If you want to study at Oxford, you need to apply a year before the start date of your course by completing an online UCAS application form at www.ucas.com. Applications open in June so you can start work on the form from then. You won't be able to submit your application until early September. There is a strict submission deadline of 6pm (UK time) on 15 October. Your application must be complete - including the academic reference - and submitted before the deadline. Late applications cannot be accepted.
Completing a UCAS application for Oxford follows the same process as for other universities, we just have an earlier submission deadline of 15 October.
Unless you already have a degree from a university, we do not require any certificates, transcripts or other documents at this stage. If you are offered a place at the University we will contact you to request these from you.
Choose which course you would like to study. See information on all our courses.
Check the admission requirements for your course. Specific grades and subjects required are also shown on each course page.
Decide whether to express a preference for a particular college or make an open application. If you make an open application, you will be assigned to a college which has had relatively fewer applications for your course in the year you apply.
Personal details including an email address. Make sure you check this address frequently.
Details about your education, and any qualifications you have already achieved.
A personal statement where you tell us why you are interested in your chosen course. See our guidance on writing your personal statement.
Your reference. Remember that your teacher or adviser will need some time to complete your reference, and this must be completed before the deadline. See our guidance on academic references.
A fee payment to UCAS is required to complete the process.
Read guidance from UCAS on filling in your application.
For most courses at Oxford you are required to take a test as part of your application. Registration for tests is not automatic and is not part of the UCAS process. Please check the details for your course, including how to register.
If you are applying for a second undergraduate degree, please send a copy of the transcript from your first degree to the college that is considering your application, to arrive by 10 November. No other references, transcripts, or certificates are required or accepted except for students applying for Graduate-entry Medicine (A101) or Choral or Organ Awards.
One section of the application is called your personal statement. This is where you can write whatever you’d like to say about yourself and your motivation to study your course.
People sometimes think that there is a trick to writing a personal statement for Oxford, or that we are looking for some special secret formula, but this is not the case. It’s important to remember that you can only write one personal statement and so the same wording will be seen by all the universities you apply to. Your personal statement should therefore focus on the course you want to study, not the universities themselves. Please read this helpful advice from UCAS.
Universities build a picture of you as a student from all the different information you provide, to help decide whether or not to offer you a place. The picture is made up of several different pieces: your personal statement, academic record, predicted A-level grades (or equivalent), and your teacher's reference. For most courses at Oxford you will also need to take an admissions test or submit written work (check the details for your course). If your application is shortlisted, your interview will also be taken into account. This means that your personal statement is important but it’s not everything: it’s just one part of the overall picture.
Think about talking to your friends about what you want to study at university: what would you tell them? What have you read or watched or seen that has inspired you? (This might have been at school, at home, in a museum, on TV, in a book, on YouTube or a podcast or anywhere else. You can also take a look at our suggested reading and resources.) Why was it interesting? What do you want to find out next? What did you do?
Should I include extra-curricular activities?
If you're applying for competitive courses, which includes any course at Oxford, we typically suggest that you focus around 80% of your personal statement on your academic interests, abilities and achievements. This can include discussion of any relevant extracurricular activities. The remaining 20% can then cover any unrelated extra-curricular activities.
If you are applying to other universities as well as to Oxford (you can make five choices on your UCAS form) then you may need to find out whether the other universities have different selection criteria. If they do, then you might want to provide some information about your extra-curricular interests – but keep it to a minimum. The space in your personal statement is limited, so think carefully about what you want to include.
To give another example, for the History of Art course, tutors will not want to hear about all the galleries and exhibitions that you have visited around the world if you cannot discuss the art that you saw. You can come across more effectively in your personal statement by evaluating art you have seen, even if you’ve only seen it online or in books without ever leaving the school library.
Ask a teacher to read through what you’ve written, listen to their feedback and then make any updates that they suggest. You may need two or three tries to get it right and it can take longer than you think, especially with the limited number of characters. It can be tricky to get in everything you want to mention, but don't spend too much time trying to make your personal statement completely perfect - it's only one of the things that the tutors will consider.
DO apply for a course you really want to study.
DO be yourself: tell the truth about your interests.
DO sell yourself: this is not the time for modesty.
DO read the UCAS guidance on personal statements.
A reference from a teacher or someone else who is qualified to comment on your academic ability is an essential part of your application. Your application will be incomplete without a reference and we will not be able to consider it.
The process is different for those applying through a school/college/centre and those applying after they have left school or as an individual. See how to get a UCAS Undergraduate reference.
The reference must be in English. If your referee is not confident writing in English, they can ask an English-speaking colleague to help them. Alternatively, you can have a certified translation made for them to upload. Please ask them not to submit a reference in any language other than English, and to make sure that they have uploaded a reference in English to UCAS by the 15 October deadline.
