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Merton College (Oxford) Students and Applicants

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What about services like iTunes? You're still downloading, yet in a 'legal' manner...
Also, the MIT OCW video lectures are very useful when it comes to linear algebra and differential equations, I would certainly want to go over them once we get to those topics...

University of Oxford

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Reply 81

tinypony

When does the medical form have to be in?

Reply 82

tbtommyb

Siddhartha

I think they mentioned that iTunes and Napster are banned. I doubt they'd care about streaming videos though.

Reply 83

tinypony

Ok, but how can they ban something that's legal?

Reply 84

Chruchill

I'd guess it's because they own the internet connection and pay for the bandwidth. :smile:

Reply 85

r3m0t

I don't think they'de do anything about iTunes and (New) Napster - it almost makes me think that they don't know how it works. I think they just don't want people to say "I thought this downloading service was legal" (e.g. AllOfmp3). Even the legal ones aren't allowed.

I read on the IT website the bandwidth allowances and they're very generous - you can also e-mail them if you know you'll be downloading something large, and they might ask you to schedule the download into night-time.

It is a bit of a bother about the uTorrent but I'll wean myself :wink:

off it. There will also be "darknets" i.e. students connecting their laptops and exchanging stuff.

Elbow: of course they don't poke around enforcing all these rules. What I was wondering was - why aren't the splittes allowed? Is it e.g.
1) They want you to rent one from them? (Unlikely, no such service is mentioned)
2) There's some legal requirement and some obscure regulation says they have to forbid the devices, but really they just ignore them?
3) If you do something nasty but not covered in the regulations, they nab you on the charge of using a power splitter in your room?
4) They actually hope somebody will ask them (and pay them) to check their 3-year-old desk lamp?

By the way, do you get a corkboard or similar thing in your room? I stayed at Hertford at interview time and they gave you a board with about 20 tacks and some stuff already there, which I thought was very nice.

Reply 86

tbtommyb

Siddhartha

Ok, but how can they ban something that's legal?

Why couldn't they?

Reply 87

tinypony

burntgorilla

Why couldn't they?

I get the point that it's their internet connection, but banning iTunes just seems arcane! I mean, we're talking about 4 mb songs, not 1.2 Gb DVD rips.

Reply 88

Elbow

They ban iTunes etc because technically you're only supposed to use the internet for work. ie you're really probably not supposed to use it to check the news, or go on facebook, or whatever. iTunes is a more conspicuous non-work use, and I think that's all. I use iTunes at college but save my downloading of music for the holidays (because I'm so reliant on my internet that I'm paranoid about losing it). No-one's got in trouble for using (eg) YouTube as long as they've stayed within the bandwidth/download limits, and that's clearly not work either, so... I dunno. Make your own decision. Since it's legal etc you probably wouldn't be in a lot of trouble even if they caught you.

I have not the foggiest what the whole no power splitters thing is for, chaps. I'd never encountered it before. A guess would be that once when I was in my first year a guy's room caught fire and it turned out to be due to electrical equipment - but it was more that he had incense burning on top of his fridge than anything about adaptors and so on. By the way, there will search your room once a term for anything you're not supposed to have - eg toasters or candles. I had a fish for three terms before they discovered it (or at least before anyone made a fuss) so they're not very thorough, but they will find eg candles if you leave them out on the side. Then you just get a note left on your bed saying "you've got candles and you shouldn't" and a either little fine, or if it's blutack they often just say "take it down and I'll be back to check". By "little" I mean one of my friends was fined £15 for having a candle that had clearly never been lit...

They do sort of check electrical appliances if you leave them in communal kitchens - eg toasters or microwaves, if you've bought them yourself and left them in communal areas, will get checked when the college electrician comes round. Never heard of anyone being asked to pay for it. Think they're just covering themselves for the right to get rid of something if the college electrician thinks it's dangerous, even if it's not college property. Never seen it done for electrical items in someone's room (even the infamous fire-causing fridge - though that was a melted wreck by the time they got it out).

ETA: Medical forms - I think you give those in some time in freshers' week when they register you for the college GP. You have the world's tiniest medical exam in which they basically just take your blood pressure, and hand over the form. I think. Have a good check for dates but if in doubt, there's very little you HAVE to have sorted out before you come to Oxford; most of it you can worry about when you arrive.

Reply 89

tbtommyb

What do we actually do during Freshers' Week? I know there's the fair, and probably lots of forms to fill in and ceremonies to sit through, but is it a bit like interviews in that most of the time is sitting around in the JCR chatting to people? That sounds fun. One of the things that I like about the interviews is that I already know a couple of the people I'll be with, so making friends isn't something to worry about. How long does it take to get through all the admin stuff?

Reply 90

Elbow

*is clearly not doing enough work to be answering all the time*

It feels like it takes ages. My own freshers' week will be five years ago this October so I have no idea how accurate my impression of it is, but anyway - the day you get there is like interviews in terms of JCR-sitting-around. The rest of the time is taken up with bits and bobs, some compulsory and some not, that will take up quite a bit of time during the day. Talks from various people mostly, and subject tours of the library (handy but not compulsory), medical registration, college admissions ceremony... Freshers' week is only five days I think (it may be longer now) and it's amazing how much they manage to fit in. The evenings tend to be organised things like parents' drinks, icebreaker games and subject teas that can flow easily into nights out or more leisurely settling-in activities for those who aren't fans of clubbing but still want to get to know people.

