It's gonna be multiple choice, right?

September 12, 2007 7:52 AM

Think you're smart? Apply for a Prize Fellowship at Oxford's All Souls College. [via adrianhon]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (24 comments total)

can i get some stuff without being smart? cause that would be better.
posted by facetious at 7:58 AM on September 12, 2007

What can we learn from Las Vegas?

Pfft. That's easy. "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."
posted by ericb at 8:01 AM on September 12, 2007

Write on any one of the following: games, food, body parts (English)

An essay on "fish in pants" can cover all three at one time.
posted by ericb at 8:03 AM on September 12, 2007

One of my friends applied for and won one of these Fellowships a few years ago after finishing his undergraduate degree at Oxford. I remember him saying that the ominously titled "An essay" under paragraph 9 was an essay question with a one-word title. I can't remember what it was, but something along the lines of "Money" or "War". The benefits were wonderful - a lovely set of rooms in a beautiful college with no students, so hence no teaching, just pure research in your subject area.

He also got to take part in the Mallard Society...
posted by greycap at 8:04 AM on September 12, 2007

Oddly one of my school friends also picked up one of the prize fellowships after he came top in history. He took 3 years I think, doing some work in Oxford and a lot of time in the States.
posted by roofus at 8:20 AM on September 12, 2007

Sounds insufferably snooty, but the times article was written in 1961 when intellectualism seemed to be much more en vogue. Snootyness an undesirable byproduct of intellectualism, and must be guarded against.
posted by delmoi at 8:21 AM on September 12, 2007

(er, Time article)
posted by delmoi at 8:21 AM on September 12, 2007

I like that you only have to get seven questions into the first part of the general paper before you find a typo.
posted by The Ultimate Olympian at 8:25 AM on September 12, 2007

20. What is the point of Poetry?
21. ....
22. What is the point of Poetry?


Are they automatically assuming that I might want to reconsider my first answer? I know, I probably do, but that seems a bit condescending.

Also: they didn't leave enough room between the questions to write the answers. I hate that.
posted by doctor_negative at 8:49 AM on September 12, 2007

body parts (English)

Some entries:

British Dentistry in Comparative Perspective
Why English Birds Are The Best: Their Magnificent Boobs
Englishmen May Be Big Dicks But Don't Have Them (Scottish entry)
Comparative Anatomy With Data From Page 3 Girls
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:20 AM on September 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

20. What is the point of Poetry?
21. ....
22. What is the point of Poetry?

Answers:

20. Collect underpants
21. ?
22. Profit
posted by katillathehun at 9:22 AM on September 12, 2007

I think the questions are pretty neat. I may actually take the general questions and write about them now and then. "is Eminem the new Elvis" would be fun.
posted by dpx.mfx at 9:59 AM on September 12, 2007

20. It is the job of poetry to reduce the horizon to a single point.

21. And then to obfuscate it. Elliptically...

22. ...Revealing a whole new horizon of countless pointilated horizons, neatly airbrushed for your protection.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:04 AM on September 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

totally interesting questions, and they seem easy to write about--i wish i was eligible.

What can we learn from Las Vegas?
Tons--read Venturi's Learning from Las Vegas--a classic.
posted by amberglow at 10:39 AM on September 12, 2007

Snootyness an undesirable byproduct of intellectualism, and must be guarded against.

What's the point of being an intellectual if you don't get to be snooty?
posted by nasreddin at 11:35 AM on September 12, 2007

What's the point of being an intellectual if you don't get to be snooty?

I do it for the sex.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:37 AM on September 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

I do it for the sex.

I am a man with no ambitions
And few friends, wholly incapable
Of making a living, growing no
Younger, fugitive from some just doom.
Lonely, ill-clothed, what does it matter?
At midnight I make myself a jug
Of hot white wine and cardamon seeds.
In a torn grey robe and old beret,
I sit in the cold writing poems,
Drawing nudes on the crooked margins,
Copulating with sixteen year old
Nymphomaniacs of my imagination.

- Kenneth Rexroth, 1944

posted by nasreddin at 11:42 AM on September 12, 2007 [4 favorites]

I've known several highly intelligent people (one of them a close friend) who got prize fellowships and then found themselves completely paralyzed by the expectation that they would produce a masterpiece. The lovely rooms, the well-stocked libraries, the excellent food and drink, the distinguished company at dinner, the well-meaning inquiries ('how's the book coming along?'), all turned into a horrible trap.

I never walk past All Souls without thinking that somewhere behind one of those shuttered windows, someone is probably having a nervous breakdown.
posted by verstegan at 2:00 PM on September 12, 2007 [3 favorites]

those people could easily have afforded therapy with the stipend and free rent and food (or gotten it free thru National Health), no?

There are probably millions who would have killed for that kind of opportunity.
posted by amberglow at 4:21 PM on September 12, 2007

You can't prove nothin'.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:22 PM on September 12, 2007

Serious question: Do you have to be an Oxford undergraduate to be able to apply here? I would apply if I could!
posted by the cydonian at 7:08 PM on September 12, 2007

2. The examination is open to any candidate (male or female) who either (a) has passed all the examinations required by the University for the degree of BA or (b) has been duly registered for, or been awarded, a higher degree in the University (including B.C.L.). The College will not normally admit to the Examination, however, candidates who will have completed ten or more terms since they qualified for the degree of BA, or (not having a BA from Oxford) seven terms since they were first registered for any higher degree in the University.

Basically yes, the cydonian.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 7:17 PM on September 12, 2007

I may not have been a prize fellow, but I did get to spend a good amount of time in All Souls while I was at Oxford. The Codrington Library is particularly worth seeing, though tourists would have a very tough time doing so.

You aren't meant to take pictures inside, but I did. Here is Lord Codrington himself. Here is how the library itself looks. (The blog posts they are linked to are irrelevant.)

This is the library where Lawrence of Arabia wrote his books.

If you are a student of Oxford, consider attending the Oxford University Strategic Studies Group meetings. They happen in the Old Library at All Souls, every Tuesday night at 8:15pm.
posted by sindark at 8:01 PM on September 12, 2007

Smart enough not to apply for a fellowship.
posted by pompomtom at 10:22 PM on September 12, 2007