<p>I got 5s in AP Macroecon, US History, Calculus, and some others. I think the econ and us history are the two that helped me the most for PPE, although the one of the tutors mentioned in my interview that they were glad that I had taken Calculus as well. I'm planning on taking AP US Gov exam and some others in the spring.</p>
<p>Sounds good...I'm taking the econs, calc bc, and us this year too
and your SATs?</p>
<p>I got an offer for Philosophy at Cambridge (St John's College) and I only have 38 IB points, so it seems like everything is possible. Now I have to pick between Cambridge and Yale!! This must be both the most delightful and the most horrible decision of my life.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Well, being from a European background I would prefer Cambridge. However, it also depends upon where you want to work; I understand that Cambridge is more prestigious in the international (especially European) job market.
But those two choices aren't all that bad...:)</p>
<p>Hi, member2008. Thank you for your advice! :)</p>
<p>Cambridge is more prestigious in the international job market? I'm from Chile so I don't have much access to that kind of information. My career plans at the moment would be to either do a conversion course for Law in the UK after finishing my undergraduate course, or going to Law School in the US. Of course this would affect were I would end up working and living, but I still have no idea of what I would choose; I just know that I'd like to specialize in International Law. However, I have a Spanish nationality besides the Chilean one, so it might be easier for me to work in Europe.</p>
<p>I just got an offer from Cambridge, a conditional one from trinity maths. the condition is a 1,1 on STEP II and III, two notorious math exams held in June. Now I'm confused, because I also applied to HYPSM for regular decision... should I accept the offer first and then ruin the STEP exam in case I don't want to go there, or should I just wait until april and decide then?</p>
<p>Hey, pjh90zzang. I'd do everything you need to do to meet Cambridge's offer and then decide when you've heard from every US college. It's not like you have to say yes or no to Cambridge until May... right? At least that's what I understood after reading the UCAS FAQ.</p>
<p>I'm very interested on what factors you're considering to make a decision, though, cause I'm sort of in the same boat! And congrats on Trinity! I have a friend reading Modern Languages there, and she absolutely loves the place.</p>
<p>omg I so envy u guys.. I've always dreamed about a PPE offer from Oxford!
but I am still stuying AS courses this year and will not start the application process until Oct, so I guess it's not my time to shine yet!:)</p>
<p>btw, luxastraea, I think if I were u, I would choose Yale.
since Yale meets full financial need, right? comparing full payment in oxford, I think that would be an easy choice though.
but if u don't need the money, just ignore me:)</p>
<p>oh btw,
is there anyone willing to post their personal statement for Oxbridge and, of course, LSE?That would help a lot. I have been working on it these days and kinda confused about what aspects shall I concentrate.</p>
<p>since people always suggest an attracting openning, I spend one paragragh to talk about things that are not at all related to myself to introduce my desire for learning economics. do u think I should do that??</p>
<p>Kujalulu: Thanks for the advice. Financial aid is a pretty important factor to take into account so how much money Yale ends up offering me will of course affect my decision. International fees at Cambridge are about 28,000 dollars if you add food, rooms, etc. However, I think the most amount of money I can aspire to receive from Yale will be approx. 25,000 dollars (which is quite a lot in any case). So, in the end, if you considered that a Cambridge course is 3 years long, I'd sort of have to pay the same amount of money for both. A little more for Yale actually.</p>
<p>About your personal statement, you can of course spend some lines discussing a world issue that attracted you while at school, or while reading the papers, or something of the sort. I'd always try to link whatever you say to your own experience though. It's isn't like you're a renowned academic and they don't expect you to behave like one discussing the current state of the world's economy. Perhaps a personal anecdote would be better? This was my introduction:</p>
<p>"I was once told by an upperclassman that philosophy is just like swimming: you don’t know what it is until you try it, and it is hard to describe to someone who has yet to experience it. Although I initially deemed this description poetic but ultimately unhelpful, three years after taking the plunge I must admit that it was surprisingly accurate. My IB philosophy class motivated me to see the world with a childlike wonder that afforded newness to the most basic questions, and even led me to examine my own beliefs. Despite studying numerous thinkers I have never been completely satisfied; every single answer seems to give birth to new questions! Far from feeling disenchanted, this lack of certainty has made me all the more keen to pursue philosophy at a university level."</p>
<p>Whatever you end up talking about, I suggest you try to link it to yourself. Good luck :)</p>
<p>wow the introduction is really really good! 0_0 I wish I could write one like that!</p>
<p>then it is a hard choice. but whichever u go is ultra-enviable. :)
probably u may think about whether you are going to continue to study at graduate/post graduate level. I don't know much about Cambridge, but I feel like Cambridge is more academic and people there automatically expect u to continue to study instead of finding a job after graduation etc. </p>
<p>Besides, I think Cambridge is stronger in natural sciences like physics and chemistry, ect. right? while Yale's departments of social sciences,etc. are world-renowned.</p>
<p>plus you plan to go to law school in the US right? Yale's law school is the most prestigious in the US and I guess u might get advantages if u study there at undergraduate level.</p>
<p>well all above is only personal opinion, not verified.</p>
<p>Pffff.... that was version number 15, Kujalulu. I'm not kidding either. Don't worry, though, inspiration will strike. And there's a book by UCAS about writing your personal statement which I found relatively useful. Check it out in the UK Amazon.</p>
<p>Cambridge is actually 4th in Arts & Humanities and 5th in Social Sciences, while Yale is 5th and 7th respectively. Of course these rankings are from the THES (Times Higher Education Supplement) which is British, so they might be a little biased. :P Oh well. I still have until May 1st to decide and I'm sure I'll be happy wherever I go. It's true what you say about Yale Law though. And Yale has a really cool major called EP&E (Ethics, Politics & Economics), modeled after Oxford's PPE, which looks very interesting.</p>
<p>luxastraea: thank u for the advice. but I found that there're two books publishing by UCAS talk about wrting personal statements. one called "Personal Statements--How to write a UCAS personal statement"(£14.99), with white cover; the other one called "How to Write a Winning UCAS Personal Statement" (£12.99). so which one is the one u used?
