A Level Blacklist Oxbridge?

are all university's quite so intent or is it only university's of the higher caliber ?

are all university's quite so intent or is it only university's of the higher caliber ?

Officially it's only Cambridge and LSE that have an actual blacklist but I'd agree with calvinuk that 'top' unis probs have similar thoughts

I know Birmingham and Bristol do, or at least that's what I was told: that it would be best for me to avoid certain subjects, but that I shouldn't worry and they assess every application on it's own merits.

Do they have actual blacklists?

If so, I've been misinformed...

Apparently knowing a good-as-dead language and knowing how to play the flute is more academically challenging than taking a socially/culturally/historically significant theme of a play and analysing how that theme would have been perceived by audiences over 400 years of moral evolution.

Welsh may be a complex and weird language but it is as good as dead, and if you've grown up in Northern/Western Wales should be a breeze anyway. Latin on the other hand is dead and buried but lay the foundation for many modern day languages. THAT would give you transferable skills.

Generally Suitable Arts A-levels
Art History
Economics
Irish
Music
Welsh

Excuse me?

Beg your pardon that my Drama A-level is of "More Limited Suitability". Apparently knowing a good-as-dead language and knowing how to play the flute is more academically challenging than taking a socially/culturally/historically significant theme of a play and analysing how that theme would have been perceived by audiences over 400 years of moral evolution.

And you simply cannot compare doing an A level in Welsh with doing an A level in Latin...like I said...Latin is about learning new words and phrases. Welsh is the analysis of a language you've spoken for ages.

I'm a stubborn person but I'm honest enough to say when I've been told, and I have been told.

I apologize for what I said.

It is not about knowing a "good-as-dead language." Welsh and Irish A levels are not the same as French, German, Spanish etc A levels. They're the same as English A levels. Why shouldn't a Welsh person, living in Wales, have a qualification in their own language? (Please remember, it's WALES, not Western England. Different country, culture and native language. Same with Ireland.) The emphasis is not learning how to speak Welsh or Irish just as doing an English A level is not about learning how to speak English. It's the same course (analysis of language, linguistics etc) just in their native language.

Oh and Welsh and Irish are most definitely NOT nearly-dead languages,. They nearly were thanks to the English (same with Cornish, Manx and Gaelic ) but there has been a huge revival of the languages along with the devolution and the rise of nationalism. And seeing as Irish literature has contributed so much to world literature it would be pretty good to study it for any literature degree. Surely you must have done something on the contribution of Irish literature (both Irish Gaelic and Anglo-Irish literature) in your Drama course?
Irish has the third-oldest literature in Europe after Greek and Latin. That's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay older than English yet you class it as not important? (And yes, Latin has died out but Greek is still going strong as is Irish.)
Plus, if you're not Welsh but want to live and work in Wales outside Cardiff or Swansea, then you really need to be able to speak Welsh. Hence why, even though I'm English I'm off to a Welsh uni, will be learning Welsh there as an extra thing not related to my degree because I want to live in Wales. Well in a part of Wales which has one of the highest percentage of Welsh speakers.

Welsh has the same status as English in Wales, Irish is the first official language of the Republic of Ireland (English is second) and has official recognition as a minority language in Northern Ireland. Yet French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Russian have no official recognition in the UK yet you see them as "better" qualifications than Irish or Welsh? (I'm guessing this because out of all the living language A levels in that list, you picked out Welsh and Irish.)

Please answer this: why should a British qualification in a (very much living, thriving and growing) British language spoken by British and Irish people living in the British Isles (nearly 750,000 Welsh speakers in the UK and 1.8 million people on the island of Ireland can understand Irish) in everyday life be worth less than a British qualification in a non-British language that is not spoken by a large minority of British people in everyday life? (And no, I don't see them as being better. I see them as being equal because I can recognise the value of both.)

Just a little thought: you're angry because people don't view your A level as being as academically challenging as you think it is. Hello?! You've done the same thing to those A levels you've listed!


As far as I'm concerned, I don't agree with "black-listing" certain A levels. The skills you gain from each A level should be judged in their own merit and also how they link in with the degree you want to do. Take that Trinity College list. They've put down Environmental Science as only suitable as a forth subject yet it can be incredibly helpful for Geography. Now I don't take ES but we do actually get taught some of the ES material in Geography and have to know it for the exam. But if someone had done Geo, ES and another subject, got As in all of them and wanted to do Geography at Trinity College they wouldn't be able to because due to that system they can't recognise the value of ES to Geo. Now obviously, ES wouldn't be good for doing a Physics degree but I can't believe they've discredited the advantage it gives to Geography and Environmental subjects.
Blanket lists are stupid.

Well I'm pretty sure they offer A-level Welsh as a second or first language. So as you say if it is your first language it would be similar to doing an English A-level and if not it's similar different to learning another language.

Welsh should be a dead language, the only people who speak it are the commoners from the valleys.

(I'm just bitter they forced it upon me, and even tried it in 6th form!)

1) I am NOT a commoner

and

2) I don't live in the valleys.

Why do so many people attack the Welsh language

I wouldn't care if it wasn't forced upon me. (And the commoner thing was said in jest)

Well maybe you should think of other people's feelings. It's not vey nice to be called a commoner for being able to speak my country's language