Physics and Philosophy (PhysPhil)

My son is interested in applying for PhysPhil course this year but we are worried about the workload. If anybody who is doing this course at the moment, or did it in the past, could give us some advice it would be greatly appreciated.

we've had a lot of dropouts this year (we've gone from about 20 to 10 students across the uni)

do you mean that they're going to, for example, straight physics, or that they're leaving the university?

Do you have to write a lot of essays for Philosophy? My son is definitely interested in Physics. He is not sure about Philosophy as he has little knowledge about it. He is good at writing as he is doing AS English and likes debating. He is also curious about science. I really appreciate your information and advice as you are a current student. I understand only around 20 colleges offer PhysPhil, but a lot of them have not accepted any students for the last 3 years. Balliol admits the most. However, my son would like to apply for a choral scholarship as well which restricts him to only 4 colleges to consider, University, Oriel, Exeter and Worcester. Which college are you at if you don't mind me asking? You can PM me if you wish. Thank you.

PhysPhil and a choral scholarship is certainly a hefty commitment. On their own they are enough to leave you wondering whether it's all worth it!

If your son enjoys debating then there's no reason why he can't go to moot court or a political/philosophy society. Likewise, if he wants to join a choral group he can do so without the commitment of the scholarship.

That's what I am worried about, the workload of the course and the commitment of the choral scholarship. I don't want him to find himself being unable to cope with the pressure. Thank you very much for your useful information and advice. He is thinking of applying for Physics now.

My brother studied at oxford and said that the physphils were hermits always drowned with work and never coming out of their rooms. choral scholarships are practically part time jobs. beyond this, he's supposed to find time to socialize and enjoy being a student which seems tricky.

certainly a single honours physics degree and ECs which he can attend/put as much work into as wanted might make more sense especially since he's not sure if philosophy is even something he's interested in doing at an academic level. The Cambridge philosophy department once said something interesting in that a lot of students mistake an interest in academic philosophy for general curiosity. you said he hasn't studied any real philosophy yet in his spare time so maybe it's just a budding interest in life in general which is fine.

I know which way I'd go but ultimately it's his choice. I mean, most people who go to Oxford also want to do some rowing or other activities outside academia for fun so I assume he will too. With the constraints of the double honours and scholarship you can probably see how it'd be very easy for somebody to become a recluse and depressed. On the other hand, maybe he'll thrive under the immense pressures of both and be an outstanding student!

I couldn't agree with you more. I have known a couple of students at Oxbridge with depression after first year. I want my son to enjoy uni. He works very hard but also enjoys choral singing and drama. I am concerned he doesn't know what he gets himself into.

There's a whole summer yet! in that time I must have gone through nearly every course offered (inc. physphil) until I arrived at mechanical engineering and a later degree in law! There's plenty of time for him to mull over it after his exams.

I'm sure that with an actively supportive parent like yourself he'll make the best decision for him in the end

Hello! I am currently in my 4th year of Physics and Philosophy, and just want to disperse some of the worries on here.

Firstly, I do not believe that PhysPhil is substantially harder than most Oxford degrees, especially Physics, and from what I've seen around me (as well as myself) it certainly doesn't seem to be the case that PhysPhils have less fun or are more workaholic. Actually, as a compensation for doing philosophy, we do not have to do some of the bits of physics (labs, and the more practical subjects such as optics and circuit theory). All in all, I think these can balance each other out fairly well to the extend, that I would say I was doing about 1.2 times the work of a physicist at most.

Now a possible caveat that I should mention is that there is a certain base level of effort required to succeed in physics, which I would say for me amounted to about 4-5 days of work a week. Now that left 2 days for the Philosophy work, which might have been a bit on the short side for me to do as well as I could have done, but I would say this was due to time management problems on my side rather than inherent flaws in the degree structure. And I think if you are more philosophically inclined you can also fine-tune your options in 3rd and 4th year so that you will be doing more philosophy.

As for the choral scholarship, it's certainly possible to combine the two, in fact I know someone who comfortably did that, and I also know lots of PhysPhils who combined their degree with other time-consuming commitments (theatre, rowing, etc).

Finally, I would also advise when choosing Philosophy that it's important to look closely at whether Philosophy really interests you, especially if you've not studied it in depth before. I had not studied much Philosophy before and was slightly disappointed at what the subject actually entailed (questions only lead to more questions, and never to satisfying answers...) when I came to do it, as well as struggling with the reading more than I thought I would. But I would still say that Philosophy has given me new insights into Physics that I am very happy with. If I were given the choice I think I would certainly choose PhysPhil again (though I must also say I am happy to be fully specialising in Physics next year, as I have always been more inclined towards Physics).

Hope this helps a bit, and don't hesitate to ask more questions if anyone has any!