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Economics at Cambridge or PPE at Oxford

Hey guys, I have just done my AS, and I am confused as to whether I should apply for Economics at Cambridge or PPE at Oxford.

My AS are: Maths (Predicted A), Economics (Predicted A), Politics (Predicted A), History (Predicted A) and French (Predicted B/C)

For A level, I am continuing with everything except for French which I dropped to take up AS Further Maths instead.

As you can see, I don't have the scientific background a pure economics course prefers and I am doing quite a few humanities subjects.

I think I still can apply to Cambridge but I worry about the acceptance rate - 1 in 7. So PPE should be a good choice, however, I am uneasy about the Philosophy part and the amount of essays you have to write.

What do you think I should do?
Also for my other 4 choices, I am thinking of
Warwick
Durham
LSE (possibly)
Southampton (as a safety net, but I really don't want to go there)

I heard that York is good; I don't know why but I have never considered it as an option,

I got 5A* and 7A in my GCSE, would that be ok for my universities.

Reply 1

Ibn al-Khattab

panda-size

your gcse's are strong and with a solid p.s. you shouldn't have a problem getting into warwick and durham...from what i've heard lse are pretty strict on gcse's and require at least 8a*'s but don't take my word for it..if you are confident you tick all the right boxes then apply there..taking up as further maths is a good idea as it thought of highly by universities...you should consider ucl as opposed to southampton, it has a great economics department...

personally, i would got for ba economics at cambridge...

Reply 2

tenjon

Don't worry about things like acceptance rates, no point concerning yourself with them. Though lots of people at Cambridge have further maths, it is perfectly possible to get in without it. Your subjects are a good combination for PPE.

What you base your decision on must surely be whether or not you want to study politics and philosophy. (With PPE you can still make economics 6/8ths of your degree, but you will still have to spend considerable time in your first and second year doing P & P, not to mention convince your interviewer that you are both enthusiastic and capable of those subjects).

Reply 3

unknown demon

You can drop philosophy after one year don't worry.

For Cam econ, most people will have f.math, so you may as well do it.

Reply 4

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tom391

What you base your decision on must surely be whether or not you want to study politics and philosophy.

I don't mind doing politics. As for philosophy I did it at GCSE so I suppose I could do it for a year.

The good thing about Oxford is you don't have to disclose your UMS mark so this means it is relatively easy to get in?

The Apprentice

you should consider ucl as opposed to southampton, it has a great economics department...

UCL is in the big four, so I don't want to fill my options with the top unis just incase none of them want me.

I went to the Bath open day, and it really scared me because the admissions tutor kept on emphasising the competition (12 applications for one place), plus universities always tell you even if you get the grade it is not a guarantee for a place as there are so many people with straight As now days.

Any advice?

Reply 5

The West Wing

In my experience, while the ratios for PPE are slightly better (about 20% as opposed to 14%), the average PPE candidate is stronger than the average Economics candidate in terms of aptitude because of the prestige of the course.

Reply 6

wazzup

miltonkeynes

thats just stupid. r u saying economics at camb isnt as prestigious as PPE? dont kid urself.
i d say both are equally competitive, but require different sort of skills. for PPE you d need to be more essay type person, whereas for economics you need to be more of a mathmo.

Reply 7

toto8462

miltonkeynes

That is crap. Econ at Cam is far more prestigious than PPE at Oxford. Also, you are forgetting that Econ at Cam is quite flexible - by Part IIB you can do half of your course on politics/sociology style courses... Alternatively you can do a tonne of maths instead.

Reply 8

wazzup

hey toto, do you study economics at cam?

Reply 9

tenjon

toto8462

How can you be sure that one course is any more prestigious than the other? It's a bit of a pointless and simplistic way of looking at it. That said, PPE is arguably Oxford's flagship course, its most famous course, and Economics at Cambridge certainly isn't - more like Mathematics or Natural Sciences. And the fact that Cambridge has let its Economics department comparatively decline (Oxford's department is now far larger, and produces a lot more good research, which is a fairly big and recent shift) doesn't help that argument.

