What do you want to know about Oxford?

Original post by SamF1992

Cost at Oxford should never be a problem, there's loads of financial support available. Like this year, I get about £4k in the form of the Oxford Opportunity Bursary, which is non-repayable and completeley seperate from student finance. On top of that, there are hardship funds and other various stuff, Oxford is really good in this area.

hola, I've got an offer for English at Wadham.. I was just wondering, does it really live up to its super-liberal, relaxed etc reputation? Also, what's accomodation like? I've stayed in the modern rooms at the back before, and seen some of the older rooms in the front quad, is it like generally a good standard?

sorry to bombard you with questions!

Reply 181

doloroushazy

10

Original post by qwertyuiop1993

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Original post by dbmag9

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Original post by doivid

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thanks for speedy replies! i will endeavor not to go to the pub before any tests they may spring on me..

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 182

dbmag9

15

Original post by doloroushazy

hola, I've got an offer for English at Wadham.. I was just wondering, does it really live up to its super-liberal, relaxed etc reputation? Also, what's accomodation like? I've stayed in the modern rooms at the back before, and seen some of the older rooms in the front quad, is it like generally a good standard?

sorry to bombard you with questions!

I know they're relaxed about things like formal hall (I invited a Wadhamite to Merton formal and he had to buy a tie and steal a gown :p:

), and they have Queerfest, which this year had a rainbow flag flying (upside-down) over the college for the week, but I doubt they differ much to other colleges as far as tolerance and stuff goes; Oxford's a fairly liberal place. No idea about accomodation though.

Reply 183

SamF1992

1

Original post by doloroushazy

hola, I've got an offer for English at Wadham.. I was just wondering, does it really live up to its super-liberal, relaxed etc reputation? Also, what's accomodation like? I've stayed in the modern rooms at the back before, and seen some of the older rooms in the front quad, is it like generally a good standard?

sorry to bombard you with questions!

Hey

I can't speak in relation to other colleges as I don't really have any experience of them, but yeah Wadham is much as described. We don't have formal hall (we can still eat in hall, but don't wear gowns or anything like that), we have queerweek, which is a big LGBT awareness week in 6th week of michaelmas, which ends in queerfest on the saturday. The place is generally very liberal and relaxed, although I doubt that's paticular to Wadham.

Accomodation is good in my opinion, all rooms are charged at the same rate so there's no "segregation" between those who can afford the better rooms and those who can't, and if I remember rightly, it's the cheapest accomodation of the entire uni. Rooms are all of a decent size too, although it does vary a bit. Only downside to the accomodation I'd say is, if you're not in the new buildings, the kitchens are pretty poor, although our food and ameneties SU reps are working on that, and we have access to the JCR kitchen which is suitably equipped.

Hopefully that's helped, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask :smile:

Reply 184

loopy786

13

Original post by la-dauphine

Haha no, three meals per day :smile:

With two courses for dinner. Some students just make breakfast/lunch themselves though, using the JCR kitchen. Accommodation and food at Exeter College is pricey, but remember that at Oxford the terms are much shorter, so it actually works out as cheaper - paying £130 per week for 24 weeks isn't too bad compared to paying £100 for 39 weeks! At Bristol or Durham it's not uncommon to pay around £5000 per year for accommodation in halls/colleges. Oxford also has amongst the most generous grants, bursaries and scholarships in the UK: http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate_courses/student_funding/ Basically, they make sure that no one has to leave for financial reasons.

Oh okay, phew. :tongue:

I was a tad concerned. XD And that sounds good. :smile:

Hmm, good point with regards to overall cost. :smile:

And thanks for the link. :smile:

Original post by SamF1992

Cost at Oxford should never be a problem, there's loads of financial support available. Like this year, I get about £4k in the form of the Oxford Opportunity Bursary, which is non-repayable and completeley seperate from student finance. On top of that, there are hardship funds and other various stuff, Oxford is really good in this area.

