<p>Hi. I was thinking of applying to Oxford for economics. I was wondering if anybody knew what percent of American students get admitted to any course at Oxford?</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>From the Oxford website, the numbers for 2012 admissions were:</p>
<p>389 US citizens, and a total of 428 applicants living in the US, applied. 34 of the US citizens, and 34 of the applicants living in the US were accepted, for an acceptance rate of 8.7/7.9%. </p>
<p>That compares to a rate of ~10% for non-UK EU nationals and non-EU nationals (skewed by Australia, China and Singapore with rates of 16+%), and 22% for UK nationals. And it’s twice as high as Canada ;-)</p>
<p>It is do-able, and there is loads of information available online, on the Oxford website (and Oxford produced info on iTunes podcasts and YouTubes videos) and most especially on a website called the student room. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ox.ac.uk/document.rm?id=2690[/url]”>http://www.ox.ac.uk/document.rm?id=2690</a></p>
<p>Btw, presume you know that you can’t do just Econ @ Ox. If you do PPE or E&M you have to take a test called the TSA, if you do Hist & Econ, you have to take the HAT. Don’t know about Materials, Econ & Mgmt. </p>
<p>Assuming you have the marks that you need on your standardized testing, the biggest challenge to getting a interview is your score on these tests. The interview is pretty make or break, but typically ~1/3 of people who get interviews get offers.</p>
<p>It’s all based on scores. You’ll want a 2400 SAT, perfect on three (economics-relevant), SAT Subject, and highest possible scores on many IB and AP exams (7s and 5s on 10+ exams, 5 of which are relevant to your major. You should haves 5s on AP Macro, Micro, Stats, Human Geo, Psych, Calc BC and an AP history course (or the IB equivalent) by the end of your junior year, as well as at least four or five other top scores.</p>
<p>If you have that with minimal compromise, there is a good chance they will reserve a spot for you in your course at a college at Oxford if your essays and recs are great. From there our admission is contingent upon your score on an entrance exam.</p>
<p>EDIT: You pick a course, which is like a major but much more binding, and a college when you apply. As college mom said, there is no course in just economics, but I assumed you meant economy and maths because that is what Econ is at top American schools.</p>
<p>Okay124398 is right that you apply to your major, but you don’t need quite that many scores by the end of your junior year. Our DD applied for a double honours humanities course with an SAT of 2250, 5s on 4 relevant APs, and 800s on 2 relevant SAT IIs, and got an offer conditional on 5s in 3 of the 4 APs scheduled for Senior year. We know US students who have gotten unconditionals, but they tend (as Okay points out) to have a lot more tests done by the end on junior year- but that’s not an option a lot of schools. The list Okay gives are good suggestions, depending on which course you are applying for (though there is no Econ & Math course at Oxford), but BC calc would not be essential before Senior year. </p>
<p>But to be clear: no matter how many great scores you have, including on the Oxford Admissions test, there won’t be a spot “reserved” for you at Oxford- you have to get through the interview. Scientists can get close- I know a few who said that there interviews were rather perfunctory- but not in a course like PPE or E&M, in which the back and forth of the tutorial is a key element in the learning process.</p>
<p>@collegemom I didn’t know that there was no E & M at Oxford. That may be something the OP may want to consider as PPE is different, and in the UK schools the course determines coursework much more than a major does in the US. </p>
<p>Admissions are very competitive. Getting in without that many APs and IBs is tough, and international schools are not going to be as forgiving based on circumstances.</p>
<p>Sorry, Okay! I used E&M, but it’s Economics & Management, not Maths :-)</p>
<p>You are right that admissions are very competitive, and the English do start with a bit of a chip on their shoulder about the American system. Mostly they doubt whether US students have enough depth in any one subject to be able to jump in as the equivalent of sophomores. If the OP is really into Econ as a subject s/he will have be been doing a lot of the in-depth work on their own, which is what will carry the day.</p>