UK University Admissions Support Programme
A post for:
Young people focused on having a positive impact with their study and careers, looking to apply for undergraduate courses at top UK universities (e.g. Oxford & Cambridge)
EAs in contact with high school students who they may wish to refer for UK admissions support (e.g. students who have engaged with EA through outreach programmes or their local EA group)
I’m offering a free programme of 1:1 admissions support for students applying to top UK universities in the forthcoming admissions cycle.
UPDATE: Note this programme is paused for 2023 while I am on maternity leave, but if you are in need of support with your university application, or have any questions, please get in touch and I will help as much as I can.
Goals of the programme
To provide young people focused on having a positive impact with their study and careers with support in preparing for UK university applications, particularly to the most elite and competitive universities such as Oxford & Cambridge. Rationale: by gaining admission to the most elite and high quality universities, students increase their chance of having impactful academic and career opportunities in the future.
To guide & mentor students in degree course/major choices to best suit their interests and abilities, and to facilitate their long term academic/career goals. Rationale: by choosing the most appropriate degree course, students will be better placed to facilitate their future plans and optimise their future positive impact.
The Programme—Apply Here!
Note the programme is paused for 2023 - please get in touch if there’s anything I can help you with though.
The programme is free of charge. Successful applicants will receive remote 1:1 support, with regular sessions to support with application preparation, including:
Choosing a degree course
Strategic university choices (& Oxbridge college choices)
Supercurricular development
Preparing the UCAS personal statement (& SAQ for Cambridge)
Preparing for admissions tests and interviews
If the programme is oversubscribed with eligible applicants, support may also be offered via group sessions, webinars, resources, and correspondence.
The programme is being run pro bono by Hannah Rowberry, a Cambridge graduate and former Oxford Admissions & Access Officer, now working as admissions consultant. Hannah developed her interests in Effective Altruism through volunteering with SHIC, developing resources and programmes for schools.
Eligibility and selection priorities
You are eligible to apply for this programme if:
You are applying to UK universities for undergraduate courses in the forthcoming admissions cycle (i.e. October 15th 2022 or January 25th 2023 deadlines) If you are applying in subsequent years, but would like guidance on your current preparations for university, please get in touch
You are interested in having a positive impact on making the world a better place, and would like to pursue this further within your studies and career
You have a strong academic profile and would be able to make a competitive application to top UK universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge (e.g. you have mostly 7/8/9s at GCSE, and are predicted A/A*s in your A levels)
Priorities in selection if oversubscribed:
Students with a strong commitment and interest in having a positive impact with their studies and careers, with clear intentions to pursue this
UK universities are your main (or equal) priority compared to other options globally
Students with fewer sources of support elsewhere (e.g. your school does not have much expertise in UK/Oxbridge admissions)
Students from backgrounds which are underrepresented in UK universities (minority ethnic background, first generation, low income household, disabled)
Note that all eligible students are encouraged to apply, the above prioritisation will only be used if oversubscribed, to prioritise the programme for students who will most benefit from support.
Application process
Please make an application via the Application Form. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, however spaces are limited, so early application is recommended. I will aim to respond within a week of an application being submitted, with support starting from May onwards.
If you have any questions or would like to find out more, please feel free to get in touch or connect via LinkedIn.
If you are sharing this with student contacts, the above information is also available in this flyer if this is a more useful format.
Thank yous: many thanks to Bastian Stern, Catherine Low, Jamie Harris, & Peter McIntyre for your inspiration, support & encouragement!
Nice! I’m particularly excited by the emphasis on support with choosing degree courses. I think this is important and really underprovided in general.
Have you thought about framing the programme as about helping people who want to have a positive impact with their work rather than about helping young EAs? I’m a little worried about community effects if “joining EA” comes to be perceived as a way to get generic boosts to one’s career (and that people who join in circumstances where they didn’t really let themselves think about why they might not want to will be worse long-term contributors than if they had space to think clearly about it). But maybe I’m missing some advantages of framing in terms of EAs.
To update, the EA terminology was actually becoming problematic already for referrals for students engaged with outreach orgs, so I’ve updated the language both within the post and related materials to be more inclusive—many thanks for your insights on this Owen!
Thanks Owen! And thank you for raising this, it’s been something I’ve been thinking on and I agree a broader ‘positive impact’ framing could be better on a number of levels, and likely something I’d be looking to do if I scale to a larger project. My reasoning currently is more simply for practicalities for a small scale project (just me & my spare time!) with recruiting & screening students more broadly being less operationally feasible at this point.
This sounds like a really great idea! I’d be curious to know, what are the factors limiting this to being a UK-only project? Would something like capacity or knowledge of other university systems in other countries be the issue? Because this sounds like a project I’d love to see in the US too and think could generally scale quite well!
Thanks Aris! The limiting factors are as you guess—I’m limited by my own capacity and starting out with the UK purely because that’s my own strongest area of expertise. But likewise hope to scale in both capacity and global reach—thank you for your encouragement! I’m currently effectively in a pilot phase assessing demand and impact prior to potentially scaling further. If so, I’d be looking to either develop my own global admissions expertise and/or find regional admissions specialists—I’d love to hear from anyone who might be interested in getting involved!
I have done around 20 practice interviews for mathematical subjects for Oxbridge. If in the off chance you need somebody to help do this, feel free to reach out. (If yes, let me know and I will share my contact details with you via linkedin)
Regardless, good luck with this! Very useful for teenagers to get this advice which is otherwise not available.