Any Philosophy teachers who can help with university applications?

[BecauseImWorthIt]

DS1 is in Year 12. He's planning on applying to do Philosophy at university - probably as a joint degree, but not decided yet if this will be with History or English Lit.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Any particular universities that you would recommend? (He is likely to achieve an A or B for Philosophy, but Bs for his other subjects, so Oxford/Cambridge et al probably not a good idea)

2. Any recommendations for books he should read/magazines he should subscribe to or any other activities he should consider, for building up his learning/experience, for his Personal Statement?

TIA

I'm not a Philosophy teacher, but my dn is just about to go to Bristol to study philosophy and everyone is very pleased about it. His second choice was Portsmouth, in case that's helpful

I don't know that he did anything special on the side, but he has done a lot of theatre work, which I am sure looked excellent on his applications.

I applied to to Philosophy and Politics at Cambridge many many moons ago, but ended up doing International Politics at Aberystwyth after a change of heart (and bad results!) during my year out. It's always good to keep your options open for as long as possible IME.

Philosophy is fantastic, but I would encourage him to have a long term career plan as philosophy is one of those degrees that is 'relevant' to all jobs but not really that useful. Law is a good way to go afterwards as philosophy teaches you to argue well. Lots of barristers I know studied philosophy.

'Long term career plan'

Cue sounds of hollow laughter from BIWI.

He doesn't even know what he wants to do at the weekend, never mind a career!

• tell him to think about it as those three years roll by very quickly! If he is full of himself (in a good way), good at arguing, has an excellent memory and always right then he'd make a fine barrister.

But that would also involve speaking. DS1 is a man of few words ...

I didn't decide on a career until long after university, and even then it was a bit of an accident, and I am sure I am not alone. But then I come from a very academic background. My parents told me to pick a subject that I really enjoyed as I was more likely to do well at it. dh decided in about yr 12 that he wanted to be a history teacher. He took the degree and the PGCE and then within a year of teaching decided it wasn't for him and retrained as a computer programmer. My ds decided on a career as an architect during clearning. I think we do our children a disservice to try and push them into career choices before they have grown up. Now if they have a burning yen to do something in later life finding out what that requires and making sure you do it at the right time is of course very important. But for most teenagers getting them to think beyond the next year or so is tricky (and not necessarily that useful).

I felt very sorry for my contemporaries at university studying such boring things as accounting and business studies. Some things are much better learnt on the job IMO.

Yes, I tend to agree nooka!

DS has chosen philosophy because he enjoys it, which I think is most important.

I totally agree too. I did philosophy because I loved it and he will thoroughly enjoy it. I am definitely in favour of doing something you enjoy but I just think you encourage him to think about where to take it afterwards, not now, but at some point before he graduates. Sorry if I didn't come across well, I certainly wasn't suggesting that he doesn't study philosophy. I am glad I chose to do philosophy, I just wish I'd thought about how to use it before it was too late for me!

Hi there - I intially started a BA in English and Philosophy joint before changing to straight English (I loved philosophy, but my marks were so much better in English it was clearly going to make a difference to my degree classification). Without knowing what areas of philosophy your son's interested in, and what areas the prospective university specialize in it's difficult to advise on books. I'd definitely say Plato, as I believe that's covered by most institutions. I found Peter Singer's work really interesting, as it focuses more on Ethical Philosophy, which is easier to feel engaged with. Personally I would find Hume and Kant a bit overwhelming, unless he's already familiar with them.

Can you have a look at module options at the universities he'd like to apply to, and see if they publish their reading lists? If he can borrow some from a local library they might give him a chance to see what areas he's really interested in, and that could help him in picking his UCAS choices. It's amazing how much similar sounding courses vary depending on the specialities of the tutors in that institution.

There are Philosophy magazines out there aimed at undergrads/ sixth formers, but it's been so long I genuinely can't remember their names. Your son's teacher should be able to though, and if enough people are taking the subject at A Level it may be worth seeing if the school can get a discounted subscription for the library.

Hope this helps.

Philosophy is amongst the most esoteric degrees I guess, but my experience is that very few people actually use their degree in a direct way, except for those doing very vocational things like medicine. What I found, coming out of my studies at a very bad time for employment was that it was what I had done alongside my degree (not enough!) that potential graduate employers were interested in, not the degree itself.

I don't regret for example specializing in the Middle East at university (and Zorayda you are quite right, courses which look on the surface very similar can be very disparate depending on who is lecturing there and what their interest are - great idea about the reading lists I think) even though as I am a very poor linguist I couldn't take the studying any further (being a woman didn't help either!). It was fascinating and really stretching, and the fact that I probably couldn't have learned the variety of topics that I did pretty much anywhere also in the UK that mattered to me.

I guess what you should ask yourself is whether looking back you would have done something else? I just think that unless you have an early vocation, specialist stuff is better left until after you start work (when ideally your employer pays too )