Applying from South Korea (Expert Oxford & Cambridge Application Advice)
According to the university sources, there are currently just over 300 Korean students studying at Oxford and Cambridge combined. Considering the scale of both universities, or the relative number of Korean students studying in London universities, this isn’t a particularly large group. One of the more obvious reasons for this is that the Korean general high school diploma is considered insufficient to make a competitive application by both institutions, likely due to the fact that the curriculum is not taught in English. As such, the applicant pool is restricted to students studying in international schools, foreign language schools offering alternative qualifications, or those having done further qualifications such as a foundation year. As for qualifications, Korean students applying in their final year of high school will be submitting their International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), or Advanced Placement (AP) and SAT examination grades.
Admissions Requirements
The admissions requirements, the details of which are posted on each university’s website, differ between subjects, with a general tendency for the sciences to require higher grades. As such, the required predicted grades to be invited for interview can range anywhere from an IB total score of 38 (e.g. English at Oxford) to 40-42 (e.g. Natural Sciences at Cambridge). There are also requirements for individual subject grades, e.g. 666 or 766 at HL, and some subjects will ask students to have done their Higher Levels in certain subjects – for instance, Mathematics at Oxford requires applicants to have a Level 7 in Higher Level Physics or Mathematics to qualify for the interview. For students whose schools use the College Board exams, Cambridge requires a minimum SAT score of 1460, and Oxford 1470. Oxford will require 3 or more grade 5s, while Cambridge requires 5 or more.
Note: It is crucial to remember that there are (sometimes major) differences between faculties in their specific requirements, so if you are thinking of applying it is best to look on the particular faculty’s website.
Language Requirements
In most cases, students who have done their high school curriculum in English will be deemed to have met the English language requirements for application. In certain circumstances, however, offer holders may be asked to achieve certain scores on the IELTS or TOEFL as part of their conditions. Often this will be a 7.5 on the IELTS and a 110 on the TOEFL, sometimes with requirements for specific subjects scores. Cambridge, for example, may require an offer holder to have achieved at least a 7.0 in each section of the IELTS.
Fees and Funding
Korean students, as holders of overseas status, will need to pay international fees. For 2019, annual course fees for full-time international students at Oxbridge range between £24,000 and £28,000. These includine university tuition and college fees but may differ according to choice of course and college.
Unfortunately, there are no government schemes or scholarships available to Korean students wishing to study in the UK, but in certain circumstances, limited financial support may be available from the university or college. External scholarships may also be an option, so it may be worth doing some extra research if you would like to apply. Certain colleges will have various grants for students that you may be able to apply for in the duration of your course, with details specified on college websites. For instance, some have financial hardship funds, and book grants, which means they will pay for the textbooks you need for your course.
Admission Exams
Many courses at Oxbridge will require applicants to take an additional admissions exam as part of the application process. Often the deadline for these exams will be separate from that of the rest of the process, so it is important to find out whether you need to take an exam for the course you are applying to beforehand and register for it. These exams can be taken in your school (if they offer it) or in a separate test centre. The exam results make up a significant part of your application and Oxbridge consider it to be an effective gauge of your academic potential, so preparing for it beforehand may be a good idea.
Oxford utilises admissions tests (often shared by other universities) made by Cambridge Assessment, all of which are taken before interviews. Cambridge applicants may either take such pre-interview exams or may be asked to take exams during interviews. The following is a non-exhaustive list of entrance exams for some popular courses:
The Law National Aptitude Test (LNAT) is required for law at Oxford (as well as for most popular law schools in the UK);
The Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT) is required for medicine at both Oxford and Cambridge;
The Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) is required for Economics and Management, Experimental Psychology, Human Sciences, Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), Psychology and Linguistics, Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford;
The Economics Admissions Assessment (ECAA) for economics at Cambridge;
The Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP) for mathematics and some other maths-based subjects at Cambridge, and the Mathematics Aptitude Test (MAT) for mathematics at Oxford;
The Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA) for natural sciences at Cambridge;
The Physics Aptitude Test (PAT) for physics at Oxford;
The History Aptitude Test (HAT) for history and related courses at Oxford
Interviews
Interviews at Oxbridge are highly competitive and to be selected for interview is considered a major achievement in its own right. Unsurprisingly, many applicants are daunted by the prospect of interviews with world-class academics on a subject they have yet to study. However, interviews are something to enjoy, not to fear, and even if a candidate does not receive an offer after interviews they will have learned a great deal through the experience.
That said, interviews are a central part of an Oxbridge application, and it is what is deemed by tutors to distinguish the excellent applicants from the already narrowed-down pool. While I will write some details about my experiences as a law applicant at Oxford below, the experiences that candidates have for different subjects and at different colleges vary massively, and there is no one way to describe an Oxbridge interview in blanket terms. Nevertheless, there are resources online (including YouTube) that may give you insight into how interviews are conducted. Taking a look at these may help you figure out what you might want to focus on preparing for prior to interviews.
