What else can I do beside academic achievement?

Hi I've just started my AS's and I'm so concience that I have under a year to fill up my oxbridge aplication, obviously I gather that academic excellence is paramount but when the vast majority of applicants are exceeding average what can one do to set them apart from the crowd?

Is there anything that people have done which was particularly advantageous or that they'd wish they'd done in hindsight?

I'm thinking of medicine or PPE so quite a contrast, the obvious things are voluntary work, work experience etc but what about things like extra qualifications, books to read, d of e etc, any suggestions and how significant are they?

While I'm here I might as well ask, I took my AS in Biology in year 11 and achieved an A grade albeit a rather low one, now I'm taking my A2 is it worth retaking the whole AS or perhaps certain modules or will the fact I did it early be taken into consideration?

Thanks

Reply 1

--

3

Only subject related ECs would make a difference to your chances.

Reply 2

ExRx123

17

tom s

Hi I've just started my AS's and I'm so concience that I have under a year to fill up my oxbridge aplication, obviously I gather that academic excellence is paramount but when the vast majority of applicants are exceeding average what can one do to set them apart from the crowd?

Is there anything that people have done which was particularly advantageous or that they'd wish they'd done in hindsight?

I'm thinking of medicine or PPE so quite a contrast, the obvious things are voluntary work, work experience etc but what about things like extra qualifications, books to read, d of e etc, any suggestions and how significant are they?

While I'm here I might as well ask, I took my AS in Biology in year 11 and achieved an A grade albeit a rather low one, now I'm taking my A2 is it worth retaking the whole AS or perhaps certain modules or will the fact I did it early be taken into consideration?

Thanks

As long as you can go on to get an A at A2 I don't really see any reason in retaking it, if you apply to Cambridge they will see all your retakes etc. so there's not really much point.

Reply 3

..Northern Soul

1

Well if its medicine you obviously need to work in a hospital or shadow a GP or something along those lines.

For ppe, its harder, you cant exaclty shadow the PM for a day or debate Philosophy with Socrates!! All i did to show my committment to politcs was to become active in local politics and work experience in my MPs office. Also reading books related to the subjects is a good thing, e.g something by Nietzche, Russle or Satre for philosophy. for economics im still introducing myself with an AS text book, and ive got Milton friedmans Capitalism and Freedom lined up to see how the other side thinks!!

You need to make your mind up what you want to study though! What A-levels are you doin?

Reply 4

epitome

11

you cant exaclty shadow the PM for a day

You can, however, usually arrange to shadow your local MP, if s/he is friendly. :smile:

Reply 5

..Northern Soul

1

Hmmm, i wanted to do that but my MP is a minister so she was too busy.

Reply 6

Speedbird2008

3

PPE or Medicine!? WTF!? They are polar opposites....

As for your extra curriculars, look at doing music, Duke of Edinburgh, Army or RAF Cadets, taking an ECDL and so on.

Deffo get some work experience, Medicine is so hard to get into without getting good work experience.

But for something like Medicine, you don't appear to have much dedication to it.

So, basically, decide where you want to go in life, PPE-ist or Doctor...

(I would go for the latter :wink:

)

Reply 7

jayad

4

dont have a panic attack over extra curriculur activities. oxford stress that they're interested in how passionate you are for your subject and your potential in doing well there. they understand most of the time, students have neither the opportunity or the time to do certain extra curric activities. focus on your work. by all means do extra curric activs you'd like to do anyway, they wont harm your app.

as for setting urself from the crowd, thats what the interviews are there for.

Reply 8

Profesh

20

Just for future (P.S.) reference:

tom s

Hi I've just started my AS's and I'm so concience

*conscious

that I have under a year to fill up my oxbridge aplication,

*application

Thanks; I'm here all evening.

Reply 9

Speedbird2008

3

Profesh

Just for future (P.S.) reference:

*conscious

*application

Thanks; I'm here all evening.

Haha, well said that man! :biggrin:

Reply 10

LAMP

Profesh

Just for future (P.S.) reference:

*conscious

*application

Thanks; I'm here all evening.

Nice 1

Reply 11

thomasjtl

9

As for your extra curriculars, look at doing music, Duke of Edinburgh, Army or RAF Cadets, taking an ECDL and so on.

Unless you'd actually enjoy them, don't bother doing any of these things.

Reply 12

misshape

4

I'd like to apply for philosophy, and I'm doing work experience in Liverpool University's philosophy department. Would this help my application?

Reply 13

Bumper

I'd like to apply for philosophy, and I'm doing work experience in Liverpool University's philosophy department. Would this help my application?

Philosophy applicant doing work experience in a philosophy department? Are you joking?! That'll definitely help strengthen your application. :smile:

Reply 14

misshape

4

Bumper

Philosophy applicant doing work experience in a philosophy department? Are you joking?! That'll definitely help strengthen your application. :smile:

Good

I thought so, just wanted to check :p:

Reply 15

thomasjtl

9

well, it depends what you're doing. If you're just working in their office, then obviously not. I don't really know what work experience related to philosophy would involve.

Reply 16

Wangers

16

Speedbird2006

PPE or Medicine!? WTF!? They are polar opposites....

