Students interested in Oxford may have friends who studied there last year. If so, you have probably noticed that most of the Visiting Student places are in the newer colleges of the University. Many American students prefer the newest colleges (chartered in the last few decades) as they are regarded by American students as more "progressive", more friendly, and more like American colleges. Other American students have said that they were pleased that WISC, because of its reputation in Oxford (based on 14 years of experience), could recommend students for Visiting Student places in Medieval colleges. No other overseas programme in Oxford open to all qualified students has made similar arrangements.
The ten Medieval colleges have been very selective. These colleges, for instance, admitted about 30 Visiting Students for the 1997-1998 year and many of those students came from all over the world. Probably less than 20 of these Visiting Students places were for Americans. Magdalen College has increased its small number of Visiting Student places for next year. The total number of these scarce places offered by all the colleges to American students was about 240.