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EPQ for oxford?

I know oxford doesn’t make the epq part of offers, although it’s compulsory at my school so I figured it would be a good way to show ‘super curricular interest. I’m thinking of applying for Biology, but I’m not sure whether my current title works as well for this. ‘How did ancient civilisation use the natural world as inspiration for medicine?’ The title will probably change, but the topic is about natural remedies and medicines, and potentially testing the effectiveness of them. I chose this because I was contemplating medicine but I’ve decided I’m not interested in that any more. Does that title still show enough interest in biology for it to be considered as ‘super curricular’? I’d be willing to change it to something more obviously biology based if I think it would help.

Potential titles I’d use instead: ‘is copying nature the best way for us to develop new technology?’- I’d research evolution, ways species have evolved, ways people have copied nature
- something about invasive species, or potentially mimicry and camouflage in the animal kingdom

Would any of these ideas be better? Thanks for any advice :smile:
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by kannmnn
I know oxford doesn’t make the epq part of offers, although it’s compulsory at my school so I figured it would be a good way to show ‘super curricular interest. I’m thinking of applying for Biology, but I’m not sure whether my current title works as well for this. ‘How did ancient civilisation use the natural world as inspiration for medicine?’ The title will probably change, but the topic is about natural remedies and medicines, and potentially testing the effectiveness of them. I chose this because I was contemplating medicine but I’ve decided I’m not interested in that any more. Does that title still show enough interest in biology for it to be considered as ‘super curricular’? I’d be willing to change it to something more obviously biology based if I think it would help. Thanks for any advice :smile:

It's compulsory at my school as well (sucks) and I didn't relate my EPQ to the courses I am applying for. However, I think that you current idea would be fine as a super-curricular. They most likely will just see the title and grade and not think about anything else. Very rarely, I have heard that they ask to see it at interview, but I don't think this would occur as they are just too busy to go through an EPQ.
A good idea to relate your EPQ more to biology though would be to go through the Biology spec and see what topics there that you could research further into relating to your topic. Your idea about evolution is very good.
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 2
The title definitely shows an interest in biology! I think it’s brilliant actually! Lots of the current biology or more well known biology is all the lab based, microbiology and cells sort of thing. But this title is very interesting as you can research about archaeology, palaeobiology, anthropology and evolution, like Charles Darwin’s theories and that sort of thing.
The value of an EPQ on an application is, in itself, marginal at most. A subject-relevant title might bolster the impression that you are truly interested in the subject at hand, but probably its greatest use is in going beyond the title to describe in your PS what especially excites and interests you about the subject ie expanding on an aspect of current research in biology that inspired you to choose this topic.

Specific examples are always more convincing than generic statements about "being passionate about biology" etc. Your current title lends itself to that, but perhaps your alternatives are slightly more on point?

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