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Human Sciences is a strange subject, if it can be called that at
all. It is really a collection of everything that is interesting
about people. The mixture of social and biological sciences means
that you can be pulled in many directions at once, but the work-load is
manageable. If you like breadth as well as depth, and feel that
you can synthesise and fit together all the different subjects in your
mind, then this may be the course for you.
The teaching of the course is spread over many departments, meaning
that there is a lot of walking (or, if you prefer, as many do, but not
me, cycling) around the town, going from college to the Pauling Human
Sciences, to the Zoology Department, and many places in between.
A normal week contains around fourteen lectures, normally 50 minutes
long, and two tutorials. The tutorial, unique to Oxbridge, is an
in-depth look into one area of study. Not one to one teaching,
exactly, but two or three to one isn’t bad. There are no ‘Human
Science Tutors;’ each is an expert in his or her own field. This
gives an opportunity for you to bring in information from outside the
subject area in question and means that you are sampling parts from
many degrees.
For each tutorial you will need to have an essay written, the content
of which will normally be a departure point for the rest of the
discussion. The essays can be daunting to begin with, but they
don’t expect them to be degree standard when you get here, and you get
used to all the reading and writing. Lectures are more compulsory
than for some arts courses, but they really do help get you into the
subjects, most of which you are unlikely to have looked at before at
school. There are also a few practical classes, in the first year
mainly concerned with counting flies, but you are not required to do
any dissections or anything fun like that.
In college, the course is run by a group of very nice tutors.
They are very helpful and not scary at all. These are who will
interview you if you decide to apply. You will be required to be
in Oxford for about three days for admissions. There is only one
interview at Magdalen, with two or three tutors, and no test. You
may be required to have a second or third interview at other
colleges. The interview is not something you can really revise
for, as the questions they ask need you to think on the spot.
They may involve issues in the news, or ethical dilemmas, but they are
very nice and try to put you at your ease.
In the first year you study Genetics, Evolution, Biology, Ecology,
Anthropology, Sociology, Social Geography, Demography and
Statistics. There are no compulsory A-level subjects for this
course, but if you haven’t done Biology or Maths, then you must be
ready to learn a lot, especially for the biological side of
things. No-one has studied all areas before, so don’t be daunted
if you know nothing about some of the subjects. In the second and
third years there are a core of compulsory subjects and a list of
optional ones, so you can tailor the course around your interests
somewhat. There’s also a long essay, which can be on any subject
you choose.
If you want to save the world, Human Sciences is the thing for you, as
it puts you in the unique position of being able to understand both the
scientific and social aspects of important issues. It hasn’t yet
given me laser vision or a spider-sense, which would help even more,
but I’m hoping that if I hang around the Zoology Department long
enough, I will be zapped with gamma rays or bitten by a genetically
engineered Drosophila melanogaster, and my dreams of world domination
will come true.
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