The Student Room Group

Scroll to see replies

Reply 7980

Original post
by ice_cube
I find that article really interesting. I completely get that it seems unreasonable for people to be contactable constantly, but I really don’t think that this is confined to academia, at all. I never switch my phone off, and reply to emails all evening, weekend, and on holiday. I would never dare not. And while I work in an unusual place, this is the situation most of my friends these days seem to be in. I think it’s more symptomatic of how crazily important work has generally now become to people, and how competitive all industries are now becoming to progress in.


Yeah, this. But also the definite downside of smartphones, tablets etc... A decade ago you just couldn't be contactable all the time, so people couldn't possibly expect it.

Reply 7981

This seems to be one of the advantages of medicine compared with other professions - in general we leave our work once we go home and aren't expected to be permanently contactable at home. It's a bit different for consultants but even then nobody will mind if they don't answer if they're not on call.

But then, I'm writing this now, still have 8 hours left at work, having had no sleep in the day as I had a job interview for the next level of training, so you can't win them all!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 7982

Original post
by llacerta
Going to be at St. John's College for the next three years. :biggrin:


:king1: :banana: :awesome: :awesome: :yeah:

Of course an inferior college to a certain sauce-named college, but still pretty good :tongue:

Nah, I jest. Congrats! A great college. So much money lying around St John's :eek3:

Reply 7983

Original post
by The_Lonely_Goatherd
:king1: :banana: :awesome: :awesome: :yeah:

Of course an inferior college to a certain sauce-named college, but still pretty good :tongue:

Nah, I jest. Congrats! A great college. So much money lying around St John's :eek3:


Thanks! Haha, my friend who's there already was like, "we use £20 notes as toilet paper". So extravagant! :biggrin:

Also, St. Hilda's is having a summer wine exchange with Worcester later in the term so I'll finally get a chance to see your college! :smile:

Reply 7984

Original post
by llacerta
Thanks! Haha, my friend who's there already was like, "we use £20 notes as toilet paper". So extravagant! :biggrin:


:rofl: :yep: :teehee:

Also, St. Hilda's is having a summer wine exchange with Worcester later in the term so I'll finally get a chance to see your college! :smile:


Yay! :h: Tiz a beautiful college. So nice in the summer! Equally, beautiful in the snow :yep: Twas a nice place to be and study, even if I don't really remember it :tongue:

Reply 7985

Original post
by llacerta
Thanks! Haha, my friend who's there already was like, "we use £20 notes as toilet paper". So extravagant! :biggrin:

Also, St. Hilda's is having a summer wine exchange with Worcester later in the term so I'll finally get a chance to see your college! :smile:


Ooh are you a Hildabeast?

Reply 7987

Original post
by Feefifofum
Ooh are you a Hildabeast?


Yes, I am. :biggrin:

Reply 7988

Original post
by llacerta
Yes, I am. :biggrin:


Hooray! I think I might have known that, but I'd forgotten. Excellent college :biggrin: I was there for 4 years.

Reply 7989

Original post
by Feefifofum
Hooray! I think I might have known that, but I'd forgotten. Excellent college :biggrin: I was there for 4 years.


I don't think I'd realised that you'd been there! Were you there as an undergrad? And you're right, an excellent college indeed. :biggrin: It's definitely coming into its own this term- that picturesque riverside position is making me feel bad for all the times I wished I was at a college with the traditional quad layout! Plus, Hilda's certainly knows how to throw a good ball.

Reply 7990

Original post
by llacerta
I don't think I'd realised that you'd been there! Were you there as an undergrad? And you're right, an excellent college indeed. :biggrin: It's definitely coming into its own this term- that picturesque riverside position is making me feel bad for all the times I wished I was at a college with the traditional quad layout! Plus, Hilda's certainly knows how to throw a good ball.


Yep, I did my BA there (Classics). It's fantastic in the spring and summer. I love it when the punts come out and it's warm enough to picnic on South Lawns. Quads look nice but there's a lot to be said for grounds that you can actually walk on and enjoy too! :biggrin: I was back for a wedding over Easter and it was great to be in the college again. Stayed in CBB (I was never clever enough to get a room in there as a student :wink: ) and the reception was in the dining hall. It was really special to be back where we all met, including the happy couple :smile:

Reply 7991



Euugh. Yep, housing here is an absolute nightmare. Fires are shockingly common (to someone from the UK)...mostly, it seems, because of the amount of wooden structure housing around. Triple deckers are the classic Boston style, but they can be a serious fire risk. The student housing market is awful, the housing stock is low in Boston, because it's a mostly low rise city and there isn't much land on which to build anything new. Landlords have the pick of 250,000 students, and they can pretty much charge what they like.
I live in a less undergraddy part of Allston/Brighton, the neighborhood much of that article talks about, and I viewed some truly shocking places when I was trying to find a place at short notice last year when our apartment purchase fell through (another effect of the student rental market -the buyers market moves so fast and prices increase so fast that assessments cannot keep up with market value...actually we were buying an apartment in a triple decker, as the neighborhood we love is full of them).

Reply 7992

Took my French exam today...feel pretty good about it, so hopefully I've passed. Fingers crossed that's another hoop jumped. Still got to do German, though :s-smilie:

Reply 7993

Original post
by madamemerle
Euugh. Yep, housing here is an absolute nightmare. Fires are shockingly common (to someone from the UK)...mostly, it seems, because of the amount of wooden structure housing around. Triple deckers are the classic Boston style, but they can be a serious fire risk. The student housing market is awful, the housing stock is low in Boston, because it's a mostly low rise city and there isn't much land on which to build anything new. Landlords have the pick of 250,000 students, and they can pretty much charge what they like.
I live in a less undergraddy part of Allston/Brighton, the neighborhood much of that article talks about, and I viewed some truly shocking places when I was trying to find a place at short notice last year when our apartment purchase fell through (another effect of the student rental market -the buyers market moves so fast and prices increase so fast that assessments cannot keep up with market value...actually we were buying an apartment in a triple decker, as the neighborhood we love is full of them).

