How to Apply

The information on "How to apply" is the same for the Berrow Foundation Scholarships and the Berrow Foundation Lord Florey Scholarships.
Application Process
In order to be considered for a Berrow Foundation Scholarship (application for the Scholarship), candidates must apply at the same time to the University of Oxford (application for the course) and state Lincoln College as their preferred College choice. As a duplicate of the University application will be part of the application for the Scholarship, candidates will have to begin with the application for the University course. Regarding the Scholarship application, the different completed documents should be submitted together to Lincoln College no later than January for courses starting in October of the same year. Candidate who wish to apply for a course that is not currently associated with Lincoln College should contact the College at the earliest opportunity for advice on how to complete the application form.
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Click here to download the 2018 application form. Do also visit the Berrow section of the Lincoln College website for further information.
Selection Procedure
A selection committee of experts will evaluate the applications based on the candidates' achievements and establish a shortlist. Shortlisted candidates will then be invited for an interview, usually taking place in May (for applications of January of the same year). Candidates should note that the committee will not only pay attention to scholastic achievement but also to qualities such as truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship. It will also look for moral force of character and the instincts to lead and take an interest in one's contemporaries. These attributes, which are partly inspired by those required by the Rhodes Trustees, reflect the aims of the Berrow Foundation.

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Informal “How To” Guide to Apply for a

​Berrow Foundation Scholarship

​by the former President of the Berrow Society

The most important advice for students wishing to apply for a Berrow Foundation Scholarship is: plan ahead. You will not only need to complete your application for the Berrow Foundation Scholarship and for Oxford University separately, but you will also need, in order to do so, to gather several administrative documents (copy of passport and “Acte d'Origine" of the parents, academic transcripts, etc.), and ask for three recommendation letters - two for the Berrow Foundation Scholarship, and three for your application to Oxford - well ahead of time, as professors are usually quite busy, and often need to be reminded once or twice about such things.
The deadline for application to the Scholarship is usually the 20th January of each year, but the deadlines for application to each specific programme of study at the University of Oxford are different, and there are often several of them for each programme. As you must give a copy of your University course application when applying for the Berrow Foundation Scholarship, you need to apply for your chosen programme of study by a deadline on or before 20th January. You can check the different deadlines, find useful information about the Oxford University applications, and start applying on this webpage: Oxford University graduate admissions.
You also need to check what exactly is required for your chosen programme of study, as each faculty and department requires different supporting material (be it short essays in Arts, or a research proposal if you are planning on applying for a DPhil). You can check those here: Selection Criteria. The Oxford University application is done online. A few things to remember while you are completing your application:
  • Remember to choose Lincoln College as your first College choice.
  • You need proof of your proficiency in English. If you have followed part of your curriculum in English, or your parents speak to you in English at home, etc., you can ask for a language test waiver (which may or may not be granted). Otherwise, you need to prove your linguistic abilities by taking a test (IELTS, TOEFL iBT, CPE, or CAE). These tests are often expensive, and you need, most of the time, to register well in advance before taking the test, so again, plan well ahead of time. 
  • Some courses require you to have passed the GRE, the Revised General Test, which is a standardized test used as an admission requirement for a lot of American, and some English, universities. It is another expensive, and quite specific test, for which you need to study. Check if your programme of study requires it, and if so you need to (again) have enough time to prepare for it and register to take it. 
  • If you need to submit writing samples, it is a good idea to rework one of your essays with the help of your professor. There is always a word limit specified in the application, usually 2000 words. Never go over (or very much under, for that matter) the limit: it is designed to test your ability to condense your ideas to a set length, something that will be asked of you during your studies, whether it be a DPhil or a Master. 
  • When you have finished your application, you should be aware that you will have to pay an Application Fee of £50.
As soon as you have completed your Oxford University application, you can start working on your Berrow Foundation Scholarship application, which is done on paper. You can download the application form on this page (do make sure it is already the one for the year you are interested in). You should read carefully the “General Information” page that prefaces the application, in order to make sure you are indeed eligible for the Scholarship. Most of the material needed for your Berrow Foundation Scholarship application is already prepared after you have submitted your Oxford University application: you for instance only need two out of the three references letters needed for the latter. However, there is again an important caveat to this: you should ask both your parents for a copy of their passport and of their “Acte d'Origine” (Heimatschein; Atto di origine). In addition, you should be aware that the piece of writing asked of you will be the only thing the seleciton committee will have read of your research, so it is very important it is clear, concise, and shows off your abilities as best it can. If it is very specialized, it is also always a good idea to include a short paragraph at the beginning of your work that explains it for the layman.
When you have sent off your applications, you should wait to be contacted by email, should you be shortlisted. Candidates have to be accepted by both the University of Oxford and Lincoln College before they can be shortlisted for the Scholarship. Short listed candidates are usually told early in April of each year, and are invited to an interview taking place in April or May in Geneva.
Once you have passed the interview stage, you should receive word of whether you have been granted the Berrow Foundation Scholarship in the following month. I hope this short “How to” guide will be useful for your application, and I wish you all the success in this endeavour.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Juliette Vuille

President of the Berrow Society, 2012-2014
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