Oxford Applicants for 2013 Entry

Original post by Kevin Wu

Yes I do remember you. I'd like to apply all three courses: Geography, PPE and Economics and Management. But I can imagine writing the personal statement would be rather tricky.

Thank you for the advice though, much appreciated.

All three? That's a bad move, especially as you're aiming at top universities.

You have plenty of time, but it was so unlucky and I really do hope you get your desired, felt so gutted for you tbh.

You need to decide on one dream university course. Even combining two subjects is farcical as the number and quality of applicants to top unis means that admissions tutor can only assess your motivation and desire to study your chosen subject by reading your personal statement. If the admissions tutor sees a mish-mash of why you want to study 2 or even 3 different courses, then they could easily reject you on the basis that you are not focused and motivated for that one subject.

Reply 583

Curious_Lawyer

7

Original post by tehforum

All three? That's a bad move, especially as you're aiming at top universities.

You have plenty of time, but it was so unlucky and I really do hope you get your desired, felt so gutted for you tbh.

You need to decide on one dream university course. Even combining two subjects is farcical as the number and quality of applicants to top unis means that admissions tutor can only assess your motivation and desire to study your chosen subject by reading your personal statement. If the admissions tutor sees a mish-mash of why you want to study 2 or even 3 different courses, then they could easily reject you on the basis that you are not focused and motivated for that one subject.

Right, I see. So the question is whether to try for Geography or PPE. E&M is out of the question.

It looks as if my decision is leaning heavily towards Geography.

Just wondering, are you a current uni student?

Reply 584

tehforum

Original post by Kevin Wu

Right, I see. So the question is whether to try for Geography or PPE. E&M is out of the question.

It looks as if my decision is leaning heavily towards Geography.

Just wondering, are you a current uni student?

Nah, I'm A2 level.

Reply 585

medbh4805

Original post by such_a_lady

Yes, but I'm keeping in mind that the classes are apparently scheduled at ridiculous times and so I'll be willing to take whatever language I can get...apart from Welsh :lol:

But Russian is my top choice :yep:

oooh....that's mean on Welsh! I'd love to speak all the Gaelic languages. Next year though I want to learn Russian and Spanish :daydreaming:

I think I'll just self study if I can't get to the classes :beard:

really want to get round to doing B2 French though (as you know I've been putting it off a rather long time :colondollar:

) so I'll need to work on that. ahhhh stress :colonhash:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 586

medbh4805

Original post by thesaintx

Aha, good point about the author preferences.. although I'm somewhat hesitant because my tastes appear somewhat specific. I tend to prefer the slightly more risqué texts for the most part (poetry is a bit of a favourite. Martial, Catullus are two favourites); do you have any idea how much choice there is in the texts you study?

I used to have the first line of Catullus 16 in my sig :wink:

Google classics mods oxford and a weblearn document will come up, and that tells you what you can study :yep:

(just go past all the other random stuff til you come to the list of options). there is quite a bit of flexibility, and for greats you can basically study what you want (within some limits)

Any book titles would be welcome.. I ought to do some reading whilst taking breaks from running headfirst at people larger than me on the summer rugby tour at some point.. Also, I do have quite a good commentary on the In Verrem II text we're studying for AS level this year.. so I'll have to take a more detailed look at that.

Great - reading around is important but they can ask you about your set texts, so if you do decide to do classics it's important to know them really well :yes:

The books I read before my interview were:
Rubicon
Persian Fire
The First Ladies of Rome
The Roman Triumph
Carthage Must be Destroyed
The Oxford History of the Hellenistic World
Battle in the Teutoberg Forest ( has a really interesting chapter on the significance of the battle in German culture and its influence on National socialism, might be a way of tying your politics A level to classics :wink:

)

I shall also have to look out for this 'The Lyceum', is he also studying law at Oxford?

afaik he's doing a masters in classics at Oxford. Not sure but I think he did ug somewhere else. seriously though most of the posters in the classics soc are already at uni (at various unis and not all doing classics!) so it's always a good place to ask for book recommendations http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1574827&page=82

P.s. your results from GCSE-AS are truly ridiculous sir. Well played.

Merci

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 587

Original post by Kevin Wu

X

You know you can't apply to 3 courses at Oxford, right?

