Human Sciences at Oxford

[lazymumofteenagesons]

Does anyone have any knowledge/experience of this course. DS(1) is thinking about it. The mixture of Biology/Social sciences seems to suit him.

Has he looked at The Student Room?

oooh one of my friends did this, she really enjoyed it- she went on to do postgrad work to do with immigration/demographic.s

Several of my close friends did it. They loved it. It might have changed since then but it was a great combination of genetics, biology, geography and anthropology.

It was a highly selective course (even by Oxford standards) and had very driven students.

One friend doing it went on to do medicine and is now a psychiatrist, another became an academic anthropologist.

Is it also related to Human Ecology?

I did that to B.SC.Hons (At an Ex Poly, not Oxford )and I loved it to bits. I regret not taking it further and would love to return to it at a post grad level

Thanks for all your replies. I'll tell him about The Student Room. I thought all Oxford courses had very driven students! If it is more selective than others he might have to rethink or he could choose a less popular college.

It would definitely have been the subject I'd have studied had I not been a medic - I found the mixture fascinating and was always quite envious of the breadth of study the human scientists had.

lazy - as a very general statement from my experience at Oxford - the science courses were all harder work than the non-science courses, because the science courses tended to have a lot of schedule regular lab/practical work - whereas non-science courses tended to have more flexibility with working hours (and more skiving possibilities!)

lazymumofteenagesons - do you/does he have any specific questions? DH would be able to give you some up to date and accurate answers. In general I'd agree with the other posters - it's a very interesting course that attracts excellent and highly motivated students.

Catz - I will ask him, he is not up yet! Doesn't bode well for the future does it, although he normally has school on saturday and there is none today. He was at first thinking of PPP but wasn't sure whether the Physiology would be too sciency for him. He is doing Maths, Biology, History and RS and has become quite passionate about Biology, but believes that Biology degrees require chemistry A level. Anyhow, this is all second hand through me, I will get him up now as lunch is nearly ready!

I read PPP. You don't have to do the physiology, I did mostly psychology and philosophy. With neurophysiology in the first year (only because my mad tutor thought it was more relevant to studying psychology than doing the psychology module itself).

Human sciences, when I was there, was a small intense course, the students worked harder than the relatively laid back PPP/psychologists. Who did work hard, but not to the obsessive lengths of the human scientists. Of course, my experience was mainly of just one year.

You didn't do lab work in Human sciences, back then. That might have changed.

Catz, sorry it has taken me so long to return. He would like to know the split between the biological aspect and the social science. Can you veer more in the direction of one after the first year?
I see that st. catz takes about 6 students a year and the other colleges from about 2-4. Obviously this means more apply to St. Catz so would your chances of a place increase at another college?
Do his maths and biology a levels combined with 2 humanities subjects give him an advantage of do all applicants tend to have this mixture?
I don't really know if he is oxbridge material although he doesn't seem to have many doubts!

At the moment he is looking at trying to get some work experience in the Experimental Psychology dept at Oxford. If he pulls it off I would like to assume this will help.

Catz - where are you?

Friend of mine did it, loved it.
However, she would have liked to have become a teacher and couldn't because it was neither one thing nor another.
She's now working in public health though and loves that!

hi there, i studied human sciences at oxford, graduated about 8 years ago, but would be pleased to answer questions & tell you the pros/cons of the course - let me know if you are still out there & looking for answers!

porcupine- I'm still here and DS1 still interested, although I don't think he's doing enough work or extra reading for achieving this. I still have the same questions as I asked further down thread. What did you do after the degree? Did you find a course with only 40 students a bit restrictive socially. I know it was many years ago, but can you remember anything about the interview? What college were you at?

Thanks for all the info porcupine. I will pass it all on to DS1. It makes a huge difference getting it from 'the horses mouth'.