Saying that, you'll have plenty of free time and so forth and the main problem in freshers week for most people is remembering everyone's names that you do meet, rather than not having enough time to chat to people. I met a lot of people in freshers' week that I barely spoke to for the subsequent three years, even if I can't now remember when I managed to squish in meeting them. Apart from the compulsory stuff, go to the useful things (eg JCR committee's welcome etc) and then do what you want. Which you were going to do anyway really... so I dunno why I felt the need to add that. There will always be food and usually friendly older years in the JCR during Freshers' Week, so if the interviews atmosphere was what you liked, you can probably recreate it.

Reply 91

hermajesty

Elbow

Have a good check for dates but if in doubt, there's very little you HAVE to have sorted out before you come to Oxford; most of it you can worry about when you arrive.

This is what I did because I'm lazy and disorganised, but I wouldn't entirely recommend it. Fresher's week (which is now a whole week i think, if you count it as monday to sunday) is incredibly busy, so you don't want to be worrying about paperwork that you could have done earlier.

Fresher's week contains quite a lot of boring meetings and paperwork, but is also very exciting. There are cool Oxford ceremonies like Matriculation; there are tours to help you get to know Oxford. The students organise a lot of events, both during the day when you don't have meetings and in the evenings, so it's really easy to get to know people. On the other hand, don't feel that you have to go to every social event or that you need to have found lifelong friends by the end of the first week - there's plenty of time in the following weeks to get to know people better.

Reply 92

tbtommyb

Thanks both of you for the information. It'll feel strange getting the first bit of work and then trying to work out how much time you should actually spend on it. Am I likely to get work during Freshers' Week (for Modern Languages)? I know Merton has the whole reputation going on, which seems to be partly true but I really don't want work in the first week! God, I'm acting as if I've got in already...

Reply 93

henryt

burntgorilla

I've spoken to friends there, and they say the reputation is mainly from competitiveness within the student body, rather than large amounts of pressure from tutors, even though there is evidently still some... (Some courses are apparently exception to this and the tutors are super-competitive and believe in setting 4 essays a week, or something equally ridiculous, but I don't think Modern Languages are part of this group) So even though you may get set work in your first week, I'd imagine at least a few other colleges would be doing the same!

Reply 94

sherunsaway

henryt

That sounds partly true. When I went to my interviews, one of the student helpers walked me back to St. Annes and told me that PPE students at Merton got set 3 essays a week compared to 2 at most other colleges.

Reply 95

hermajesty

For physics we met our tutor on the thursday of fresher's week, so he could see who we were and have a chat with us. He set some work but (if I remember rightly) it wasn't due in for over a week, so there was no need to do it in fresher's week. It made more sense after a few lectures anyway.

Reply 96

Elbow

Maybe I've been at Merton too long and am indoctrinated, but when it comes round to exam time, you'll be pleased and a little bit smug if you've written one more essay a week than everyone else on your course. I'm a medic and we did anatomy tutorials (only the occasional essay, but as much work required in preparation for a tute as if there had been an essay). Many other colleges don't... but come exam time you have to produce three anatomy essays and think how much harder that is if you've never written one before you came to revise.

That said, all this "Merton people never leave the library" stuff is rubbish. You will have plenty of time to do lots of other stuff and we're well known for being active in lots of university societies, sports, orchestras etc as well as doing well in exams. (Merton people are just awesome, to be honest, and other colleges are jealous :tongue:

).

As for being set work in Freshers' Week - well, maybe you will and maybe you won't. Some tutors will set it, but that's only so that you have something to talk about in your first tute. And at least one of my tutors only set the first essay about three days before the first tute, some time in second week. At least if you're set work in Fresher's Week you'll have plenty of time to get your head round you and work out what's expected, rather than trying to do all the reading and dash one off whilst trying to do everything else too. Your college "parents", second years doing your subject, will be good people to actually tell you what it's like for this kind of question. They should be in touch shortly after your offer is confirmed.

Reply 97

laura k

what are the chances of getting in to merton? [chemistry]

Reply 98

henryt

laura k

what are the chances of getting in to merton? [chemistry]

They don't publish the statistics college-by-college, as the admissions department noticed large fluctuations in the numbers applying to a certain college (here's a made up example - one year, a course at a certain college was 0.7 applicants per place, so lots of people applied thinking it would be easy to get in, and the next year it was 9.8 applicants per place, and the year after it would decrease back to something like 1.2 applicants per place, as people were put off applying to that college by the large 9.8 apps/place). But I'd imagine it's roughly the same chance as every other college. So 40-50% ? Sorry if that's not really the answer you were looking for... Maybe someone who does Chemistry has a better answer!

Reply 99

big A

joth

Previously, the Merton Street houses have been only guys, and there have been a few guys in Rose Lane, all on the same floor. Most of Rose Lane, however, is girls. There are no mixed floors.

At least, that's how it's been so far. As I said, your year is the first they're mixing properly, so I'm not entirely sure, but floors will probably get mixed as well.

The only restriction I've heard is that they're not going to put girls on the ground floor of Merton Street, for their safety.

Is that just for Merton? Is accomodation in other colleges completely mixed? Rose Lane accomodation is the thing that made me shortlist Merton as an option, is there really little chance to live there if you are a guy?