The Student Room Group

Oxford Maths and Philosophy Students and Applicants

Scroll to see replies

Reply 80
Original post by Cynical.
Hello. I'm about to enter Year 12 and having started looking around at degree choices really like the look of this course. It very much seems like a 'best of both worlds' sort of fit. However, my sixth form do not offer Further Maths at A-Level (although they do say I may be able to do the AS in Year 13). I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight as to how much of a disadvantage this could prove to be when applying - did you or anyone you know get onto the course without FM/just AS-Level FM? Or should I accept I'll probably have to look elsewhere? Thanks.


I definitely recommend applying anyway, they have an offer for people who can't do FM (AS-Level FM is better than not, if possible). In terms of the gap, it's larger for just Mathematics students as much of the applied maths is helped by FM. The pure is a little, but Oxford has its own catchup work anyway which you can do the summer before coming up if you do get in (called "bridging the gap"). So it's a slight disadvantage when it comes to the course, but no disadvantage in application as many students are in your position and they cater for this. Go for it! :smile:
Reply 81
Hey! I find both maths and philosophy really interesting. Although there are bits of CS&Phil (artificial intelligence, computability) that are also appealing to me :redface:

I was torn between New College and Hertford as I went to the open days and liked both of them. But now that I've finally decided to apply for maths&phil, I started considering Worcester as another option...

Can anyone give me some advise? Maybe how different is Mathsphil at these two colleges? The atmosphere, tutors, student life, etc.
The Oxford website mentions that the Maths and Phil course has very little applied math. How much could I add in choosing my own options? How much would this hurt me if I may want to pursue graduate school? Could I still learn how to program, or are those courses completely off limits?
Original post by dvanderknaap
The Oxford website mentions that the Maths and Phil course has very little applied math. How much could I add in choosing my own options? How much would this hurt me if I may want to pursue graduate school? Could I still learn how to program, or are those courses completely off limits?


In first year Maths and Philosophy you'll do a subset of the Maths course, and mainly it's the applied side that you miss out on. So you won't cover things like statistics (though you do do probability), dynamics, optimisation, multivariable calculus, Fourier series, and so on. If you want to compare precisely the content of the two courses you can look at the course handbooks on our website.

As you've not taken those introductory courses, you're then limited in your applied options in later years (because they build on the work you do in first year). However, if you were particularly interested in taking a course, and you did all the background work, then you could ask your tutors if you could take it.

It really depends what you want to study at graduate level - if you want to do a PhD in an applied maths area, then it may be that you don't have quite all the prerequisite knowledge (though one of the points of university is to teach you how to learn things, so you could quite easily teach yourself any gaps).

Regarding programming, there are certainly some Computer Science courses on offer that you could potentially take (for instance, Lambda calculus), though none that teach programming per se.
Original post by Yezi_L
Hey! I find both maths and philosophy really interesting. Although there are bits of CS&Phil (artificial intelligence, computability) that are also appealing to me :redface:

I was torn between New College and Hertford as I went to the open days and liked both of them. But now that I've finally decided to apply for maths&phil, I started considering Worcester as another option...

Can anyone give me some advise? Maybe how different is Mathsphil at these two colleges? The atmosphere, tutors, student life, etc.


Just curious: what made you finally decide to study Maths and Phil instead of CS and Phil?

Quick Reply

Latest