I am currently an American applicant planning on applying for Anthropology and Archaeology at Hertford college, all of the scores below are predicted scores due to Covid complications, except for my AP Psychology score.
AP Studio Art: 5
AP Environmental Science: 5
AP English Literature and Composition: 5
AP Human Geography: 5
AP Physics 1: 5
AP Psychology: 4
SAT World History: 750
SAT Biology E: 700
ACT: 33
My important extracurriculars are in the personal statement draft linked below
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Link deleted - not allowed.
My main concern is the fact that I don’t have enough upfront scores already taken and I would be strictly relying on a conditional offer. I was planning on taking the SAT subject tests in August but they have been cancelled due to Covid as well as my ACT.
So you have one 4 in AP Psychology and no other formal test scores at all? Did you not take any other AP courses in junior year? Or any SAT/ACT tests (not even a PSAT last fall?)?
This also seems like a very weak list of AP courses. Where is your AP English Language and AP foreign language? Why no AP Calc? Geography, art, Env sci and even Psychology are all non-core courses that are viewed less favorably. So regardless of whether they are prepared to make allowances for COVID, I don’t think there’s enough rigor here for them to base a conditional offer on.
The first comment you are currently commenting on was from my sophmore year and I was just gauging what people would think my chances were IF I did all that I planned to do. I personally looking back on it do think it was a stupid thing on my end but I was a stupid kid looking for validation and I was just really curious about it to see what I would need to get into Stanford.
I would like to point out that most students were planning on taking the SAT/ACT in the spring and because of Covid I was not able to. The PSAT has absolutely no admissions perks or any sort of qualifications whatsover so I didn’t include it since its not important.
For Anthropology and Archaeology the admissions requirements are a mix of Arts and Sciences. For example I would not need Calc as it does not fit that requirement at all. Do you even understand Oxford requirements in general? The so called “non-required” AP classes are actually the ones that better fit the qualifications for my preffered degree. I would like to say that this was the absolute max amount of AP’s I could have taken this year due to my school’s scheduling and I fit them to what Oxford wants in qualifications for the degree.
I was planning on taking my SAT 2 in the fall (World History and Bio E) but it was cancelled again and the earliest collegeboard allows for World is December
I do understand that my application is weaker unfortunately and thank you for your time.
There is no Oxford admissions test for Archaeology & Anthropology. You need to submit two pieces of written work and a 500 word essay on their topic as part of your application.
Good news is that they historically interview 2/3ds of their applicants. Bad news is that with only one score in hand for your UCAS (which is a 4), it’s going to be hard to stand out unless your written work is exceptional. Plus only six Oxford colleges offer the course.
Also think about your personal statement. Talking about your extracurriculars won’t cut it. Need to focus on why you want to study Arch & Anth.
Thank you for the advice, I think what i’m gonna do is apply next year when I have my scores probably. Is there anyway you could look over my personal statement draft and tell me what you think?