<p>I will be a sophomore this coming fall and I am very interested in Oxford's visiting student program for my junior year. I wanted to know if anyone who has participated in the program would be able to speak about their experience. Academic life?Social life? Making friends?Credit transfers?How much did you travel?Were you with more current oxford students or students who were apart of the visiting student program? Really anything that you would be helpful! I would be applying for the entire year. Also any information of those who have applied and been accepted to the program would be great!Stats(if you would like to share)? My university does not have an program with oxford so I would be applying directly to the university.</p>
<p>Bump!!!</p>
<p>Anyone? I am having a really difficult time finding information other than the Oxford website.</p>
<p>My D is applying for the visiting program, too. She’s using some service provided by her college to apply. Info on the Oxford site is a bit confusing.</p>
<p>Apply through IFSA Butler.</p>
<p>As I understand it, it’s heavily based on GPA. I was able to get into Worcester College with a 3.96 from Duke …</p>
<p>Bump! Any information/experiences would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I went to Oxford, but I was enrolled there, not a visiting student. So it is hard for me to comment on the kind of experience you will have. I will try to comment on aspects of Oxford life as I found it (Enrolled as PhD student. I was a Cambridge undergraduate, so that is nearly the same).</p>
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With any UK programme I would recommend starting in the autumn. This is the start of the UK academic year, and all the settling activities for new students (known as “freshers week”) happen then. If you start in spring, you may be the only new student and friendship groups will already have formed. </p>
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You must, must, MUST ask your US school about this before you even apply! I get so many PMs from people saying studying in the UK has ruined their GPA. If you are graded on the UK system, grades will be low. 70% is genius level. How this is converted to US grades is up to you US college. There is no standard formula. Make sure this does not negatively impact on you.</p>
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In many ways this is your choice. Obviously it will be easier to make friends with Oxford students if you live with them in college, rather than exclusively with US students on the same programme as you. </p>
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During the 8-week undergraduate term, most enrolled students never leave Oxford. There is too much work to do. However, you will get a 6 week break at Christmas and another one at Easter in which to travel. </p>
<p>Sometimes I have come across conflict because enrolled Oxford students have to pass their exams, and therefore have to study 60+ hours a week, while visiting students often just have to show up and their home university will give them credit (I know a professor who actually banned a US visiting student from his tutorials for being disruptive and not paying attention). Understand that Oxford is a really competitive and demanding place, and they WILL fail students. For UK students especially, the purpose of term is to spend the time studying. If you want to travel in term time, you will be on your own or with other Americans. </p>
<p>If you make some friends in the UK almost certainly they will invite you to their house some weekends. Then you will get to see some other parts of the UK (or maybe even a holiday home in France or Spain), and probably places which tourists don’t see. Maybe this is not glamourous enough? </p>
<p>Another way to get to make friends and travel cheaply is to join some student societies (at the above mentioned Freshers fair). I have been to all sorts of places through the bands and orchestras I have played in, and with the walking club. If you join a sports team they will go away to play matches against other universities.</p>
<p>I’ve met a couple of students who were here through Butler, like redboard99 mentions. Seems like a good programme to consider if that is easier for you than direct application.</p>
<p>My D just arrived for her semester at Oxford yesterday. She was accepted through OSAP. We didn’t feel like we had as much info as we would have liked before she left, but she has settled into her house (which she says is fabulous) and has heard from her tutors (which sound excellent). So it sounds like she’s off to a good start!</p>
<p>I’m sure that GPA is an important issue but I got into the Visiting Student Program with a 3.3 GPA from a public college. However, I’ll add that I had four letters of recommendation, have interned in the executive branch of my state’s government (my declared interest there was history & politics) and am a minority student (which I’m not sure if they actually cared about or not). So they must take into account a lot of external factors or my GPA would have disqualified my application alone. Just my two cents…</p>