This weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday morning in Oxford taking part in the Academic Program and Oxbridge Admissions Information Morning as a result of being shortlisted for the John Locke Institute Essay Competition. I wrote an essay in response to the theological question: ‘What was God doing before he created the cosmos?’.
Saturday was focused on the questions themselves – in each topic (theology, philosophy etc) there were three to choose from – as well as writing good essays. The day started in the St Cross Building with a lecture from Dr Jamie Whyte, who is the Chairman of Examiners for the John Locke Institute, who spoke on how to write an award winning essay.
This is rather ironic as everyone in the room was there because their essay was good enough to be shortlisted but some people there also must have won awards (for each topic there was a first, second and third prize with there also being an overall competition winner). In my opinion, this was the best part of the day as not only did Dr Whyte talk engagingly and punctuated his advice with jokes, but he also delivered some really helpful and encouraging advice on essay writing. The main takeaway for me was to practise, practise, practise and then ask other people for their opinions. He also reminded us that the best way to know how to write well is to read good writing.
After this we had a philosophy focused lecture by Prof. Peter Millican who spoke on Hume on Miracles. This lecture was also really informative and has inspired me to do some of my own research on Hume (a philosopher) to better understand what he was talking about.
All of the theology entrants then walked to St Anne’s college where we ate lunch and then went to the Examinations School for our afternoon activity. We stayed in our theology group and spent over 2 hours having a seminar on the three questions we could have written our essays on. Two other girls presented a short recap of what they wrote about in their essay (If you cannot persuade your intelligent, sympathetic friends to embrace your religious belief system, do you have enough reason to believe what you believe?), afterwards the rest of the group was able to respond with questions or their own ideas. What I specifically enjoyed about this part of the day was that there was a good balance between Dr Nicholas Waghorn, who was ‘mediating’ it, speaking about philosophers and linking what people said with us replying directly to one another or bouncing of their ideas.
The conversation was not limited to directly around the questions but was able to extend to definitions of time, debating what a ‘concept’ was and the limitations of language when it came to discussing God, to name just a few. The conversation was not limited either to the room we were in, in fact when queuing to go to the toilet at the end I ended up having a conversation with two other girls about some of the ideas discussed but also learning more about what they think. I left the first day feeling really intellectually fulfilled but also knowing that in the future I will love the university environment of lectures and seminars from the taster I got.
On Sunday I returned to St Hilda’s College for an hour session on Oxbridge admissions, this was more of a question and answer session but I really appreciated the advice I was given. Especially as one of the people there was taking History and Politics at Oxford and I myself am considering History as an option for university. I was also lucky enough to be able to interact with many other people throughout both days, who were from around the world and had come for the event so there was a really diverse group of young people all sharing their ideas that made for an incredible atmosphere throughout. Overall, taking part has encouraged me to write more and try to engage with other essay competitions like this. It has also shown me a slice of what university could be like and given me the opportunity to have discussions that I might not get to have in school.
Jemimah, Upper V