Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

What you wish you'd been told before coming to Oxford

Scroll to see replies

Haha, yes. In my first year I'm sure I slept for pretty much a whole week at the end of each term out of sheer exhaustion. Not this year, though - I started working the day I came home for the Christmas holidays. :unimpressed:

I used to sleep for a week after every term until I got pulled from all my tutes and lectures. I'd take it as a good thing you're not so tired anymore, though I'm a firm believer in having a break from Oxford work :yes:

Reply 321

Choirboy

Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd

....I wish someone had told me I'd have to spend the rest of my life either pissing people off or dumbing my degree down.

I believe you left Oxford last summer. That is a long time for the rest of your life.

Reply 322

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post by Choirboy

I believe you left Oxford last summer. That is a long time for the rest of your life.

Indeed

Reply 323

Lemons

Original post by Kal_16

I've just finished michaelmas and I wish I'd been told just how much work Law/Oxford in general involves....it's killing me!!! I know that any sane person would assume 'Oxford' would amount to lots of work but I didn't quite imagine it would be this much :/

Are you sure you're not just working too hard? That probably sounds a bit facetious, but the freshers in my college work every day til midnight and do the whole reading list, including the further reading parts. It's just not necessary. It's better to read less and just make sure you understand what you've read well.

Sometimes it's hard to know how much to work because you only see how much work the people in your college do, which means that if you're with one person who works really hard, everyone else will to. It works the other way too: apparently a couple of years ago all the lawyers at LMH got thirds, probably because they didn't realise they needed to work a bit harder because they didn't see how everyone else was working!

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 324

Jeykayem

Original post by Kal_16

You don't happen to be a Trinity lawyer, do you? I think you might recognise me if you are. :smile:

Reply 325

alcie

Can anyone clear some stuff up for me?
I hold an offer for 2012 entry for English and French at Oriel.

Just wondering - do people tend to socialise with students from other colleges a lot? Do you get to meet them during freshers week? Do people go out partying a lot? I'm really worried people there will be so into their studies, I won't have people to have a good time with (no offence meant of course, I'm just trying to get a sense of what current students are like).
It seems like the Oxford experience is very different to other universities, or the normal uni experience. Any myths to dispel?

Reply 326

elieshout

Original post by alcie

Socializing outside college: depends entirely on you. Most people tend to stick to their college, but if you get into doing ECs uni wide, you make a lot of friends at other colleges. It doesn't really matter, as long as you find some people you get along with, which most people do.
Freshers: that's usually mainly meeting people from your own college, although club nights are mixed so you can see other colleges there. As I said, the easiest way to meet people from other colleges is ECs.
Having a good time: it's really really not true people only study and don't have fun. Yes, most people are serious about their course (although not even that is true for everyone) but if you want to have fun, there's plenty of opportunity to do so and plenty of people to do it with.
Oxford is indeed different from other unis, but almost everyone experiences that as a good thing. Don't worry too much, if you love your course, want to get a really good degree and have an amazing three years, it's a great place.

Reply 327

Huw Davies

Original post by alcie

Freshers' week tends to be pretty college-focused - understandably, as people want to meet the people they'll be spending 3 years with and get to know the place they'll be spending it in! A week isn't even enough. You might run into people from other colleges during the nights out. You're most likely to meet people from other colleges over the course of the year through university-wide extracurriculars, joint socials or friends of friends.

There are club nights to go to every day, the student-heavy nights tend to be midweek. As well as that, most societies have socials of various kinds, and most colleges have dedicated drinking societies of various degrees of pretension. Not to mention sports teams. Colleges have bops every 1-2 week which are big fancy-dress events with cheap bucket-brewed "cocktails".

Any myths you are particularly worried about? Oxford is more work than most courses at most universities, but it is certainly not a monastery and most people adopt a "work hard, play hard" attitude.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 328

alcie

Thanks both of you for your advice! Just wanted there to be a bit more college mixing, but that's good to hear about ECs, because I plan to join a few :3 does anyone happen to know if the drama societies are mixed colleges or whether there are both college based and uni based ones?
One more question - are most lectures held just in your college too? Or will a couple be held in others?

Reply 329

Huw Davies

Original post by alcie

Lectures are all department-based. In arts subjects, you may not go to many; in sciences, you will go a lot. There may also be departmental seminars for smaller groups within the year, usually a few colleges aggregated or people taking a specific option.

Tutorials are within college - depending on the subject you may have some at colleges other than your own if someone is needed with specific expertise.

Reply 330

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post by alcie

Afaik, most drama socs are uni wide though colleges tend to do internal drama stuff. Some colleges are noted for their drama socs, e.g. Buskins @ Woosta. They have insane amounts of money as well :angry:

Reply 331

lhkennedy1

At the risk of sounding like a total idiot, what's an EC?

Reply 332

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Extra-curricular :yes:

Reply 333

im so academic

Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Out of interest, are people from other colleges allowed to join other colleges' drama stuff or is it strictly only from people that college?

Reply 334

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post by im so academic

Out of interest, are people from other colleges allowed to join other colleges' drama stuff or is it strictly only from people that college?

That I'm not sure, coz I was never involved with the drama soc. Aside from when we got them to pay for our drum kit :biggrin:

Reply 335

Huw Davies

Original post by im so academic

Out of interest, are people from other colleges allowed to join other colleges' drama stuff or is it strictly only from people that college?

Cuppers is competitive inter-college drama, so naturally college-only. For everything else, things tend to be free and easy. College drama societies are mainly there to get things started with funding, beyond that it's up to the directors who general want the best\any people they can get on stage.