Best A-levels for reading philosophy at Cambridge?

@jneill thanks for tagging me in

Thanks for joining and your excellent contribution

I think Trinity has a rather stricter view of subjects than most other colleges

(And good luck again for Tuesday!)



Posted from TSR Mobile

@jneill thanks for tagging me in
I'm a current A-level philosophy student who has applied to Cambridge. I will be receiving my rejection letter this Tuesday, but that's more to do with my performance at interview than my A-level subject choices!

At AS I took: geography, history, English literature and philosophy. I then dropped geography after AS and carried the other three on to A2.

I don't think there are any specific A-levels which would be vastly more helpful than others. The candidates I met who had also made it to the interview stage were taking a wide range of subjects. There were humanities, sciences, maths etc. Oh, and I was the only one studying philosophy at A-level so not taking that won't disadvantage you either. Either way, they will be most interested in seeing that you have done wider reading in your own time.

Having said that, if your school does offer a philosophy or philosophy and ethics course, that would be a good A-level to take, just to make sure that it's what you want to study for three years! If not, I know several philosophy applicants had religious studies and there is some overlap between that and philosophy of religion: ontological argument, cosmological argument, problem of evil etc.

Essay subjects such as English and history are useful because it's an essay-based course. However, (and this is something which I did not know before applying - I am TERRIBLE at maths) Cambridge's philosophy course is very focused on logic and it is a compulsory module in the first two years. There is also a logic component to the admissions test. Formal logic in particular is quite mathematical so having maths or even further maths will help you to think in the right way. But, this is clearly not a requirement either.

There are no subjects which Cambridge explicitly asks for, so on the whole I would recommend that you take what you are best at because at the end of the day if you do get an offer it's likely to be something like AAA*.

What I would say is, make sure that the subjects which you choose are on Cambridge's list of facilitating subjects, found here:

http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/admissions/ug/apply/a-level-combinations

What sort of things do they like you to have read in your own time? Because rn the closest thing I've read to a book on philosophy is Sun Tzu the art of war

As you can understand entry into Cambridge is super-difficult but don't let my words dissuade you, instead I offer a fascinating alternative for you to think about..

Royal Holloway, University of London offers a B.A. in Philosophy and History

have a look at the specification here

here is the Royal Holloway library.. look's great for studying.



the opportunity to do an exchange at Heidelberg, which is the Oxbridge of Germany!



you could then do the M.A. in History of Political Thought and Intellectual History at the University of London (UCL and QMUL) studying at the Senate House library.



you could then apply to a Ph.D. in History of Political Thought and Intellectual History at Cambridge.. maybe Peterhouse perhaps! So you can get to Cambridge eventually..



University of Cambridge - M.Phil and Ph.D. History of Political Thought
University of London - M.A. History of Political Thought
Royal Holloway, University of London - B.A. History and Philosophy
Economics, German, Government and Politics, Mathematics
----
an alternative to that is..

you can do a masters in Germany which is tuition free!

http://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/students/degree/master_programs/economics/index.html

From what I have seen, Ludwig Maximilians Universitat Munchen don't charge fees for bachelors..

http://www.uni-muenchen.de/studium/studienfinanzierung/darlehen/index.html

..which could be an amazing experience.. with everyone studying in the UK or coming to the UK from abroad.

----
Another opportunity with economics is the University of Nottingham in Ningbo, China with a B.A. in International Economics and Trade, where you could come back to work at H.M. Treasury and the Bank of England focusing on the Asian economy and its impacts on the UK and EU.

Flights to China are £300 and accommodation is on campus which is great! (which are the pink buildings in the background of this photo of the campus.



you could work at JP Morgan or Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong or for historic companies like Jardine Matheson.

Good book

Posted from TSR Mobile

Sorry to hear that man, how come your interview went so badly?

Did you see anyone there who had taken the same A-levels as I'm thinking about taking. Also what's A-level English lit like?(I'm predicted an 8 in it at GCSE but I'm not sure that the A-level is really for me)

What sort of things do they like you to have read in your own time? Because rn the closest thing I've read to a book on philosophy is Sun Tzu the art of war

What is the interview process actually like? I mean I think I have a vague idea but in reality, that really doesn't count for much.

Thanks for replying

Sorry to hear that man, how come your interview went so badly?

Did you see anyone there who had taken the same A-levels as I'm thinking about taking. Also what's A-level English lit like?(I'm predicted an 8 in it at GCSE but I'm not sure that the A-level is really for me)

What sort of things do they like you to have read in your own time? Because rn the closest thing I've read to a book on philosophy is Sun Tzu the art of war

What is the interview process actually like? I mean I think I have a vague idea but in reality, that really doesn't count for much.

