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Magdalen or Wadham?

B]I'll be applying for human sciences in october this year but am torn between Magdalen and Wadham college. At the moment i'm leaning towards Wadham because from the open days, i got the impression that I would prefer the people there...but I'm still unsure. Any advice? Do either colleges have any reputations or attract different people? etcetc. Any information/opinions would be good. Thanks :ta:

Reply 1

sophisti_kate

Learn how to spell neighbourhood :biggrin:

Reply 2

neighborhood1

OP

lol no, neighborhood1 as in the arcade fire song - that's how they spell it ;yes;

Reply 3

shady lane

16

sophisti_kate

Learn how to spell neighbourhood :biggrin:

That's the American spelling...jeez. I hate when people say "learn how to spell" when it's a legitimate spelling in a country that has 3x the population of the UK.

Reply 4

kizer

15

shady lane

That's the American spelling...jeez. I hate when people say "learn how to spell" when it's a legitimate spelling in a country that has 3x the population of the UK.

This is a UK forum - neighborhood is just wrong here. Oh and NB, the US's population is more like 5x the UK's.... jeez.

To the OP, if you preferred Wadham, apply there!

Reply 5

shady lane

16

kizer

This is a UK forum - neighborhood is just wrong here. Oh and NB, the US's population is more like 5x the UK's.... jeez.

To the OP, if you preferred Wadham, apply there!

I didn't realize (with a z) that the internet was confined to territorial borders. I've managed to log onto TSR with relative ease from the US.

Reply 6

kizer

15

^^ Don't be pedantic. The website is run from the UK, and its target demographic is UK students. There is a US version for those who want to spell things differently.

And I'll take your silence on the populations of the countries as admittance you were wrong.

God I've had a long day.

Reply 7

shady lane

16

kizer

^^ Don't be pedantic. The website is run from the UK, and its target demographic is UK students. There is a US version for those who want to spell things differently.

And I'll take your silence on the populations of the countries as admittance you were wrong.

God I've had a long day.

I am a UK student, for your information, I'm starting an MSc at LSE in September. By the way, I won't be required to change my spelling for the course.

Do you want me to say "yes I made a mistake, thank you very much sir"? You should be happy I was giving your little country a larger share than it actually has in the world population.

PS The only reason I initially clicked on this thread was that I did a study abroad program at Magdalen last year, and I was going to give some input. But your unnecessary comment about spelling distracted me.

Reply 8

Elles

17

If you have any specific Magdalen questions I can try & answer them - otherwise probably something to be said for going for your gut instinct college once you've considered any practical elements important to you e.g. location, size, accomodation/catering provision, specific subject provision, sports/societies, support funds....

On the reputations/people attracted it's hard to say really (other than perhaps Wadham = gay, Magd = posh?) but there are all sorts of people at either! & certainly for Magd i don't think open days/interview periods necessarily give the most realistic impression...the type of people who put me off at interviews didn't get in. :wink:

Reply 9

neighborhood1

OP

thanks, well the problem is that my gut instinct in terms of the college appearence, facilities etc was to go with magdalen but in terms of social apsects it was wadham...so i'm not sure now. how do you find the people in magdalen and general life there? do most people seem to enjoy it? oh, and also i was wondering - do you get much oppertunity to meet people from other colleges?

Reply 10

kizer

15

shady lane

I am a UK student, for your information, I'm starting an MSc at LSE in September. By the way, I won't be required to change my spelling for the course.

Do you want me to say "yes I made a mistake, thank you very much sir"? You should be happy I was giving your little country a larger share than it actually has in the world population.

PS The only reason I initially clicked on this thread was that I did a study abroad program at Magdalen last year, and I was going to give some input. But your unnecessary comment about spelling distracted me.

Yes I know who you are, you did a degree in the US, and you're American. Check the thread again, and you'll see it wasn't me who first commented on your spelling, I was just replying to YOUR unnecessarily sharp comment about it being spelt differently in a country with a larger population.

