Applying to a British university necessitates an application. For the vast majority of applicants the details registered on the application form, the results achieved, the personal statement and the reference from the school is the sum of the information available to the universities in making their decision as to whether to offer a place or not. That is why students put so much energy, effort and stress into their application. In this article let us look at the minority of circumstances where the application is only one part of the admission process.
Firstly for Art, Design and Drama courses it is not unusual to find that the university or college running the course will invite applicants to attend interviews. For Art and Design courses this typically involves taking the portfolio, the collection of the students best work, over to the interview so the university can see first hand the quality of the student's work. For drama courses applicants may be asked to attend an audition, to prove that they can act, sing, dance etc. In each of these cases it seems eminently sensible that students should be given the chance to demonstrate their aptitude outside of creating extending prose explaining their skills which is a quite different skill altogether. For example Jay Z is a great rapper but would he be able to write an essay explaining to you why he is a great rapper? Maybe he could but the easiest way to prove it is to listen to him, not to read about it.
An interview is also a good opportunity for the student to ask questions of their potential professors to decide if this course really is the best for them. So given the advantages of interviews why are they not more common? The simple answer is cost and time. Most courses probably feel they do not have the financial nor human resources to hold interviews for all the thousands of applications they receive each year. As it happens Art, Design, Drama, Medicine and Oxbridge (Oxford and Cambridge) are sufficiently niche to be able to justify holding interviews. Also because the places are so valuable, and missing good people (and likewise incorrectly choosing weaker people) is so damaging that for each of these courses the universities feel that they have to be sure.
As an aside it is worth us considering that in international education the environment is changing subtly. Forty years ago universities were free at the point of access meaning that universities received funding from the government. As such they controlled the process and were able to hold the power and choose which students they wanted to select. Now the mood is changing, in a market where the student now receives significant fees and must decide carefully how to spend the money assigned to their education the university model is becoming more of a buyers market. Student hold increasing power and soon they will want to interview the university to see if their professors can prove how good they are! In English we have a saying for this - that the tables have turned! I am sure we will one day live through this period when universities fight each other for students.
However in 2013 it is still the situation that students fight each other for limited university places - so time for me to give you some advice! Let me tell you a story about a Chinese student that applied to Oxford and had to attend an interview. They were already living in the UK for their A levels so they did not have to travel far to attend the interview. They arrived early and made a few friends amongst the other students waiting to be interviewed. The whole process can be quite long to interview for Oxford and Cambridge - sometimes students can be in the city for 3 days or even longer. The student, Amy, was extremely nervous about her interview, she didn't enjoy speaking English to strangers. So when the time came for the famous Oxford academics to invite her into a room where education has happened for over 400 years she could barely speak. The professors tried to be kind but they decided the best thing to do was to stop talking about Mathematics, be polite and talk about China and finish the interview early. Amy heard back from Oxford 3 weeks later to hear that her application had been unsuccessful. She was very sad. But actually, as I told her then, and as I hope she now understands, Oxford saying no was the best thing that could have happened.
Imagine if they had said yes. She would have gone to university and found the tutorials where you speak to professors so stressful and unproductive that she would have learnt little. So after a few months of this she would either have to quit and go home or she would stay and eventually fail. Either way it would have been a blow to her confidence and a big waste of her parents money. So as it happens do not be sad if you too get called for an interview like Amy and do not succeed. If you cannot make the interview a success you would probably not succeed on the course. So it is better to know that as soon as possible so you can make new and better plans for your life!
以上就是全部的内容啦！希望本文能给申请者一些帮助~
留学申请表的填写和提交是入读英国高校的重要一环。对绝大部分的申请者来说，你申请时提交的个人信息、个人成绩成果、个人陈述以及学校推荐信，是高校在决定是否录取你时，所有的参考信息。这也是为什么学生们投入了如此多精力、努力和压力在留学申请表填写和提交这一关上的原因。不过，申请表的填写和提交并不是申请过程的全部。让我们看看面试所展示的魅力！
首先对于艺术、设计和戏剧这几门课程，开设这些专业的高校邀请申请者进行面试是非常常见的事情。对于艺术设计专业来说，最典型的就是带上你的个人简历、最好的艺术作品去到面试现场，这样高校可以看到第一手作品并评判作品质量。戏剧专业的申请者很有可能被安排参加试镜，以证明他们会表演、唱歌、跳舞。在这些情况下给学生合适的机会去证明他们的才华、而不是让他们长篇大论来论述他们的这些技能是非常明智的。比如说，周杰伦是一个非常棒的饶舌歌手，但是他可以写一篇论文来论述他唱歌有多么棒吗？最简单的方法是听他唱歌，而不是读他的论述文章。
因此面试给了学生们很好的机会，可以向未来的教授们询问关心的问题，以决定这门课程是不是最适合自己的。既然面试有如此优点，为什么不大面积铺开呢？最简单的回答是时间和成本问题。大部分专业课程考虑到他们没有足够的财力和人力去面向每年成千上万的申请者设置面试环节。目前举行面试的，只有艺术、设计、戏剧、医学专业，以及牛津和剑桥。因为这些专业和高校的名额空缺是如此抢手，学校方面觉得必须十拿九稳，以便确保不错过任何一个好学生或者错录了某些能力欠奉的学生。
另外需要我们考虑的是国际教育的环境似乎正在悄悄改变。四十年前高校都是由政府资助、免费入学的。因此高校方面有足够的掌控权去决定挑选哪些真正想录取的学生。现在呢氛围改变了，变成了‘买方市场’，因为是学生们手里掌控资金，是他们决定要把钱投资到哪里。学生们手里的权利越来越大了，也许不久的将来就是他们来面试教授，让教授来证明自己有多少教学能力！在英语中我们有句俗话来形容这种现象，叫做：The tables have turned！（十年河东，十年河西）我预言将来有一天，会变成高校们去抢夺学生资源！
当然了在2013年仍然是学生们在争抢有限的高校资源——所以是时候让我来给你一些建议。下面是曾经我的一个中国学生的故事，她申请牛津大学并进入面试环节。她们这些学生已经在英国学习Alevel课程，所以不需要长途跋涉来到英国参加面试。她们早早地到了面试现场并结识了其他一些在等待面试的同学们。面试牛津剑桥的整个过程堪称旷日持久——有时候学生们需要在那里呆上3天时间甚至更久。这个中国学生名叫Amy，她对即将到来的面试十分紧张，因为自己并不擅长在陌生人面前讲英语。所以当鼎鼎大名的牛津教授们邀请她进入一间有400多年教育历史的房间里进行面试的时候，她几乎说不了话了。那些教授们虽然十分友好，但觉得当场也许最好不跟Amy谈论数学，而礼貌地改换成有关中国的话题，最后这场面试早早结束了。三周后Amy收到了来自牛津的回复，告诉她申请被拒。她非常伤心。但是事实上，我当时告诉她，希望她现在也理解了，牛津给拒信是对她最好的结果。
想象一下如果牛津录取她了！她会进入牛津学习并发现在课程辅导时，她面对教授们是如此紧张、脑袋空白、毫无建树，这样的话她根本学不到什么。所以不出几个月她要么退学回家，要么勉强留下并最终挂科。二者都会极大挫伤她的自信并浪费她父母的钱。因此如果你也遭遇到了和Amy一样的面试失败的情况，不要灰心。因为如果你连面试都过不了，今后课程学习时你是不会好过的。说‘早死早超生’有点残忍，但至少你可以尽快为自己制定新的、更精彩的人生计划！