Ah, that sounds great! :smile:

I was just worried, y'know. I don't have a job yet and I don't want to put the pressure on my parents to help me along when things are so tight already, it's kind of sad. I just have to get in, now. :tongue:

Genuinely, thank you for you help. :smile:

Reply 185

GreenLantern1

Original post by Reminisce

Hey, does anyone know to what extent we could "mingle" with OTHER colleges? I mean, could we freely walk around the grounds of other colleges (for my interview at my other college, at least, I could walk around freely but places like Christ Church, where to my understanding there is a fee for tourists, is it free for students of other colleges to roam?). And also, are we allowed to eat at other colleges (say for convenience if your college is on the other side of the town and you don't want to eat fast food or something XD) without necessarily having someone from the college accompanying you? I know that dinners are formal so you'd need an invitation but most colleges have a pay-as-you-eat for lunch I think so what about them?

You know you applied to Oxford and had 99% average UMS in your relevant subjects, did you inform them that you had this UMS average, so you could use it to your benefit. Did they know about it. And if so, how i.e. personal statement, in interview?

Do you know what your MAT score was aswell? If you know, what was it? hehe (nosey)

Reply 186

tooambitious

16

1) Which college other than your own would you choose if you were to reapply (and a reason :smile:

)
2) which college wuold you completely avoid (and a reason :smile:

)

3) what do you think of Christ Church? im think of applying there and people keep on trying to dissuade me :frown:

4) i dont know if this is the right place, but if you get high UMS scores and enter this on your UCAS, will Oxford take notice of this like Cambridge do?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 187

GreenLantern1

Original post by dancinginrainbows

I know Merton has a lot of them :smile:

When asked why I wanted to go to Merton in interview, my answer was that they have baths :tongue:

Was that seriously your answer? How did they respond to that.!

Reply 188

dbmag9

15

Original post by tooambitious

1) Which college other than your own would you choose if you were to reapply (and a reason :smile:

)
2) which college wuold you completely avoid (and a reason :smile:

)

3) what do you think of Christ Church? im think of applying there and people keep on trying to dissuade me :frown:

4) i dont know if this is the right place, but if you get high UMS scores and enter this on your UCAS, will Oxford take notice of this like Cambridge do?

1. New College is pretty lovely; I haven't seen that much of most colleges, though. It's pretty and has nice accomodation, from what I've seen of it. :p:

2. I guess I'd avoid somewhere far out, though I'm sure they're lovely places.

3. Christ Church is lovely; great grounds, nice place. It does have a few more of the 'so what school did you go to?' types, but you only have to hang around with them if you want to. And you'll get to swan past queuing tourists daily!

4. No idea, ask somewhere else. I'm sure they're more interested in interviews than exactly what percentage you got in some exams, though.

Reply 189

dbmag9

15

Original post by dancinginrainbows

I know Merton has a lot of them :smile:

When asked why I wanted to go to Merton in interview, my answer was that they have baths :tongue:

Time Ceremony is definitely the best reason to go to Merton. I told one of the founders that; he was rather bemused. :p:

Reply 190

Reminisce

11

Original post by GreenLantern1

You know you applied to Oxford and had 99% average UMS in your relevant subjects, did you inform them that you had this UMS average, so you could use it to your benefit. Did they know about it. And if so, how i.e. personal statement, in interview?

Do you know what your MAT score was aswell? If you know, what was it? hehe (nosey)

UMS, should you wish, could be put in the reference by your referee. That's what my teacher did. :smile:

I don't know my MAT score sorry, there are rumours that some will find out on their first year, some will find out on their last year and some won't ever find out (depends on the college I think). I guess you could explicitly email them and they'll probably tell you...

Reply 191

tooambitious

16

Original post by Reminisce

UMS, should you wish, could be put in the reference by your referee. That's what my teacher did. :smile:

I don't know my MAT score sorry, there are rumours that some will find out on their first year, some will find out on their last year and some won't ever find out (depends on the college I think). I guess you could explicitly email them and they'll probably tell you...

excuse my ignorance, i dont recognise your insurance university, ould you enlighten me, shot in the dark at imperial?

