What does it take to be admitted to a French university?

What does it take for an international applicant to be admitted to read philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University?

• Answer:

  From my experience - I have met a lot of PPE students - you need to have three characteristics to stand a chance of getting in (this goes for both domestic and international students): 1. You have to be analytical. Other words for this quality include reasoning ability, rationality, flexibility, ability to critically assess arguments etc. You should be able to break arguments down into their pieces (premises, conclusion) and point to exactly why arguments are flawed; you should be able to come up with intelligent approaches to very complicated questions ("Is morality subjective?"; "Does probability exist in the objective world?") on the fly; you should show the ability to understand challenges to your arguments and, if proven wrong, the ability to shift your position quickly. Anecdotal evidence suggests that PPE tutors like to get you to make an argument & then challenge you. Since the tutors are likely smarter than you and certainly more experienced than you, you can often get torn apart. This is a good thing (they wouldn't do it if they thought you coulnd't handle it). The wrong response would be to get defensive, or simply to assert your position again without acknowledging the objection. The right approach would be to acknowledge the challenge, state a reason for accepting/rejecting it, and in case you do end up accepting the challenge, draw out the implications of your revised point of view. To give you an idea, in my interviews I was asked (among many other questions): If you were put in charge of the UN tomorrow, what would be the main challenge you would want to tackle? Why? Why is morality about more than just taste? Could I possibly convince an egoist to be moral through logic? If not, why not? Democracies tend to go to war with each other far less often than other types of countries. Give us 3 explanations as to why this might be true. This improves greatly with practice (I was much better at it after graduation, because PPE is 3 years of arguing intensely about everything under the sun, both with your hyper-intelligent tutors and your hyper-intelligent peers.) 2. You have to communicate well. This extends to both reading and writing. Read up on the Pyramid Principle, the basics of essay writing (which you are hopefully already a master at), and the basics of debating. Ideally practice debating if your school offers it. You need to get practiced & fluent at debating serious issues with rational, intelligent people. Find someone smart and talk to them about issues. Argue a position and then get them to challenge you on it. Get honest feedback. Even consider videoing yourself and note any tics you have, whether you tend to ramble too much, and so on. Ideally you are concise and speak at the right level of detail. Again, this comes with practice. Writing well is equally important. Check out Orwell's 'Politics and the English Language' and read a lot to get a sense of what good writing is. I should add that you don't need to be a super-polished speaker in your interview in order to get in; they prefer smart people who aren't great communicators to the inverse. It's an academic institution, not a consulting firm. Still, getting better at this will not hurt your chances. 3. You have to demonstrate previous academic achievement. This boils down to getting good grades at school and showing your intelligence in the personal statement (e.g. through impressive achievements or evidence of reading, general smarts etc.) PPE is an extremely demanding course, so they want to make sure you have the intellectual horsepower to make it through. If you're analytical, write/speak well, and have a good academic record, you stand a chance of getting in. If you don't, remember that admissions processes are flawed at best, and that not getting in says very little about how good you are. There's a great Paul Graham essay on that, (http://paulgraham.com/judgement.html) which you should go read now. Good luck!