Category: General Information

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General Information

5 Updates for Winter

Well, here we are: the end of your first term. I am writing with five (5) important updates as we go into Winter. Please read all of them carefully and let me know if you have any questions.

1. Application Workshop Portfolio

Please remember that the deadline for this is 14:00 this Thursday 17th November. As always, please make sure you submit it in the correct PDF format with the approved filename to the usual address.

You should be using the template downloaded from the website, which already includes the Cover Sheet, so there are no excuses for missing this.

Please make sure that you have completed all sections of the Portfolio. All parts must be completed in order to pass this module:

  1. Application Summary Page
  2. Discovery Tasks 1 and 2
  3. Personal Statement

Remember that this is not your final application to university, so your choices here are not set in stone. However, it is a vital part of your thought process which I will refer to when we come to the Winter Tutorials in a few weeks (see below).

As you sign the Declaration in the Application Summary Page, please make sure that it is accurate: i.e. that you have indeed filled in all sections of the UCAS form accurately and that your application (including and especially the Personal Statement) is all your own work.

2. Autumn Term Exams

I sent you the timetable for these on 2nd November. The first exam is at 09:00. Most of you will have your exams at King’s Centre, Osney Mead; if you are travelling to the external exam hall, please check the location and plan how you will get there in advance. This includes checking how long it will take you to get there and allowing extra time in case of traffic and/or getting a bit lost.

I will send everyone a reminder email about exams at the end of this week.

3. Winter Term Modules

I have sent you an email which states the pathway which I expect you to be on, and consequently the specialist module you will take in the Winter Term. Please check this email. If your plans have changed or you think that this is incorrect, please speak to me as soon as possible before the new term starts.

Everyone will study the Core Modules Q&Q Research Methods and IELTS Preparation next term. You can find out more about all the modules on the Foundation Year on the website.

4. December Academic Cultures

The Academic Cultures module continues to run for the duration of your course to give you ongoing support with different key skills and key events throughout the year. For the first three weeks of the Winter Term (until Christmas), we will have a series of special sessions in the Lecture Room at 11:55 on Wednesdays:

  1. Booking IELTS – Please bring your laptop, your passport and your payment card.
  2. Welcome to Winter – Facing and adapting to the challenges of the Winter Term.
  3. IELTS: An Examiner’s View – Insight into the exam from a professional IELTS examiner.

5. Winter Tutorials

As you know, we plan to release your Winter Term results on Friday 2nd December. In the two remaining weeks before the Christmas break, I will hold one-to-one meetings with each of you. I will send you your meeting time by email in the next couple of weeks. The meetings will take place online to aid the efficiency of time and sharing resources and each meeting will take approximately 15-20 minutes.

In the meeting, I will use your Application Workshop Portfolio as a starting point to discuss your university choices and Personal Statement. We will look at your university choices and application strategy in terms of what is realistic in the light of your Term 1 results.

If you have any questions about what to expect in the coming weeks, please do not hesitate to ask me.

I look forward to seeing you all at the HE Fair on Wednesday this week.

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General Information

Welcome!

Hello everyone!

I’m very happy to welcome you to your EF University Preparation course in Oxford. I hope that you’ve been enjoying your first week at the school, whether you’ve arrived here in person or if you are currently joining us virtually. In any case, I look forward to getting to know you this year, to supporting you and to watching you develop.

If you have any questions about your course or your university application, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can use my school email address or the ‘Ask a Question‘ button on the homepage of this website, or you can usually find me in the Academic Office between 08:30 and 17:30 Monday to Friday.

You can also find below the Academic Induction presentation that I gave on Monday. This contains key information about your course, including your term dates.

UP-Intake-Presentation-Sept-2022Download

Welcome to Oxford. I hope you have a fantastic time in our beautiful city and on our course.

Edmund Howard

University Pathways Manager

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General Information

Christmas Eve

As noted in my previous email (“University Application Tutorial”), we are organizing to have no lessons on Friday 24th December (Christmas Eve). However, you will not miss out on lessons: these will be rescheduled to other times during the week. This means that your timetable for the week beginning 20th December will be a little different from usual, so please pay close attention to it.

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General Information

Four Updates

I hope that exam week is going well for you. We’re over the hill of it now: ALS tomorrow (both written and speaking) should be relatively plain sailing.

I’m writing with four reminders and updates for the coming weeks.

AppW Deadline

In all of the excitement of exam week, please don’t forget that you also need to submit your Application Workshop portfolios by 14:00 this Thursday 2nd December, as usual in PDF format with the official cover sheet to the official Submissions address.

Remember to include all components of the portfolio:

  • Application Summary Page (completed in full)
  • Discovery Tasks (you need at least 2 to pass)
  • Personal Statement

This isn’t your final application, but it should show that you have put serious thought and work into getting as ready as you can be in your Application Workshop classes.

