How to Apply
Application for graduate courses at Oxford is made to the University centrally, and applications are considered first by Departments and Faculties. University Departments and Faculties run and organise all graduate courses, the details of which are available on the University's Graduate Admissions page. In applying to the University, a student may indicate a college of preference or may instead indicate no college preference (in which case a college will be assigned via the University Graduate Admissions and Funding Office). A college will consider a student’s application only after it has been accepted by the relevant Department or Faculty. The University Graduate Admissions website allows you to:
- Order copies of the graduate prospectus or view the online version of the graduate prospectus
- Order or download application forms for graduate admission or make an online application.
The Admissions Process
Once a Faculty or Department has accepted your application to study for a graduate course, the application is sent (together with any supporting materials) to the college of your choice, or to the college which you have been allocated by the Graduate Admissions and Funding Office.
College Graduate Admissions Criteria
The following explains the basis on which, and way in which, graduate applications to St. John’s are decided.
- Applications must first have been accepted by a Department or Faculty of the University of Oxford before the College will consider them.
- Applications are considered for any of the courses in which the College offers admission. Please consult the University's College Guide to see these courses.
- Applications are usually considered first by the College tutor or tutors in the relevant subject area, who then advise the Tutor for Graduates as to their acceptability and relative strength.
- The College aims to admit a certain number of graduate students each year spread across the range of subjects in which it accepts graduate students, and this will determine the number of offers which can be made to applicants. In determining which applications to accept, the relative academic merit and potential of the applicants is considered.
- The possession of competitively-won funding may be taken into account as an indicator of the applicant’s academic merit and potential.
- Preference will normally be given to applicants whose area of study overlaps with the academic interests of the College’s academic Fellows and lecturers.
- Preference may be given to current or past students of the College.
- The final decision on whether to offer a place in the light of the overall competition for graduate places and the spread of those places across subject areas is usually taken by the College’s Tutor for Graduates.
Please note:
- St. John’s is a popular college and this means that it may not be possible to make offers to well-qualified applicants whose applications are received late in the admissions round.
- On average, graduate applications are not received by a college of first preference (or first allocation) until approximately eight weeks after the application deadline date. It may take up to another four weeks before a college decision is made.
- If your application is accepted by St. John’s, we will write to you making you a College Offer in respect of the course for which you have been awarded a place from the Faculty or Department. Any offer by the College will be subject to your providing satisfactory assurances and guarantees that you will be able to pay for the proposed course of study (both in terms of University and College fees, and in terms of maintenance). This ‘financial guarantee’ is explained further on the University’s Fees and Funding page.
