I'm a year 12 student, so over the summer I'm studying and catching up on a reading list. I've been looking at my options. I wanted to apply for Computer science a long time ago but whenever I go I feel out of place: it'db just that I'm not that excited about new technologies all that much, and all the people seem so nerdy. My original appeal was programming and the logical aspect, I fell in love with topics such as machine learning. So when I went, keeping in mind my math grades were dropping, I went to my best subject department on an open day. I have always loved and am great at languages, so I thought with my passion for languages and interest in logic I could do linguistics. Problem is in England all education is based off reputation. I feel linguistics is so niche it's only worht doing at Cambridge. Do yoy guys reckon I can make it?
Genuinely: How hard is it to get admitted to Cambridge?
Sorry for misspellings, typing fast on phone. Just to clarify I was talking of open days.
Oxford here. There is fuck all difference to OxBridge courses apart from that the terms are shorter so you get the illusion of cramming more in. You can always catch up in the holidays anyway. As for applicants, they are as mediocre as everywhere else, there truly is nothign special about the batchelors degree. Also note both seats of learning are essentially rent rackets, you'll be paying more than London.
You should definitely choose a course with a Year In Industry whatever you choose to study. Don't not do this.
How did you get the money for rent? Was it loan, parents or job? I don't think that Linguistics has a year in the industry. I'm just really interested in specialising in Comp Ling. What are you studying yourself? Undergrad? Do you regret going to Oxford?
Loan and lying that I wasn't a student to get an off-hours job. Then with a year in industry I got three decent references which massively helped actually get a real job afterwards. I don't regret going to Oxford, it's nothing magical though, which is disappointing, and potential employers don't even notice, frankly. I should probably have gone to Warwick, really, but you get sold OxBridge like it's going to alter your whole life.
Look around. I'm sure you'll find Ling with YII courses. You can even get History with YII these days, god knows where they are placed, but there you go.
They are pretty cities, and when it snows it's like something out of a picture book. But it doesn't snow enough to justify the huge additional "tax" for going to either. Oh, and the amateur dramatics is ace at both, but that's not even a pathway into the BBC any more.
Do you actually know programming at all? Have you tried to code at all in your spare time? What do you mean that you fell in love with topics like machine learning? Machine learning is one of the more difficult topics in computer science that requires very advance concepts to understand.
Programming and languages (linguistics) have no relation whatsoever. Math is very important for computer science though.
Underrage
MODS
>Also note both seats of learning are essentially rent rackets, you'll be paying more than London
this isn't right, I paid just under £3k for rent this year at Cambridge (27 weeks incl. kitchen fixed charge)
>Then with a year in industry
Do any Oxbridge courses have these? I was under the impression that the answer is no.
t. actual Cambridge student
I've read a book or two to get an Inpretion and have looked at some crash courses there came my idea, partly, for liking machine learning. It's also a quite satisfying and impressive field by the impression I've been given.
Sorry I just realised I also dodged your question. I have done some minor java and a bit more python. I've been struggling to do it as I haven't found a course that would structure learning all the syntax and the dictionary. The most recent programming was going to a Robotics competition with another peer from my class because of some bs reasons but I was practically forced.
What course do you do? Because job prospect wise I was under the impression, from the professors, that Linguistics was niche. They kept going back to large scale data analysis, said quite a few students get "grabbed" by London companies to analyse and write reports for them, although I'd like some ting more practical than just that. Although, Ling is meant to be broad so hopefully...
Are you going to/ did you specialise soon after Undergrad? By the way it seems it's practically a must.
I'm from the US and I applied to cambridge, mostly for fun. perfect test scores/grades for context.
I applied to Church, two guys gave me questions over videochat. They didn't ask me to actually program anything but you could see how they were very related to CS.
I don't remember too well but the first one was a mathy type problem about vectors. The second one was a more systems level question about "how would you design this kind of service, what kind of factors would you have to think about, what complications might arise?".
Didn't do too well on either, and got rejected. I wouldn't say you have to be an expert or even know any programming to apply, but you should be decent at math and problem solving
It's impossible unless you are a certified genius.
Set your sights lower, there's nothing wrong with going to a lower ranked uni
The things is I'm quite happy to do an Interview, I usually speak my thoughts out loud and am very social. Personally, it's harder for me to just get an interview and be seen as a hopeful candidate due to some grades. I do 4 A-levels of which half are modern languages and the other half are chemistry and maths, where the latter fell down a tad over year. I think I can bring my scores back on a re sit. Also, I'm not sure you guys understood that the undergrad of Ling is just a scientific approach on Ling. I'd need to independently learn the maths if and when I specialise.
I think it's healthy to be ambitious, it's not that I can't accept getting Lower. I just think linguistics is niche and wanted to know how competitive it is and how high the expectations are. Also I've been told that it's all about getting in, so I've been considering applying to modern and medieval languages so the interview and test will be good, this leading to entry then I could switch to linguistics once I'm there.
You mentioned rent costs and all, but what are the other things you need to pay off during your grad years ?
t.non anglosphere student
Is it that selective ? Not even normal people that scored very good at SAT/other tests could fathom getting there ?
I'm asking for myself since, because of actual psychic issues, I got to an C-D average on STEM fields during HS and I'm just now recovering and thinking about working my ass off to pursue my interest on sciences.
try out the entrance exam or whatever it is, if you dont make it in, thats too bad go to another uni.
>you need to be a genius to go to Cambridge
Tbh all you need is just be both a hard worker and a smart worker, at that point, even if you don’t go to Cambridge, you would make it to Imperial College. Intellect is not as big of a factor as you may think, had people in here who find it hard to grasp concepts at times and require more time to consult and ask for help like normal people.
I'm going into my third year at Cambridge at the moment.
I didn't get in the first time, had some bad anxiety and family pressure and an unlucky interviewer. I reapplied the next year after my year 13 results came in and got an offer.
You have to be very interested in your subject but also comfortable talking about it. Read academic papers to exhibit your interest beyond the curriculum and cite these papers in your personal statement. Make sure your personal statement is actually crafted towards YOUR areas of interest, and the areas your comfortable talking about in depth.
I'd also recommend looking at the interview process at different colleges and applying to a college with that in mind. My first time I applied to a college which only gave one interview - the second time I chose a college that had two interviews (since I'm not comfortable talking off the bat, two interviews allowed me to warm up as it were).
Anyway, good luck and it's not the end of the world if you get in or not. Once you get in, you haven't made it anyway and have to keep working hard.
The requirements are pretty high, generally, if you have to ask how hard it is to get admitted into Cambridge, it's probably too hard for you.
If you're not actually passionate about MML, then you won't get past the interview. Apply for the course you actually love to death - you'll get in.
If you got a C-D average you can forget about it.
Cambridge is not even as good as you think it is, most likely you will be doing tonnes more work, when you can go to a lesser but still stem/prestigious university and do less work and have a better time.
You need to be a diligent worker, and you're wrong about that. You do need to be smart, depending on your field there are some subjects where brute force simply won't cut it.
I've seen this myth perpetuated by so many people, yes intellect is a huge factor I'm sorry to say.
Sorry to derail the thread OP but is it possible to transfer to Cambridge?
You don't need to be a genius
My friend (we're from Cyprus) isn't a genius. He's not dumb obviously but first and foremost he's always been a hard worker and extremely ambitious.
He became the valedictorian with all A* and got into Cambridge
From the gist of it I need to keep reading what I've already started from the reading list I've got off my chosen course. Work my ass off to get the grades for them to tick that box. And show potential to do well in addition to not cracking under pressure to make sure they're confident in me.