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Your impressions of Balliol and Trinity?

What are the stereotypes and reputations associated with each college?
Reply 1
Avatar for elilast
elilast
12
I'm not super familiar with either college, but stereotypically, Trinity is a bit more right-wing than Balliol. Though that's not to say people at either college are horrible - I know some great people at both. I do know that Balliol has one of the few remaining student-run bars, which means cheaper drinks and a nice social space, as well as the opportunity to work there if that's something you're interested in.
Original post by elilast
I'm not super familiar with either college, but stereotypically, Trinity is a bit more right-wing than Balliol. Though that's not to say people at either college are horrible - I know some great people at both. I do know that Balliol has one of the few remaining student-run bars, which means cheaper drinks and a nice social space, as well as the opportunity to work there if that's something you're interested in.

I was also wondering if that rivalry of theirs is still alive and well.
Reply 3
Avatar for elilast
elilast
12
Original post by Stick In The Mud
I was also wondering if that rivalry of theirs is still alive and well.

I'm actually not sure, I haven't heard of that! But I've only just started studying here as a fresher so I'm probably not the best person to advise you on little Oxford traditions like that haha, sorry.
Original post by elilast
I'm actually not sure, I haven't heard of that! But I've only just started studying here as a fresher so I'm probably not the best person to advise you on little Oxford traditions like that haha, sorry.

Oo you should go read about that. It is quite famous and I found it rather amusing the first time I learned about it. The rivalry literally goes back hundreds of years.
Original post by Stick In The Mud
Oo you should go read about that. It is quite famous and I found it rather amusing the first time I learned about it. The rivalry literally goes back hundreds of years.

The more extreme examples typically cited tend to be from days long gone - the kind of upper-class boorishness and thuggery that then passed for humour. Stories I have heard tell more recently - racist taunts shouted over the dividing wall (Balliol being supposedly more liberal than Trinity), Rees-Mogg having a shotgun discharged at his rooms, night-time "raids" involving pulling up flowers and throwing eggs at windows. Hilarious.

My sense is that this kind of witlessness is nowadays no more common than similar "student pranks" at other unis. "Traditional" intercollege rivalries do surface from time to time, but are now mostly sublimated into sports events. But I could be wrong.
Do you know of any other rivalries among the colleges?

Where I come from, we don't have rivalries. Though, our Trinity College is just as snooty to the other colleges as the one across the pond in Oxford.

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