Peterhouse Porters Lodge

There’s still time to enter the 2013 Peterhouse Essay Competitions, open to all Year 12 or Lower Sixth students at school in the UK.

we hope that as many schools as possible will encourage their high-flyers to have a go.

Carrie Boyce, Peterhouse Schools Liaison Officer.

Entries for the Vellacott History Prize, the Kelvin Science Prize and the Thomas Campion English Prize can be submitted until 22 March 2013.

All three competitions have a top prize of £500 and a second prize of £250. Several further essays will be highly commended.

In addition to the cash prize, all winners and highly commended entrants are invited to a presentation and celebration lunch at Peterhouse in the summer, where they will have the opportunity to discuss their essays with leading academics.

The competitions are organised by Peterhouse in order to give students in Year 12 or Lower Sixth an opportunity to write about a subject in which they are personally interested. By researching and writing their chosen essay it is hoped that students will develop and experience the independent study skills which will stand them in good stead at university.

George Thomas won the Kelvin Prize in 2011 when he was in the Sixth Form at Elthorne Park High School in Ealing. He’s now a Peterhouse undergraduate.

“If you're serious about your application to Cambridge, entering an essay competition can only help. There are a number of people at Peterhouse who, even if they didn't win a prize, still applied and got places,” George said.

“I picked for my title: "Suppose you could write a letter back to Sir Isaac Newton just as he becomes president of the Royal Society. Suppose further that the intention of the letter is to advance science by as much as possible. This is a chance to write that letter."

“To anyone thinking of entering this year, I’d say:-

  • Don't make the essay a chore to read: remember your audience. Directors of Studies for maths and sciences read and marked my essay. These are leading academics in their fields, so try to be interesting….
  • Consideration of details implicit in the question may differentiate you from other candidates. I decided that an important point in writing the letter was convincing its reader that I was not a crackpot (i.e. actually from the future).
  • Research well and thoroughly."

“The essay competitions give a preview of the kind of work students would find themselves doing if they came to Cambridge, and a chance to demonstrate their skills in independent research,” said Peterhouse Schools Liaison Officer Carrie Boyce.

“Although we can typically only accept two entries per competition from each school or college, we hope that as many schools as possible will encourage their high-flyers to have a go.”

 

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