You will receive a grade (Pass, Merit, Distinction or – I hope not – Fail). I will also use this portfolio as the basis for the Application Tutorials in the coming weeks (see below).

Modules Next Term

A few people have been asking me about their modules next term. You can find the full course outline on the website.

Please make sure that the Education section of your UCAS application reflects this.

If this is different from what you are expecting, or if you have changed your plans, please let me know as soon as possible.

Application (Winter) Tutorials

As I have said to a few of you already, I will be holding one-to-one tutorials with each of you over the final two weeks of term (Monday 13th December – Wednesday 22nd December). These tutorials will all take place online so that we can more easily review your application together.

Everyone will get a 20-minute appointment to speak to me about your course and your application. I will send you an email next week with your personal appointment time and the joining link.

Please make sure that your application on UCAS is up-to-date so that we can make this meeting as productive as possible.

Birmingham Trip Thursday 16th December

I am delighted to announce (in case you haven’t already heard) that we will be visiting the University of Birmingham campus on Thursday 16th December. This will be the first campus visit that we have done since February 2020, so I’m very excited about it.

The University of Birmingham is one of our most popular partner universities and a member of the elite Russell Group of top research institutions. It also has one of the most beautiful university campuses in England.

To make sure that everyone gets the full benefit of this fantastic opportunity, everyone is expected to attend and there will be no classes running on this day. Instead, you will be able to enjoy presentations from world-leading experts at the university, as well as getting an insight into university life in the UK. Even if you are not planning to apply to this particular university, this is a great opportunity to get an experience of what awaits you next year so that you can prepare yourself properly.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Good luck with the final push of exam week!

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General Information

Applying to North America

A few people have been asking me recently about studying in the US and Canada. I mainly specialize in applications to the UK, but I’ve been learning about the US application process myself. You can see the main information you need to get started below, but please ask me if you have more specific questions.

Yes. The application process is a bit different, and it will need a bit of extra work and independent management on your part, but you are probably eligible and the skills that you learn on the Foundation Year will certainly help you.

Applications to US and Canadian universities are direct: that is to say that you make a separate application to each institution instead of a single central one like UCAS. Please be aware that most US universities charge an application fee, which you will have to pay for yourself.

The application process varies widely from course to course, and university to university, so reach out to the universities you are interested in and they will send you their own application packs which should explain you through the process.

As in the UK, you will need to provide a Personal Statement (or ‘Motivation Letter’). This could be based on the one you have written for the UK, but you’ll want to ‘Americanize’ the style to focus more on selling yourself and all your achievements.

You will also need to meet academic and language requirements, just like for the UK.

Language requirements for the US and Canada are normally based on TOEFL instead of IELTS, but most universities will also accept IELTS scores. However, this is at the university’s discretion, so you should check with them.

Academic requirements for the US will usually be based on SAT or ACT scores. If you’re applying to a US university, you should book to take the SAT test in the UK as soon as you can. The next test date available for booking is 12th March (booking deadline 11th February). You do not normally need to have taken the SAT before you apply: this will form the basis of a conditional offer. In fact, a growing number of US universities are now ‘test optional,’ which means that students can decide whether or not to submit standardized test scores as a part of their application.

You can find out more about exam dates and test centres by clicking on the links in this sentence.

Some courses, especially in the sciences may prefer ACT. For more information, go to this website: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/registration.html

In Canada, universities will probably make offers based on your high school qualifications, but they also accept SAT scores as they can boost your application.

Some institutions might also take your Foundation Year into consideration, so please declare this qualification on your application, and be ready to send the syllabus to the university (I can provide this for you).

The SAT is a single, general test, including English, Maths and Critical Thinking/Analysis. You can find more details of what the test includes here: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/inside-the-test

Although we don’t provide specific exam training for SATs, the modules you take in the Foundation Year will develop the language, maths and thinking skills that will help you with the test. You can find more specific test practice on the website linked above.

It’s up to you, but the same basic principles apply as for the UK: some universities are more competitive than others so you should apply to a range of them if you want to make sure that you receive an offer.

One thing which is quite different in the US is the system of Community Colleges. These are smaller institutions which offer two-year Associate Degrees. It is very normal in the US to start off with one of these and then apply to a major university for the following two years to ‘top up’ to a full US Bachelor’s degree. The advantage of this from your point of view is that both entrance requirements and fees are typically lower at Community Colleges, so one or two community colleges should definitely feature in your application strategy.

Beyond that, application decisions are similar to the UK: think about the location and the kind of university environment you want, and apply for a good mix of universities that will suit you.

EF has partner institutions in North America. Although the partnership agreement for these is with our US schools, these institutions recognize the EF name and have a good relationship with the organization. As in the UK, you can apply to other universities as well, but these make a good starting point.

I hope that this information is useful to you. I am also getting in touch with my counterpart in Boston, Mass. for more information and advice about applying to North America.

I will also post this to the EFUPOX website. Please get in touch with me if you need any further support or assistance.