ASNaC at Cambridge

[Whitlandcarm]

My son is interested in applying for this course, grades permitting of course !

Would anyone have any advice on a College for this subject?

Have any of your dc studied it/applied for it?

He's currently working hard on his a levels, but when rejected from the other place, he was told his GCSEs were "good".

The most important thing is to apply to a college which has an inhouse Asnac director of studies, ideally whose interests are similar to your son's, as far as he's developed particular interests yet (eg is he particularly attracted to the Celtic side, or fascinated by early medieval history, or perhaps comparative linguistics?).

As it's such a small subject I'd suggest your son visits Cambridge and meets a couple of directors of studies in person. Good luck to him!

In terms of teaching groups it will not much matter which college he chooses. The subject is so small he will certainly be taught by people outside his college (this is even true of most larger subjects). He might look at which ASNAC people are at which colleges - you can look at the 'people' list on the faculty website, and it should show where each person's college is.

ASNAC is based in the English Faculty building on the Sidgewick site, so he might also want to think about getting there and the practicalities. Nowhere in Cambridge is exactly far away, but Girton (for example) will mean a longer journey.

ASNAC is really close-knit. I second what irene says about getting in touch and seeing how he gets on with them.

I didn't study ASNAC, but I considered applying for it, and I'm a medievalist so there's a lot of overlap. I love what I do and think that degree course sounds amazing.

"The most important thing is to apply to a college which has an inhouse Asnac director of studies..." It may be good advice but you don't have to. It's such a small course I'll remain general to avoiding outing anyone, but a DC applied to a small college with no DoS in-house, and was one of 2 Asnac students accepted that year. Of course they might have been very lucky and beaten the odds, I have no idea. I think college/subject acceptance stats might be available online? Someone will know

Doing Asnac is considered very cool - good luck.

Choose a college based on location Imo but check where the first years actually live.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. It's very possible to get an Asnac place at a college where there is no inhouse director of studies, one would just work under the DoS from another college. My personal view (from experience - not in Asnac, but I had several friends who did study that) is that it's better to have a DoS at one's own college, as the relationship tends to be closer and the DoS will understand the college context better. But as I say it's just my view. Of course there are many other factors influencing college choice.

Though, a (non-ASNAC) DoS might move around, anyway. I'm DoS next year for a college I've never worked or studied at. I know the students, as it happens, but will be a newcomer to the college context. It happens. It's the same with applying to a college hoping a certain person who seems to have exciting thoughts will teach you. They might, but they might be off to UCL or Leeds or on sabbatical next year. Not that it's a bad idea to consider these things, but they need to be weighed up with a counterbalancing thought about whether or not you'd still be happy with the course and college if it were slightly different people doing the teaching.

Sorry, too little coffee for me this morning. All DoSs might move around; but I'm not speaking as an ASNAC DoS. I got my brackets in the wrong place!

Which A levels is he taking? I had 3 years of torture and still yearn to have taken a different degree. My poor choice - others on my course loved it. It's really not for everyone.

Sorry. Just saw this is old