Oxford open day

I'm going to the open day at Oxford this wednesday (the 27th). I'm looking to study PPE and if I were asked for what kind of college i prefer, I don't mind whether it is modern or traditional in terms of building. The main thing I care about is a higher percentage of state school students to those of private schools. The main one I've only looked at visiting is Balliol.
Does this sound like the correct college to be looking at? If not, which colleges should I be looking to visit?
Thanks

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 1

RichE

15

Original post by elliottanner

I'm going to the open day at Oxford this wednesday (the 27th). I'm looking to study PPE and if I were asked for what kind of college i prefer, I don't mind whether it is modern or traditional in terms of building. The main thing I care about is a higher percentage of state school students to those of private schools. The ones that I plan to look at are Balliol and Harris Manchester.
Do these sound like the correct colleges to be looking at? If not, what one's should I be looking to visit?
Thanks

I guess you know that Harris Manchester is for mature (21+) students only. (Mentioning this just in case you weren't aware.)

Reply 2

The_Lonely_Goatherd

20

Are you a mature student? Harris Manchester is mature students only (just in case you weren't aware!) :fyi:

In my day (which was admittedly a decade ago) St John's and Mansfield had the higher percentages of state school students. Mansfield still maintains this to this day afaik - less sure about St John's :dontknow:

Enjoy the open day :biggrin:

Reply 3

AStJohnsStudent

Original post by elliottanner

I'm going to the open day at Oxford this wednesday (the 27th). I'm looking to study PPE and if I were asked for what kind of college i prefer, I don't mind whether it is modern or traditional in terms of building. The main thing I care about is a higher percentage of state school students to those of private schools. The main one I've only looked at visiting is Balliol.
Does this sound like the correct college to be looking at? If not, which colleges should I be looking to visit?
Thanks

Hello there, Mansfield leads the way in terms of state schools students (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-41829685, and nexttime below gives good breakdown of the best state-private) There is no 'correct' college to be looking at as such, and I would definitely recommend looking at more than one. Some are large, some are small, some are central and some are more remote. I'd recommend getting a feeling for a good selection of them (check of course that they do your course first, and that they accept undergraduates (as others has said, Harris Manchester is post-grad only)).

Finally, while it's fine to make your college choice based on state/private, I can say as a state-comprehensive student that I've never been made to feel uncomfortable as a result. I go to St John's (admittedly one of the higher state proportions), but I honestly don't know where many of my friends went to school, we just don't talk about it. I'm often surprised to find someone goes to Eton, or another large public school - they're all absolutely lovely and nothing like how you'd expect!

When looking around colleges (much like all universities) get a feel for them, see how close they are to what you might need, and see if they offer three years of accommodation in-college, if that's important to you (St John's does for example).

Let me know if you have any other questions!

(edited 5 years ago)

Original post by elliottanner

I'm going to the open day at Oxford this wednesday (the 27th). I'm looking to study PPE and if I were asked for what kind of college i prefer, I don't mind whether it is modern or traditional in terms of building. The main thing I care about is a higher percentage of state school students to those of private schools. The main one I've only looked at visiting is Balliol.
Does this sound like the correct college to be looking at? If not, which colleges should I be looking to visit?
Thanks

Enjoy the Open Day! To help you plan, the best data can be found at this link and the section you want is p.18

https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/Oxford%202018%20Annual%20Admissions%20Report.pdf

Balliol would meet your criterion - in fact 23 colleges would.

Brasenose Admissions

Reply 5

OxFossil

19

Original post by elliottanner

I'm going to the open day at Oxford this wednesday (the 27th). I'm looking to study PPE and if I were asked for what kind of college i prefer, I don't mind whether it is modern or traditional in terms of building. The main thing I care about is a higher percentage of state school students to those of private schools. The main one I've only looked at visiting is Balliol.
Does this sound like the correct college to be looking at? If not, which colleges should I be looking to visit?
Thanks

The state v private mix is a legitimate criterion, but the stats may be a bit misleading. For example, they do vary from year to year, and since we are considering only small numbers, the particular contingencies of your year group composition may easily outweigh the raw figure that there are - say - 100/200 state entrants in your year rather than 120/200. You've also got a 20 - 25% chance of being allocated to a college other than the one you chose!

