Frislander wrote:Now, I haven't been talking about this, but over the last through months I have been going through the process most of us Year 13s are going through of doing applications for university. I'm hoping to study linguistics, and I applied to (in ascending order of preference) Lancaster, Newcastle, Leeds, York and Cambridge (Selwyn College). The first four have been relatively simple, and I have had offers back from 3 of them (Lancaster, Leeds and York). Cambridge, on the other hand, has been a bit more complicated, with several more forms to fill in before even getting invited for an interview if you're lucky, and that's not even considering that the deadline for Oxbridge applications is several months behind those to other universities.
It was well worth it though because today I received an email from the Admissions Officer of Selwyn College inviting me to be interviewed on the 6th of December (I already knew the date - Selwyn is organised enough that they send you a PDF document giving the dates for all of the subject interviews (different subjects get different days)). With any luck, then, I should hopefully in a few months time get an offer back from the college, and then, if I get the right grades, I'll be heading for Cambridge!
Congrats!
[don't get your hopes up too much, just in case, though. It's not the end of the world if you don't get in; York has a pretty good reputation. I actually applied there myself, and I don't think they accepted me. I was aiming for PPE, which York used to call PEP for some reason, but they also had a thing where you could have basically a 'minor' as well, and I was looking at linguistics for that. Anyway, I'm not saying you won't get it - frankly you seem to me to be someone who certainly should* - but just saying some people let themselves make assumptions too early and that leads to distress when things don't work out.]
Do Cambridge do a straight linguistics course? I seem to remember one of the reasons I didn't apply there was that many of their courses were sort of weird - apply for X, and they let you do Y later on, sort of thing - due to the tripos structure. But I don't remember the details.
Any particular reason why you chose
the wrong university Cambridge? It is the prettiest, I'll grant you. And any particular reason why Selwyn? Prefer modern(ish, Victorian) architecture?
*I have a theory it's actually easier to be accepted by Oxbridge. I had OK school reports but not brilliant (though I ended up fairly OK, AAAB(plus B for a fifth AS I got roped into accidentally), and most universities I applied to actually turned me down; but the Oxford interview system means that the selectors are able to get an idea of the applicant beyond their grades, so they're less reliant on grades alone.
Anyway, the key with Oxbridge interviews is mainly to be confidant, but not too confidant: stick to your guns, but recognise when you're wrong. I think the two main groups they try to weed out are a) really cocky people who are annoying to try to teach, and b) people who aren't really knowledgeable or talented but have just been coached into good results by rote. Try to have fun - if you look like you'll enjoy being there, it suggests you ought to be. Of course, it was easier for me, I suspect - PPE, so two of the subjects are very waffly, leading to free-flowing arguments/interviews where being good at arguing was all that was needed. The economics interview, on the other hand, was much less pleasant - looking at graphs and analysing them, with no real feedback as to whether what I said was any good or not, or how much you were meant to be able to get out of them (especially as I hadn't done any economics at school).
[Actually, my interviews were over two days, and as well as the three interviews there was also a written logical thinking exam. Again, I think PPE is advantageous like that - you get three chances to impress rather than one (although the flip side is that each interview was with one person, whereas some single-subject courses had interviews with two or three interviewers - which makes the flow more awkward, but does help stop it going disasterously, I suspect]
To be honest, though, if you're on this board, I would think that already demonstrates enough interest, knowledge, aptitude and attitude to merit a place on any linguistic course. You'll probably find you know half the stuff already...
I know people have probably said all these things to you already, but... *shrugs*
Anyway, good luck with the interview!
[yes, it's more complicated, but it's also a way more exciting process - picking a college, extra forms, waiting for the interview offer, interviews, waiting for the offer... and if you're unlucky, missing your first college and having to wait in 'the pool', which I'm told is nervewracking in the extreme... I was lucky, in that my school was enthusiastic about sending people to oxbridge, so the burden of administration felt much less. We had explaining-the-process meetings for everyone interested, mock interviews (not many, but one can be a big difference in how comfortable you are with the format), the school checked up on whether we'd filled the forms out. It makes a huge difference, I think - my year ended up sending about a dozen people to oxbridge, whereas I knew people there who were the only person who had even applied from their school that year - and not necessarily because the school had worse grades, but just as a cultural thing. Some schools apparently actively discourage people from applying because they "won't fit in" (which is nonsense; everyone can fit in, there more than in most universities I think). ]
