I’m in the second semester of my junior year and looking heavily into applying to UK universities, specifically Oxford. I know I want to go into the fashion industry, so I would be majoring in economics and management. I’m a little confused about the AP requirements that relate to England’s A-Levels because I’ve read that they have to be related to the course you plan on taking at the university. I was only able to take AP Human Geo and AP Gov my freshman and sophomore year respectively and got a 5 on Human Geo and 4 on Gov, but those were the only AP courses offered to me those years. Currently, I’m in AP Physics, AP Lang, AP Art History, and APUSH. I’m pretty confident I’m going to get a 5 on the APUSH test because I’ve nearly aced every test we’ve taken, and I’m also pretty confident in my scores in everything else besides Physics. Next year I’ll be taking AP Lit, AP Psych, AP Micro and Macro, and AP Stats, so I assume AP Micro and Macro and AP Stats would be related to the major, but I’m not sure what other scores would be important in getting into the economics and management course at Oxford. I also have a ton of EC’s that relate to business and my passions very well: 1st place at Nationals for DECA and am going to be an officer next year, I’ve owned my own fashion business for two years and started my first when I was 12, I started a fashion club at my school, I started an annual gallery for local artists and designers, I’m attending a 2-week entrepreneurship program at Berkeley this summer, and I do fashion photography as a sort of side hustle. I’m also looking for internships over the summer and other ways I can improve the economics aspect of my application. But, would anyone be able to inform me on what else I should do to prepare for the application process and what AP exams would be important for getting into Oxford’s economics and management program.
(I also got a 1500 on the SAT and a 33 on the ACT)
I’m probably not the most reputable source on the academic side of things, but in my experience, extracurriculars didn’t really aid or deflate anybody who applied to Oxford. Good Luck!
From the posts I’ve read, I think the general consensus is that they only matter if they relate directly to what you’re going to study, so I think my business, DECA, and the Berkeley program might boost my app a bit. But, thank you!
*Also, finances would not be an issue since I know they offer little to no financial aid to international students.
You need AP Calc for econ.
Yes without Calc BC you are not going to get an offer. You would need to switch AP Stats to Calc BC and even then you would at best only get a conditional offer requiring a 5 in Calc BC, and probably requiring 5s in Econ too.
More broadly you need to understand that this is a deeply mathematical course. There’s no way to avoid higher level math like in some economics courses at US colleges where you may not even need to take MV Calc. If your interests are primarily in management and business then Oxford may not be a good choice.
Aside from the glamour of the name, why do you want E&M at Oxford? Have you read the course description? the module descriptions? You might find this reading list that the E&M program posts for prospective students interesting:
https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/programmes/bahons-economics-and-management/reading-list
E&M is an exceptionally competitive course to get into (100 offers last year, from an applicant pool of 1500+). You’ll need a TSA score of mid-60s to get an interview- and 70+ to be really competitive. Not to mention the 5 on Calc BC.
Econ in the US is often used as the proxy for ‘business’ in schools that don’t have business majors, but it is more likely to actually mean economics in the UK. I suggest looking more to business (sometimes called ‘commerce’) courses in the UK than E&M type courses.
Also, this looks tailor-made for you:
https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/ug-business-and-management-fashion/