You need to have a think about what you can really see yourself studying for 3 years.

Look at the courses beyond the first year to see what they entail.

There's not a lot more help we can give because at the end of the day you've got to be as confident as you can be that you're making a choice you will be happy with.

What exactly is drawing you towards PPE? and towards Geography?

Reply 588

shoshin

10

Original post by Kevin Wu

...I am hoping to apply for the three courses at once: Geography, PPE and Economics & Management. Any ideas how I should write my personal statement? I reckon I will be able to recycle my personal statement and target it towards humanities such as my travelling, my gap year placement in Hong Kong and my recent endeavours in the stock market.

Law isn't my subject (I'm a historian), but your current PS seems well-written to me. However, when you revisit it for your new subject(s), I would hesitate before retaining its opening sentence: "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life,” noted Plato, Classical Greek philosopher and student of Socrates..."

Any number of similar quotes could be harvested from Google, so it isn't really showcasing your knowledge or ability, and it might be getting your PS off to an unsteady start, because the initial reaction of the Oxford admissions tutor may well be 'yes, I do know who Plato was thank you very much.'

Good luck :smile:

Reply 589

KingMessi

19

Original post by Abc1234x

Oh and one more question (promise this is the last one haha) what sort of books of wider reading did you put on your personal statement? And how are you meant to talk about what you have read? -do you just literally list a couple of books?

It's no problem, honestly. I can answer those questions, but perhaps it's better if I just PM you my Personal Statement?

Reply 590

emilyjcastles

Original post by Poppyxx

Balliol say 1-2 students a year

Jesus say they typically admit 8 students to read History and related joint schools (Hist, HistEcon, HistModernLang, HistPol, HistEngl). Overlapping is the typical 6-8 places offered to English and joint schools (Engl, EnglClassics, EnglModernLang). So I'd guess about 1-2 students again for HistEngl - I may be wrong

Mansfield - 2 places

Merton - Under English it says 1-3 for joint honours and they offer H&E, E&ML, E&C. Under History it says 6 in joint schools, but they offer 5 joint school subjects

Pembroke - 'Our intention is to take eight joint school students each year across the four history joint schools - one of the highest intakes of any college. Obviously the intention is that any student will have at least one other peer taking their course'

[nice that they want everyone to have a peer]

Queen's - on the ox.ac.uk page it says they offer it, but they state they don't on their own website

St Catz - "St Catherine’s seeks to admit about ten people to read History each year. We admit students for the joint degrees in History and Modern Languages, History and Politics, History and Economics, and History and English."

Hilda's - 8 to 10 places across History and the 4 joint schools it offers. 13 places across English and the 3 joint schools.

Hugh's - "two-three (in varying combinations) for the Joint Honours Schools of Ancient and Modern History, History and English, History and Modern Languages and History and Politics."

John's - History average intake: Thirteen, including joint schools.
English : Average intake: Seven - eight

Peter's - The College admits up to four students per year across the joint schools with History. (Offers 4 Joint Schools)

Somerville - We admit 12-14 undergraduates a year, who study History or one of the large range of joint History degrees we offer: History and English, History and Economics, History and Modern Languages, Ancient and Modern History.

Joint Schools in English and Classics, English and History, and English and Modern Languages, frequently accept one or more candidates.

Wadham - "English: Each year we offer about 12 places to undergraduates, including Joint School candidates". They offer 3 JS courses

Worcester - "Up to 9 places a year are offered for History and joint courses involving History". They offer History and 5 JS

God I must be bored to find all that out for you.

Thankyou that is SO Helpful!!!!!

Reply 591

Curious_Lawyer

7

Original post by Poppyxx

You know you can't apply to 3 courses at Oxford, right?

You need to have a think about what you can really see yourself studying for 3 years.

Look at the courses beyond the first year to see what they entail.

There's not a lot more help we can give because at the end of the day you've got to be as confident as you can be that you're making a choice you will be happy with.

What exactly is drawing you towards PPE? and towards Geography?

I'm not 100% whether I could apply for 3 courses. I know someone in my school applied for 2 courses.

I do enjoy the social sciences such as politics, economics and human geography So its not the case of whether I'd like to study the subjects for 3 years or not, I would choose them all if I could.

