Oxford/Cambridge Questions

[whitmanifesto]

So my family is English (first gen US on mothers side), and while my primary aim for a PhD program is NYU steinhardt and UCLA, I'd like to aim for Oxfords Internet Institute and Cambridge's PhD in Education (my interests lie in the future of educatuonal and academic/scholarly media) but as a first generation college graduate, I've spent all my undergraduate time realizing how much I was unprepared for advancing in academia (hence my research interests). I've learned a lot about the American education system in the last two years, but I know nothing of the English system.

I have a year to prepare before application season starts again (I expect to finish my MA in 2 years). I know a fee people from the 2015 application season got into Oxford and UCL, so I'd like help preparing. Anything is helpful. I'm going to run through all the application sites and try to talk to professors and coordinators in addition to my general research in the MA career, but I'd really like the imput of students. Especially recent students.

Even reading lists are welcome! But how to navigate university websites and their terminology would be very useful. I only know much about UCL, but not much about how British academia differs from the US (such as what they expect from students).