Try for Oxbridge 2007 or SOAS 2006?

Got rejected for Japanese... was really disappointed since I thought I had a chance with relatively few students doing Oriental studies. Not to blow my own trumpet, but these are the reasons why I thought I at least had a fairly good chance (chances are most people here are high achievers even if they considered applying) but I had A* in a Japanese GCSE after starting in year 10 (and I only have one lesson a week at another school, reflecting my true passion and interest in the subject, which I tried to portray anyway in the interview) and I had 10 A*s, 5 As at A-Level and predicted AAAAA. I also won the JSA Japanese speech contest in 2005, a foreign language poetry competition in 2003 in Japanese, and I had 300/300 at AS. While naturally I thought I could have done better at the interview, I think I put across what I wanted (i.e. passionate about the course, ready to learn more but already had good knowledge) and I answered all questions at least fairly well at worst, and intelligently at best, (only one I couldn't answer "what is another example of a dying metaphor"). I also study french and english whose skills complement oriental studies.

All the people I know doing Oriental Studies at Cam wish they'd gone to SOAS, and in fact do but just for supervisions.

Personally I believe I should go for the course at SOAS since I can expand my career opportunities and attend a specialised university.

Do you know why?

After being recently rejected from Oxford to read Japanese, I was wondering whether to apply again. I was considering whether SOAS is a better choice since it is specialised in asian studies, whereas oxford is not (particularly, relative to other subjects) and I can also study Japanese and Linguistics @ SOAS, whereas at Oxford I could only study Japanese. One reason (although I may be wrong) why I thought I was rejected was perhaps that I came across as wanting Oxford for it's quality and prestige, rather than its course in particular, and perhaps this came across in the interview. Also there's the "crawling back" factor by reapplying to uni's that I would have declined and then reapply as my second choices. Personally I believe I should go for the course at SOAS since I can expand my career opportunities and attend a specialised university, but does anybody know from experience whether a gap year and an Oxford degree would be worth trying for again?

only one I couldn't answer "what is another example of a dying metaphor"

See George Orwell's "Politics and the English language" http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html for more on dying metaphors.

Does it mean a metaphor which is dying out, or a metaphor relating to dying? Given the context I'd be inclined to pick the latter, seeing as death poems were quite common in premodern Japan.

Don't forget to consider where you'll be living for 3 years - London is vastly to different to Oxford. More bustling, noisier, arguably more inpersonal or to turn that on it's head livelier, better night-life etc.. Accomodation in London, from what I have seen, is worse for the money than Oxford so take that into consideration.

Both courses, from my research, are superb. If you prefer the SOAS course and would like the live in London, go for SOAS. If you prefer the SOAS course but would hate to live in London, my advice would be to not go to SOAS, you won't be happy living in a place you dislike even if you love the course.

So basically my advice is - both courses look very good, both universities are extremely well respected for those courses, so go for the place you would prefer to live.

After being recently rejected from Oxford to read Japanese, I was wondering whether to apply again. I was considering whether SOAS is a better choice since it is specialised in asian studies, whereas oxford is not (particularly, relative to other subjects) and I can also study Japanese and Linguistics @ SOAS, whereas at Oxford I could only study Japanese. One reason (although I may be wrong) why I thought I was rejected was perhaps that I came across as wanting Oxford for it's quality and prestige, rather than its course in particular, and perhaps this came across in the interview. Also there's the "crawling back" factor by reapplying to uni's that I would have declined and then reapply as my second choices. Personally I believe I should go for the course at SOAS since I can expand my career opportunities and attend a specialised university, but does anybody know from experience whether a gap year and an Oxford degree would be worth trying for again?

I already live in London, so it's no problem, I wouldn't mind living in either place, although SOAS is more convenient, and I love the city of London, although Oxford is a more peaceful agreeable place, both places are even on that front.
Also, I knew what dying metaphors were, I just couldn't think of an example of one off the top of my head - I think we needed to know them because it was based on an article about the evolution of the english language, therefore assessing general language skills by analysing the effects of society upon an ever-changing language. Dying metaphors are indeed those that are dying out as being perceived as a metaphor and are becoming more literal - e.g. "Stand shoulder to shoulder with" - it used to be a complete metaphor, but now it's sense is half-literal - it was explained in the article I was given.

Does it mean a metaphor which is dying out, or a metaphor relating to dying?

The resources for oriental languages and culture etc are better at SOAS (apparently the Oxbridge students end up having to go to the SOAS library to pick up books)

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Oh dear, i thought that the oriental studies course looked quite good at cambridge. Is that the case for all oriental studies subjects as just a few areas like japenese?