As a fellow Oxford student, what are the average grades (GCSE and A2) of PPE students and Geographers?

Reply 592

Original post by Kevin Wu

I'm not 100% whether I could apply for 3 courses. I know someone in my school applied for 2 courses.

are you sure?

You can only apply for one undergraduate course in a given year at Oxford OR Cambridge.

Unless you are trying for an organ scholarship or already have a degree, in which case you can apply to Oxford and Cambridge.

http://www.ucas.com/students/applying/faqs/completeapplication/faq2

Reply 593

Abc1234x

8

Original post by KingMessi

It's no problem, honestly. I can answer those questions, but perhaps it's better if I just PM you my Personal Statement?

That would be perfect! Could you please do that? Thank you sooooooooooo much :biggrin:

Reply 594

thesaintx

Original post by medbh4805

I used to have the first line of Catullus 16 in my sig :wink:

Google classics mods oxford and a weblearn document will come up, and that tells you what you can study :yep:

(just go past all the other random stuff til you come to the list of options). there is quite a bit of flexibility, and for greats you can basically study what you want (within some limits)

Great - reading around is important but they can ask you about your set texts, so if you do decide to do classics it's important to know them really well :yes:

The books I read before my interview were:
Rubicon
Persian Fire
The First Ladies of Rome
The Roman Triumph
Carthage Must be Destroyed
The Oxford History of the Hellenistic World
Battle in the Teutoberg Forest ( has a really interesting chapter on the significance of the battle in German culture and its influence on National socialism, might be a way of tying your politics A level to classics :wink:

)

afaik he's doing a masters in classics at Oxford. Not sure but I think he did ug somewhere else. seriously though most of the posters in the classics soc are already at uni (at various unis and not all doing classics!) so it's always a good place to ask for book recommendations http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1574827&page=82

Merci :pierre:

Aha, honestly I hadn't read Catullus 16 before, however having looked it up, seems appropriate for a sig :tongue:

.

Had a look at the weblearn document; quite interesting.. seems a fair bit more appealing than school-classics, so maybe..

And ah, thank you very much.. I'll have to join the Classics Soc.. and begin reading once I get these pesky AS levels done..

Reply 595

Aeonstorm

9

Hi guys,

Just to introduce myself, I'm an Aussie and applying for PPE this year. Are there any other international applicants here? I would love to chat, as I'm struggling to find information for some things related to international applicants. For instance, there don't happen to be any TSA open centres in Australia, so unless I can get my school to register to be a closed centre, I'm not exactly sure how I'm gonna be able to do it. Also, as an international student do you guys recommend I make an open application or choose a specific college? I'm thinking of either Christchurch or Balliol, but I haven't really looked at it in depth.

Reply 596

Original post by Aeonstorm

Hi guys,

Just to introduce myself, I'm an Aussie and applying for PPE this year. Are there any other international applicants here? I would love to chat, as I'm struggling to find information for some things related to international applicants. For instance, there don't happen to be any TSA open centres in Australia, so unless I can get my school to register to be a closed centre, I'm not exactly sure how I'm gonna be able to do it. Also, as an international student do you guys recommend I make an open application or choose a specific college? I'm thinking of either Christchurch or Balliol, but I haven't really looked at it in depth.

Not an international, nor an applicant, but I suggest you contact the TSA providers

http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/contact

That's the link it says to use under 'if you cannot find a centre'

Second port of call would be the admissions department at Oxford, but I have a feeling they'd send you back to the TSA people if you asked them first.

Sooner you make contact, the sooner you'll know what provisions they can make.

For the record one of my fellow PPEists in my college sat his in the British Embassy in Colombia, because he was there on his gap year. It's not listed as an official test centre but they were able to sort it for him, so don't worry!

As for colleges - it is entirely up to you! Obviously you don't have the opportunity to visit, but you've selected Balliol/ChCh for whatever reason so you may as well apply to one of them. If you want any more info look at the Choosing a College thread.

Reply 597

Aeonstorm

9

Yeah, I emailed the admissions people and they replied telling me that there aren't any open centres in Australia but I could try and get my school to register as a closed centre. I have a pretty good relationship with my Master of Studies so he might consider it if its not too difficult...

Reply 598