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Please Recommend A College...

Hi,

I'm going to the Oxford general Open Day at the beginning of July, and want to choose a college or two to visit.

I want to read Economics & Management. I want a college that is:

- Not overly academic
- Relatively 'easy' to get in to (i.e. mid-range)
- Quite central and 'involved'
- Has a good bar, and has people who don't just work work work.
- Laid back

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers, Adam.

Reply 1

RxB

1

St Peter's?

It's worth a try. I have never actually been there but apparently it fits your criteria.

Reply 2

Geogger

13

adk

Hi,

I'm going to the Oxford general Open Day at the beginning of July, and want to choose a college or two to visit.

I want to read Economics & Management. I want a college that is:

- Not overly academic
- Relatively 'easy' to get in to (i.e. mid-range)
- Quite central and 'involved'
- Has a good bar, and has people who don't just work work work.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers, Adam.

Jesus looks nice but I understand that its a bit laid back so the degree of involvement might not be to your taste.

Reply 3

BazTheMoney

Other suggestions: Hertford, Corpus Christi, Teddy Hall.

Reply 4

adk

OP

Geogger

Jesus looks nice but I understand that its a bit laid back so the degree of involvement might not be to your taste.

Laid back is good.

Thankyou

Reply 5

Geogger

13

adk

Laid back is good.

Thankyou

Its also quite pretty, but I think some of their 2nd and 3rd year accommodation is quite a way out - mind you most of the small central colleges would have to have this! No space to expand within their limited areas

Reply 6

H&E

3

adk

Hi,

I'm going to the Oxford general Open Day at the beginning of July, and want to choose a college or two to visit.

I want to read Economics & Management. I want a college that is:

- Not overly academic
- Relatively 'easy' to get in to (i.e. mid-range)
- Quite central and 'involved'
- Has a good bar, and has people who don't just work work work.
- Laid back

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers, Adam.

Just been digging up some stats on this. Most amusing results - for the average apps per place for E&M at Corpus between 2000-2, the CCC website gives a figure of 6.0 - almost exactly twice that of the Oxford Prospectus (3.1). Bizzare stuff.

Reply 7

BazTheMoney

H&E

Just been digging up some stats on this. Most amusing results - for the average apps per place for E&M at Corpus between 2000-2, the CCC website gives a figure of 6.0 - almost exactly twice that of the Oxford Prospectus (3.1). Bizzare stuff.

The prospectus figure are notoriously inaccurate, they make them lower to try an attract candidates. The figure on the website seems a bit high though, I think that may be a bit of an overestimate. :confused:

Reply 8

H&E

3

BazTheMoney

The prospectus figure are notoriously inaccurate, they make them lower to try an attract candidates. The figure on the website seems a bit high though, I think that may be a bit of an overestimate. :confused:

6 isn't that high for E&M is it? It does say they're not including offers made to pooled/open applicants. But given that they said only 16 of those were made in 3 years for all subjects, I can't see that having too much of an impact.

Amazing though - so many candidates will base their research on the admissions stats in the back of the prospectus. Yet apparently, they can be off by as much as 100%.

Reply 9

BazTheMoney

H&E

6 isn't that high for E&M is it? It does say they're not including offers made to pooled/open applicants. But given that they said only 16 of those were made in 3 years for all subjects, I can't see that having too much of an impact.

Amazing though - so many candidates will base their research on the admissions stats in the back of the prospectus. Yet apparently, they can be off by as much as 100%.

True. It's just shows that you shouldn't pay any attention to application ratios.

Reply 10

Helenia

20

BazTheMoney

True. It's just shows that you shouldn't pay any attention to application ratios.

When I applied we just had a chart with pretty colours depending on whether a college had higher, average or lower applications per place. No specific statistics, but I did look at it (put me off Caius and King's right away) and was happy enough that Clare was in the middle, though probably less so now.

Reply 11

llama boy

7

H&E

Just been digging up some stats on this. Most amusing results - for the average apps per place for E&M at Corpus between 2000-2, the CCC website gives a figure of 6.0 - almost exactly twice that of the Oxford Prospectus (3.1). Bizzare stuff.