Are students from Harvard/MIT also concerned by this problem? (I mean these unis maybe offer better support to their students).

Reply 7994

Original post
by Josb
Are students from Harvard/MIT also concerned by this problem? (I mean these unis maybe offer better support to their students).


To a lesser extent, because both unis have extensive campus housing for both undergrads and graduate students, but many still do choose to live off campus for a variety of reasons. A lot of Harvard grad students live in Allston because it's on two bus lines that run straight to Harvard Sq in about 15-20 mins. Cambridge is massively expensive to rent in, so many students that do rent do so in Boston, or Somerville (where they are also competing with Tufts students for limited housing stock).

I'm not sure what you mean by support? BU and Northeastern have space problems because they are urban campuses with no room for expansion, and have large student bodies. Northeastern was, until fairly recently, a commuter university and so housing wasn't built with the university...but now it's one of the most popular unis in the US for applications, which has created a housing deficiency. Harvard and MIT were built as residential unis, and have a lot of land, besides, to expand on. As the article says, BC has the land but is fighting their neighbours to be able to build on it. There will always be students who want to live off campus for the freedom etc, particularly when the dorms don't have the charm of Harvard's house system etc; and Allston is a particularly fun area to live in.
(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 7995

Original post
by Feefifofum
It was really special to be back where we all met, including the happy couple :smile:


I have to say that I think it's this element of Oxford/Cambridge education that I'm possibly most envious of. That small collegiate feel plus knowing people, making close friends who remain friends and lead on to having wedding receptions back in college.

Don't get me wrong, I've got close friends from both my university experiences but I can count them on one hand, maybe a push two hands. That's partly due to how I did my uni life and choice of universities clearly. However, other friends and old work colleagues who have gone onto Ox and Cam, their friendship networks since graduating are much closer albeit bigger.

Whether that's the alumni network kicking in or just life I don't know...

Reply 7996

Feefifofum
x

I guess we might have had some similar experiences, then. Four years very immersed in Oxbridge, followed by suddenly being a lonely grad student in a completely new environment...


madamerle and sj: The rental situation can be just as shoddy here, sadly. This is why I was so glad to see it finally actually discussed in politics for a change: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/30/ed-miliband-labour-rental-market-reforms-property
Original post
by apotoftea
I have to say that I think it's this element of Oxford/Cambridge education that I'm possibly most envious of. That small collegiate feel plus knowing people, making close friends who remain friends and lead on to having wedding receptions back in college.

Don't get me wrong, I've got close friends from both my university experiences but I can count them on one hand, maybe a push two hands. That's partly due to how I did my uni life and choice of universities clearly. However, other friends and old work colleagues who have gone onto Ox and Cam, their friendship networks since graduating are much closer albeit bigger.

Whether that's the alumni network kicking in or just life I don't know...
That and the provision of decent housing, cf above...

Reply 7997

Talking of fires in Boston, my sister's apartment block caught fire (you may have seen it in local news, madamemerle) and was completely incinerated on the inside, as well as very wet (once the firemen were done with it). It's completely inhabitable, so my sister is homeless and only has 40% of her clothes (which had to be washed/drycleaned a few times to get rid of the smell) and a few other odds and ends :frown:

Original post
by apotoftea
I have to say that I think it's this element of Oxford/Cambridge education that I'm possibly most envious of. That small collegiate feel plus knowing people, making close friends who remain friends and lead on to having wedding receptions back in college.

Don't get me wrong, I've got close friends from both my university experiences but I can count them on one hand, maybe a push two hands. That's partly due to how I did my uni life and choice of universities clearly. However, other friends and old work colleagues who have gone onto Ox and Cam, their friendship networks since graduating are much closer albeit bigger.

Whether that's the alumni network kicking in or just life I don't know...


I think its a combination of many things, including small collegiate feel and alumni networks (as you say), but also that shared experience more generally. Like even though one of my ex-tutorial partners was a huge arse towards me a lot of the time, I feel we'll always be in touch however infrequently due to shared trauma bonds :tongue:

Reply 7998

Original post
by The_Lonely_Goatherd
Talking of fires in Boston, my sister's apartment block caught fire (you may have seen it in local news, madamemerle) and was completely incinerated on the inside, as well as very wet (once the firemen were done with it). It's completely inhabitable, so my sister is homeless and only has 40% of her clothes (which had to be washed/drycleaned a few times to get rid of the smell) and a few other odds and ends :frown:

:eek: So sorry to hear that! What an awful experience :frown:

Reply 7999

Original post
by Craghyrax
:eek: So sorry to hear that! What an awful experience :frown:


Thanks :hugs: It is pretty awful. She's remaining incredibly upbeat about the whole thing. I'd be in pieces if it were me. Thankfully she was out of the state when it happened (she was in DC visiting a friend).

She didn't have contents insurance but is getting the deposit back from her landlady. A few things survived, including a copy of her PhD thesis :biggrin: But yeah, feeling very helpless being on the opposite end of the Atlantic to her right now. I wish I could go over there or send her money or do something :frown:

How The Student Room is moderated

To keep The Student Room safe for everyone, we moderate posts that are added to the site.