Applying to Maths and economics... but economics at cambridge

How on earth do I do this personal statement?
Tone down the maths? only talk about maths when talking about its relevance to economics?

The reason I chose economics over maths at Cambridge is because there's more chance to do maths in economics than economics in maths, and I like the course so I'm not just applying for the sake of it

Anyone got any (helpful) advice?

Reply 1

DomTre

I'd say yeah, tone down the maths a little, but don't make it all about economics. Maybe talk about more life experiences you've had if you need to fill up space :biggrin:

Reply 2

bubbles50

But I'm applying to Cambridge, and while its not my top choice (not saying I think the others are better, just not that I have my heart completely set on going there) I want to make sure that I don't snooker myself by talkign too much about maths, and they wont want me to just talk about life experiences, and I've just had to take most of them out to make space for more subject stuff!

Reply 3

DomTre

In the case of Cambridge, i'd bet they'd be more interested in your interview than your personal statement. Have you tried looking at example ones? I mean there's got to have been people who have applied for Maths and Economics before...

Reply 4

-WhySoSerious?

Should be okay, there will be a lot of maths at degree level, and talking about it is a plus.

Reply 5

RyanT

?

The subjects aren't THAT different. Economics is a lot of applied maths...just stay away from talking about pure maths too much.

Reply 6

username138327

I applied similarly. I put about 1/2rd Economics, 1/2 maths and the rest other bits.

Reply 7

bubbles50

Ok thanks everyone :smile:

I'll get some help from my economics teacher on it before I send it and some more opinions too, I was worried that they'd see mention maths and put my PS in the reject pile lol.

Reply 8

alex_hk90

bubbles50

Anyone got any (helpful) advice?

The SAQ you have to fill in for Cambridge has a space for an additional personal statement of up to 1200 characters. You could use that to include any extra Economics content that you had to leave out of your main PS in order to include the Maths required for your other choices. :smile:

Reply 9

coolh5000

I was in exactly the same situation - History and Politics everywhere except Cambridge where it was straight History. I talked about history first but tried to give equal weighting to the politics. However I tried to talk about Politics in the context of history so to the cambridge people it looks like I'm just really interested in the politics side of history but to the unis where I'm applying for both it still looks like I have an interest in Politics as a subject rather than just History. Like you, I don't have my heart set on Cambridge (Warwick is my first realistic choice) so I didn't want to suck up to the Cambridge people too much by making it all about history and making the other unis think that I didn't care about Politics but at the same time I didn't what Cambridge to think huh, what is she doing? It was a tricky thing to follow. the only comfort is that cambridge is more about the interview wheras the others are just PS so I needed to make a good impression but I can hopefully justify myself to cambridge later.

You definitely need to find a balance between the two - don't spend all you PS trying to please Cambridge - good luck with it!

Reply 10

Swayum

Cambridge's economics course is very mathematical - I assume they'd like to see some maths in your personal statement. Don't worry about it - make it 50-50.