<p>I am planning to apply for Biological Sciences. I am planning to take Biology E, Math II, and one in the humanities.</p>
<p>And does Oxford take into account school grades/GPA for American students? Someone who applied there told me they never even requested the transcript.</p>
<p>Well as you’re going to apply for Biological Sciences, Biology seems like a good subject right (the others too btw). And it’s true that they don’t care about GPA because it’s very hard to convert foreign grades to national grades. They do care a lot about SAT scores and AP’s. I would check what courses you’re going to get and select your SAT II’s on that. Oh and explain to them in your letter or interview why exactly you thought they were appropriate subjects.</p>
<p>No point in taking a humanities subject test for Biological Sciences - they only want to see your skills in that area. Consider taking Chemistry.</p>
<p>I can take chem–but I don’t think I have enough time to study to get a 700+. I got an A- in chem (damn organic—got a 70 on that test. Though it was curved afterward since a ton of people failed).</p>
<p>I think I’ll email them just in case.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>They’re going to give you a canned response. Saying “We want to see biology, but can’t outline the best subjects for you. We like to see traditional subjects.”</p>
<p>So what does that mean?</p>
<p>Take biology, chemistry, physics, calc, and english. Get 5’s on APs and 700+ on the SAT 2’s. There, just secured an interview for you. From then, its how you perform in the interview.</p>
<p>There are no SAT IIs in calc. Math II is trig with precalc. I am probably going to take that.</p>
<p>It says on the Oxford website that 90% of Biology applications make it to the interview, and then 35% finally get accepted.</p>
<p>^^^
Was suggesting AP. But the SAT II would be fine.</p>
<p>btw did you ever apply to Ox or Cambridge or know someone who did? I was just wondering about the difficulty of the work. Is AP Bio a good-enough pre-req?</p>
<p>Came really close to applying to Cambridge (Trinity Hall). But I had unique qualifications, and they didn’t seem happy about them. So it would’ve been an uphill battle. </p>
<p>Anyways, with regards to your question.</p>
<p>AP courses really don’t prepare one to the same degree an A level would. Realistically, I could go pop open an AP test prep book. Study it for the rest of today. Take a peak at it tomorrow. And be able to pull a 5 the next day. You can’t really do that with an A level. A levels go much more in-depth, while AP course are much more broad. That’s why it’s really not that rare for someone to have 8+ AP courses. While it’s rare to find someone with 5+ A levels. I mean, I’m sure you’d do fine. </p>
<p>What I would do if I were, is type in “A level biology” in google. Look at the general curriculum. Compare that to the AP curriculum. Find the difference, and read up on it just as a refresher over the summer while waiting for the course to start. Of course, this would only be applicable if you were offered a place. And for your interview, you’d probably want to do some additional reading anyway.</p>
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<p>Just look up the recommended A-level subjects and take similar AP subjects. Basically they mean all sciences. They will discount arts subjects are irrelevant to your aptitude in Biology. </p>
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<p>Nope. This is meaningless. They want to know how you compare academically to all other students your age. GPA is only relevant to your school. They don’t know if you are in the brightest or worst high school class ever, so GPA is not helpful.</p>
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<p>You apply using UCAS</p>
<p>[UCAS</a> - Home](<a href=“http://www.ucas.com%5DUCAS”>http://www.ucas.com)</p>
<p>As you can see, no space for a transcript. It means nothing in the UK. No need to send one, They wouldn’t know what it was (and I suspect would just bin it).</p>