What's the deal with land economy?

I decided on medicine a little while ago; personally I liked the very practical aspects of human geography it seemed to incorporate ( I liked GCSE geography and having to weigh up socioeconomic and environmental factors in terms of land usage and urban development). Its one of the more obscure Oxbridge courses and of course not all of them are going to be well known throughout the education sector but I don't see the comedic view people have towards it personally. Good luck!

That's really cool, good luck with Medicine! Are u going to apply for Medicine at oxbridge?

Thanks; yeah I plan on applying to Cambridge, imperial and ucl for sure. Wbu

Didn't see your Qs about Land Econ in 2019, are you still interested in the answer?

Seriously what the **** is the deal with this course? To set the scene: I'm a year 12 student and today was the launch of our region's HE+ progamme which was preceded by a meeting for people interested in participating. I'm already well acquainted with the website as I've been using its resources to widen my knowledge around medicine and to also help with a long-term project to aid my medicine applications next year. I thought, since medicine isn't an offered subject for the regional programme, that I'd select biology for it as it's the most closely related subject. Our HE+ co-ordinater lets us know that biology will easily be the most oversubscribed due to its relation to medicine/vetmed/dentistry so we should pick a backup option. I'm quite interested in Land economy as a subject since someone mentioned it at the Cambridge summer school so I decide to also apply for a subject which would be useful in a potential land economy application. I therefore ask him at the end of the meeting what subjects offered would be relevant to land economy - the guy just laughs.
Now I didn't know this guy could laugh, it was a completely unprecedented occurrence and it really stuck with me as not only was it out of the blue but also because this [history teacher] actually attended Cambridge University. On top of that he was the 'mentor' of mine who had been encouraging me to think about Oxbridge all the way back in year 10 and had given me plenty of book recommendations for when I wanted to do PPE which is a pretty rare course for someone to want to study at my school; in fact this guy's helped many people wanting to study some weird and wonderful courses get into top unis and yet the idea of Land Economy sets him off on a mad one. He eventually calms down and instead of telling me which subject to apply to, tells me that it would help if I was rich and lived on a farm(?). He then got a bit more serious and gave it some real thought before asking why I want to do Land economy and if I'd actually looked into it, he then arrives at the conclusion that geography or economics would be a good fit as I had originally thought.
This really got me thinking; whenever people find out I'm interested in Land economy they either ask ,'the **** is that' or 'just do a real degree pal' Ik land economy isn't the most respected degree among Cambridge students but I didn't realise it was enough of a joke to warrant a history teacher who studied at Cambridge over 15 years ago to start howling for the first time in a decade. Is it really that much of a joke? Also where's the farming joke sprouted from?

Thanks; yeah I plan on applying to Cambridge, imperial and ucl for sure. Wbu

Cambridge has a few topics it rips apart pretty mercilessly, including the distance it is to Girton, how useless Land Economy is as a subject, and how we's all rather be at Oxford than St Johns. Fortunately, because we are decent types, we pick on these topics because they are entirely without foundation, indeed, some might say based on jealousy. So while ripping on Girton for being in another county, needing a visa to get to etc, we all really know that it's a brilliant college, with great facilities, a strong sense of community and Girtonians love it. While ripping up Land Ec, we all know that it's one of the most flexible degrees and its combination of subjects often leads to very financially lucrative careers, which includes taking over your father's estate, if he has one. While claiming we would rather be at Oxford than St Johns, we know that St Johns is one of the wealthiest Colleges, with the best funds to support students in terms of facilities, food, quality of accommodation etc.

They are partly an 'in joke' - if you can join in on them, you indicate you understand Cambridge, and partly 'picking on' things that we actually know aren't true, because it would be to pick on anything else.

Ohh that actually makes sense lol, people always find something to pick on and then everyone just follows like sheep . Do other courses like HSPS or geography experience a similar thing? Also, what's the reason people pick on St John's lol, pls be honest because I'm currently deciding on which college to apply to, atm I'm leaning towards Jesus College because I'm really into sports but I imagine Jesus would also experience jokeful banter because of the name

Late response but meh. Land Economy is known for being a pisstake degree and I'm sure many others are.

Tbh it's a degree that covers a bit of multiple subjects - same as say a liberal arts degree that you'd find in the U.S or the Open Degree from The Open University. PPE/PPH etc.

It's just... Geography; Law; Econ etc.

At the end of the day it's a degree and it's one from Cambridge. It carries significant weight due to where it's from and with the same transferrable skills as any other degree you're probably just as employable for any other job out there as any other graduate.

Quite frankly you could do Media Studies or Applied Box Cutting at Cambridge if such a thing existed.... they would have you for most jobs.

Applied Box Cutting looooooooooool, but seriously I agree like how can you mock a degree from Cambridge lool, like I don't think Cambridge grads struggle to find a job unlike a lot of undergrads from other not-so-good unis. Also, Thanks for the response, what do you do... are u at uni, yr13,recent grad, etc?

hahahaha I spit one good bar a week mate. This is my quota.

The average Cambridge grad will probably walk into a job easier than the rest of us who need to gain work experience etc.

Also I'm a Maths Undergrad, just finished 1st year

Maths!! You smart-smart! I was considering Maths but then I discovered that most of the top unis require Further Maths and additional things like STEP etc to do Maths and it's too late for me to join the further Maths class... but it's fine, uni maths looks like its on another level in comparison to A-level!