Hi all! I’m a high school junior looking to apply to Oxford for PPE in the fall. My school is running our “Recommendation Letter Request Week” soon and I’m unsure who would be best for my UCAS application. I was hoping to receive some clarity as to what I should be looking for.
I’m taking AP Lang, AP US Gov, and APUSH as far as humanities subjects are concerned. I have a very good relationship with my Language and Gov teachers, so I’d like one of them to write my UCAS letter.
My Language teacher runs our English Honor Society in which I will likely be president next year. She’s constantly exposed to my writing and analytical ability during our rhetorical analysis assignments. She’s said that I’m her favorite student which is really great for UK and US rec letters alike. However, I’m worried to ask an English teacher to recommend me for a politics course (does it imply I underperform in government class?).
My US Government teacher likes me comparably well and compliments my work ethic/extensive political knowledge. I’m flattered, but although I perform well in class discussions, we have only had two writing assignments during the whole year (on which I gladly scored high marks). He knows I have a background in studying politics on my own, but we haven’t had one-on-one philosophical discussions with him as I’ve had with my Language teacher. That said, he will teach my Economics course during senior year while my Language teacher is retiring. He also may be able to give more credible grade predictions for my future AP Exams in social sciences (Comparative Government, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics).
How should I evaluate who to ask for a UCAS letter? I can provide a “brag sheet” to both, but I’m not sure whether I should sacrifice depth of personal knowledge for a more relevant recommender to my prospective degree. Thank you all for your time and consideration!
Paging @collegemom3717 for her advice as well, but a UCAS LOR is very different from the standard US college teacher rec letter.
Here’s the guidance from Oxford on what they want to see:
Your reference letter
What we are looking for
We are looking for insights into the applicant’s suitability for an academic course. Please try to focus your reference letter on the experience and skills that will be relevant to this (eg capacity for analysis or independent working).
For information on the nature of the course and the skills and experience it will require, follow the link to the course page in the notification email on the Oxford University website.
If you are unable to supply a reference within the required timeframe or do not think that you know the applicant well enough to write one, please let the applicant know as soon as possible so they can register another referee
What to include in the letter
Explain the capacity in which you know the applicant, so our assessors can appreciate how well positioned you are to comment on their suitability.
Briefly state your own background and qualifications so we understand the basis of your assessment
Reference letters should be typically 500-1,000 words and should not normally exceed two pages. You should write in enough detail to give specific examples of their qualities and achievements, but longer letters will not be taken as indicating greater support.
You should cover the applicant's general suitability to undertake the proposed course and how well the course matches their experience and interests
Interim grades from any in-progress course
Confirm any prizes awarded and extra-curricular activities undertaken
It would also be helpful to include evidence of the following examples of skills where possible/relevant:
Critical thinking
Independent and collaborative work
Written and oral communication skills
Ability to organise workload
Data analysis
What not to include in the letter
Material that is irrelevant to the application, such as protected characteristics like ethnicity or sexual orientation
Personal extenuating circumstances without the applicant’s explicit agreement
So your “referee” is going to need to do a fair amount or research on the PPE course at Oxford to be able to write a decent UCAS LOR. Make sure that the teacher you choose will be willing to both do the work and give the level of detail that Oxford wants.
My son was very lucky that his 11th/12th grade math teacher was an Oxford grad who has also taught at one of the biggest Oxbrigde feeder schools in London, so she knew the drill and could benchmark him versus other students she had sent to Oxford in the past. Good luck with the process. I’m aware of one US student who has an offer for PPE for matriculation this fall.
@HazeGrey covered the LOR expectations well, so I will just add a few bits about PPE.
First, Econ in the UK is a much more quanty course than the micro/macro APs might lead you to expect. Are you taking Calc BC? 90+% of successful UK applicants have done math at A level.
Remember that profs from all 3 subjects have to approve you for you to get an acceptance. Are you reading things like the Economist and the Financial Times regularly? @Twoin18 believes that his son was rejected after interview (& being invited for an interview means he was fully qualified to get a place) because he didn’t enough background in economics.
PPE is the most common course that US students apply for, so the tutors are well familiar with US credentials and have lots of highly qualified applicants. You might think hard about why you want this particular subject: for example, why PPE rather than History & Politics?
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Thanks for the highly illuminating reply! I was leaning towards going for my Gov teacher based on subject topicality, but your information is making me think otherwise. I love him but he self-describes as a “slacker,” and vocally dislikes doing work outside of class. That said, I might be able to supplement this by self-compiling a guide.
Your reply also highlighted the recommender’s credentials, which might actually be my new concern. My Gov teacher’s personal qualifications are only a BA from an 85% admission public school as compared to my Language teacher having an Ivy League postgraduate degree. I think she might seem more qualify in analyzing me.
I’m still somehow worried about omitting a US Government recommendation letter after taking the class. Do you know how it might reflect? Thank you so much, again!
Thank you so much for your extensive reply!
I do have some worries on economics. I got a 5 on the Calc BC exam last year and will have completed Differential Equations by the end of senior year, so I should be good insofar as classes go. That said, I don’t really have any background in economics, nor am I currently studying it independently as you suggested. I might want to take it an introductory uni-level course over the summer to prepare for any prospective interviews.
I’m going for PPE because of my interest/independent study in Philosophy primarily. My end goal is American law school, so out of the philosophy based subjects, PPE makes the most sense. I’m not locked down yet, but I suppose I’ll soon have to choose soon given that I’m asking for the rec letter in the coming weeks. Thanks for the insight!
If you have no background in econ and aren’t taking AP micro/macro next year, then I think PPE is going to be a challenge. Even to get shortlisted for interview.
Oxford offers a number of other Philosophy joint programs like PPL (Psychology, Philosophy & Linguistics) or Philosophy & Modern Languages. You might want to do some research there.
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You’ll be fine for the math then.
I strongly suggest that you start reading the Economist- and most of each issue, not just the Economy section- right now. Also read the Financial Times from time to time (say, weekly)- even if it’s just the front page or 2 and the Lex column on the back page. Your school or library should have subscriptions.
Note that just under half of UK students will have done Economics in school, so previous academic study is not essential. However, Oxford expects that students who have a genuine interest in a subject will be spending a lot of time in it, on their own.
For example, here is the reading list Balliol sent out to their PPEists.
If you look at the Economics list, many students will have read several of these in HS, on their own time, just out of interest (I know this first hand).
Also, US Gov isn’t as helpful as Comp Gov, if that is an option for you. Comp Gov sets you up well for the 1st year Politics module!
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As it stands, my schedule for next year is:
Required for graduation:
Differential Equations
AP Environmental Science
AP Literature
Pertinent to PPE:
AP Microeconomics
AP European History
AP Comparative Government
I want to self study-macro, but I understand that looking good for an interview is important. I live close to a university and might be able to secure an economics research position over the summer given my academic credentials (+ the university’s relationship with my school), would that increase my chances perhaps?
Thank you for the reading list and recommendations! I’ll really immerse myself in economics right now to catch up. I replied to @HazeGrey with my schedule next year, so I’ll have taken Comparative Government before beginning PPE if I were to be accepted. That said, I’ll still be playing catch-up with the reading list.
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Agree with the above. As noted my S18 did well in the politics interview, but wasn’t great in philosophy and bombed the economics questions. He wasn’t lacking in math, just the economics framework (demand curves etc). I think he could have done better if he’d read a bunch of the philosophy and economics reading list (we didn’t know about that at the time). He was otherwise a very strong student (graduated from college last spring top in his year in public affairs with a 4.0 and was a finalist for a Marshall scholarship).
He actually got his history teacher to write the reference, as that teacher had done a masters at Oxford so knew what to write. There’s no need for the reference to come from a teacher in your subject (UK schools usually don’t have individual teachers writing references, they are typically done by the school office taking into account teacher teacher feedback), but it needs to say words to the effect of “this is the best student I’ve taught in the last decade” since if you think about it, Oxford only takes about one student from each US state each year.
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Thanks for replying! Your son sounds really impressive so I’ll step up my game on studying for the PPE topics.
Your information on the recommenders is so relieving to hear. I’ll definitely ask my Language teacher for the rec letter given that the topic shouldn’t impact me too much. I think there’s a chance she might say, as you put it, something to the effect of, “this is the best student I’ve taught in the last decade,” because she’s luckily told me that before. I’ll need to make sure she knows generally what to write though on my own. Thanks again!
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@collegemom3717 and @HazeGrey seem to be very well informed on all this. But as I was digging around on the UCAS site, I came across some info that made it look like they might be changing the format of what they want to see in LORs to make it simpler?? But I could have totally misunderstood how this applies!! (and I’m not sure if it really helps OP answer their question so my apologies if I’m speaking out of turn!)
It doesn’t really change anything for the person writing an Oxford LoR in the larger sense. It’s shorter (the actual LoR part is now capped at ~500 words), but as the examples show they are still noting ‘general suitability’ and evidence of ‘Critical thinking, independent and collaborative work, written and oral communication skills, ability to organise workload’ etc.
It is interesting to note how hard Oxford as a uni is trying to show inclusivity for a range of students and backgrounds, which is part of a longer-term push to widen student diversity.