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Challenge yourself academically with a semester abroad at Oxford University!
If working at one of the best research establishments in the world excites you, this is the program for you! With over 100 libraries and personal tutorials to write every week, students will be spending a lot of their time reading, writing, and walking the local neighborhoods…to ponder their reading and writing. But there’s far more to Oxford than the books. The main difference between U.S. and Oxford academics is Oxford’s acclaimed tutorial system; a series of hour-long sessions in which you and your tutor will focus undivided attention on responding to a selected prompt. This is the system students often describe as the most intimidating and satisfying academic experience of their lives. It will change the way you read books, write sentences, and think – and students will often return home feeling like athletes who have trained at high altitude.
Students in the Scholars’ Semester in Oxford (SSO) are considered official members of Wycliffe Hall and are Registered Visiting Students of the University of Oxford. There you will have access to a 900-year history, world-recognized academic excellence, and over 100 libraries, with their 11 million books and outstanding electronic resources. SSO is designed specifically for students seeking an academically robust program, so while all majors are welcome to apply, a 3.7 GPA minimum is required. In tutorials, students meet one-on-one with acclaimed Oxford scholars to go head-to-head on subjects within the disciplines of history, literature, languages, philosophy, musicology, art, science, and more. Visiting Student status comes with extraordinary privileges such as: participating in Oxford’s athletic clubs, taking part in artistic organizations, and of course, an all-access pass to world-renowned libraries. It culminates in a program that many students find to be the perfect bridge from the undergraduate world to the world of graduate studies. SSO is organized by SCIO, Scholarship & Christianity in Oxford, which is the UK subsidiary of BestSemester and the CCCU. It is a research center based in Oxford working in close partnership with Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford.
Travelers are required to book a round-trip flight for this program.
** Eligibility Requirements **
The Scholars’ Semester in Oxford is an interdisciplinary program which gives no preference to students in any particular field of study. However, a good academic record is necessary. The University of Oxford normally admits as Visiting Students those with a GPA of 3.7 or higher. Neither SSO nor Wycliffe Hall may vary this general requirement. However, students with GPAs of below 3.7 may be admitted in exceptional circumstances.* The Oxford tutorial style is very different from the North American system of education; many students find this a stimulating and challenging transition, requiring experience and maturity. The tutorials, lectures and seminars are equivalent to upper-division courses. Students are expected to do advanced-level work, and therefore need to have sufficient preparation for the concentration chosen. If your schedule won’t allow you to consider Oxford in your junior or senior year, you can apply for admission as a sophomore. Oxford’s tutors will be no less demanding, but, in a tutorial (just one student and a tutor), it is always possible to tailor the teaching to the student. For more information on the Scholars’ Semester in Oxford view the prospectus, contact sso@bestsemester.com, or phone 202.548.5201.
`I think the most surprising thing for me [about my BestSemester experience] was what we learned outside of the classroom. When you go abroad, you're experiencing a whole different culture, a different way of living life, and (to an extent) a different way of living out the Christian walk. It's so easy to get stuck on one way of doing things, but when you discover that there are different approaches to living life, and that those approaches may be just as valid as yours, then all sorts of new doors open up. That's what my experience did for me - it opened all sorts of doors in my life that I'd never even knew existed.` — Chloe Whitaker - Fall 2012
