The Student Room Group

Oxford Economics and Management (E&M) Students and Applicants

Is this a respected course?

As in, is it as well known as Economics at Cambridge or LSE.

EDIT(fleur de lis): Post all your questions about Economics and Management in this thread please :smile:

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Reply 1
In a word: Yes.

(Direct comparisons are quite difficult, but none of the 3 degrees you've mentioned will open doors that the other ones wouldn't)
Reply 2
Isn't E and M the most difficult course to get into at Oxford? Possibly excluding medicine and law.
Reply 3
It's the most oversubscribed of the main courses (though there are some that have 5 or 6 places a year and have more apps/place), but it's certainly not harder to get in for than medicine. As for respect, it was named as the most employable degree in the UK by the Times a couple of years ago, and I've never seen anyone look down upon it. With the possible exception of economics grad study - if you're pretty sure you want to do that, I'd recommend a straight economics or a maths degree.
I think we were told (in one of the induction sessions) that E&M was even more competitve than medcine and law for entry in 2006. Might mix things up though.
Reply 5
Hi,

I am a year 12 student, doing maths, history, biology, economics, critical thinking and general studeies for A/S...i really have a passion for economics and am aiming to do this at oxford (or if i dont get in, LSE Economics)...anyhow i have a few questions i would be grateful if someone could answer for me.

Firstly. Do oxford look at A/S module scores? or just the overal grade..and also do they look at your retakes?

Secondly. I have a lot of extra curricular activities, and i want to know what is the best way to play on these to highlight how much i have done...i have listed my grades and stuff below so some feedback from people who are at oxford or have offers this year would be grateful as im really not sure of what my propects really are and i want to know what i can improve on to further my chances of succes

Grades: GCSE's 11a* 2a.... A/S Module 1s - Economics A - 97/105 Maths A - 89/100 and Biology A 83/90

Extra curricwise...Nagty Member - Nagty summer school at Warwick Univ (3 weeks of eceonomics aged 13) CTY summer school at dickinson college, USA ( 3 weeks of psychology) Nagty regional councillor for 10,000 students, school council, 2 instruments - keyboard and bass guitar, stage manager for several school productions, basketball team at school (won englsih schools and birmingham schools cups), and my main two things..

world challenge exedition to peru 2006 for 1 month, and going to spend 2 weeks out in uganda this summer teaching english and maths.

what can i do to broaden my economics horizons and how would you rate my chances of getting in?
Reply 6
oxford do not care about your extra-curriculars. all they care about is how suitable you will be for the course.
which luckily, you are :smile:

too broaden you horizons do more extra reading.
Reply 8
Yep, as said, extra reading, and relevant extra-curriculars that show your passion for economics and management. Plus maths. You're grades are great, you ECs are good (if not entirely necessary), but the main thing is how good you are at interviews. Practice the test, look at logic problems and such (econ interviews are more logic-style-maths than maths, really). You have a great chance, but bearing in mind a great chance is only that you have enough, the interviews are where it really counts.
Reply 9
Oxford don't look at your module scores - they will only see your AS module grades at the most depending on how UCAS is set up this year and your school organises it - for example my school only allowed me to put my predicted A2 grades on.

But if you do particularly well in any modules you can just ask your school to include them in your reference.
Reply 10
Isn't that possible to change for next year? I thought some people were saying that Oxford will get to see UMS marks too?
yeah, I was about to say - I remember some talk earlier this year about UMS marks being asked for by Oxford too, not sure how accurate this is though. I also have a vague recollection of school saying that module marks might be shown on ucas forms sometime, not sure if that was for the coming year though. Any particularly good marks can be mentioned in your school's reference anyway, and you can put individual module grades on your ucas form. As for retakes, ucas does show the session you took it in, to be honest I think different admissions tutors have different policies regarding them, I remember getting mixed messages when I was applying. Again, I remember being told something about ucas showing retakes etc sometime in the future, but check with whoever deals with ucas at your school because they'll know a lot more than me!

As for extra curriculars, I didn't have much - Millennium Volunteers, piano lessons, and a couple of small things in school - and I got in. They really do place much greater emphasis on the academic side of things. Just mention them briefly in a paragraph of your personal statement, saying what you learnt from them etc.
Reply 12
hi,

i got my economics result back today for module 1 of AS. I got a middle B, with which i was heartily dissappointed. I am looking to retake the exam in the summer, and improve the grade. however i have heard that oxford now refuses to consider applicants with less than 90% overall.

i really enjoy economics and i am very keen on the management aspect of teh course, so i believ that E&M is the perfect course for me... i

so ultimately, my question... if i mess up in teh summer and i get a poor grade in economics overall, will oxford still consider me, or will they throw my application out of teh window?

cheers for any advice
Invicta
Reply 13
ah thank you for the advice :smile:

as far as doing something extra curric that is a lot more related to econ and to math, can you recommend anything? i have applied for the politics and economics summer school at Eton College which hopefully will help me out a great deal, and obviously there is the economics summer school at warwick that i did...however most of the relevant things that i hear about these days seem to be from people from underpriveledged backgrounds. of course these people definitely should be given the opportunities that come their way, and i know how lucky i am to come from a comfortable home, however its frustrating when you cant participate in some of th events that interest you the most for these reasons...

anybody help?
Reply 14
That's rubbish. Obviously if you don't have an A then Oxford will ask questions, more so now there's talk of seeing UMS. But as for putting a specific percentage on it no it's just an urban myth. And whatever happens it's worth applying - my flatmate applied for English (obv not as competitive but point still stands) with a B in English and is (obviously!) here now!
Reply 15
They have no rule about 90% or anything. Hell, I barely got an A in Spanish AS and I got in. The only thing that you would put into UCAS is your module grades, and one B isn't going to ruin anything, provided you get an A overall. Resitting wouldn't be that necessary, but I suppose they wouldn't know if you did resit it and it would look better than a B. I think if you get less than a A in the actual AS they would probably reject you, since E&M is really competitive.

That said, all my advice might be wrong if Oxford change the requirements for next year...
Reply 16
Do the Maths Challenge or something similar? There's a Target 2.0 thing which might interest you, but I know little about it.
Reply 17
That depends on your school- many schools don't cash in as grades, so they probably wouldn't ever find out what your as module grades were.
Reply 18
The 90% is Cambridge, not Oxford. Cambridge have mande many offers this year conditional upon getting 90% in certain subjects, rather than just an A, but Oxford doesn't do this. At least not yet. There is talk of Oxford asking for UMS grades next year, but AFAIK nothing's set yet, and even if they did it would be as a factor, not as a cut-off.
Reply 19
i had a middle B at AS when i applied to E&M and got in. as previously said, UMS is not an oxford but a cambridge thing. in short - you'll be fine. best of luck!

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