Language Requirement: None
Academic Standing by Program Start: Incoming UO Freshman
Location: Europe, United Kingdom, England
GPA: 3.0

Program Overview

Can’t wait for college to begin? Get a head start on your University of Oregon academic career while studying in one of the most diverse cities in the world on Global Education Oregon’s study abroad program: Advancing Your Academic Success: Pre-Freshman Studies in London.

Watch a Zoom info session with a past Pre-Freshman student and faculty leader!

Upon arrival in London, you’ll follow in the footsteps of the Oregon Duck as the city becomes your classroom. Your classes will meet at the GEO in London Centre, a beautiful early Georgian town house in the heart of Bloomsbury in central London. Number 6 Great James Street was completed in 1721, and the wood paneling and ornate mahogany columns are original.

In addition, you’ll join your professors on excursions to historical sites and theatre performances to see your course materials come to life. Guest speakers from all walks of life will share their knowledge and passion for London. All program-related textbooks, excursions, performances, and local transportation are included in the program fee.

Additionally, we will offer a similar Pre-Freshman program in Siena, Italy this summer! Students can apply to both programs, but can only attend one due to overlapping dates.

Minimum Age Requirement: Please note that due to United Kingdom laws, students must be 18 years or older by the program start date (July 27, 2025).

IntroDUCKtion: For Summer 2025, students going to London may participate in any IntroDUCKtion session before or after the Pre-Freshman program that does not conflict with the London program dates. Please register for IntroDUCKtion at this site: https://orientation.uoregon.edu/introducktion/freshman

Please note credits earned on this program are through the University of Oregon's Community Education Program. Therefore this program is not eligible for federal financial aid, including federal student or parent loans.

Dates and Deadlines

 
Term Year Deadline Arrival Date Departure Date
Summer 2025 05/01/2025 07/27/2025 08/23/2025

Application Instructions: To create an application for this program, please click the “Start an Application” button. If you are on a computer, this will be in the upper right hand of the screen, and if you are on your mobile phone, it will be at the bottom. You will be brought to the login page, where you can create an account. Please take the following steps:

  • Choose “I do not have login credentials to this site.”
  • Choose “I am not currently registered at an institution. You are not yet a UO student, and therefore should not plan on using any UO information.
  • Fill out the following form requesting your name, date of birth, gender, and email.

When you submit this form, an account will be generated for you, and an email will be sent to you with your login and password information. If at any point you have issues with this process, please contact geoinfo@uoregon.edu.

This program has a rolling admission application process: GEO staff (and the program faculty leader, if applicable) will complete a review of the application materials of complete applications in the order that they are submitted (“first come, first serve”). Decisions about acceptance will be made shortly after you submit a complete application. There are some programs that fill fast, some even before the deadline. Students are encouraged to complete applications and commit to programs early.

Discount for Pell Recipients

To expand access to study abroad, GEO is offering a $500 discount for this program to UO students who currently have the Pell Grant as part of their federal financial aid (FAFSA).

Academic Details

This is a four-week summer program for Fall 2025 freshmen students that allows you to earn nine credits towards your University of Oregon degree in an international setting. Courses include Advancing Your Academic Success, The Play’s the Thing (four credits towards UO Arts & Letters requirement), and London: Biography of a City (four credits towards UO Social Science requirement).

Students should be prepared for a rigorous academic experience. You will be expected to demonstrate maturity and critical thinking both inside and outside the classroom. Courses will meet for several hours at a time, three to four times each week, with additional mandatory excursions and performances. You should be prepared for class meetings on all weekdays. 

We also encourage you to follow the GEO in London Centre on social media to see what current London students are learning about throughout the year!

Course Equivalencies

UO students: please refer to the UO Course Equivalency Process and the UO Office of the Registrar Course Equivalency Database.

Non-UO students: Actual credit awarded is determined by the relevant department at your university in consultation with the study abroad office. Check with your study abroad advisor for more information.

Additional Requirements

Program participants must be 18 years or older as of July 27, 2025.

All participants must be enrolled at the University of Oregon starting fall term 2025, as of May 1, 2025. 

Faculty and Staff

Dr. Steven Brence is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. Having graduated from the UO, he now teaches courses such as Philosophy of Popular Culture, Social and Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Film. Dr. Brence has published philosophical essays on films such as Casablanca and Lost in Translation and is the founder and co-director of the International Society for Philosophy in Film that holds its annual meetings in London each August. He has won university-wide teaching awards, including the Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achievement Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Engagement Faculty Research Mentor Award. Dr. Brence has also served as primary advisor for dozens of undergraduate honors theses and is the faculty advisor for the UO Undergraduate Philosophical Society, Ex Animo (the UO undergraduate philosophy journal) and each Fall, “Thinking Media,” a First-Year Interest Group. Outside of Eugene, London is his favorite city in the world.

Dr. Charlotte Young teaches the Biography of a City course as a local British faculty member. She has a Ph.D. in History from Royal Holloway, University of London, on the topic of English Civil War sequestration. She is a Research Assistant on the AHRC-funded Civil War Petitions project at the University of Oxford, an Honorary Visiting Fellow in English Local History at the University of Leicester, and a convenor of the British History in the 17th Century seminar at the Institute of Historical Research. She has taught at Royal Holloway, the University of London, and the University of California’s London summer school program. She is the author of ‘Join Loyalty and Liberty: A History of the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers’, and is currently adapting her Ph.D. research into a biography of John Bradshawe, the judge who sentenced Charles I to death.

Professor Susie Thomas teaches the theater course: The Play's the Thing. Susie is a literary scholar who has published widely on British authors from Aphra Behn to Martin Amis. Her most recent volume is A Reader‘s Guide to Hanif Kureishi; she is currently working on a study of Arabic writing about the capital (“Arabia on Thames”). Susie is the Reviews Editor for The Literary London Journal and she also writes for The London Fictions website (www.londonfictions.com). Susie teaches “The 19th and 20th Century English Novel” in the Spring and an exciting creative writing course in the Autumn. Her latest book (co-authored with fellow GEO faculty Andrew Whitehead) ‘So We Live: The Novels of Alexander Baron’ was published in 2019.

Housing Description

You will join a community of residents from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, as part of life in one of the University of London residence halls. The hall is located in central London, close to the GEO Centre, the British Museum, and the London Tube.

You will have your own single study and share bathrooms with other residents. All single rooms have a hand basin, fitted furniture consisting of a bed (including linens), desk, chair, and storage for clothes and books. Rooms are fitted with a telephone, Wi-Fi, and data socket.

The residence hall has study rooms, lounges, a computer lab, and laundry facilities available to students. Daily breakfast is included in the program fee and is taken in the hall's cafeteria. Shared refrigerators, microwaves, and kettles are also available in the hall common areas and there are grocery stores and restaurants within walking distance.