The Student Room Group
Reply 1
You can't just categorically say one is better than the other. It depends what you want to do. Obviously if you want to study politics then its best to do PPE and if you want to management do E&M. Both degrees will challenge you and leave you with excellent career prospects. I suspect E&M is more mathmatical as they ask for Maths a-level while for PPE it is only recommended.
Reply 2
PPE is apparently harder than e+m (3 subjects instead 2)...and i suppose you gotta love your essays...e+m is more mathy...but they say that a maths A-level is not required...everything i've seen states the opposite though... (I think there was one guy who got an offer with Maths alevel, even though he didn't do maths alevel before :eek: )

oh yea, there are more places for ppe (300 or so) compared to 80 for e+m
PPE carries more prestige
Reply 4
More places for PPE but also far more applicants! :wink: I heard at Keble college this year, there were 3 places for 22 applicants for E&M, and 6 places for 39 applicants for PPE. Similar percentages, though if you want to be really petulant about it, the statistics say that it's harder to gain admission for E&M.
Reply 5
1990 Freddie
Which would you pick- which of these is a better degree to leave Oxford with, which is harder?/ more prestigious etc?


Surely, they are completely different subjects. PPE is two thirds politics and philosophy. It really depends what interests you. They are both well respected. What do you want to spend your time studying? Does writing essays on political philosophy grab you or would you prefer something more mathematical.

Harder is a matter of what you find hard. Some people find maths tough others find writing lots of essays very hard work. It's horse for courses.
Reply 6
PPE has a longer history, is marginally more work and fewer applicants per place. For employability there's little difference, however the maths and management content of E&M possibly makes it better for finance and consultancy careers, whereas PPE would have the edge for government and civil service ones. However the prevelance of each degree in those jobs may be more due to the type of people who do the degree, rather than the employability.

In short, both are prestigious and very employable, with possibly slight leanings due to the nature of the course.

However no, they're not completely different courses. Many people take them wanting to do economics primarily, and you can do 3/4 of your degree in your chosen subject for each of them. So a PPEist and an E&Mist could have 3/4 the same degree.

As a simple guide to choosing between the two, if you are willing/able to do maths, then it's simply whether you prefer pol/phil or a combination of the two to management. If you don't want to do maths, then do PPE. The economics is identical in both, so the only difference is whether you'd rather do philosophy, politics or management, or skip economics altogether.