A Few Questions Concerning My Application At Trinity (Economics)

OP

Hehehe... Hopefully they'll read the extra application questionaire I sent them :biggrin:

. Still though, I'm just so scared; the selection process is so competetive and it seems nowadays that the small things could differentiate. Freakonomics is a cool book, I read it a long time ago, could be interesting if I get an extract of that sort to talk about :smile:

. Reading articles on the net and discussing with friends sounds like a good idea, I'll give that the try :biggrin:

.

Thanks for the advice and best of luck to you with your application too! :smile:

- Jeff

PS. Your results are pretty immense as well :P

Reply 3

Theorist

10

I'm sure if you explained to them about the way your school chose to teach you the A2, but you had already read up on the Microeconomics material, it would only work in your favour... :wink:

I doubt only 50% will be interviewed, but with your grades, I'd be very surprised if you didn't get one.

Best of luck. :smile:

Reply 4

minimo

15

OK I'm doing Part IIA Econs at Trinity sooo....
1) Don't be daft, with your results they will call you.

2) Don't worry, just specify this on the topics covered bit of your SAQ.

3) see my Oxbridge Admissions Profile: http://www.oxbridge-admissions.info/profiles/profiles-show.php?w=1

PM me if you need anymore help :smile:

Reply 5

OK I'm doing Part I Econs at Trinity sooo....

1) They interview a very high proportion of applicants. Probably higher than 90%.

2) They may cover Micro, they may not. It changes a lot from year to year (I was told this by Dr D.). They know you haven't studied Micro (if you've told them/if you tell them), and they only focus on the way you think. Your knowledge is largely irrelevant. I didn't use any A-level Economics words/glossary in my interviews, even though they were heavily related. They let me in because of the way I think.

Some other points about Trinity Economics, according to my DoS:

- The average quality of applicants to Trinity is higher than other colleges.
- Trinity may look at applicants in different ways to other colleges.
- Some applicants are declined very early if there's something fundamentally wrong with their application.
- UMS scores matter. A lot. He has found high UMS scores correlate well with degree performance. GCSEs do not matter much.
- The interview is of course, very important, but so are the other parts of your application. Sometimes the interview may not even be the key part of your application.

Some general observations:

- The current second years have 14+ Economists. My year only has 10. It appears to fluctuate, but they're in no hurry to make 14+ offers. Apparently they made around 13 offers this year. Jan converted to Maths and one person chose another university. Not sure about the last person. (This isn't to scare you, just the way Trinity tends to work, according to my DoS).

- About half of us in my year haven't done A2 Further Maths. It isn't a problem.

- We hate History and Politics and essays. A lot of people do. Apparently, Trinity Economists tend to be more mathematical on average, so we tend to hate these modules more.

- A lot of people are content with a 2.1. A 1st leaves you with a high likeliness of having no social life.

Reply 6

OP

Wow... Thanks so much guys!!! The information is really really useful! Considering Trinity is more mathematical, would it be particularly useful for me to do a lot of work on developing my mathematics in preperation for the interview?

Also, may I ask - any idea who will be taking the interviews this year? Is it Dr Doppelhofer and Dr Gatti?

Reply 7

J2K

Wow... Thanks so much guys!!! The information is really really useful! Considering Trinity is more mathematical, would it be particularly useful for me to do a lot of work on developing my mathematics in preperation for the interview?

Also, may I ask - any idea who will be taking the interviews this year? Is it Dr Doppelhoffer and Dr Gatti?

No, Trinity Economics isn't more mathematical, the students have tended to be.

Also, it varies from year to year whether they include ANY maths in the interviews. Last year they did not.

Dr G is away, so it definitely won't be him. Could be any of the others. Usually four of them interview.

Don't over-prepare for your interview. Preparation is useless in most cases because, as I said, they're looking at how you think, not what you know.

Reply 8

OP

Four of them interview? So it's like a kinda 2 on 1 interview for each of them?

Reply 9

Theorist

10

J2K

Four of them interview? So it's like a kinda 2 on 1 interview for each of them?

I think in all Cambridge interviews, you're interviewed by two people; who can be both academics or sometimes Admissions Tutors.

Reply 10

clueless101

Don't over-prepare for your interview. Preparation is useless in most cases because, as I said, they're looking at how you think, not what you know.

So you dont think theres anyway a candidate could prepare for interview? Is it just a case of being born with a certain way of thinking?

Reply 11

J2K

Four of them interview? So it's like a kinda 2 on 1 interview for each of them?

No, four of them carry out interviews. You aren't interviewed by all of them. You will be allocated two of them, who will each interview you individually.

clueless101: they're looking for potential. You can be very well read and know the A-level course inside out which might help, but if they ask you a question outside what you know, that's where your thinking comes into it. Besides, they're not just going to ask factual questions.

Reply 12

OP

*nods* That's a good point N9ne, so does that mean that what's written on your personal statement generally won't get asked as they'll assume you know plenty around those areas?

- Jeff

Reply 13