Thanks for replying

Do not read a book because you *think* that's what they want you to read. Read it because you enjoy reading it.
It doesn't matter which one/s. They just want you to learn to enjoy the subject and explore it beyond the normal school curriculum to love to even more. They're not interested in ticking boxes on a presumed 'books to read' list just to apply to Cambridge. Why they're interested is how genuinely passionate about the subject you are because that's what you really need to get you through their very intensive and demanding course for 3/4 years.

How come it went badly? As I said, maths isn't really my thing so the test was dreadful to begin with. And I just completely panicked in my interviews and said some very stupid things.

Sorry, I didn't see which A-levels you were considering before posting. Maths, further maths, German and economics right? There were definitely people taking maths there. I don't think anyone was doing a language or economics but I might be wrong. Also, four out of the other six applicants were internationals so weren't taking A-levels. They sound like good choices to me though - especially the maths and further maths. My friends who take economics always seem to be writing essays so that could be your essay subject.

I really enjoy English A-level. It's considerably more interesting than at GCSE (I found the GCSE syllabus very boring) but don't feel that you have to take it if you don't want to. There was one applicant who was only taking maths and sciences so the humanities aren't a requirement. The good thing about English, is that there is less content to learn in it than in other subjects. The exams are closed book though so you have to learn a lot of quotes.

The interview process wasn't too intimidating. The interviewers were all very nice so don't let my bad experience put you off. I had a general interview which was about 20mins and a subject specific one which was about 30mins I think. Just make sure you brush up on your personal statement and any written work you have submitted before you go in.

The books I read before my interview were: Peter Singer's Practical Ethics, Mill's Utilitarianism, Descartes' Meditations, Russell's Problems of Philosophy, Glover's Causing Death and Saving Lives, Dawkins' The God Delusion (not really philosophy but oh well), Wolff's An introduction to Political Philosophy, Blackburn's Think, Hodges' Logic and also some articles in the Cambridge University Press Think journal.

Just did a quick Google and found this reading list: http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/prosp-students/prosp-ugrad-readlinglist

What sort of things do they like you to have read in your own time?

Ahhhhhh, good luck for Tuesday anyway, you may still be accepted

What does the course generally cover with A-level English lit because rn I'm only going off of what my friends sister told me. The whole closed book thing isn't that bad though, surely?

Which would you consider a good starting point?

Again, thanks for the reply

Get a life

I actually study HSPS

First of all, thanks for replying.

So to study in the university of Nottingham in ningbo would I require conversational mandarin/Cantonese, because with Mandarin I struggle to get past the basics and presumably it'd be the same with Cantonese

With this I ask the same question as before just this time with German and for the German universities.

Finally, the other one, where you begin studies at Royal Holloway, does sound quite appealing. My only question is, is how long are the combined courses? Only because I'm not sure that I'll be supported with going through uni for that long

It doesn't matter, more or less.

Do hard ones, but I don't think they care so much which hard ones you do - just pick the ones you're most confident with. Maybe go for Maths or Physics if you can, but arts are fine too - I got in with Philosophy, History and English Literature. You will not benefit at all from doing RS or P&E A-Level and in fact I'd advise against it. The Cambridge emphasis is on analytic philosophy and since these A-Levels tend to ignore that, you might just end up giving yourself a skewed impression about what University study would be like.



I actually study HSPS

The Ningbo courses are taught entirely in english with lessons available to learn chinese so if you were to spend 3 years and possibly an extra year if you were to do an industrial placement in China then you should be at a professional level by the time you finish. Cantonese is only spoken in Hong Kong as you may already know and is slowly fading out since Hong Kong joined China and it's history as a british colony means there is a lot of english spoken there.

I think it is an amazing opportunity to do something like this when everyone else is staying in the UK, which really needs more people to go abroad to study. I think I heard David Cameron say once that there are 300,000 chinese students here in the UK but only 3000 students out in China and Nottingham is contributing a lot to changing that.

I don't know how you feel about being away from home by studying in a different country but your parents and your friends would likely visit you out in China during the summer. The campus offers many things like a dentist which is reassuring.

I assume if you are thinking of studying German for entry into Cambridge that you would be good at it by the end of a two year a-level - at Heidelberg you would be taught in German.

http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/studium/interesse/faecher/philosophie.html

http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/courses/prospective/academicprograms/philosophie_en.html

http://www.philosophie.uni-hd.de/md/philsem/studienberatung/ba_leitfaden.pdf

To go for a bachelors in Munich you would need to pass a german language proficiency test.

The joint honours courses at Royal Holloway are 4 years with 1 year exchange. When you say supported, are you an international student already? as this is all covered by a student loan.

You should really do your research into these ideas.. the history of political thought is an incredible field to study.