Successful Cambridge Applicants Chat - 2006

Don't underestimate the mathmos... a disproportionate number of us are schiz/pyscho/both......

....but of course we are easily the most interesting breed of 'academic'

im going a bit hyper with the smilies, arent i?

I found maths very ...uninteresting. It's like 2 plus 2 is 4. It will always be four. that fact is undisputable. 2 plus 2 will never be anything other than four. With the arts there's a lot more room for discussion.

I found maths very ...uninteresting. It's like 2 plus 2 is 4. It will always be four. that fact is undisputable. 2 plus 2 will never be anything other than four. With the arts there's a lot more room for discussion.

I found maths very ...uninteresting. It's like 2 plus 2 is 4. It will always be four. that fact is undisputable. 2 plus 2 will never be anything other than four. With the arts there's a lot more room for discussion.

With the arts there's a lot more room for discussion bull****.

But there is room for beauty, artistry, creativity, and discovery in maths. And the best bit of the arts is people actually creating stuff, rather than people writing essays about what other people did.

Philosophy doesn't slot into either category methinks.

It was the flawlessness that attracted me to mathematics when i was younger; several years later, my relative inability was one of the factors leading me to not study it; even more years later, i've successfully convinced myself that i was wrong in both my previous assessments... bring on several more years time...

In all seriousness, to me maths is a little too focused; not that i'm accusing anyone of being like this, but i always thought there was a certain disposition to not look beyond maths and adopt a somewhat autistic approach to the subject. To me, admiring maths for its intricacy and rigour is one thing, but not looking beyond its rather narrow confines leads to a very poor appreciation of some of humanities other great exploits and discoveries. To all such sufferers, i recommend an initial dose of mathematical philosophy to slowly wean you off the formalism...

I found maths very ...uninteresting. It's like 2 plus 2 is 4. It will always be four. that fact is undisputable. 2 plus 2 will never be anything other than four. With the arts there's a lot more room for discussion.

My god you are different on here in comparison to real life!

Woooo back from hols (which were pretty ****e....)

Ah, and that my (probably) young(er) friend is the beauty of the internet: i mean on here you almost sound cool.... In all seriousness (theme of the evening), i think thats probably one of the best things about leaving school is that- as highlighted by mine and george's excellent assembly- you get to be someone else. Maybe not who you really are or anything like that, but you get a chance to be someone different, and that is a definite plus point. For example, you would never have taken me seriously if i had delivered my previous post to you face-to-face, but maybe in the future i'll be the sort of person who says things like that... who knows...

My god you are different on here in comparison to real life!

Woooo back from hols (which were pretty ****e....)

It was the flawlessness that attracted me to mathematics when i was younger; several years later, my relative inability was one of the factors leading me to not study it; even more years later, i've successfully convinced myself that i was wrong in both my previous assessments... bring on several more years time...

In all seriousness, to me maths is a little too focused; not that i'm accusing anyone of being like this, but i always thought there was a certain disposition to not look beyond maths and adopt a somewhat autistic approach to the subject. To me, admiring maths for its intricacy and rigour is one thing, but not looking beyond its rather narrow confines leads to a very poor appreciation of some of humanities other great exploits and discoveries. To all such sufferers, i recommend an initial dose of mathematical philosophy to slowly wean you off the formalism...

I found maths very ...uninteresting. It's like 2 plus 2 is 4. It will always be four. that fact is undisputable. 2 plus 2 will never be anything other than four. With the arts there's a lot more room for discussion.

Ah, but angles in a triangle don't always add up to 180 degrees. Surely that's an interesting fact?!

Ah, but angles in a triangle don't always add up to 180 degrees. Surely that's an interesting fact?!