I'd consider two other criteria. The first is whether the college guarantees accommodation for all the years of your course. Finding private accommodation isn't usually a problem, but may be an added stress that you don't need.

Secondly, to me, there is a significantly different feel to the environment of some of the enclosed colleges in the centre like Jesus compared to the more extensive grounds of places like LMH and St Catz. That may not matter much to you, though?

Reply 6

nexttime

22

Original post by elliottanner

I'm going to the open day at Oxford this wednesday (the 27th). I'm looking to study PPE and if I were asked for what kind of college i prefer, I don't mind whether it is modern or traditional in terms of building. The main thing I care about is a higher percentage of state school students to those of private schools. The main one I've only looked at visiting is Balliol.
Does this sound like the correct college to be looking at? If not, which colleges should I be looking to visit?
Thanks

As mentioned, the significant majority of Oxford colleges have more state school students than private. I probably wouldn't bother quibbling over a couple of percentage points here and there (which would likely represent literally 1-2 of students in your yeargroup). In most instances, you will not be able to tell whether someone went to a state or private school anyway. And that's assuming the percentages haven't changed for your year, which they will.

Touring too many colleges results in a kind of college exhaustion, where they all blend into one and you're more likely to be swayed by random fickle things. I personally would recommend doing all the research you can before you go - college size, size of your subject at that college, college location, architecture, accommodation quality, price and location, food price and quality, miscellaneous like presence of gym etc. And then once you've done that have a list of maybe 4 or 5 to look at on the day. Although tbh that make it sound like a more important choice than it actually is - your experience will be very similar at any college, and the things that will actually affect it like the people you end up meeting are unpredictable, is the reality

Original post by AStJohnsStudent

Hello there, can confirm that St John's and Mansfield continue to lead the way in terms of state schools students (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-41829685. St John's is up to 58.2% as of 2017).

...not sure if trolling or not? Especially with that user name!

There are 14 colleges with a higher state school intake than John's. Which makes it absolutely average, the actual median college.

The 5 highest are Mansfield, Hertford, Wadham, Balliol and Oriel.

The latter is a lesson in not believing stereotypes, Oriel traditionally being considered a 'conservative' college.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 7

AStJohnsStudent

Original post by nexttime

As mentioned, the significant majority of Oxford colleges have more state school students than private. I probably wouldn't bother quibbling over a couple of percentage points here and there (which would likely represent literally 1-2 of students in your yeargroup). In most instances, you will not be able to tell whether someone went to a state or private school anyway. And that's assuming the percentages haven't changed for your year, which they will.

Touring too many colleges results in a kind of college exhaustion, where they all blend into one and you're more likely to be swayed by random fickle things. I personally would recommend doing all the research you can before you go - college size, size of your subject at that college, college location, architecture, accommodation quality, price and location, food price and quality, miscellaneous like presence of gym etc. And then once you've done that have a list of maybe 4 or 5 to look at on the day. Although tbh that make it sound like a more important choice than it actually is - your experience will be very similar at any college, and the things that will actually affect it like the people you end up meeting are unpredictable, is the reality

...not sure if trolling or not? Especially with that user name!

There are 14 colleges with a higher state school intake than John's. Which makes it absolutely average, the actual median college.

The 5 highest are Mansfield, Hertford, Wadham, Balliol and Oriel.

The latter is a lesson in not believing stereotypes, Oriel traditionally being considered a 'conservative' college.

Ah apologies for the error with John's, think the data I must have been using was outdated - will edit the original post. Agree with the sentiment here though - whatever college you go to you will get the 'Oxford' experience and it is largely dependent on the people you meet - no controlling for that.

Oxford open day

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