Oxford PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) Students and Applicants

Yes, I have Wolff's introduction on my shelf so I'm looking forward to reading that...(so much!!)

I went to a J.P. Morgan course today, met two other girls applying for PPE and we were talking about was reading!!

I might read Mill but I don't think I'll mention it on the PS as it's so common...

Im in Year 11 and i am thinking of doing PPE at university but im not sure about my a-levels

Im thinking of doing

Chemistry
Biology
History
Philosophy

Im considering changing Economics for one of the sciences.

Is is vital that i do either maths or economics?
I really enjoy all of PPE and have read many books on the different parts.

Do i need to change my choices to give myself the best chance?

Mill is so important to political philosophy that if you were to bring him up in your PS, you might be asked about him in your interview, and if you seriously know your JS Mill (moreso than the standard joe who's just read 'On Liberty' in philosophy), they'd be impressed.*

*That is complete conjecture, but I've reasoned that it's gotta be roughly true

I've got a friend who used to go to my school who's going to be applying for PPE (and he's seriously going to get a place; he's awesome), but me and another friend were just accompanying him as friends when he was meeting up with old teachers, and we visited my current philosophy teacher, and we ended up having a huge and really deep conversation about Marx. My philosophy teacher wrote his PhD thesis on something to do with Marxism, and so knows it really well, and my other friend also has a profound knowledge of Marxism (although he's not a Marxist). It was just so insightful (read: strange) watching those two talk about really advanced concepts of Marxism (i.e. certain authors' interpretations of it, critiques, etc.) and me being able to chip in, having 'only' read DK, TGI & TCM. It was one of the best conversations I've had, but left me thinking that I might read a lot more on Marx, like dialectical materialism and famous critiques, and put it on my personal statement; though I can only imagine how cliche it must be for a 17/18 year old to say they have an interest in Marxism on their personal statement...

We then went to the pub and played 'Are you smarter than a 10 year old' on one of those quiz machines for money, and we were 1 question away from winning £5! The question was something like: "According to the Gospel's of Mark, how long did Jesus suffer on the cross for?". We thusly guessed it wrong, and spent the rest of the day crying.

Haha - thanks for that story. Brilliant.

I don't know though...I still feel like everybody mentions J.S.Mill...I'll defnitely read some though...

About the Marxism, I guess it depends on how you put what you say...though, I'm not sure how much to believe about this whole PS importance thing...

Are you gonna have a go at some Mill then??

Mill is so important to political philosophy that if you were to bring him up in your PS, you might be asked about him in your interview, and if you seriously know your JS Mill (moreso than the standard joe who's just read 'On Liberty' in philosophy), they'd be impressed.*

*That is complete conjecture, but I've reasoned that it's gotta be roughly true

I've got a friend who used to go to my school who's going to be applying for PPE (and he's seriously going to get a place; he's awesome), but me and another friend were just accompanying him as friends when he was meeting up with old teachers, and we visited my current philosophy teacher, and we ended up having a huge and really deep conversation about Marx. My philosophy teacher wrote his PhD thesis on something to do with Marxism, and so knows it really well, and my other friend also has a profound knowledge of Marxism (although he's not a Marxist). It was just so insightful (read: strange) watching those two talk about really advanced concepts of Marxism (i.e. certain authors' interpretations of it, critiques, etc.) and me being able to chip in, having 'only' read DK, TGI & TCM. It was one of the best conversations I've had, but left me thinking that I might read a lot more on Marx, like dialectical materialism and famous critiques, and put it on my personal statement; though I can only imagine how cliche it must be for a 17/18 year old to say they have an interest in Marxism on their personal statement...

We then went to the pub and played 'Are you smarter than a 10 year old' on one of those quiz machines for money, and we were 1 question away from winning £5! The question was something like: "According to the Gospel's of Mark, how long did Jesus suffer on the cross for?". We thusly guessed it wrong, and spent the rest of the day crying.

Not sure.

Maths is definitely a plus, what's your GCSE maths likely to be? If you survive with Chemistry, then the lack of maths shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Don't worry too much about the Sciences. I did Maths Bio and Politics A Levels, with Chemistry at AS and got an offer this year. I'm not sure they're bothered too much about having eco/pol/phil if you can prove you're interested in the subject.

So I'd recommend not changing unless you want to do maths. Don't worry about the sciences too much. At the end of the day, they'd much rather you do what you want to do so you get the grades they require.

I'm fairly sure i will get an A or an A* so fingers crossed . If I got a B would there be no chance of getting in?

Also just out of interest do you go to a private school or a state school?

Thanks

I think so.. although for me, Mill's a boring guy, and I absolutely detest the way he writes (the guy's never heard of a paragraph). I've read On Liberty, but not in depth or analytically enough to properly talk about it, so I think I'm going to tackle that and 'Utilitarianism' over the summer.

I was thinking about, making Nietzsche my 'specialist subject' ( ), although he's not as deep as someone like Marx, and I don't really agree with what he says...

I'd just like to point out now that Amazon Marketplace is the greatest bookshop that's ever existed. (>£1 books, and £2.75 standard postage?? Yes please!)

Edit: Actually, due to my mediocre GCSEs, I think I might also try and read a book on 'critical thinking', or something like that, as I reckon I'd have to murder the TSA to get an interview...

Um because I do PPE, admittedly not at Oxford, but I've known enough Oxford PPEists in my time to confirm that maths wise it's no different to any other PPE course.

Haha my arse have you read DK!

In which work does Marx mention dialectics? TGI is on his theroy of property, I think? I've read TCM... I don't think he mentions it there... I think I just gleaned understanding from the internet...

Ooh...doesn't sound too great...but I still might look into it. Let me know what you think.

Haha - but that's good though. The tutors will like that you don't agree as that will probably be different to what they usually hear. They'll be interested to know you're thoughts about it...(that is, if they read your PS... )

I haven't actually browsed through the marketplace - just ordered a few books off the main site though...

Sounds like you should be visiting my TSA thread...(http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=20043916#post20043916)

How likely is that you would choose to specialise in only two branches of PPE - by that I mean is it usually a pre-determined decision or does it come about after you've had the experience of all three (do you learn to despise one as it were )