As for being happy about being given a larger share of the population - what? I don't judge countries based on their size. What do I care whether I'm sharing this island with 60m or 100m people? If you really care about that, you'd better start bigging up China and India..

I find it funny when people make up statistics on the spot and try to ignore it when they are corrected, that's all. Happens in D&D all the time.

Anyway, I'm sure you are a lovely person (seriously), and I think I normally am too, so let's end this: sorry for being sharp, I haven't had the best day.

Reply 11

neighborhood1

OP

oh, and shady lane what did you think about magdalen? how are you finding living in london after oxford? i live in london and i know it will be a bit of a culture shock moving from a huge city where there's everything you could want within relatively easy reach to somewhere much smaller..how do you think it compares? good?

Reply 12

shady lane

16

neighborhood1

oh, and shady lane what did you think about magdalen? how are you finding living in london after oxford? i live in london and i know it will be a bit of a culture shock moving from a huge city where there's everything you could want within relatively easy reach to somewhere much smaller..how do you think it compares? good?

I loved Magdalen. I was doing a program through Stanford University, and I had this great economics lecturer named Derek Robinson who threw us lovely drinks parties :smile:

It's a really beautiful college and has loads of resources (punts!). I think you mentioned you want to do sciences, right? I had a friend who was doing physics, he said Magdalen was one of the least competitive colleges for that subject.

Honestly Oxford is a lovely place. I did find myself in London nearly every weekend though. But in terms of social life, there's enough to do during the week, and many shops and other things. I was a Thursday night at the Bridge (a nightclub) faithful for nearly the entire 6 months I was there! I didn't find that I couldn't get what I needed in Oxford by any means.

Reply 13

shady lane

16

kizer

Yes I know who you are, you did a degree in the US, and you're American. Check the thread again, and you'll see it wasn't me who first commented on your spelling, I was just replying to YOUR unnecessarily sharp comment about it being spelt differently in a country with a larger population.

As for being happy about being given a larger share of the population - what? I don't judge countries based on their size. What do I care whether I'm sharing this island with 60m or 100m people? If you really care about that, you'd better start bigging up China and India..

I find it funny when people make up statistics on the spot and try to ignore it when they are corrected, that's all. Happens in D&D all the time.

Anyway, I'm sure you are a lovely person (seriously), and I think I normally am too, so let's end this: sorry for being sharp, I haven't had the best day.

Truce

Reply 14

Elles

17

Hmm, well i had the choice to move to a London uni this year or change to another college within Oxford but didn't - so that probably says how I've found it! All the other medics in my year (6 of us) made the same decision, I've plenty of college friends who are staying on for Masters or D Phils & the final weeks of last term were quite emotional (i;ve finished my 3rd year now, so plenty of my matric year were finishing for good... :bawling:

) - so from my sample i would definitely say most people do.
But most people probably enjoy life whichever college they're at & if anyone is living life as a depressed hermit then most other people wouldn't know about it?

Welfare systems seem pretty strong at Magd specifically - college parenting works, good JCR reps & ex reps, plus very approachable Deans/tutorial office staff/chaplain. & there's a Personal Tutor system linking JCR members to an SCR tutor who doesn't do their subject but has volunteered to be a personal tutor - mine had us round to dinner quite regularly & organized a trip to his ex place of work (very worth going to....). I don't think anyone dropped out from my year - some people deferred (started again the next year for personal reasons) & the college seemed supportive of that.

Knowing people from other colleges - yes. It obviously depends what subject you study & how you choose to spend your time, but taking Wadham as an example I have medic friends there, friends from a university sport I do, some from a society i volunteer with & an old friend from 6th form went there, so some of her friends too.

Reply 15

Peter_The_Great

4

Wadham > Magdalen

- Active, liberal-left progressive SU, major supporter of minority rights
- Central location
- Architecture's quite nice, mix of 17th - 20th centuries.
- Has its own theatre/badminton court
- More chilled people, traditionally hippy/stoner types
- Likes state-school students a lot more
- Magic mushrooms growing in the gardens...

