Candidate Information

Most Oxford courses require applicants to sit admissions tests. Please note that the test registration deadlines have now passed.

Please check that you have received email confirmation of your test registration, together with your test registration ID and login details (username and password) for the online test platform.

All tests will be digital and delivered via Pearson VUE’s network of test centres. This year’s tests will take place between 21-31 October.

If for any reason you have been unable to register for your test, or cannot sit the test due to extenuating circumstances, you should create an admissions test user account. You will then be directed to fill in a special considerations form. The College will review your application without a test score.

Please consult the University's website for the most up-to-date information on each of the admissions tests.

For those applying for courses that require written work, the deadline for submission is the 10th November. 

Please click here for more details on what to submit. All submissions should be sent via email to written.work@wadham.ox.ac.uk as a single pdf per essay, each document starting with the written work cover sheet. Please do not submit this separately, or send files larger than 20MB.

Save your written work submissions with your name in the title, and if applying for joint courses please try to indicate which piece is for consideration by which course area.

To ensure that we maintain a level playing field between candidates, we do not normally accept information on candidates additional to that which is included on the UCAS form (such as extra references). 

Exceptions to this rule might be College-requested information relating to a registered disability or notification of an important UCAS error.

However, candidates applying for second undergraduate degrees should send their first undergraduate degree transcript to Wadham Admissions Office by 10th November (see www.ox.ac.uk/sud).

Shortlisting decisions will be emailed to applicants from late November onwards, and with at least a week's notice prior to the published interview dates, available here.

To date, interview decisions have been sent by Wadham for the following subjects:

N/A

If you have applied for any of the above-named subjects, you will have been sent an email with more information. Please check your junk or spam folder for this before emailing the College.

For those who are not invited to interview, decision statuses will be uploaded to UCAS by early January 2025.

Misrepresentation includes the failure to state material facts in a UCAS application which there is a duty to disclose, or stating inaccurate facts, as specified by the agreement that candidates enter into with UCAS when completing a declaration online. 

This declaration encompasses misrepresentation by omission as well as the provision of false or misleading information, and makes it clear that misrepresentation on material issues which comes to light at any stage in the process may result in the application being rejected. It includes misrepresentations about an application made subsequent to the submission of the UCAS application prior to an offer being made, and to any misrepresentation identified (i) prior to the making of an offer and (ii) after an offer has been made, but prior to a student’s arrival. Misrepresentation identified after this time will be covered by other procedures.

When possible misrepresentation is identified appropriate steps will be taken to investigate the case.

Wadham College’s policy on misrepresentation is available on request to the Admissions Officer, Wadham College (admissions@wadham.ox.ac.uk).

If you are required to interview in December we will send you a formal invitation via email. Note that all interviews will be conducted online and attendance in Oxford will not be necessary.

We will make every effort to dispatch the invitation to interview in good time for you to make the necessary arrangements; usually we aim to provide a week’s notice, but please note that in some cases this may not be possible. We would therefore advise you to check the scheduled date of interviews for your course when you are applying so that you have an idea about dates when you might be required to attend an interview, if shortlisted.

To view the interview timetable by course, please see the University's published timetable.

Candidates will also find guidance on the shortlisting process and preparation for interviews here.

Please note that it is not appropriate to contact College academics directly, this includes after an interview to thank them or to ask a follow up question. All correspondence must come via Wadham's Academic Office.

Candidates who are interviewed in December will be informed of the outcome of their application on 14th January 2025.

Offer holders providing US qualifications, will need to send their scores via the College Board, noting that you will only be able to mail to the University of Oxford. Please be assured that any certification will make its way to the correct College.

All candidates will be notified of the decision via UCAS and by the College via email. 

Note that the deadline for requesting feedback on admissions decisions is Thursday 15th February 2025. We should respond within 20 working days (i.e. on or before Friday 14th March 2025). Feedback will not normally be given until mid-January, when the admissions process is complete. In addition, we ask that before requesting individual feedback you and your referee first discuss the subject-level feedback (which is also sent in January).

The College recognises that the majority of students applying will have excellent academic records, perhaps unsurpassed in their schools, but will not be made an offer to study at Oxford. Competition for undergraduate entry is higher than it has ever been. On average only one in five students is made an offer, and in some subjects the acceptance rates are even lower – with fewer than one in ten applicants gaining entry.

We appreciate the disappointment involved for candidates not getting to interview stage, or an offer after interview, and that for many students the experience of not ‘succeeding’ is a novel and uncomfortable one. Our assessments are not absolute – we make a relative judgement about candidates on the basis of information we secure through the admissions process about each candidate’s ability and potential to read for the particular subject at Oxford University. The process can seem very complex, and indeed there are many factors for us to take into account when we compare each candidate’s ability and potential for their chosen course against those of the many other candidates applying.

Individual feedback often amounts to the simple judgement that a candidate has not been evaluated as highly as other applicants on the basis of the advertised criteria. We put information online setting out what those criteria are, and how we assess against them, taking into account ‘contextual data’, test performance, interviews and so forth. We also send information to the referees of candidates in January, once all decisions have been made and communicated. This information provides a general subject-level account of that year’s admissions round.

Under current GDPR legislation, the College is prohibited from providing feedback to referees on any individual candidate’s performance without that candidate’s written permission. Wadham College will ask permission to give any feedback on the candidate's performance to that candidate's referee. We ask this for two reasons:

a)      Our access and outreach work involves liaising with schools as well as students. Being able to speak to school representatives about our processes and evaluations, and seeking, in turn, valuable feedback from the school about their reflections on Oxford admissions, is a crucial step in supporting the exchange of information and mutual understanding between schools and the University. Through this discussion, schools can better understand how to identify students who might be successful in the Oxford admissions process, and the University in turn is in a better position to reflect on how, as admissions processes evolve, to work with schools and attract candidates with academic potential. Research from The Sutton Trust shows that a significant number of teachers would not recommend Oxford or Cambridge to their students, and the experience of having a very successful student ‘rejected’ can affect not only that student, but the engagement and aspirations of the entire school for many years to come. It is crucial for Oxford to be able to engage with such schools and facilitate conversation, ranging beyond an individual student’s case, but perhaps starting from that, to address such concerns.

b)      We are aware that not receiving an offer can be very upsetting for some applicants. We are attentive to applicants’ welfare, and recognise that it can be a further blow to receive feedback which provides greater information as to why an offer was not made, or where an applicant did ‘less well’. Schools and colleges who have provided references in doing so also provide a person in authority at the school or college with whom applicants can speak, and with whom the Oxford result, and any feedback, can be put into context and discussed. Sometimes a referee (e.g. Head Teacher) may wish to give delegated responsibility for receiving and communicating feedback (e.g. to a Head of Sixth), but in almost all cases the opportunity to speak with a known teacher, face-to-face, provides a more productive and supportive context for receiving feedback.

For these reasons, if a student asks for individual feedback, we will 

a)      Note that feedback will not normally be given until mid- January, when the admissions process is complete, and ask that they re-forward their request at that time, and having discussed subject-level feedback (also sent in January) with their referee; 

b)      Ask for their permission to write to, or telephone, their referee with the feedback, linking to the rationale above. 

If a student has been made an offer, we will generally not provide feedback. All students start at the college on a ‘level playing-field’ and knowledge of one’s performance prior to admission within a ‘successful’ cohort is neither necessary nor desirable.

Please see the University's webpage on feedback for further information.