As you know, every college is different and the procedures outlined here may differ slightly from those of other colleges. Any significant difference will be pointed out to you by your advisor.

The Basic System: Oxford University is a confederation of more than 40 “societies” which admit their own students. The University matriculates students to supplicate for degrees, administers the final examination, and then awards degrees (to a passing student). You cannot be a junior member of the University without first being a junior member of a society. We have been invited by several of societies to recommend qualified students to them for consideration; these students would study as study abroad students, as associate members. (Graduate work is possible also).

The One-Year Student: Traditionally, there has been some resistance to admitting students to study for only one year. Starting in 1980, a few of the societies began to admit a very few one year students. A few leading US colleges (Harvard, Columbia, etc.) have slowly made special arrangements with a few Oxford colleges to consider a few of their students for one year periods of study. The Information Officer of the University, Ms Ann Lonsdale, published an authoritative letter on this subject. In the newsletter of the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs, Ms Lonsdale notes that “Universities….in the U.S. have Junior Year Abroad agreements with the colleges of Oxford University rather than with the University itself.” This is the method under which students recommended by us are accepted as “Visiting Students” or “Associate Members” of a number of Oxford University societies. Many of these places are “reserved” for students from non-American universities and many of the U.S. places are “reserved” for students from particular colleges (Georgetown, Tufts, Cornell, etc.) who have made special arrangements. As a result, only a few dozen of the US student spaces are open to qualified US students from other colleges.

(Of course, a few other American students are admitted each year as degree candidates for either a second BA or an Oxford graduate degree.)

A number of one year students return to their Oxford colleges to pursue a degree; as “alumni” they are often welcomed back (several every year). You may wish to consider this option.

An important point to bear in mind is that the British educational system is somewhat different from the American system. The last two years of a British high school (called the Sixth Form) are equivalent to the first two years of a US college. The first year at Oxford, therefore, is on the approximate level of the Junior year of a distinguished North American college. This means that all Oxford courses are on the junior, senior, and first year graduate level in US terms; they all would be called “Upper Division” courses by a US college. The Oxford BA (which becomes an MA eventually) is roughly equal to an MA at a leading US college.

For this reason it is normally not possible for an American undergraduate to matriculate for an Oxford degree; except in a rare case, an Oxford college would normally admit only an American BA to degree status.