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What do you want to know about Oxford?

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Original post by NickMac
I think something similar may have already been asked, so forgive me if this is slightly repetitive. I've been offered a place in one of the newer, less traditional colleges. I think that's probably a better fit for my personality than one of the ancient ones, but I also love architecture and wandering around old buildings and gardens. I had the opportunity to visit Oxford earlier this year and, even though I had made an open application, I was blown away by how beautiful some of the colleges are. Are students allowed to visit other colleges and just sort of wander/hang out? Would I have to pay admission and only come during certain hours like the tourists? Are you allowed to eat at other colleges? I don't want to make it a regular thing, but at least once during my time at Oxford I'd like to experience a true formal hall. Could I just show up and pay, or would I have to wait for a friend to invite me?


I think in most colleges, if not all, you'd be able to walk in if you show your Bod card or pretend you're having a tutorial there :yep: Colleges tend to lock their gates at night so you won't be able to get in without a security card for that particular college.

As for formal hall, you need to be invited but otherwise there's nothing stopping you eating in anyone else's hall.

Congrats on your offer :biggrin:
Original post by twelfthnight
I will almost certainly get found out!



Haha thanks both of you - I think partly it's the shock at how much money this is - at the moment I think in daily terms so it seems loads when it's living costs for 9 months - I don't really think in the thousands... But maybe not too bad, especially considering the costs of other unis :smile:


I'm in my third year and get by very comfortably on somewhere between 6 and 7 thousand each year. My brother is a fresher and he probably spends between 5 and 6 but he goes out less.
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
I think in most colleges, if not all, you'd be able to walk in if you show your Bod card or pretend you're having a tutorial there :yep: Colleges tend to lock their gates at night so you won't be able to get in without a security card for that particular college.

As for formal hall, you need to be invited but otherwise there's nothing stopping you eating in anyone else's hall.

Congrats on your offer :biggrin:


Thanks! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond :biggrin:
Original post by NickMac
x


As TLG said, you can wander round any college for free as long as you have your Bod card with you. (After you graduate, you can get in for free with your alumni card.) I think every college lets you take at least one guest in for free too. Some colleges are less keen on visitors than others (I've always found Teddy Hall and Queen's quite unhelpful) and you might have to visit at certain times of day — usually in the afternoon.

If you don't have friends at other colleges to get dinner out of, you can try Hall surfing, if that's still a thing. Making friends with people whose colleges have good guest dinners (Magdalen MCR's infrequent guest dinner, and Trinity's guest dinner, were both excellent when I went) is worth doing too!
Original post by BJack
As TLG said, you can wander round any college for free as long as you have your Bod card with you. (After you graduate, you can get in for free with your alumni card.) I think every college lets you take at least one guest in for free too. Some colleges are less keen on visitors than others (I've always found Teddy Hall and Queen's quite unhelpful) and you might have to visit at certain times of day — usually in the afternoon.

If you don't have friends at other colleges to get dinner out of, you can try Hall surfing, if that's still a thing. Making friends with people whose colleges have good guest dinners (Magdalen MCR's infrequent guest dinner, and Trinity's guest dinner, were both excellent when I went) is worth doing too!


I often find you can just walk into colleges without anyone caring. I've walked into Exeter, Balliol, St. John's, Queens, St. Peter's and Wadham without having to show my bod card or talk to the porters!
Original post by Lucilou101
I often find you can just walk into colleges without anyone caring. I've walked into Exeter, Balliol, St. John's, Queens, St. Peter's and Wadham without having to show my bod card or talk to the porters!


I've walked into at least 20, gone to the porters lodge and asked where the bar is*. All bar 1 or 2 told me without asking for ID.

*For pool and darts matches, not because i had a problem I swear...
1. Is the nightlife dull?

2. Will you hate me because I'm going to Brookes next year?
What's the O2 Academy like in Oxford and how far is it from Keble college? They do the occasional dnb and grime nights whereas the other Oxford clubs don't appear play the music I like. Also I saw on the Keble freshers page that there is a 24hr bus service to London for people who want to have a night out in London - do people really do this? I would actually be fairly interested in this
Original post by Lucilou101
I often find you can just walk into colleges without anyone caring. I've walked into Exeter, Balliol, St. John's, Queens, St. Peter's and Wadham without having to show my bod card or talk to the porters!


The Christ Church bulldogs have a very good eye.

They were stopping and making enquiry of each member of the public attempting to enter Tom gateway last Christmas but this 40 something graduate walked straight through without interview.
Original post by anonlad
What's the O2 Academy like in Oxford and how far is it from Keble college? They do the occasional dnb and grime nights whereas the other Oxford clubs don't appear play the music I like. Also I saw on the Keble freshers page that there is a 24hr bus service to London for people who want to have a night out in London - do people really do this? I would actually be fairly interested in this


I've never been to the O2, but it's down Cowley. Google maps puts it at a 7 minute cycle/ 28 minute walk (roughly 1.4 miles): https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Keble+College,+Oxford+OX1+3PG,+United+Kingdom/O2+Academy+Oxford,+190+Cowley+Road,+Oxford+OX4+1UE,+United+Kingdom/@51.752933,-1.2553898,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x4876c6a868d2ab75:0x10c88306ff8f05cc!2m2!1d-1.257954!2d51.758836!1m5!1m1!1s0x4876c14f68764657:0xa6126f361018d50c!2m2!1d-1.234439!2d51.746895!3e1

There is a 24 hour bus service to London: http://www.oxfordtube.com/tubetimes.aspx I'm not much of a clubber and so have no experience, but you could conceivably do a night out in London. I imagine a weekend might be better though seeing that it takes at least 1hr+ each way.
Original post by BJack
As TLG said, you can wander round any college for free as long as you have your Bod card with you. (After you graduate, you can get in for free with your alumni card.) I think every college lets you take at least one guest in for free too. Some colleges are less keen on visitors than others (I've always found Teddy Hall and Queen's quite unhelpful) and you might have to visit at certain times of day — usually in the afternoon.

