[circe23]

I've been researching Oxford university as a prospective student, and I've been there and it's lovely! Just looking for any current students to comment on their social lives, as the course looks amazing (as do the professors), but I want to be young if i'm there. I'm just concerned that the only aspect would be work, which is fine in moderation, but I wouldn't want to slave away for 3 years.
Anothing thing is; with the shorter terms, is it harder to socialise?
Thanks!

[Rennit]

If you don't want to slave away for 3 years, and aren't prepared to sacrifice things; Oxford isn't for you.

Its essentially 6 days of work and 1 day of socialising.

[Oxymoroner]

(Original post by Rennit)
If you don't want to slave away for 3 years, and aren't prepared to sacrifice things; Oxford isn't for you.

Its essentially 6 days of work and 1 day of socialising.

Merton?

[Rennit]

(Original post by Oxymoroner)
Merton?

well at Merton its even worse. 13 days working 1 day resting :|

[jakehartley123]

(Original post by Rennit)
If you don't want to slave away for 3 years, and aren't prepared to sacrifice things; Oxford isn't for you.

Its essentially 6 days of work and 1 day of socialising.

Lies. There are weeks where you can work 2/3 days, and it's never more than 4/5 moderately hard work (6-8 hrs/day).

[JoeBiden]

(Original post by circe23)
I've been researching Oxford university as a prospective student, and I've been there and it's lovely! Just looking for any current students to comment on their social lives, as the course looks amazing (as do the professors), but I want to be young if i'm there. I'm just concerned that the only aspect would be work, which is fine in moderation, but I wouldn't want to slave away for 3 years.
Anothing thing is; with the shorter terms, is it harder to socialise?
Thanks!

It's all hanky and no panky.

[AverageExcellence]

I wouldn't say so, i hear the night life gets really intense

[pinkpenguin]

Don't listen to any of this. If you are an effective worker you can get away with a 4 day week during a normal term with 2 x essays a week (which is what I did).

I played a LOT during my time at Oxford.

[micky022]

If you can work efficiently you too can spend 5 hours or more a day in the JCR.

[Rennit]

Oh yeah, I forget, the work load between the sciences and the arts or humanities is huge! Arts students don't have 9am lectures.

So yeah, if you're doing a science degree, expect alot more work quantity wise.

[lalaberlin]

(Original post by Rennit)
Oh yeah, I forget, the work load between the sciences and the arts or humanities is huge! Arts students don't have 9am lectures.

So yeah, if you're doing a science degree, expect alot more work quantity wise.

Agreed.

But I guess it also depends on how you work, I mean, if you're really efficient and productive when you're working, you should have time to do other things every day, but if you procrastinate loads like me *sigh* it can take longer to do the same amount of work.. However, it is manageable to juggle a sport, work, social life and even a relationship, if you're willing to compromise on time to sleep, that is.

[Calllu-m]

(Original post by Oxymoroner)
Merton?

Merton college; where fun goes to die.

How our school's Oxbridgers phrased merton in their unofficial handbook.

[qwertyuiop1993]

(Original post by Rennit)
Oh yeah, I forget, the work load between the sciences and the arts or humanities is huge! Arts students don't have 9am lectures.

So yeah, if you're doing a science degree, expect alot more work quantity wise.

That's not necessarily true. (Though arts students definitely have considerably fewer contact hours)
The mathematicians at my college get by with very little work... though the biochemists have a crazy amount. Also the lawyers have loads of work.

http://www.hepi.ac.uk/files/44%20Oxf...%20summary.pdf

According to Table 4, lawyers at Oxford do on average more work than biological sciences and Engineering sciences and Maths.

Shame the table doesn't have more arts categories though, it just has law, social studies and "Historical and Philosophical" studies. I'd say the dual linguists learning Arabic/Russian from scratch have a horrendous workload just because of the sheer amount of information they have to soak in.

[QHF]

Workload (which is different to contact hours!) varies a bit from course to course and from college to college. To a certain extent it expands if you're conscientious but contracts if you're efficient.

There are always a handful of students working their socks off, but I doubt they are working much harder, if any harder at all, than you might expect someone in the first few years of a professional career to work. And those students are exceptional, and they're only working like that for quite short terms. Undergraduates don't seem to find it harder to socialise, they just socialise more intensively.

(Full disclosure: my observations of undergraduate life are from a postgrad's perspective. But I think I'd notice if all the undergrads here were actually working hard all the time. Things would be much quieter.)

[circe23]

Thanks! I was asking in case the workload was 24 hours a day, 7 hours a week. I'm more than willing to sacrifice time for good grades, as I feel any student has to do. However, even though I am willing to work constantly for short bursts of time (as in exam season), I wouldn't want to work like this all year round. Does anyone do History or English?

[micky022]

(Original post by circe23)
Thanks! I was asking in case the workload was 24 hours a day, 7 hours a week. I'm more than willing to sacrifice time for good grades, as I feel any student has to do. However, even though I am willing to work constantly for short bursts of time (as in exam season), I wouldn't want to work like this all year round. Does anyone do History or English?

History's workload is hilariously light. English can be heavy, from what I've seen.

[shoshin]

(Original post by micky022)
History's workload is hilariously light...

I don't find my History workload hilariously light, though the contact time is. Are you sure you aren't confusing the two?

With History, the workload is fairly comfortable during weeks in which only one 2500 word essay is required. But often (every other week last term,) two such essays have to be completed within the week. Each essay demands that a dozen or more books and journal articles are read/gutted, and in the tutorial you have to be able to defend the essay and thereby demonstrate that you have thoroughly understood the reading. This is all do-able of course, but it's basically 30+ hours of pretty solid work per week, for me at least.

Not claiming that any of this is a big deal for students of other subjects at Oxford, including your own no doubt. But I wouldn't want potential History applicants to get too carried away with the idea that it's a cushy number.

[3nTr0pY]

(Original post by pinkpenguin)
Don't listen to any of this. If you are an effective worker you can get away with a 4 day week during a normal term with 2 x essays a week (which is what I did).

I played a LOT during my time at Oxford.

I'm guessing you didn't do a science subject.

[pinkpenguin]

(Original post by 3nTr0pY)
I'm guessing you didn't do a science subject.

Nope, PPE. But that doesn't meant I didn't have a good chunk of work to do, I just decided that 2 x 48 hour bursts were better than having to work all week

My workload would also have been higher if I bothered going to lectures. But I didn't.

[nexttime]

I averaged something like 20 hours a week of work. And i supposedly do a work-heavy subject, at a 'work-heavy college' (lies!).

(Original post by Rennit)
...

Thanks for your expert opinion.

(Original post by Calllu-m)
Merton college; where fun goes to die.

How our school's Oxbridgers phrased merton in their unofficial handbook.

Guarantee none of them actually went to Merton. All overexcited freshers as well no doubt