Anyway, I'm not saying that PPE is more prestigious than Economics, I'm just saying that it's a silly way of looking at it, and it's certainly not the case that economics at Cam is "far more prestigious than PPE at Oxford".

Reply 10

toto8462

tom391

I disagree. If economics is what s/he is interested in primarily, i think Econ at Cam is more prestigious that PPE at Oxford. If s/he is more interested in a career in something requiring more humanities then PPE is probably more prestigious than Econ at Cam. Biased as it may seem yes i am at Cam doing Econ, but thats because i wanted a pure course.

I take your point and saying that one is more prestigious than the other is to a certain extent pointless. If the s/he is interested more in Econ than philosophy etc. he should compare Cam Econ to Oxford Econ & Management - that would be fairer.

But if he is worried about Philosophy etc (i.e. lack of interest) and is more concerned about the economics side - Cam Econ would be a more prestigious course for economics than PPE.

Comparing each course as a whole is pointless and impossible on the grounds that you might as well compare Cambridge Music to Oxford Geography or similar - i was merely making a statement about prestige vis a vis economics (apologies if that wasnt very clear)

Reply 11

kizer

toto8462

Thank god this thread hasn't been filled with unfalsifiable and probably incorrect assertions!

Oh wait...

Reply 12

toto8462

kizer

Thank god this thread hasn't been filled with unfalsifiable and probably incorrect assertions!

Oh wait...

Read the thread. Cam Econ is more prestigious for economics than PPE at Oxford. C'mon is anyone seriously going to contest that?

As stated, surely you would do Oxford Economics and Management vs. Cam Econ as a fairly comparable course. But for economics Cam Econ, must be more prestigious than something like PPE. Why? Because there is no way PPE can be as rigorous in economics as a PURE economics course at Cam. Is that so hard to understand!?

Reply 13

Azmeister

I think the word prestige should be looked up in the dictionary...

Reply 14

Sternau

Cambridge Economics is more prestigous for Economics than Oxford only because Oxford don't offer pure economics. The subject is taught very differently: in Oxford, it is always a conjuction of economics with some other subject, thus focusing on application; in Cambridge, you either take pure economics for three years, or for two followed by a different subject. The Oxford approach is more interdisciplinary, the Cambridge one more scientific. Oxford's essay-based teaching is more applied than Cambridge's maths-based theory emphasis. So if you ask where the most "prestigous" place is for economics, it is really the wrong question to ask. Cambridge's "prestige" focuses on course, i.e. difficulty, entry standards etc. For faculty, it is not arguable that LSE wins hands down. And if you're not into theoretical/dry economics, than all that is not useful either: you should apply to Oxford and do PPE/E&M. And if you're really into the theory bits, do consider doing a maths course and some postgrad economics. To consider Cam Econ and Ox PPE simultaneously seems to me like you should try and figure out what you want.

Never forget that colleges play a part also. Reading PPE at Balliol, for example, ranks higher than Economics at any Cambridge college, since the tutors are superb and competition ultra-fierce. Then Reading Economics at Trinity in Cambridge ranks higher than PPE at, say, LMH (prestige being now the impression you make on people who know what you're talking about). And since prestige is by nature dependent on what other people think about something, it might not actually be worth basing any application decision upon - as is so clearly evident in this discussion.

Reply 15

panda-size

Sternau

To consider Cam Econ and Ox PPE simultaneously seems to me like you should try and figure out what you want.

You are right, I am unclear, I like both Maths and Humanities, and I don't know which to pursue at a degree level. I suppose mathematics is highly specialised, so if I don't continue to do it then I won't be able to take it up later on (i.e. at masters without having done the Bsc), but this is not the case for Humanities, e.g. politics.

I'll wait until the results day and see which I am better at. Hopefully my results for Maths and Politics won't be the same.

Reply 16

sins55

I work with professional economists (and am one myself). The common consensus is although PPE carries a lot of weight in terms of reputation, should you want to become a professional economist, it doesn't prepare you enough. My boss has commented on the number of underwhelming ppe grads he's interviewed over the years.

If you want an economics career, choose econ. If you want a good career not specialising in anything particular at this point (i.e. you want to go into banking/consulting) choose PPE.