In English at St John's we usually make about five conditional offers for every four places available, and expect to make about ten offers overall . St John's does not make offers involving S-level or STEP grades in English. These are used as starting-points for discussion in the interviews. Send us the work you most enjoyed writing, the material which in your view shows your skills and potential to best advantage. Essays of any length can be submitted, but time dictates that we cannot normally read more than about 3,000 words from each applicant, so indicate which sections of long pieces you would like us to scrutinise.
Many impressive essays are compact.
If you write creatively and would like that to be taken into account, we should be glad to look at samples of your work in addition to the critical essays. Please be sure to keep the originals of the written material you are sending us. We cannot return the copies to you, unfortunately. The aim of our interviews, which last about 20 to 30 minutes each, is to find out from you at first hand about your motivation and aptitude for the course which you have chosen. We try to conduct our interviews in a friendly and informal manner, and you should not feel daunted by the prospect of them.