Shall I apply to Oxford History or History and Economics?

3

History and Economics is a course that interests me more, and I think having the economics side of things will be beneficial for employment, however I'm aware that History and Economics is a much more competitive course than history.
I do Economics, Maths, and History.

Reply 1

Olivia19756

6

Original post

by Cicero0

History and Economics is a course that interests me more, and I think having the economics side of things will be beneficial for employment, however I'm aware that History and Economics is a much more competitive course than history.
I do Economics, Maths, and History.

Hey, I'd say at Oxford while some courses would be more competitive than others, history would still be very competitive so I wouldn't base your choice off that. If you think history and economics would be more interesting you should go for that!

Reply 2

BetaVersion2.9

9

Defo choose the course that interests you most.

Reply 3

Cicero0

OP

3

Original post

by Olivia19756

Hey, I'd say at Oxford while some courses would be more competitive than others, history would still be very competitive so I wouldn't base your choice off that. If you think history and economics would be more interesting you should go for that!

History has a much higher acceptance rate, even if it is still obviously very competitive.

Reply 4

The_Lonely_Goatherd

20

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe for at least *some* joint honours courses, when you apply, you will be asked whether you'd be willing to consider single honour courses. What I mean is, I think if you apply for History & Economics, there would be the opportunity to get a single-honours history offer if they think that's the better fit. Whereas if you apply for *just* history, you can't be considered for joint honours...

Reply 5

BetaVersion2.9

9

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe for at least *some* joint honours courses, when you apply, you will be asked whether you'd be willing to consider single honour courses. What I mean is, I think if you apply for History & Economics, there would be the opportunity to get a single-honours history offer if they think that's the better fit. Whereas if you apply for *just* history, you can't be considered for joint honours...

Good point!

Reply 6

bumba123

12

Original post

by Cicero0

History and Economics is a course that interests me more, and I think having the economics side of things will be beneficial for employment, however I'm aware that History and Economics is a much more competitive course than history.
I do Economics, Maths, and History.

I was in exactly the same situation as you last year, and I agree with what other's have said that you should apply for the course that interest you more. H&E looks like a really interesting course, and you can easily switch to history once youre there if you dont like economics. Also, from a tactical perspective there isn't really any advantage to applying for only history. If they think you are a strong enough candidate for history, they will give you an offer for that. Basically, if you apply for H&E and don't get an offer, you probably wouldn't have got one if you just applied for the single course.

Reply 7

kingsleyartha

12

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe for at least *some* joint honours courses, when you apply, you will be asked whether you'd be willing to consider single honour courses. What I mean is, I think if you apply for History & Economics, there would be the opportunity to get a single-honours history offer if they think that's the better fit. Whereas if you apply for *just* history, you can't be considered for joint honours...

Yeah- this is a good point- one of my mates applied for Russian and Arabic and he got an offer for straight Arabic (albeit far less competitive than the course the OP is applying for). Your A levels are pretty much perfect for History and Econ and Oxford. You just have to ace the TSA and you should get an interview.
Looking at the stats- it is a 41% interview rate and 11-12% offer rate.

If I were you, I would apply for history and econ, but weight your supercurriculars slightly towards history, since this is the subject that you could get in for simpliciter (and it has a nearly 20% higher offer rate).

For example, I applied for Philosophy and Russian, yet I spent more of my prep time and did more supercurriculars for Russian as I knew that I could do this on its own if it came down to it, yet this was not the case for philosophy.
Similarly, you can do history on its own, but not economics.

If you are utterly hellbent on doing the both of them together, then I would suggest that you make the history in your personal statement and (if possible) written work (since they sometimes ask you more about this than the things in your personal statement based on the testimony of the Oxford history applicants from our school this year) very much linked to economics, so that it is clear that you are very interested in where the subjects converge, which they can like.

despite this rather convoluted paragraph- my overall conclusion to your current conundrum is: GO FOR IT!!! Don't have any regrets- if you apply for history on its own and get in, then you will always wonder whether you would have been able to have got in for history and econ (this is the same for the colleges as well btw- don't pick the one you think you are most likely to get into, but more so the one you actually wat to go to the most, because if you don't, you will always have regrets).

Shall I apply to Oxford History or History and Economics?

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