6:1 sounds about right. I was told by an E&Mist that this year it was 13 apps for 2 places.

Reply 12

mussed

adk

Hi,

I'm going to the Oxford general Open Day at the beginning of July, and want to choose a college or two to visit.

I want to read Economics & Management. I want a college that is:

- Not overly academic
- Relatively 'easy' to get in to (i.e. mid-range)
- Quite central and 'involved'
- Has a good bar, and has people who don't just work work work.
- Laid back

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers, Adam.

Queen's! www.queens.ox.ac.uk - in the centre, mid-range, not too academic, accom. for the whole time, laid back and lovely and *old*.

/selling.

Reply 13

H&E

3

BazTheMoney

True. It's just shows that you shouldn't pay any attention to application ratios.

Unfortunately, people are desperate to find colleges which are "easier" to get into. So they will clutch at any straw, however tenuous. And there's nothing the university can do about it :smile:

.

Helenia: The colour scheme method is probably better than Oxford's system, because it recognises differences are far from precise. However, when you have differences as large as this case, you have to wonder whether any classification system is effective. Quite simply, the data is wrong!

Reply 14

BazTheMoney

H&E

Unfortunately, people are desperate to find colleges which are "easier" to get into. So they will clutch at any straw, however tenuous. And there's nothing the university can do about it :smile:

.

Helenia: The colour scheme method is probably better than Oxford's system, because it recognises differences are far from precise. However, when you have differences as large as this case, you have to wonder whether any classification system is effective. Quite simply, the data is wrong!

That's why if I was "in charge" I wouldn't release application data. I think it does more bad than good, and gives student a false sense of security. Though I would hint if the course was incredible competitive, like English at Magdalen.

Reply 15

H&E

3

BazTheMoney

That's why if I was "in charge" I wouldn't release application data. I think it does more bad than good, and gives student a false sense of security. Though I would hint if the course was incredible competitive, like English at Magdalen.

Hehe. Baz for President. (Or woud you prefer Supreme Dictator for Life? Personally, I've always had an affinity for that title).

Re real world: Er...how? Surely releasing data is better than letting people base their choices on misconceptions and stereotypes? The problem isn't, so far as I can tell, that they're releasing data; it's that a) it's very inaccurate and b) this inaccuracy is not stated clearly.

Reply 16

Zapsta

While we're at it, anyone want to recommend me a couple for maths and philo? :smile:

I want to go somewhere with a pretty good academic reputation, but not one of the colleges that say "we expect the absolute maximum from our students". So maybe a level 2 college if that makes sense, which is hopefully quite central as well.

Reply 17

H&E

3

Zapsta

While we're at it, anyone want to recommend me a couple for maths and philo? :smile:

I want to go somewhere with a pretty good academic reputation, but not one of the colleges that say "we expect the absolute maximum from our students". So maybe a level 2 college if that makes sense, which is hopefully quite central as well.

Corpus! Top 10 of Norrington, but if you don't want to work that's fine. Also quite central.

tbh, for a small subject like M&P, your choices will probably depend a lot on who offers it, and which colleges have Philosophy fellows.

Reply 18

Helenia

20

BazTheMoney

That's why if I was "in charge" I wouldn't release application data. I think it does more bad than good, and gives student a false sense of security. Though I would hint if the course was incredible competitive, like English at Magdalen.

Or PPE at Balliol? :tongue:

I'm not sure if annual application :tongue:

laces ratios are useful, but candidates do need some information on those kinds of things otherwise they can't make an informed choice. I like the colour thing though - easier to understand, and doesn't highlight the trivial differences. With numbers, it would be easier to get hung up over one college having 4.2 applicants per place and another having 4.4; with colour banding they'd be the same which is basically true.

Plus it covers the discrepancies between subjects - something like Medicine/Law/PPE will have much higher ratios than Theology or Oriental Studies (or Oxford equivalent) and so it gets rid of these.

Reply 19

Zapsta

H&E

Corpus! Top 10 of Norrington, but if you don't want to work that's fine. Also quite central.

tbh, for a small subject like M&P, your choices will probably depend a lot on who offers it, and which colleges have Philosophy fellows.

Ooh, Corpus sounds perfect :smile:

. Thank you.

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