corpus christi essay competition

i was just wondering if anyone else entered?

i rushed to finish mine for the philosophy and theology category and sent it off yesterday but tbh i probably shouldnt have bothered because looking back on it there was loads of stuff i could have put in - oh well, thats always the way

so anyway, anyone else go in for it?

:tsr2:

Reply 1

coldfish

12

Err, what is it? Is it not a college-based thing?

Reply 2

bindymackenzie

OP

lol, well i am not sure, i think so as in they are the college that run it

i can send you a link http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/oldmembers/news.php?newid=135

Reply 3

Lidka

13

coldfish

Err, what is it? Is it not a college-based thing?

It's for 6th formers, so I suppose this is only really relevant to applicants. I wish I'd known about it when I was at school; it looks quite interesting.

Reply 4

coldfish

12

Yeah, it seems like a really good idea.

Reply 5

musicmonkey_08

We were just told about the Peterhouse Essay competition:

It's for Year 12's

http://www.pet.cam.ac.uk/admissions/essays.html

It's for English, History and the Sciences

" All three competitions have a top prize of £500, a second prize of £250 and two further essays of a high quality will be highly commended. All essays of a high enough quality will be commended. "

The closing date is the 4th April 2008

:biggrin:

Reply 6

bindymackenzie

OP

oh my god, £500! that is so much cash for writing an essay!

lol, i just checked out the website though and the essay topics look fairly hard, but also interesting? i dont know, i wouldnt know what to put in for the science essays, i would probs just talk about my own opinion which i doubt they really care about

i think i just want a commended essay, maybe i am the only one who entered as nobody else has said yet? that would be too good, i would win everything

Reply 7

[mellifluous]

5

Just looked at the Philosophy/Theology essay titles out of interest. One is:-

(i.) Lois Lane knows that Superman saved Metropolis and (ii.) Clark Kent is Superman. But it does not follow from (i.) and (ii.) that Lois Lane knows that Clark Kent saved Metropolis. Why not?

I don't understand! Surely the answer is 'because Lois Lane does not know that Clark Kent is Superman'?

How can you write 1500-2500 words?!

And also how ridiculous is this question? Proof of why you should stick to science....not all this airy-fairy rubbish!
*succumbs to barrage of clever people defending 'airy-fairy rubbish'*

xxx

Reply 8

bindymackenzie

OP

i know! i was like what the hell? i did the one on fundamentalism because its the only one i could vaguely understand/found interesting

Reply 9

Tickety Boo

Does Oxford University do similar competitions?

Reply 10

coldfish

12

Why the Lois Lane/Clark Kent/Superman question is interesting:
Superman and Clark Kent are the same thing, they are identical. How, then, can we make sentences false or true by substituting them? Surely the whole -point- of identical things is that they perfectly fit into each other's places in statements?

Obviously I'm not going to say too much more on here.

Reply 11

Saturday Night Special

11

This competition can be very useful for future applicants, finishing in say the top 3 puts you in an excellent position for admissions.

Reply 12

coldfish

12

Not that I'm going to disagree with the fact that it'd look very good, but do you actually know this? I'm just very wary of people posting with such certainty something which can only be (well founded) conjecture.

Reply 13

Saturday Night Special

11

coldfish

Not that I'm going to disagree with the fact that it'd look very good, but do you actually know this? I'm just very wary of people posting with such certainty something which can only be (well founded) conjecture.

Well I know someone who won one of the Corpus Christi essay competitions (wont say the subject), the tutors knew who he was when he went for interview, and commented on the quality of his essay. Now of course they didnt explictly mention that the essay got him the place (he was a good candidate regardless), but I think it certainly made an impact. Even if it just took some of the pressure off at interview etc. Coldfish I certainly agree with you that its conjecture, I think that a great deal of certainties posted on this forum are speculation and conjecture. In terms of Oxbridge admissions there are very few definitives (given the thousands of different applicants, and hundreds of interviewers, across many colleges etc.).

Reply 14

coldfish

12

Exactly, that's all that I'm trying to say. I wouldn't have even looked twice at a post that said "It's probably a good idea for applicants, winning this would look pretty good." It's just that the way you stated it made it seem as if you had insider information.

Reply 15

the:phantom

I entered this comp, left it really late so eventually had to send recorder delivery in Friday. Cost me £4.30 :eek:

but was worth it cos i worked hard on it.

I did the interpretation of texts question in the philosophy and theology bit, was able to get my teeth into it. Does anyone know how many people normally enter?

Reply 16

Kolya

17

[QUOTE='[mellifluous]'](i.) Lois Lane knows that Superman saved Metropolis and (ii.) Clark Kent is Superman. But it does not follow from (i.) and (ii.) that Lois Lane knows that Clark Kent saved Metropolis. Why not?

I don't understand! Surely the answer is 'because Lois Lane does not know that Clark Kent is Superman'?

How can you write 1500-2500 words?! It's not (completely) trivial to translate the argument into an argument within a formal system of proof. In fact, I cannot see a quick way to create an FoL argument out of it, so you could discuss the failure of some methods and look at alternative ways of proving or showing the validity of the argument.

Reply 17

coldfish

12

Oooo, Lusus. where is that quote in your sig from? It seems very reminiscent of a quote from somewhere in Dostoevsky that I have as one of my favourite quotes on facebook. Could plausibly be a different translation of the same.

Reply 18

Kolya

17

coldfish

Oooo, Lusus. where is that quote in your sig from? It seems very reminiscent of a quote from somewhere in Dostoevsky that I have as one of my favourite quotes on facebook. Could plausibly be a different translation of the same.

It is a Sherlock Holmes quote (from The Man with the Twisted Lip). If I were pretentious enough to quote Dostoyeveski then, naturally, I would quote him in Russian :wink2:

Reply 19

coldfish

12

The Dostoevsky quote I have is "the world hinges upon trifles", which is a much more pleasing image, taken literally.

corpus christi essay competition

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