Oxbridge philosophy help

Welcome to the Oxbridge forums: where prospective and current students can discuss anything about Oxford and Cambridge.

Announcements Posted on
Enter our travel-writing competition for the chance to win a Nikon 1 J3 camera 21-05-2013
A note of caution regarding personal information 10-05-2013
IMPORTANT: You must wait until midnight (morning exams)/4.30AM (afternoon exams) to discuss Edexcel exams and until 1pm/6pm the following day for STEP and IB exams. Please read before posting, including for rules for practical and oral exams. 28-04-2013
Sign in to Reply
  1. mg2012's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Posts: 81
    Oxbridge philosophy help
    Somebody i know who wants to apply to Oxbridge and take Philosophy/Theology would like to know whether she needs to drop art if she is serious about obtaining a place at either university.

    she takes english lit
    philosophy and ethics
    art
    biology

    She has spoken to both universities but they have been pretty vague in their answers. Realistically, if she drops biology at the end of this year and carries on with art will she hinder herself in applying to the university?
    Thanks
  2. Blutooth's Avatar
    • Peer Of The TSR Realm
    • Location: London
    • Posts: 1,943
    Re: Oxbridge philosophy help
    (Original post by mg2012)
    Somebody i know who wants to apply to Oxbridge and take Philosophy/Theology would like to know whether she needs to drop art if she is serious about obtaining a place at either university.

    she takes english lit
    philosophy and ethics
    art
    biology

    She has spoken to both universities but they have been pretty vague in their answers. Realistically, if she drops biology at the end of this year and carries on with art will she hinder herself in applying to the university?
    Thanks
    I would encourage your friend to study what she enjoys studying. The tutors probably won't mind her taking Art, especially since her other subjects are fairly rigorous. However, I would recommend the study of maths or something quantitative, as philosophers study logic in their first year of the course. Also being exposed to the kind of precise and logical reasoning that one engages in when studying maths can only be good.
  3. starkrush's Avatar
    • Adored and Respected Member
    • Location: Woking
    • Posts: 402
    Re: Oxbridge philosophy help
    "Dropping" suggests that she's in year 12 and most of the way through the year, so I assume that picking up maths really isn't viable (not that it's a big deal).

    If it's between doing art and not doing art, then do it if she enjoys it and can make the standard offer (somewhere around AAA for both?). Art, I gather, is very time consuming and it should be fine for her to do as long as she can cope with the workload.
  4. AK0001's Avatar
    • Adored and Respected Member
    • Posts: 448
    Re: Oxbridge philosophy help
    (Original post by mg2012)
    Somebody i know who wants to apply to Oxbridge and take Philosophy/Theology would like to know whether she needs to drop art if she is serious about obtaining a place at either university.

    she takes english lit
    philosophy and ethics
    art
    biology

    She has spoken to both universities but they have been pretty vague in their answers. Realistically, if she drops biology at the end of this year and carries on with art will she hinder herself in applying to the university?
    Thanks
    Hmm I don't see why it should hold her back from applying. In my philosophy interview, they asked questions about the value of an original work of art as opposed to a copy. I think she should stick with it if she enjoys it.

    Someone I know is studying Theology at Oxford. He had already completed his A-Levels when he decided to apply with grades A*AA, the A* in art.

    He even sent in a painting because he didn't have any marked written work to send in!

    In conclusion, she'll be fine, just get the grades.
Sign in to Reply
Share this discussion:  
Useful resources

Quick Link:

Unanswered Oxbridge Threads

Groups associated with this forum:

View associated groups
Article updates
Moderators

We have a brilliant team of more than 60 volunteers looking after discussions on The Student Room, helping to make it a fun, safe and useful place to hang out.

Reputation gems:
The Reputation gems seen here indicate how well reputed the user is, red gem indicate negative reputation and green indicates a good rep.
Post rating score:
These scores show if a post has been positively or negatively rated by our members.