thank you again!:)</p>
<p>Um. I used the white one, I think. It has an eye on it, right?</p>
<p>yeah there IS a creepy eye//
okay, my UCAS coordinator just asked us to finish our personal statement within next 3 weeks. I really wish I could write a brilliant one>_< </p>
<p>Just now I met a graduate from my high school who went to Oxford last year. I asked him how was life there liked and he told me that his dorm was like two hundreds years old and he could hear everything from his neighbors. what's worse, the girl lived next to him brought men to the dorm every night..</p>
<p>well, a slight digression here.:)</p>
<p>quick question...
do international students have an advantage in applying to Oxbridge?</p>
<p>Yup, creepy eye, that's the one. It's quite useful to get you started and it has some examples of some good Personal Statements. The good thing about the PS is that it's pretty straight-forward, so 3 weeks is more than enough time to get it done. Just sit in front of your computer and try to answer the questions "What makes you a brilliant candidate for X course?" and "What makes X a brilliant course for you?". Sell yourself in the best way possible.</p>
<p>Poor guy. That's definitely a point worth considering in my PRO-CONS list. It might be cool to live in a medieval castle, but that also means accepting the fact that it's hard to have modern accommodations in such a place. When I stayed at my college in Cambridge the night before my interview I heard the strangest sounds all night long. It sounded like someone was moving furniture or something in the floor above mine, or something. When I asked around in the Common Room the next day a guy was like "oh, yeah, I live there too. I hear it all the time. Must be a ghost or something. Next time take a sleeping pill" then went back to his Evelyn Waugh book. I was like "Oookay." So yeah. Bad acoustics. Really bad acoustics.</p>
<p>joazn: Not officialy, but I've been told that they do. Slightly. In a "this Pakistani chick is much more exotic than this London boy" kinda way. Nothing that could make or break your application, though.</p>
<p>luxastraea: thanks! o and congratulations on getting an offer from both cambridge and yale! (i just read the thread backwards lol) that's VERY impressive!! especially from a yale and oxford hopeful perspective... can i ask you for your stats?? like the kinds of tests and stuff you did?? i'm extremely curious...and btw 38 IB points is excellent!</p>
<p>Thank you, joazn! I'm incredibly happy, of course, although a little shocked to be honest. I didn't think I'd get into both of them-- hoping for one acceptance seemed like a big enough dream! And yeah, those 38 points were hard to get, particularly because my school doesn't care much about the IB and my drama class didn't really abide by the curriculum. (It was a very "okay, kids, let's put up a play so that your parents can 'oooh' and 'aaah' at you for 45 minutes" kinda drama class). But the thing is that good or not 38 is still the bare minimum to apply to Oxbridge, and since I'd heard of people getting turned down with 43 points, I wasn't feeling very hopeful. I got in, though, so I guess that I'm the living example that it's not all grades. I think my interviews went very well (I actually thought they were fun!), so perhaps that was it. </p>
<p>Stats? Er... well, I got 38 IB pts; 766 at HL, 6 in all my other classes but Theater Arts, a 4 in Theater Arts, and 3 TOK/EE points. I also got 2210 SAT I (790W, 780CR, 640M--not a big fan of math). SAT IIs: 770 Bio, 710 Lit, 800 Spanish--native speaker, so not that impressive. GPA: 4.0, unweighted. Rank: 1/132. I also had good ECs, excellent rec letters and strong essays. And I took a gap year to work and travel.</p>
<p>I think that the bottom line is that all the pieces of your application should cooperate with each other in order to show yourself as an interesting person: one that the admissions officials will feel like will truly add to their student body. If you want a lousy metaphor to go with that, you are the gift (and you can't lie about that) but it is in your hands to present yourself in the best way possible. Great essays, rec letters, interviews, and extracurriculars can do just that.</p>
<p>However, it would be smart to keep in mind that the UK system doesn't put that much value to the latter unless (and this is a pretty big unless) the activity somehow relates to your course. For instance, I applied for Philosophy and was sure to write a line about my involvement with my school's Debate Society in my PS.</p>
<p>Hope that helps. Good luck!</p>
<p>Hey, i got this really quick question for all of you out there. When applying to LSE or Oxford, which is given more emphasis, the school you come from or the results that you produce because i heard that some schools place quite a big emphasis on the school that you come from too</p>