Oxbridge interviews

People preparing for university interviews may find this article (by a Cambridge interviewer) of interest.

Famous History Graduates: Ashley John-Baptiste

It has been revealed that recent X-Factor contestant Ashley John-Baptiste recently completed a History degree. You can read more about his impressive story here. Born in South London, he was taken into care at the age of 4 and found it difficult to settle into school. Eventually, however, after being given a "final chance" by his head teacher when on the verge of exclusion from secondary, he focused on his work and, with the support of his MP, got a place at Cambridge (Fitzwilliam College) to study History where he got a 2:1. Are there any others in the music industry with similar qualifications?

Essay competition

Thinking of going to Oxford or Cambridge to study History or Politics? This essay competition might be for you. Trinity College is holding two competitions, one for History and for Politics and International Studies. For both competitions, you need to write an essay of between 2,000 and 4,000 words from a list of essay questions. The questions themselves are good to practise for possible interviews for any university. The deadline for the History one is 10 May and for the Politics, it is the 31 May. The prize is £600 to be split equally between yourself and the school and of course fantastic for your personal statement! So, nothing to lose - get writing!

David Starkey on MP3

Here is a podcast of David Starkey speaking on the events of 1605 (The Gunpowder Plot) for Cambridge University. It would appear that both Oxford and Cambridge have been busy creating mp3s from some of their most eminent academics, so if you spot any other good ones, please let us know.

PS: Here's a list of interesting historical podcasts, including this one on codebreaking by the official historian of MI5