If you don't have friends at other colleges to get dinner out of, you can try Hall surfing, if that's still a thing. Making friends with people whose colleges have good guest dinners (Magdalen MCR's infrequent guest dinner, and Trinity's guest dinner, were both excellent when I went) is worth doing too!


Further to this, tutors are a great way of getting formal invites which people tend not to realise. As an undergrad I cheekily asked most of my tutors from other Colleges for formal invites, and most happily invited me on to high table (though I had to pretend to be a postgrad as a lot of SCR's won't let undergrads on high table....). This assumes you like your tutors obviously though!
Original post by mishieru07
I've never been to the O2, but it's down Cowley. Google maps puts it at a 7 minute cycle/ 28 minute walk (roughly 1.4 miles): https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Keble+College,+Oxford+OX1+3PG,+United+Kingdom/O2+Academy+Oxford,+190+Cowley+Road,+Oxford+OX4+1UE,+United+Kingdom/@51.752933,-1.2553898,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x4876c6a868d2ab75:0x10c88306ff8f05cc!2m2!1d-1.257954!2d51.758836!1m5!1m1!1s0x4876c14f68764657:0xa6126f361018d50c!2m2!1d-1.234439!2d51.746895!3e1

There is a 24 hour bus service to London: http://www.oxfordtube.com/tubetimes.aspx I'm not much of a clubber and so have no experience, but you could conceivably do a night out in London. I imagine a weekend might be better though seeing that it takes at least 1hr+ each way.



Thank you for the links!
Hi, I've got an engineering offer for this October but I am curious about work during vacs.
Presumably the Easter holiday is filled with revision, but Christmas and summer?
Could anyone give me a rough guide as to how many hours per day/week I'll be looking at for these vacs? As i hope to secure a job of sorts
Original post by maxisuper
Hi, I've got an engineering offer for this October but I am curious about work during vacs.
Presumably the Easter holiday is filled with revision, but Christmas and summer?
Could anyone give me a rough guide as to how many hours per day/week I'll be looking at for these vacs? As i hope to secure a job of sorts


Don't know much about engineering in particular, but most people I know revise for collections the last 1-2 weeks of the vac. Easter vac is only a big deal if you have mods or finals in Trinity term. Summer jobs & vac schemes are super common all the way through.
Original post by maxisuper
Hi, I've got an engineering offer for this October but I am curious about work during vacs.
Presumably the Easter holiday is filled with revision, but Christmas and summer?
Could anyone give me a rough guide as to how many hours per day/week I'll be looking at for these vacs? As i hope to secure a job of sorts


Highly variable. I never did any vac work at all, using the long holidays to travel instead.
Original post by maxisuper
Hi, I've got an engineering offer for this October but I am curious about work during vacs.
Presumably the Easter holiday is filled with revision, but Christmas and summer?
Could anyone give me a rough guide as to how many hours per day/week I'll be looking at for these vacs? As i hope to secure a job of sorts


I did law which is probably one of the more work-heavy subjects, but rarely did work in vacs aside from a week of cramming/note sorting in the week before the start of each term. How much you need to do varies on your ability and nature really, but I don't think as an engineer you'll be spending huge amounts of time working in vacs. My friends tended to get a couple of tute sheets to do and obviously consolidate for collections (mock exams at the beginning of each term) but it wasn't anything onerous really.
Original post by maxisuper
Hi, I've got an engineering offer for this October but I am curious about work during vacs.
Presumably the Easter holiday is filled with revision, but Christmas and summer?
Could anyone give me a rough guide as to how many hours per day/week I'll be looking at for these vacs? As i hope to secure a job of sorts


I studied chemistry and we were typically given a week or two's work to last the whole vacation. (Work that would inevitably be crammed into 0th week after neglecting it for the whole break.) As others have mentioned, the volume will depend on your course and college.
(edited 9 years ago)
I have always had a significant amount of vacation work. Enough to keep you busy for 3-4 weeks of the vac doing a couple of hours every day. As ever with Classics though it depends whether or not you actually want to read the set texts :flute:
Any current English students out there?
if you had to list your experience of English dons how would you rank/describe the following colleges?

St John's, Univ, New, Somerville, Catz, LMH, Magdalen?

Any insights gratefully received x
Original post by personage
Any current English students out there?
if you had to list your experience of English dons how would you rank/describe the following colleges?

St John's, Univ, New, Somerville, Catz, LMH, Magdalen?

Any insights gratefully received x


I really think you're worrying about this too much. The English tutors at all colleges are great and the teaching experience will be as good at whichever college you go to.

It's much better to focus on the other differences in colleges, such as accommodation, location, size, and just the general feel.

(Although the Univ English tutors are particularly lovely :P)

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