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University of Oxford offer-holders' thread 2015

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Original post by personage
Good point!
Is there any way of finding out college reputations for various subjects?
ie Doesn't seem to be a list of Firsts or 2:1s for each subject.
I was wondering particularly re Eng Lit?
ANyone got any inside knowledge or tips on this?


My college (Mansfield) publishes the full list of results in its annual magazine, which is available online. They are towards the back of each issue:

http://issuu.com/mansfieldoxford

tbh there are usually too few students per subject per college to draw many useful conclusions. My college isn't generally a Norrington star performer, but in my subject (History) last year there were six of us, three of whom got Firsts and three who got 2.1's. A few marks here and there and the ratio would have been completely different (although it would have taken more than a few in my own case :frown: :tongue: )

In terms of tuition your college often has very little to do with your final grade. All but one of my modules were with tutors from other colleges. One year I saw my own college History tutors for literally (and I literally mean literally!) five minutes at the end of each term, and that was it :shakecane:
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by personage
Good point!
Is there any way of finding out college reputations for various subjects?
ie Doesn't seem to be a list of Firsts or 2:1s for each subject.
I was wondering particularly re Eng Lit?
ANyone got any inside knowledge or tips on this?


Norrington would be a good place to start generally, although there are issues with how it's calculated (eg does not take into account different grade distributions across subjects). It's worth pointing out that the scores are often not that far apart in reality.

I personally wouldn't look at subject prizes. For one, a lot of it is down to luck in my personal opinion - there's so little that separates the people right at the top. It could literally be down to 1 mark and markers' preferences. For another, the fact that those getting prizes are such a minority means that it can vary a lot for any individual college year on year.

The other way is what shoshin said; look at the annual reports of individual colleges (usually found in the publications section on their websites). Not all of them are publicly available though.

I honestly wouldn't care much about college reputations for your subject (and in any case, this is unusual). At the end of the day, I do think that doing well ultimately comes down to individual work.
Original post by personage
Good point!
Is there any way of finding out college reputations for various subjects?
ie Doesn't seem to be a list of Firsts or 2:1s for each subject.
I was wondering particularly re Eng Lit?
ANyone got any inside knowledge or tips on this?


I really don't think it matters. The differences between college performances are very small and if you look at the Norrington table, you'll see that it's full of massive fluctuations - colleges constantly jump up and down the table. There are some colleges which are often near the top and some which are often near the bottom, but I really doubt which college you attend has a massive impact on your performance.
Original post by shoshin
My college (Mansfield) publishes the full list of results in its annual magazine, which is available online. They are towards the back of each issue:

http://issuu.com/mansfieldoxford

tbh there are usually too few students per subject per college to draw many useful conclusions. My college isn't generally a Norrington star performer, but in my subject (History) last year there were six of us, three of whom got Firsts and three who got 2.1's. A few marks here and there and the ratio would have been completely different (although it would have taken more than a few in my own case :frown: :tongue: )

In terms of tuition your college often has very little to do with your final grade. All but one of my modules were with tutors from other colleges. One year I saw my own college History tutors for literally (and I literally mean literally!) five minutes at the end of each term, and that was it :shakecane:


haha! think i'll also need all the marks i can get!
Original post by personage
Do you think if you say you got into Merton, people go oooo eerrrr you must be smart, and if you got a place at a college at bottom of NOrrington, do they go oooo errrr you must have scraped in? (I hope not!!!):frown: Or do most people in your experience not give a monkeys?:colondollar:


If someone is really that pathetic to judge you because of the college you attend, I really don't think they're worth worrying about...
Original post by Chlorophile
If someone is really that pathetic to judge you because of the college you attend, I really don't think they're worth worrying about...



:smile::biggrin:
(edited 9 years ago)
haha i feel so odd for asking this- is anyone here going to harris manchester? No, i'm not 60 years old- If I was born 2 months late I wouldn't have met the requirement for applicants to be 21 at the point of matriculation.

even if you're not going to hmc, I will appreciate any info regarding this ow profile and small college.

thanks!
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by milkman94
haha i feel so odd for asking this- is anyone here going to harris manchester? No, i'm not 60 years old- If I was born 2 months late I wouldn't have met the requirement for applicants to be 21 at the point of matriculation.

even if you're not going to hmc, I will appreciate any info regarding this ow profile and small college.

thanks!


Congrats on your offer :smile:

I didn't go to HMC because it doesn't offer my subject, but I was a mature student at Oxford, at Mansfield College which is right next door to HMC. I regularly used the HMC library so know it quite well. If that's enough of a basis to help you out then PM me by all means and I will do my best
Original post by milkman94
haha i feel so odd for asking this- is anyone here going to harris manchester? No, i'm not 60 years old- If I was born 2 months late I wouldn't have met the requirement for applicants to be 21 at the point of matriculation.

even if you're not going to hmc, I will appreciate any info regarding this ow profile and small college.

thanks!