So yeah, Wadham all the way!

Reply 16

Athena

6

I know the HumSci tutor at Magdalen specialises in mice, so you may be more at risk of ALF/SPEAK attacks studying with him... on the other hand, Magdalen is rich, so they can afford the security :wink:

Human Sciences is very small, a lot of stuff is done as a subject, and you have a pretty high chance of being pooled anyway. Just don't apply to St Catz - I'm told it's a concrete carpark.

Reply 17

Yttrium

1

neighborhood1

B]I'll be applying for human sciences in october this year but am torn between Magdalen and Wadham college. At the moment i'm leaning towards Wadham because from the open days, i got the impression that I would prefer the people there...but I'm still unsure. Any advice? Do either colleges have any reputations or attract different people? etcetc. Any information/opinions would be good. Thanks :ta:

Well, being from Magdalen I am biased to the point of complete untrustworthiness but I don't care - here's why Magdalen's such a wonderful place:

1) Magdalen simply isn't filled with rahs and public-school idiots. Most of the people from the top public schools are fairly personable (they tend to belong to the very-self-confident-and-often-very-attractive rather than the irretrievably up-their-own-arse breed). It's got one of the best male/female splits in the uni (presuming a 50/50 split being good is a truism) and the state/public school split is a lot better than some other colleges (it's again about 50/50 - admittedly Wadham was 65% state in the last admissons statistics)...

2) Magdalen is insanely pretty, wonderfully rich (money for travel grants, scholarships, various prizes etc. etc.) and gives you more of the Oxford experience with a good Formal Hall (optional, of course) 3 times a week. We also have deer (yay!) and some of the best grounds and buildings in the university. Not to mention huge tracts of land and the biggest phallic symbol (tower) in the city. Result.

3) Magdalen provides accomodation for all 3 (or 4 or however many) years of your course - not many colleges do this. All accomodation is on site or, at most, 5 minutes walk away. Some of the rooms are ludicrously large and there are a good number with en-suites and also very many sets (where you have a living room and a bedroom).

4) The food at Magdalen hall is quite good and very reasonably priced. What's more, every room in college (methinks this is true) has a kitchen within easy reach - sometimes shared between as few as 6 people. Result, again.

5) [an important one] Magdalen has a very good reputation for academic studies and consequently (and also for reasons 1-4 as well as many others) gets quite a lot of applicants. However, it is one of the best colleges for getting candidates into other colleges if all the places at Magdalen have been filled by exceptional candidates. Other colleges do this too, but Magdalen is particularly good at making sure that candidates which it considers worthy of a place at Oxford get one. Woo.

If you want to know anything else, then feel free to post or PM. Having given the spiel, I'd like to add that Wadham is a lovely place too and one of my favourite non-Magdalen colleges. I put a good deal of effort into deciding where to apply and it's probably worth doing this, but most people find that they're very happy whichever college they end up at.

Hope this wonderfully biased tirade of opinionated drivel helps you somewhat. Apologies for the slightly random tone of this post, too. Too much caffeine, methinks.

Reply 18

Elles

17

Athena

I know the HumSci tutor at Magdalen specialises in mice, so you may be more at risk of ALF/SPEAK attacks studying with him... on the other hand, Magdalen is rich, so they can afford the security :wink:

Apologies if the whole sentence is a "joke" - but *******s to that scaremongering...there are far more prolific Oxford scientists on the AR hate lists than human scientists working with mice & their students don't get attacked. :rolleyes:

Peter - major area missing from your bullet points = food & accomodation? Tis the thing my Wadham-ite friend complains about the most (she has to live out for 2 years?), but perhaps she's just too demanding? :p:

Reply 19

Peter_The_Great

4

Food...well...its edible! Accomodation isn't too bad, although you have to live out 2nd year.