This page is only relevant to students who have submitted an application for undergraduate study in October 2025. If this does not apply to you, please return to our home page.
The English tutors at Balliol will be looking for general aptitude for the subject — and in particular, for a strong commitment to literature and indication of critical ability. Candidates are assessed on the basis of their UCAS forms, their submitted written work, discussion during the interviews (where students have been shortlisted), and their actual or predicted results in A‑Levels, Highers, IB, or equivalent examinations.
Written work
We would normally expect that you would submit a marked essay produced in the normal course of your school or college work, and that it should not have been rewritten after marking. We understand that may not always be possible, so please describe the circumstances under which your work was produced on the cover sheet provided. You and your teacher will both fill in this form, so tell us under what conditions you wrote the essay, with what help, and in what timeframe. Tutors will take that information into account.
Preferably, the submitted work should be a discussion of some topic or topics within the field of English Literature — for example, an essay about one or more literary works (novels, poems, plays) — though an essay on some aspect of English Language is also permissible. It should not be a short timed exercise, a critical commentary on a particular passage (such as a practical criticism exercise), nor a piece of creative writing. Written work should be submitted electronically to undergraduate@balliol.ox.ac.uk.
Candidates (especially overseas candidates) without suitable material should consult the Admissions Office by email at the same address.
Interviews
Following the submission of written work, candidates may be asked to interview in early December.
All interviews in this admission cycle will be conducted remotely.
Applicants are encouraged to read around the subjects they have studied at school and to be prepared to engage in discussion during the interview: part of the point of interviewing is to assess an aptitude for working within a tutorial system. Candidates will not be faced with questions requiring knowledge of particular authors or subjects on which they have not worked, but they should be prepared to talk about any literary or other interests to which they have themselves drawn attention.