Wadham vs Balliol

I'm applying to do PPE for 2008.

Crude, but is one "easier" to get into than the other?

So convince me, which one should I go for?

In the stereotypes thread, someone said that "Wadham are gay" !?

Reply 1

calcium878

Pick a college because you like it, not because it's easier to get into.
For what it's worth, I preferred Wadham on the open day.

Reply 2

The West Wing

I preferred Wadham on the open day too. It was one of the three colleges I considered very carefully.

Purely in terms of ratios, Balliol should be harder to get into; but remember that they also pool an extremely large number of people so your overall chance of getting into Oxford remains the same.

Reply 3

cpchem

We pool loads of people... 'cos Balliol's awesome.

Wadham, on the other hand, are thieving gits who stole our Freshers' pictureboard AND (a little more serious) our DVD player last year.

Reply 4

Cirsium

My signature, college Pros and Cons...

Reply 5

Quistis

Yeah, look at the wiki link in Boo's sig for a clearer picture - but there's one thing I'll say even though I know it's in the wiki: Wadham makes very high offers. My ex-girlfriend is studying PPE at Wadham. She was taking four A levels and her offer was, I think, AAAB, and I think they even specified a couple of subjects that she had to get the As in. I assume that they don't discriminate against you if you're only taking 3 A levels, of course, seeing as some schools won't let you take 4. But if you do decide to apply to Wadham you may wish to bear their extremely high offers in mind.

Reply 6

Huw Davies

One anecdote doesn't prove that it's something Wadham do systematically, or more than other colleges, though.

Reply 7

Cirsium

Well it's not one anecdote is it? Wadham are the only college I've ever heard of giving 4 grade offers and I've heard it from several people.

Reply 8

Huw Davies

Well it's not one anecdote is it? Wadham are the only college I've ever heard of giving 4 grade offers and I've heard it from several people.

I hadn't heard it from anyone previously, so from my perception there was only Quistis' one example to go on. If it is something they do habitually then pardon me.

Reply 9

Quistis

Yes, it is something they do habitually, sorry for not clarifying. I've heard of it from several people too, and seen it on the wiki, but my ex is the only Wadham PPEist I know of so I gave her as the specific example.

Huw, you're mean :frown:

Reply 10

Huw Davies

I know. I've been reading badscience again which always makes me pedantic and a bit of an arse.

Love you really.

Though you haven't replied to my facebook message. Maybe this is subliminally about that.

Reply 11

tenjon

Generally for PPE, Balliol will be harder to get an offer from (& you're more likely to be pooled elsewhere), though Wadham's offer will probably be tougher - they like giving out four-grade offers whenever they can (though mostly AAAB, rather than AAAA - they're not that harsh).

Balliol's got a bigger academic rep, esp. for PPE. Wadham's got a bigger lefty rep. Balliol claims to be left wing, but as the DVD player incident shows, doesn't have a very lefty attitude to property rights.

Reply 12

Quistis

Huw Davies

You only sent it a couple of days ago! I always give myself a day or so to think over what I'm going to say, if I'm writing to a friend. Anyway, I'm glad I waited, because your mention of badscience has reminded me to tell you about something in my message...

Will now refrain from spamming TSR with our personal conversations for the second time in a week. To get on-topic: I just noticed that the OP mentioned Wadham's gay reputation in his first post. Both Balliol and Wadham, as traditionally liberal, left-wing, unpretentious colleges, have a reputation as being gay-friendly, and indeed that's one of the reasons I myself applied to Balliol. As I'm not at either college, I can't vouch that the reputation is deserved, but what I do think needs to be pointed out is that Oxford in general is a fairly liberal place, and AFAIK all colleges are at least tolerable place to be queer. I don't know the OP, but if gay-friendliness is a factor in his college choice, for whatever reason, it's worth stressing that Wadham and Balliol are both reputed to be very queer-friendly, but that there's a university-wide LGBTsoc, so even if there are very few other gay people in college, it's easy to make friends with (and pull) like-minded people.

Wadham vs Balliol

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