PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) (Politics, Philosophy and Economics At Oxford University)

Member Name: oxjdc

Product:	Politics, Philosophy and Economics At Oxford University
Date:	15/08/00 (3751 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting, Comprehensible

Disadvantages: No obvious career path

OK, I'm biased - I started out at this place doing Law, which I didn't like. They sell it as being quite an open degree, and actually it's really blackletter, lots of learning hard facts, and a huge chunk of compulsory stuff.

Fortunately I managed to change to PPE, and even more fortunately, joining the second year meant that I could bypass Economics completely (you have to do all three in the first year, but then you can ditch one of the three if you want) which was a joy.

Here the course is far more flexible. There are "core" subjects, but even within those there is a choice. In Philosophy you'll be expected to do at least two out of History of Philosophy, Ethics and Logic. There are eight finals papers, one of which can be replaced by a thesis of 10-15000 words.

University rumour has it that PPE is a degree for idle people. That isn't true, but what is true is that (especially in politics and philosophy) natural talent will shine through, even if the amount of work done on it is limited.

The established "best" colleges for PPE are supposedly Balliol, St. John's, Merton etc, but actually you can do the course at pretty much every college, and it's quite likely that you'll be sent to another college for lots of your tutorials anyway.

To flag up opportunities for those with an interest in a particular area of PPE - there are many other Philosophy joint schools - with Maths, Physics, a Modern Language, etc, and two newer courses - Economics and Management, and Politics and History. These might interest you too, but they're smaller intakes (with, of course, fewer applicants, so it all evens out).

PPE graduates end up in a variety of jobs, with management consultancy and the civil service being standard targets, as well as a great many moving on to the law conversion course (but not me!).

jdcxxx

Summary: