University of Oxford - the reality

Why not leave? Another university might accept you to complete a degree. You might have a better time at another university with a different teaching style.
Academics at many universities spend time researching and writing about topics in their fields. Universities are partly funded by reference to the publication of research. This is arguably a bad thing, because in the past tutors could place more emphasis on teaching.
Some academics are good teachers, some are not. It may be that you have been unlucky with your tutors, and with your social circle.
It's a long time since I was at Oxford (an experience I enjoyed, academically and socially), but I have three nephews who studied at Oxford in recent years (reading Classics, Law, and Economics and Management) and their experiences did not accord with yours. At the offer holder's day at my daughter's college the other week, the incoming freshers and the student guides did not appear to be socially awkward nerds, and my daughter isn't a socially awkward nerd.
The tutorial system is intended to be about guided self-instruction. It works for many people but not for everyone.
I am sorry that you are not enjoying your time at Oxford. Many do, some don't. Transferring to another university might be possible: why not try that?

The question remains valid. If something isn't working, maybe try another thing.

Real. I'm a fellow second year Ox law student and relate to all of this, especially the problems with organisation and tutors not being very helpful

I agree with @Stiffy Byng here. The OP is clearly having a bad time so why not try going elsewhere if Oxford doesn't suit them? Some of the OP's complaints seem like the university's fault (eg. lengthy times to return marked work) but if you don't like the people, the tutorial system, or the intense term structure then it's good advice for them to consider another university that might suit them better. University is meant to be fun after all.

I am writing about my experience of studying at the University of Oxford, as a law student, currently in my 2nd year of studies. The point of this testament is not directly to discourage people from applying to Oxford or from choosing it as their dream university, but it is to ground the (too often) glorified and overhyped image that Oxford seems to get.
I will start by addressing the obvious, my experience at Oxford has been atrocious. I do not intend to just throw this information out there without further specification or to simply create a scenario where others feel bad for me. I have far too often seen threads of people debating whether to leave Oxford or to stay, but they have addressed the issues which linger at this institution with little or no detail, failing to provide a meaningful account to others who contemplate attending this university. I therefore set out to provide a number of specific and essential trouble points which have completely dismantled my experience as a university student and as a potential lawyer.
Lack of organization
The greatest issue at Oxford is the complete lack of organization at any level of the institution. Lectures do not correspond, generally, to what is being taught in tutorials, which makes attending them useless in term time. Furthermore, even in tutorials, every tutor defines how they run their teaching independently. This leads to tutors who do a class and a tutorial, those who do a 60 min tutorial, a 90 min tutorial, those who assign an essay to be written 24h prior, 16h prior, 24 after the tutorial etc. etc. Nothing is harmonized, and no one can ever get any sense of getting into rhythm. The tutors don’t give a damn about anything, and most importantly, they do not care about your concerns. Frequently times of tutorials and deadlines change at random to cater to the needs of the tutors, with zero understanding for the difficulty of adjusting to these changes. This also applies to collections, the exams at the start of each term which places great pressure on the students to perform at a certain level, backed by threats of forced suspension of studies (or worse), but which are often left unmarked for extended periods (up to 300% of the 3 week prescribed period), or even never returned at all!
No teaching
One could talk for eternity about the shortcomings when it comes to organization, but those could be compensated if the university provided any sense of acquiring world-class information. Yet, that never occurs. Tutors do zero work. They come in for ONE HOUR, with their students having written their essays already and read the entire reading lists on their own. When I ever told them that I did not understand the content or some part of it, they basically told me to fu.. off. Deadlines are set at unreasonable periods, whereby one has to submit an essay on Wednesday 9am for a Thursday 3pm tute (every single week) only to get it back 6.5 weeks later. The exam format changed overnight at the halfway point of my degree, fundamentally destroying my note-taking skills or strategies developed over a year and a half. The response from the faculty? Too bad, fu..off. Tutors often provide little to no feedback even on the essays. Why? No one can ever compel them to do more. One is left with working alone for 6 days and 22-23 hours in a week, and 1-2 hours of tutorial where the tutors, who have already taught you nothing, pride themselves in “letting the students discuss.” It is comical, we discuss having taught ourselves everything while they sit back and do absolutely nothing…it's a failed system.
Student life
An eight-week term is great for an introverted nerd who happens to love their family. Why? 8 weeks means that the term is so short that every week’s work is so compressed that there is virtually no time to go out or interact with one's friends. Additionally, after each eight weeks, comes a six-week vacation (winter and spring) and an even longer summer. The college proceeds to confiscate your accommodation, make you move out your things on the first possible date and send you home (to rent it out to private companies and double down on their profit, once again at your own expense..which comes after paying over 700 pounds p/m for a *****y piece of acomm. already). Therefore most people just spend another month and something secluded, with their family with very little access to their friends, especially if geographically they live further away. This can hardly be described as a uni experience in any way shape or form. Oxford is a relatively pretty city, but that does not compensate for the fact that the 24 weeks spent here are insufficient given the workload to enjoy much of it.
The false aura of superiority
Lastly, the saddest part is that the entirety of the academic body, and many of the students seem to thrive in the sense that being part of Oxford automatically makes them super-human. Most people I have met here have been anti-social, freakish and complexed people (tutors and students alike) who have been ostracized because of their arrogance and anti-social ways their entire life and who have suddenly found a way to compensate their complex by assimilating themselves with the values of Oxford. These values can be described as an absolute sense of entitlement and superiority despite practically no tangible quality in anything that happens around them or even in the work that they themselves produce. This does not apply to everyone, but for a person who is well aware of the everpresent flaws, it is debilitating to see this army of fanaticized pro-Oxford people, who have no way of defending their views other than “cmon its Oxford”.
Hopefully this text allows some to get a little bit of an insight into Oxford beyond the Harry Potter dining halls and a fancy history, which has long been surpassed (at least in my opinion). Also an important reminder is that I am speaking from experience in my studies of law, which can by extension be applied to most humanities, but the experience in STEM subjects might be considerably different. I hope that this reaches not only those who are yet to enter Oxford but also those who are already here and who are going through the same experience that I am, and that may be searching for this verification of their thoughts and feelings.

I remember reading something similar by a biochemistry student at Oxford on tsr. Similarly, they said unreasonable work, 300 pages of textbook for tutorial work per week that didn't even correspond to lecture material, ended up learning content terms ahead of time, constantly being ridiculed by tutors for their essays not being good enough, with no constructive feedback. As my friend said, 'some tutors expect you to remember everything'. In the end, the other person left Oxford. I know someone who studied chemistry, and he'd say that professors would call him idiotic and storm out the room. Safe to say, you're not alone on this.

I remember reading something similar by a biochemistry student at Oxford on tsr. Similarly, they said unreasonable work, 300 pages of textbook for tutorial work per week that didn't even correspond to lecture material, ended up learning content terms ahead of time, constantly being ridiculed by tutors for their essays not being good enough, with no constructive feedback. As my friend said, 'some tutors expect you to remember everything'. In the end, the other person left Oxford. I know someone who studied chemistry, and he'd say that professors would call him idiotic and storm out the room. Safe to say, you're not alone on this.

I am writing about my experience of studying at the University of Oxford, as a law student, currently in my 2nd year of studies. The point of this testament is not directly to discourage people from applying to Oxford or from choosing it as their dream university, but it is to ground the (too often) glorified and overhyped image that Oxford seems to get.
I will start by addressing the obvious, my experience at Oxford has been atrocious. I do not intend to just throw this information out there without further specification or to simply create a scenario where others feel bad for me. I have far too often seen threads of people debating whether to leave Oxford or to stay, but they have addressed the issues which linger at this institution with little or no detail, failing to provide a meaningful account to others who contemplate attending this university. I therefore set out to provide a number of specific and essential trouble points which have completely dismantled my experience as a university student and as a potential lawyer.
Lack of organization
The greatest issue at Oxford is the complete lack of organization at any level of the institution. Lectures do not correspond, generally, to what is being taught in tutorials, which makes attending them useless in term time. Furthermore, even in tutorials, every tutor defines how they run their teaching independently. This leads to tutors who do a class and a tutorial, those who do a 60 min tutorial, a 90 min tutorial, those who assign an essay to be written 24h prior, 16h prior, 24 after the tutorial etc. etc. Nothing is harmonized, and no one can ever get any sense of getting into rhythm. The tutors don’t give a damn about anything, and most importantly, they do not care about your concerns. Frequently times of tutorials and deadlines change at random to cater to the needs of the tutors, with zero understanding for the difficulty of adjusting to these changes. This also applies to collections, the exams at the start of each term which places great pressure on the students to perform at a certain level, backed by threats of forced suspension of studies (or worse), but which are often left unmarked for extended periods (up to 300% of the 3 week prescribed period), or even never returned at all!
No teaching
One could talk for eternity about the shortcomings when it comes to organization, but those could be compensated if the university provided any sense of acquiring world-class information. Yet, that never occurs. Tutors do zero work. They come in for ONE HOUR, with their students having written their essays already and read the entire reading lists on their own. When I ever told them that I did not understand the content or some part of it, they basically told me to fu.. off. Deadlines are set at unreasonable periods, whereby one has to submit an essay on Wednesday 9am for a Thursday 3pm tute (every single week) only to get it back 6.5 weeks later. The exam format changed overnight at the halfway point of my degree, fundamentally destroying my note-taking skills or strategies developed over a year and a half. The response from the faculty? Too bad, fu..off. Tutors often provide little to no feedback even on the essays. Why? No one can ever compel them to do more. One is left with working alone for 6 days and 22-23 hours in a week, and 1-2 hours of tutorial where the tutors, who have already taught you nothing, pride themselves in “letting the students discuss.” It is comical, we discuss having taught ourselves everything while they sit back and do absolutely nothing…it's a failed system.
Student life
An eight-week term is great for an introverted nerd who happens to love their family. Why? 8 weeks means that the term is so short that every week’s work is so compressed that there is virtually no time to go out or interact with one's friends. Additionally, after each eight weeks, comes a six-week vacation (winter and spring) and an even longer summer. The college proceeds to confiscate your accommodation, make you move out your things on the first possible date and send you home (to rent it out to private companies and double down on their profit, once again at your own expense..which comes after paying over 700 pounds p/m for a *****y piece of acomm. already). Therefore most people just spend another month and something secluded, with their family with very little access to their friends, especially if geographically they live further away. This can hardly be described as a uni experience in any way shape or form. Oxford is a relatively pretty city, but that does not compensate for the fact that the 24 weeks spent here are insufficient given the workload to enjoy much of it.
The false aura of superiority
Lastly, the saddest part is that the entirety of the academic body, and many of the students seem to thrive in the sense that being part of Oxford automatically makes them super-human. Most people I have met here have been anti-social, freakish and complexed people (tutors and students alike) who have been ostracized because of their arrogance and anti-social ways their entire life and who have suddenly found a way to compensate their complex by assimilating themselves with the values of Oxford. These values can be described as an absolute sense of entitlement and superiority despite practically no tangible quality in anything that happens around them or even in the work that they themselves produce. This does not apply to everyone, but for a person who is well aware of the everpresent flaws, it is debilitating to see this army of fanaticized pro-Oxford people, who have no way of defending their views other than “cmon its Oxford”.
Hopefully this text allows some to get a little bit of an insight into Oxford beyond the Harry Potter dining halls and a fancy history, which has long been surpassed (at least in my opinion). Also an important reminder is that I am speaking from experience in my studies of law, which can by extension be applied to most humanities, but the experience in STEM subjects might be considerably different. I hope that this reaches not only those who are yet to enter Oxford but also those who are already here and who are going through the same experience that I am, and that may be searching for this verification of their thoughts and feelings.

Is there any way you could get some more information from the guy who studied Chemistry? I’ve got an offer from Oxford but am currently really struggling to make a decision between that and UCL. So any more info would be really appreciated thanks x

Asking a student at a world class university to read three hundred pages in a week is not unreasonable. When studying history at Oxford, I read tons of history but also lots of poetry, novels, politics etc. Having so much time to read was great. The rest of the time I partied and acted in plays, and that was great too. My friends mostly worked hard and they had fun too.
Nowadays, working as a lawyer, I often read hundreds of pages of documents every day, and write vast amounts of stuff. I still have time to go to see plays, and party a bit.
There are youtube videos of students complaining about Oxford and Cambridge because they are expected to work hard, to figure stuff out for themselves, and the building they live in is old and lacks all mod cons. Did these students do any due diligence before applying?

Note that the experience that you may have had dates back at least a couple of decades (I presume, given your first post). The tutors literally frequently tell us that Oxford used to be a completely different place 20-30 years ago. I think your opinion on the expectation to work hard is valid and I absolutely do not dispute it. I personally work 40+ hours every week, no clue where the 23-25h estimate from the anonymous post came from (probably misreading working alone for 6 days and 22/23 hours). At the same time, your experiences are severely outdated, and although the changes may not be drastic, they are likely significant.

Note that the experience that you may have had dates back at least a couple of decades (I presume, given your first post). The tutors literally frequently tell us that Oxford used to be a completely different place 20-30 years ago. I think your opinion on the expectation to work hard is valid and I absolutely do not dispute it. I personally work 40+ hours every week, no clue where the 23-25h estimate from the anonymous post came from (probably misreading working alone for 6 days and 22/23 hours). At the same time, your experiences are severely outdated, and although the changes may not be drastic, they are likely significant.

You said you worked alone for 22-23 hours and then had a couple of tutorials. Given that you don't have fifteen hours of lectures a week and you're doing law so you don't have labs, it's hard to understand where the additional 15+ hours go. Even if you're working 40+ hours, that still gives you 70 waking hours to play with so the point stands.







I have much more recent experience of both Oxford and Cambridge than Styffy Byng, as have a large number of my friends and colleagues, and their experiences don't accord with yours. I am genuinely sympathetic to the fact that you aren't enjoying yourself when you should be having the time of your life, but I think you shouldn't assume that your personal complaints (based, at least in part, on a sneering dislike of those around you) are a universal experience. Oxbridge isn't for everyone, especially those who don't want to work hard at their chosen subject, but the overwhelming majority of students enjoy their time, manage to socialize and engage in extracurriculars, and don't look down at most of their peers as 'freakish'.