Reply 192

dbmag9

15

Original post by tooambitious

excuse my ignorance, i dont recognise your insurance university, ould you enlighten me, shot in the dark at imperial?

LSE, judging by the filename. :p:

Reply 193

IPlayThePiccolo

15

What's the deal with dressing up for exams and dinner? Does every college do that or is it just a few and is it the same for boys and girls? Does it get annoying having to dress up all the time??

Reply 194

IPlayThePiccolo

15

Original post by dbmag9

Time Ceremony is definitely the best reason to go to Merton. I told one of the founders that; he was rather bemused. :p:

Is that where they walk around backwards drinking port? My college took us to Oxford recently and the guy showing us round was telling us about it. Sounds pretty funny :biggrin:

Reply 195

tooambitious

16

Original post by dbmag9

LSE, judging by the filename. :p:

you're right, checked his profile :smile:

Reply 196

GreenLantern1

Original post by tooambitious

excuse my ignorance, i dont recognise your insurance university, ould you enlighten me, shot in the dark at imperial?

I'm pretty sure that's LSE

Reply 197

dbmag9

15

Original post by IPlayThePiccolo

What's the deal with dressing up for exams and dinner? Does every college do that or is it just a few and is it the same for boys and girls? Does it get annoying having to dress up all the time??

For exams and matriculation (and the Time Ceremony!) you wear academic dress, which means subfusc, gown and mortarboard. Subfusc consists of dark suit, white shirt and white bow tie for guys, and black skirt/trousers, white shirt and white ribbon for girls. I haven't had exams in it yet, and I imagine it's a bit annoying then, but matriculation is pretty fun, and you get tourists taking photos of you and stuff.

Dressing up for dinners would be for formal hall, which is a second, more formal, sitting of dinner at some colleges - most have it at least once a week, all the way up to some which have it daily. Dress for that varies from smartish to anything plus a gown to full suit/tie/gown, but that's all optional. It's quite fun though, and it becomes a nice social thing.

Original post by IPlayThePiccolo

Is that where they walk around backwards drinking port? My college took us to Oxford recently and the guy showing us round was telling us about it. Sounds pretty funny :biggrin:

To preserve the integrity of the space-time continuum we walk around Fellows' Quad for an hour, in full academic dress, backwards, drinking port. It's completely awesome. :awesome:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 198

frequent_flyer

8

Original post by doloroushazy

hola, I've got an offer for English at Wadham.. I was just wondering, does it really live up to its super-liberal, relaxed etc reputation? Also, what's accomodation like? I've stayed in the modern rooms at the back before, and seen some of the older rooms in the front quad, is it like generally a good standard?

sorry to bombard you with questions!

Welcome to wadham! :thumbsup:

Accommodation varies but it is all the rooms are pretty big and fairly modern. You'll get an accommodation form later where you have the option to specify where you want to live- the nicest rooms are the shared rooms on the front quad, they're huge and beautiful. If you don't want to share, the modern ones are brilliant (called the bowra)- you're right next to the library and the jcr- and definitely write that you DO NOT want to live in staircases 28-32 aka rejects corner.

As for the liberal reputation the short answer is YES. Although we supposedly don't have formal hall, this gives you an excuse to beg an invite from people at other colleges, and ever couple of weeks we do have black tie guest dinners. There is a huge mix of people in college and it really is an enormously friendly and accepting place. We also have great bops (and queerfest!) where everyone cross dresses, oh and I'm not giving anything away but look forward to learning the infamous WADHAM DANCE :wink:

Reply 199

dancinginrainbows

2

Original post by GreenLantern1

Was that seriously your answer? How did they respond to that.!

I also said because it's close to stuff, but they were a but bemused. Mostly because at first they thought I meant public baths and must've thought I was completely mental. I got in, anyway. All that matters :tongue:

Original post by dbmag9