Students under the age of 30 constitute a significantly large portion of HMC
If that's any consolation
Original post by obsidious
Students under the age of 30 constitute a significantly large portion of HMC
If that's any consolation


yup I understand most of them are from countries with military conscription such as Korea, Israel, Switzerland, etc.... I'm not complaining about the age of the students there, apologies if I came across that way.

It's just that it's harder to have a sense of what college life will be like.
Original post by personage
Do you think if you say you got into Merton, people go oooo eerrrr you must be smart, and if you got a place at a college at bottom of NOrrington, do they go oooo errrr you must have scraped in? (I hope not!!!):frown: Or do most people in your experience not give a monkeys?:colondollar:


No, because within each subject there is not generally a "best college" and the whole thing about Merton being academically superior is a myth or, at least, not a reality anymore.
Original post by milkman94
haha i feel so odd for asking this- is anyone here going to harris manchester? No, i'm not 60 years old- If I was born 2 months late I wouldn't have met the requirement for applicants to be 21 at the point of matriculation.

even if you're not going to hmc, I will appreciate any info regarding this ow profile and small college.

thanks!


I know a fair number of HMCers (males from my country end up there frequently because we have mandatory conscription for 2 years). Many of the HMCers are on the young side of 21, with lots of them just about hitting the age cut-off (I was told this is an increasing trend in recent years apparently?). You wouldn't be out of place there.

I don't really know what kind of information you're looking for specifically, but college is pretty small population-wise from what I gather (everyone sort of ends up knowing everyone). You won't get accommodation for all years (first and last years only) barring special circumstances. Food is okay if repetitive (I like their formals and brunch though!), and there's a meal quota per term that you have to hit if you're living in college, which can be annoying. If I'm not wrong, there's no hall on weekends (except brunch), so you'll have to cook (they have kitchens) or find some other source of sustenance. The rooms I've been in have all been fine so far, and I think they've been renovating some blocks. Library isn't 24/7, but the librarians are apparently really nice and fairly generous; they will buy you books for your course if needed, including core textbooks. College is relatively poor so don't expect to get generous grants/ bursaries, and my impression is that hall food and accommodation aren't on the cheap side for Oxford colleges.

Anything else you want to know specifically?
Original post by mishieru07
xx


ah thanks! i'll pm you with other HMC queries!
Does anyone know anything about Oriel? Is it really as posh and right-wing as they say? Is it a rich college? Anything???
Reply 734
Avatar for BibiB
BibiB
6
Original post by afterallthistime
Any Oriental studies students out there? :smile:
I have an offer for Chinese from Pembroke!



Hi and congrats! :smile: I got an offer for Japanese at St. John's :biggrin: Feel free to join the facebook group for orientalists! It's called 'Oxford Oriental Studies 2015 entry'
I got an open offer for Engineering :biggrin:
I had to ask for a lot of help in the interviews so it was surprising! :colondollar: I'm really excited to find out which college I'll go to, but for the moment I'll just have to sit here feeling left out and college-less... :tongue:
Original post by elliemoriarty
I got an open offer for Engineering :biggrin:
I had to ask for a lot of help in the interviews so it was surprising! :colondollar: I'm really excited to find out which college I'll go to, but for the moment I'll just have to sit here feeling left out and college-less... :tongue:


High 5 for Open Offers!

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Reply 737
Avatar for yz5267
yz5267
1
Original post by yesitsme123
Me too! Have an offer for law with Spanish law at Hertford

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Congrats! Are you coming from Spain?
Guess I'll see you there in October :wink:

Original post by StarvingAutist

Nice :smile: Hertford is such a lovely college...


Indeed! :tongue:

Original post by OEA152
Hello!

I'm an American student, from Arizona. I received a conditional offer from Balliol College to study Computer Science and Philosophy.

Are there any other students from America who have been accepted? Or students studying Computer Science and Philosophy?

Also, has anyone else gotten a chance to meet the Balliol tutors, or stuff like that? I never got a chance to visit Oxford, so all my interviews were done via Skype.

Anyway, greetings to my new hopeful classmates.


I'll pm you! :biggrin:
All the horror stories about the 'unmanageable' workloads and constant stress/tiredness is making me feel really worried about whether I'm actually going to enjoy myself
Reply 739
Avatar for yz5267
yz5267
1
Original post by ChrisDull
x


Hey Chris :smile:
Saw you mentioned that there's only one CSPhil in your year (and you're a current year 1 I guess?)?
As an offer holder for CSP at Hertford I'd be pretty interested to contact her/him :tongue:

And for your information, there's another (swedish) CSP offer holder from Balliol this year, so there's a chance you might be his college dad too :wink:

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