Your reference must be from someone who can write about your academic potential; it can't be from a family member.
See how to write UCAS Undergraduate references.
If the candidate is currently studying or awaiting results you will be asked to include predicted grades for these qualifications. This is an important part of the application, so please do include predicted grades.
It may be helpful first for you to refer to the selection criteria and admission requirements for your candidate's chosen course.
Please also include information on any mitigating circumstances that you think we should know about. Alternatively, if for any reason this is inappropriate, you may like to contact the college considering your candidate's application.
This is the section of the UCAS form where you list all your qualifications along with the grades you have already achieved and any standardised test scores. You also need to list any educational qualifications you are currently working towards.
Please list everything as the admissions tutors need to see the whole picture of your academic studies so far. It doesn't matter if you have taken a lot of qualifications, a few, or none, we ask you to tell us about them.
Note: do not send us transcripts for the qualifications you've already taken; you will only need to produce certificates or transcripts if you are offered a place here. However, if you are applying for a second undergraduate degree, you will need to send a transcript from your first degree separately, to the college that is considering your application. You do not upload this as part of your UCAS form.
For any future exams, whoever writes your academic reference must tell us how they think you will perform in them. These predictions help the admissions tutors understand your academic potential and will let them know if you are going to meet the admission requirements for your course.
We appreciate that many educational systems around the world do not usually predict a student's grades in this way; however without these predictions from your teacher we are unable to consider your application. There’s lots of advice for teachers in the teachers’ section of our website, the teachers’ e-guide and on UCAS about writing references and predicting grades.
Why do we ask for predicted grades?
Using predicted grades means you can apply to study at Oxford before you have finished school (or equivalent) and you don't have to wait until all your exams are complete and your results are known. If you are made an offer of a place, it will be conditional on your achieving the required grades (based on the entrance requirements for your course) in any outstanding exams.
What if you can't provide predicted grades?
If you have listed any exams or qualifications as not yet taken on your UCAS form, then you must get your teacher to provide predicted grades for them.
If you can't get predicted grades, then your only alternative is to wait until you have got the final results for all your exams and qualifications before applying to Oxford.
Please remember that you can only apply to Oxford between 6 September and 15 October every year.
If you have personal circumstances that you'd like to tell us about please include them in your personal statement, or ask your teacher to include the information in your reference. If for any reason this is not appropriate, then please wait until you have had confirmation that your application has been received by a college and then contact them directly. This is likely to be around the end of October. You can contact our Admissions Office for further information and advice if you're not sure what to include.
Please see the tab Declaring your disability and read our Guidance for disabled applicants to find out about the support we offer our students.
We are sympathetic to the fact that sometimes candidates under-perform at school or college because of extenuating circumstances. If you feel that your performance has been affected in this way please let us know. Examples would include disruption caused by change of school or system, severe discontinuity of teachers, bereavement, and debilitating illness. We take care to treat each application individually and would always take such mitigating circumstances into account, if they are brought to our attention. You could include this information in your personal statement or your teacher could mention this in their reference. If for any reason this is not possible, then we would advise you to contact the college you applied to (or are assigned to if making an open application) once you have had confirmation that your application has been received. This is likely to be around the end of October.
Whatever your particular circumstances, the earlier we know about your individual requirements, then the sooner we can begin to meet them. We are committed to making sure that all our students can benefit from the great opportunities at Oxford so please do tell us about any disability, seen or unseen, on your UCAS application. Please be assured that admissions decisions are made on academic grounds alone. By telling us now, you will help us put in place any agreed support early and to make reasonable adjustments to facilitate your access to your course and our University. It will also mean that we can provide appropriate arrangements during the admissions process, so for any test or interview. While you do not need to include this information at this stage, we strongly recommend you do so in order to give us time to prepare and arrange suitable support.
Fill in the second box below Category to give details of any facilities or special provisions required.
UCAS also has some good advice about how to tell us about your disability.
See also our further Guidance for disabled applicants. This includes information on contacting our Disability Advisory Service and how to put in place any necessary arrangements for our admissions tests, if this is one of the admission requirements for your chosen course.
The application process for international students is exactly the same as for UK and EU students: i.e. you must apply through UCAS by 15 October.
UCAS is an independent organisation that handles all applications to study undergraduate degrees in the UK. To complete a UCAS application, you will need to register with UCAS and pay them a fee. The UCAS website also has guidance for international students.
There is no separate application form for Oxford's undergraduate courses (with the single exception of A101 Graduate Entry Medicine), and it is not possible to apply without completing a UCAS form.