. (This was in May 2002)

As for “Why Oxford?”: I think my reply was that:
-both my siblings had studied in Britain, and found the system quite good
-the resources at Oxford are fantastic; I wouldn’t have access to as many books or experts in either Scandinavia or other British universities
-the course sounded like a laugh
-in Oxford I could tailor the course to my own preferences more than anywhere else, so it would get to be both useful and good fun.

Then again, some interviews are completely different. A girl I know in Cambridge told me about one of her friends’ interviews (for chemistry); the interview started with “I like dragons. Don’t you?”