Your son is applying for english lit at a top tier univerity (cambridge / oxford) in two years time...

Your son is applying for english lit at a top tier univerity (cambridge / oxford) in two years time. What do you force him to read so that he doesn't completely sperg out at the interview stage

Homer
Ovid
Dante
Shakespeare
H.D.

I slap him upside the head and tell him to do something useful like become a butcher instead.

They need to read criticism of the books they read as well as just the books. If they have the interest enough to consider applying they should have read enough literature "naturally".

DSM-V

Kek

So you're sixteen?

If you want to go to a Oxbridge you need to prove you're a stellar individual and that means doing as many extracurricular things as possible. Duke of Edinburgh etc is basic, you want other things to flesh you out too. Demonstrating an interest in literature is obviously a requirement, but it is not sufficient. I guarantee 80% of the applicants for that course will have read a selection of respectable books, and that is not going to get you into that university.

They want intelligent individuals, and not the kind of people who are 'smart but lazy'. There has to be some kind of demonstrable will to engage with the world around you.

This is true for most UK universities and Ivies, but with Oxbridge the extracurricular stuff must be focused AROUND the subject you want to study (unless if it's rowing). For most humanities, this means reading a lot of books that are outside what you would normally study at school. Pre-tests and good school-adjusted GSCEs get you to the interview, then at the interview the reading/extra work surrounding your subject will give you something to talk about and allow you to direct the conversation onto safe territory.

t. current history student

t. current history student

And the Bible, ofc. All in the original languages

Are you a conjoined twin?

lmao

Plato
Homer
Bible
Dante
Chaucer
Shakespeare
Milton
Blake
Shelley
Wordsworth
Poe
Learn German and/or French

Have fun

I literally can't express how much better my life has been since I attended Oxford. I went to a state school and gradually became the stereotypical moody, withdrawn sensitive type who both despises the quality of his immediate culture and feels a weird pride for having been raised in a sort of anti-intellectual and brutal environment. I was all set to take my Russell Group humanities BA and spend my life working as an anonymous, insecure wageslave forever thankful of being offered a job and forever too insecure to pursue my creative ambitions. The chip on my shoulder had become something of a wedge, and I felt too out of place regardless of my environment, too resentful and bitter to even attempt to make it in the artistic world. Then I finally applied for Oxford and got in to study an English MA, with reassurance that should I work hard enough a career in academia or within one of Oxford's affiliated companies would be almost guaranteed. I turned up as apprehensive as usual, and the first few days were spent regretting my decision and desperately feigning a cultured personality. But then I realized that the people there were just interesting and that the snobbery and exclusivity I had anticipated was just a myth borne out of my working class upbringing. I've since graduated, having spend the year dining in grand halls with groups of interesting people, dating several girls (one of whom, a petite Russian whose family traces back to the aristocracy, is now my fiancee). I work four days a week at a publishing company and earn £38k a year. I regularly meet up with friends from my college and visit Oxford for nights out and for meetings with my professors. The Martin Eden-esque novel I have been writing for two years has been selected for publication at a major British publishing house and, honestly, I could not have imagined a few years ago how great life could be. I come on Veeky Forums and see how pathetic you all are and just shake my head and chuckle. If I saw you guys on the street I would of course throw you a penny or discuss Bukowski or whatever "realist" writers you enjoy, but ultimately I would be able to tell within ten seconds if you're an Oxbridge grad and would dismiss you as a potential source of good company if you are not. I never thought I'd know what it was like to be objectively better than somebody else, for the value of my existence to be superior to the value of a stranger's, but now I do and I've never been happier. People are awed by power and prestige. All I need to do is mention the university I attended (if only for a year) and they immediately begin to hunch and look at their feet because they know they are in the presence of greatness.

had a light kek

is this copy pasta or are you trying to become a meme?

lurk moar faggot

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to attend Oxford. The education is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of Eleatic philosophy most of the stuff will go over a typical student’s head. There’s also Oxonian’s elitist outlook, which is deftly woven into their characterisation- their personal philosophy draws heavily from self-help literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of the lectures, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Oxford truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Oxford’s existential catchphrase “Dominus illuminatio meo,” which itself is a cryptic reference to God’s Aramaic epic The Bible. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Henry III’s genius joke unfolds itself on their academic ranking lists. What fools.. how I pity them.

And yes, by the way, i DO have an Oxonian Coat of Arms tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the fellow undergrads’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 credits of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid

take my upvote and get out. You mothersu**er

tfw despite the pasta i wish this was true just to know that at least someone could take control of their life this hard so maybe i could too

>Your son is applying for english lit
I'd disown him sooner.

lel