No, they're not. Politics is essentially the distribution and applications of decision making power, be that office politics, NHS management structure, or funding decisions. Goverment controls the NHS - ergo they are intertwined on a basic level.

Philosophy (which I dont know much about) is about answering (or attempting to) questions about the nature of things, acts and thought. Philosophy percolates into medical ethics - for example Utilitarian or Rule Utilitarian approaches in confronting complex ethical dilemmas? Or looking to the larger picture, I believe the empirical nature of science is a area of philosophical contemplation.

Economics - considerations into how scarce resources- natural, political or intellectual can be optimally channelled to persue certain aims. No doubt you will be aware that the NHS needs funding? Res ipsa loquitur.

Speedbird2006

As for your extra curriculars, look at doing music....

I'm nearly a grade 4 organist, I don't consider it an extra-curricular activity - I consider it a hobby, I dabble partly for the elagence of music, and partly for stress relife - there is nothing more satisfying then hearing yourself play a decent piece, with the notes reverberating off the walls...(Not to blow my own proverbial trumpet). Bluntly, not everyone has the oppotunity to enjoy music - which is a damn shame, again its not about ticking boxes - its about what aspect of what you're doing makes you tick, that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning.

Speedbird2006

Duke of Edinburgh, Army or RAF Cadets, taking an ECDL and so on..

Cadets isn't everywhere, if you're lucky enough to have it, go for it. As for the DofE - lets face it - you are not in any real danger (bar a few occasions) - Its not about saying oh I got my Gold (although this can be a admirable achievement) - what have you actually learned? Its fair enough as a friendmaking excercise/learning new skills - kyaking for example. It depresses me to see such activities rattled off to tick boxes.

As for taking an ECDL, I helped teach a course to a local group for the best part of 2 years armed with 2 years of GCSE IT slacking and native wit. I did it because yes it did give me an incite into peoples' needs, and it probably did allow me to impact the local community in some small benificial way. I am under no romantic impression that it was life changing in any way for the unlucky people who had to put up with me, but it gave me a kick up the arse and grow up - rapidly. I realised that if I diddn't get my finger out and do whatever I was doing to the best of my (limited) ability - then there was a damn good (and horrifying) chabce that I'd look back on my life as a waste of space. I guess what I'm trying to say is - when you do work experience, do it to learn and help others, to learn about your potential career, but perphaps more importantly IMHO to learn about and find yourself.. However menial, however much you might not want to be doing what you've been given - do it to the best of your ability, if nothing else, it builds character.

Speedbird2006

Deffo get some work experience, Medicine is so hard to get into without getting good work experience...

Its not about good experiences, its about what you learn.

Speedbird2006

But for something like Medicine, you don't appear to have much dedication to it.

So, basically, decide where you want to go in life, PPE-ist or Doctor...

(I would go for the latter :wink:

)

You need to start thinking outside the box.

You can't tell someone just to decide, they have to find themselves - more often then not we know what we want, away from sociatal/familial pressures or expectations. Beyond that - both these potential choices need one thing - passion.

All the best :smile:

Reply 17

Profesh

20

Correcting fundamental errors in a light-hearted and constructive manner is "unnecessarily harsh"? I take it the purveyor of the neg. rep. in question doesn't themselves attend either of the universities under discussion: firstly, because their concept of 'harsh' critique would, I suspect, be subject to fairly drastic re-evaluation; and secondly, because they're a hyper-sensitive cretin.

But hey, by all means: confuse 'conscience' with 'conscious' on an application to study Philosophy/Medicine at one of the pre-eminent academic institutions in the English-speaking World. If nothing else, you'd certainly be remembered.

Reply 18

Speedbird2008

3

Wangers you really have analysed my post way to much. I am guessing you are bored? As for thinking outside the box, I wasn't in a box to begin with, so I cannot think outside it. :rolleyes:

Interesting points, though. :smile:

Btw, music is an extra-curricular activity, and is normally a passion or hobby.
Good work experience generally means you have learned a lot.
As for the PPE vs. Medicine, there are a few inate links there, but you are looking too deep. I agree, however, they have links.

Reply 19

--

3

Profesh

Correcting fundamental errors in a light-hearted and constructive manner is "unnecessarily harsh"? I take it the purveyor of the neg. rep. in question doesn't themselves attend either of the universities under discussion: firstly, because their concept of 'harsh' critique would, I suspect, be subject to fairly drastic re-evaluation; and secondly, because they're a hyper-sensitive cretin.

But hey, by all means: confuse 'conscience' with 'conscious' on an application to study Philosophy/Medicine at one of the pre-eminent academic institutions in the English-speaking World. If nothing else, you'd certainly be remembered.

I don't think a simple mistake like that would have them lynched by a group of rowdy dons. I've made a few silly mistakes in my essays, such as referring to the collective group of barons as 'barony', which is the land a baron holds, rather than the correct term 'baronage', in an essay on the Magna Carta (and therefore repeated the term about a thousand times). It didn't raise a mention in my supervision at all, simply a correction on the essay. I doubt they care about these things as much as you assume.

Though if someone thought that was harsh criticism, perhaps they should reassess attending an institution where you will be continually told just how wrong you are by some of the most pre-eminent (to borrow a term) academics in your field.

What else can I do beside academic achievement?

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