Oxford Applicants for 2012 Entry

I don't think you really understand what I was trying to say. I was complaining about how in our RE lessons, Christianity was taught as fact while all other religions (when they got a mention) were implied to be false. I'm actually religious myself. As a non-Christian, this treatment of world religions always annoyed me.

It was this:

http://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/index.php/news/

..I wanna apply to PPE at Oxford

Well, I always try to think of these things like this: Four people will have to be those four, so it could as well be me. Or you in that case, since I'm not applying to either Merton or E&M.

But the most competitive is still E&M with an acceptance rate of 7.6% But that rather scares me... Especially since my college only takes in 4 for E&M every year

For those of you who know which college you are going to apply to, what made you reach that decision?

I guess you're right! So let's just hope we get into our colleges but actually I wouldn't mind to get pooled by another college. What scares me about Merton is also that they are the college with the most German applicants, at least on a percentage basis, so they probably have seen many high quality German applicants with better grades or better personal statements Maybe I just worry too much about it..

Oh, well.
I suppose you do have a point.
I just have this plugin/malfunction whereby I go freakyjudgmentalperson on people when I see something even slightly so (judgmental)
See, the irony of me is that I HATE judgments. However, I love judging people who judge others (which basically means everybody, incidentally, thus making me very hypocritical yet not, in a way. In a way.)

But I digress.

Apologies for my lack of knowledge, but what is E&M?

But I wasn't saying anything judgemental.

I dunno - maybe people just forget that while you might be the best in your particular school, in the real world, you're against all the other people who are best.

Just had a lovely chat with admissions! Feel so much better after. Still can't decide on a college though!

Hmmm I chose Magdalen because:

-it's big, old and pretty which I insist on (for now)
-it has loads of bursaries and stuff
-lots of places for Languages
-nice central location
-DOES MY COURSE
-accomodation for all years on a lottery system which I prefer
-it's just gorgeous.

Don't too much conflate 'popular' with 'competitive'. The entry and application statistics for E&M are quite unlike those for any other course. Uniquely it attracts (far) more applicants from outside the UK than within, typically from India, China, and the Middle East, and many of these would generously be called speculative and ungenerously called risible. One of the PS helpers on this site reports that some of the ones she sees for E&M are orders of magnitude worse than are seen for any other subject: I would be pride of parents and Uttar Pradesh if studying in very famous university of Oxfrods.

It would be far better, though is of course impractical, if the university could for this particular course refine the data to show "credible applicants: acceptances". It remains a very popular and competitive course, mind, only not quite to the extent the untreated data would suggest.

Incidentally, 4 a year at a single college is rather a lot. Repeated across, say, 20 colleges it would see a yearly intake of 80 students, which is a big course. Are you sure this is right, then?

Wait how do you know this? Like where did you get that from that Merton has the most German applicants? Do you have a statistic of this or something like that? It would be really cool to see that broken down...

I guess you're right! So let's just hope we get into our colleges but actually I wouldn't mind to get pooled by another college. What scares me about Merton is also that they are the college with the most German applicants, at least on a percentage basis, so they probably have seen many high quality German applicants with better grades or better personal statements Maybe I just worry too much about it..

How does everyone define central? Magdalen seems a bit of a trek to me

For me Balliol is the most central college. Worcester is apparently meant to be not that central but it seems close to everywhere that's worth going

Actually someone told me a similar thing. Economics and Management is the typical Investment Banker course therefore many students who are planning on pursuing a high-salary career are attracted to apply. I also heard that the PPE candidates are rather the high quality students out of those two courses and it makes sense. But when he told me this, I didn't believe him I must admit since the offers, at least for German students, are higher than for PPE students. I think I confused high offers with high quality because those two do not always come along together...

But thanks for the reply, I started to panic because I saw this low acceptance rate and also many on TSR always say that it is sooo damn competitive and that I should rather apply to PPE...

Make no mistake, even after the 'adjustment' E&M is a very very competitive course, and perhaps even more so than PPE, yes. The whole of what I wanted to say is that it perhaps isn't quite as hugely competitive as the data might seem to suggest.

Good luck with it, by the way, whichever of the two you choose.