Switching Tripos

Just a quick question.

How does the switch work? And surely its extra difficult?
For instance: Person A is studying Part I History and wishes to do his part II in English, how would he go about doing it, and wouldn't the jump be too big, with catch up and still trying to do well whilst most people in the year will have already spent one or two years studying English? I assume switching between very different triposes is even more difficult; History to Economics, for example...

Apologies if this has already been asked...

Reply 1

camstudent123

A small but not insignifcant number of people do it each year. It largely depends on your Director of Studies, your college, the courseyou want to switch into etc so there are a number of variables.
Obviously you need the basic requirements: no switching into natsci without science a-levels, modern languages without any prior knowledge etc Often you might be asked to write an essay/have an interview to assess suitability and be required to catch up on a few things. I didn't swtich but know a few people who have and generally they say that whist it can be tough the knowledge, skills and perspectives that they bring in tend to be useful. Some people who want to switch at the end of the first year may end up simply restarting.

Reply 2

The West Wing

Theoretically each Tripos "part" is taught from scratch anyway, not as a continuation of the previous part although in practice it varies a lot.

Reply 3

JohnStuartMill

Lots of subjects you have to do a two year Part II if you switch into it from another subject. I know that is the case with History & English which both have 1 year Part IIs for current students.

Reply 4

Supergrunch

I've just done this, from natsci to linguistics, after doing part 1A of natsci. Linguistics is a bit of a special case, as it's a sub-tripos within MML, and only exists as a part II which you can do over one or two years. (the latter in my case, as I've only done a 1A) Anyway, this means there's no catch up involved, but the whole change still took quite a lot of negotiation - I had to talk to my tutor, my DoS, the linguistics department and so on. Ultimately to change I had to get a 2:1 or better in my first year exams, which is apparently a condition imposed by my college (Magdalene) on those who want to change Tripos.

Reply 5

Frankly Vulgar

If you were to change from, say, English to Theology after the first year - would you receive a degree in English and Theology, or just Theology?

Reply 6

Chewwy

The West Wing

Theoretically each Tripos "part" is taught from scratch anyway, not as a continuation of the previous part although in practice it varies a lot.

oh come on, that's not true.

Reply 7

groovy_moose

which bit? He said it varies a lot... ?

To OP: i'll tell you in October... i'm switching into part 2 soc anthropology... should be good. I'm doing quite a lot of reading over the summer (in theory at least), so hopefully i'll be fairly up to speed. I think since soc anth is only a 3rd of the first year course it's perhpas not as bad as some other triposes

Reply 8

camstudent123

Frankly Vulgar

If you were to change from, say, English to Theology after the first year - would you receive a degree in English and Theology, or just Theology?

ALl cambridge degress are BA. That is all it says on your certificate. Your transcript which details your grades will have your tripos results from each individual year.
It is up to you how you display your degree on your CV etc so you could say BA in English and Theology or ismply write Theology. Most people I know would just simply write down what they did in their final year with that grade.

Reply 9

The West Wing

Chewwy

oh come on, that's not true.

That's the official line! (as I said, THEORETICALLY)

Reply 10

Frankly Vulgar

camstudent123

Ah ok, that makes sense. I was just wondering whether it was equivalent to a joint honours degree, but I guess it just depends on how you choose to word it.