Balliol PPE: How Good Do You Have To Be?

Fairly self-explanatory, I suppose. I was considering applying to Balliol (went to the Open Day, loved it, and the tutors were very impressive), but, of course, it's horribly competitive (6:1 application to place ratio). I hear stories of people with 14A*s applying, and it is intimidating...

So, questions, presented with the hope that you shall employ your collective wisdom to aid me:

1. Exactly how high is the Balliol PPE standard?
2. Is Adam Swift leaving? I ask only because James Forder's taken over as Tutor for Admissions, and I don't know how these things work.
3. Is anybody coming to replace Helen Steward at the Philosophy Department? (She's leaving next year, apparently)
4. Does the JCR always smell funny? Much as the rest of Balliol was beautiful, and welcoming, the JCR (which I gather is something of a hub) looked rather delapidated.

Reply 1

Feefifofum

16

I don't know Balliol particularly well, so I can't answer any of those questions.

I would say one thing though: don't apply to a college based on the academics there - they have a tendency to move elsewhere.

Reply 2

kizer

15

I can only answer question 1 really. The answer is you don't have to be unbelievably good, but you do have to be strong. I know the person the Balliol tutors ranked first for admission this year, and he is very good, but not ridiculously so. Plus bear in mind Balliol will pool a lot of applicants. Also that ratio you mention - 6:1 - is not that uncommonly high. At St John's it's 5:1 I think, similar also at Magdalen and Merton I think.

Reply 3

imageofreality

Where do people find all these statistics about courses and ratios of applicants per place!? i never knew anything like that or chose my college based on anything academic! i didn't realise it made such a difference!! :redface:

Reply 4

Huw Davies

11

It's in the back of the prospectus. In my opinion it's a bad way of choosing as they're prone to wobble around a lot, and with pooling\second interviews shouldn't affect your chances of getting in overall.

I'm interested to know how you found out about being being ranked first though, kizer - are you involved in admissions in some way?

Reply 5

Aimless2007

Its gonna be tough, cos Balliol applicants are amongst the strongest in the pool, but they do a lot of pooling as well, so you should get a place if you "deserve" it... Just bear in mind that Balliol is suppossed to be the best for PPE...

@kizer
Could you tell us a bit more about that top ranked person?

Reply 6

Ipsen

Adeimantus

Fairly self-explanatory, I suppose. I was considering applying to Balliol (went to the Open Day, loved it, and the tutors were very impressive), but, of course, it's horribly competitive (6:1 application to place ratio). I hear stories of people with 14A*s applying, and it is intimidating...

So, questions, presented with the hope that you shall employ your collective wisdom to aid me:

1. Exactly how high is the Balliol PPE standard?
2. Is Adam Swift leaving? I ask only because James Forder's taken over as Tutor for Admissions, and I don't know how these things work.
3. Is anybody coming to replace Helen Steward at the Philosophy Department? (She's leaving next year, apparently)
4. Does the JCR always smell funny? Much as the rest of Balliol was beautiful, and welcoming, the JCR (which I gather is something of a hub) looked rather delapidated.

2. No. They rotate the post of Tutor of Admission among the tutorial fellows.

4. Yes. It is where people meet, socialise, consume their kebab, drink, and do stupid things.

Reply 7

sjuthani

6

My college was 6:1 applications to offers ratio, Balliol must have been much higher. Don't trust the admissions stats in the prospectus. In fact, completely ignore them.

Reply 8

lady_daisychain

2

Adeimantus

Fairly self-explanatory, I suppose. I was considering applying to Balliol (went to the Open Day, loved it, and the tutors were very impressive), but, of course, it's horribly competitive (6:1 application to place ratio). I hear stories of people with 14A*s applying, and it is intimidating...
.

i just dont understand ppe applicants obsessing over Balliol. clearly you have to be good, but then again bear in mind

- the pooling system
- ratios for other subjects are much higher (not that thats much consolation), and other colleges for ppe are pretty similar, 5:1, 4:1 etc, so the application ratio at Balliol isnt as daunting relative to other colleges.
- you get people with 14 a*s, etc, applying to other colleges too- its oxford.
- life's 'horribly competitive', only oxford admissions are kind enough to explicity demonstrate it with statistics.

i dont think theres a difference between being 'balliol standard' and 'oxford standard'. if you're the latter, then it presupposes the former.

Reply 9

kizer

15

^^ Definitely it is not as if Balliol PPEists all get firsts while other colleges struggle. Although it is fair to say they are better than average.

Reply 10

London Prophet

17

Adeimantus

1. Exactly how high is the Balliol PPE standard?

Level 47 minimum. You must have found the "books of study" on level 9, the "application form" on level 21 and the "letter to Balliol" from the secret boss - The Tutor - on level 43.

Reply 11

Huw Davies

11

Remember though that you can gain an additional 10 levels through use of the "Secret Public School Freemasons' Handshake".

Reply 12

kizer

15

Huw Davies

Remember though that you can gain an additional 10 levels through use of the "Secret Public School Freemasons' Handshake".

At Balliol?! :eek:

Reply 13

Huw Davies

11

They're politically left-wing but I've always thought it more of the champagne-socialist type. They're on the dot average for their proportion of offers to pupils from maintained schools (53.6%) over the last three years so they're not really sticking it to the man with regards to Oxford's reputation for being rather posh.

I agree that my quip (or rather my shameless attempt to piggy-back on Tom Holder's quip) would have been cleverer if a more obviously rah college had been under discussion.

Balliol PPE: How Good Do You Have To Be?

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