Oxford and Cambridge do the bulk of their interviews on campus, of which attendance in person is recommended by both institutions. Not only is the experience valuable on its own, candidates tend to perform better when faced with personal human interaction as opposed to that over a screen. That said, both institutions do offer Skype interviews, and in no way are candidates disadvantaged because they choose that option – universities understand that circumstances to fly over to England to do interviews may not always be available to all students. Cambridge also offers overseas interviews in places like Singapore, so if that is the preferable option then candidates should consider it as a choice.
Visas and immigration information
Once you have made your offer, you can begin to apply for a visa to study in the UK. Students in South Korea will be applicable for a Tier 4 General Student visa, which restricts their term working time to 20 hours a week. Oxford and Cambridge both actively discourage their students from taking on jobs during term anyway, so this will not be much of a disadvantage.
When an accepted student’s acceptance letter arrives, the college will also send detailed instructions on how to apply for a visa. Usually, the college administrator will send a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) document, which will be a central part of the visa application. When writing a visa application online, students will be prompted to book an appointment with the VFS Global Centre and dropping off their passport.
The process can take anywhere from days to weeks, and if candidates apply too late, they may not be able to have their passport and visa back in time for their flight. To avoid such complications, it is advised to apply as early as possible. If short for time, it is also possible to pay for express service, but this is a pricey option and is easily avoidable by writing an early application. Remember to keep a checklist of all deadlines.
Applying from Korea?
Disclaimer: From this point on, everything is based on my personal experience alone. This does not in any way represent all applicants from Korea or the Korean student body of Oxford.
When it comes to my Korean friends at Oxford, our backgrounds and the education we received are drastically different from each other. It tends to be this way when the sample pool is small -- which it is. Many of the Koreans that I meet via the Oxford University Korean Society (OUKS) or in college went through their secondary education in the UK, and thus had worked with similar resources to UK nationals applying from within. Most importantly, they did the A-levels. The ones who did apply from Korea were divisible into two categories: those who had done the IB and those who had taken the College Board exams (AP and SAT). These two programmes are different in their very essence, from the subjects that students tend to choose to how they study for each of these exams. It is difficult to group our experiences together. Often we are one of the few students in the already limited number of schools doing foreign curricula who have chosen to apply to the UK.
Still, there were some common difficulties we faced. Because the US was a generally more popular option in terms of college applications, we often lacked access to informative resources. It was up to us to look up information for ourselves, especially regarding specific subjects and colleges. If you’re applying to Oxbridge from Korea, I have one piece of simple advice for you: Google is your friend. There are more resources (like Doxa Oxbridge) online than you think, and many students who have gone through the application process have shared their experiences on student forums (like the Student Room) and on YouTube (see Oxvlog).
It is certainly possible to make a strong application using any and all resources available in the circumstances. I asked a handful of my teachers to look over my personal statement before handing it in. Because my school did not offer interview preparation, I would grab teachers in the corridor and ask them about controversial issues to try and mimic the situations I may face in interviews. The most significant difficulty I faced in my time applying to Oxford law was the lack of resources regarding the admissions test – the LNAT. Not a lot of LNAT books are available in Korea, so I had to resort to using LSAT (the admissions exams for graduate students applying to study law in the US) books, which I had heard was the next closest thing. It was the most stressful part of my application. To mitigate this, I would recommend candidates to start researching early for the admissions tests so that they are well-prepared when the day comes.
Life at Oxford
Before I came to Oxford, I spent a semester at a university in Korea. As such, I have been able to experience firsthand the differences between college life in each country. While in Korea the semester’s workload as well as the courses taken were chosen by the students themselves via a competitive system of online enrolment, at Oxford the course was laid out for us. Because Korean universities value a holistic education, there were requirements for foreign languages, for science subjects, and for essay-writing classes that were compulsory for all students. On the other hand, students at Oxford are expected to spend all their time studying their own subject; there are no classes available outside what is given in the curriculum.
In addition, Korean courses were mostly lecture-based, where students sat in a big hall and listened to the professor speak. There was the occasional seminar class or small-scale classes with more interaction, but it was nothing like the “tutorials” we are given at Oxford. One to three students sit with one tutor and discuss different topics. Most of the studying is done on our own, and we are given lists of materials to read as well as essays in preparation for each tutorial. They check our progress and answer questions as well as engage in discussions about the material, but it is nothing like a lecture -- a tutorial is a bilateral discourse in a comfortable and engaging environment. That said, we do have lectures to supplement our course, which many students choose to attend in order to help their understanding in certain topics.
While the Korean student body at Oxford is not as large as that of Hong Kong, China, or Singapore, the Oxford University Korean Society (OUKS) hosts a number of events throughout the year to keep students engaged. Many of these events are attended not just by Korean students but by students from other countries who are interested in Korea and its culture, so it offers a platform to socialise and make new friends (from other colleges especially).
There is a Korean restaurant called Jeong’s Dosirak in the Covered Market that offers discounts to OUKS members, and a store in Cowley called Seoul Plaza that sells Korean products.
Let us know if you have any questions about this article or anything related to applying from South Korea.
