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Choosing an Oxford College

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Original post by MNem
hahah i heard this too! I'm a north walian myself actually :wink: and i know another girl from north wales who goes there.... weird haha


I didn't realise you meant North Wales, feel like an imposter as I'm a Geordie :tongue: although I am 1/4 Welsh (so maybe I did pick the right college last year!)
Original post by Edminzodo
Is Christ Church as snobby as people say?

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The whole of Oxford is generally less snobby than people say so I'm gonna go with no...
Some colleges may be more traditional than others, but that's generally more defined by weird quirks rather than how pompous they are
Original post by MNem
so by this data

http://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/admissions-statistics/college-success-rates

am i right in thinking that its untrue when oxford say 'you have an equal chance of getting in no matter where you apply'....? because for my subject (english), people who choose somerville have a 40% chance of getting in, whereas jesus only has an 8% chance...
or am i completely misunderstanding? seems like a pretty big difference:confused:


Most likely, Somerville didn't get a lot of applicants while Jesus got a huge amount. Jesus also has very few places. Hence a lot of applicants to Jesus must have been pooled elsewhere if they were considered good enough. On the other hand, Somerville must have accepted a lot of pooled applicants. I haven't seen the data so the alternative could just be that Somerville received a few, competitive applications while Jesus received a lot, not all of which were competitive.

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Original post by MNem
so by this data

http://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/admissions-statistics/college-success-rates

am i right in thinking that its untrue when oxford say 'you have an equal chance of getting in no matter where you apply'....? because for my subject (english), people who choose somerville have a 40% chance of getting in, whereas jesus only has an 8% chance...
or am i completely misunderstanding? seems like a pretty big difference:confused:



So, you are a prospective student looking at colleges for English. You come across the web page for english at Jesus, and find that they are bragging on their webpage that all of their finalists achieved firsts last year (which is pretty amazing). How many ambitious students might look at that and think- oooh, I like the sound of that- I might increase my odds of getting a first from Oxford if I choose Jesus college for english compared to (say) Somerville. Plus, they have 28 places to Somerville's 12 so my chances have to be better on even getting in, right?!

Wrong. Your subject has a 20% admissions rate, and they look at applications across colleges. No matter how many applicants Jesus gets- 100 or 200 or 50- they won't interview more than about 60, and all the ones that are viable candidates that they do not have space to interview will be reviewed by the group.

As another poster has noted, the 'success' rate is different every year, because it depends entirely on how many people are impressed by the web page versus how many are put off by the food (sorry, Jesus, it was just an example!). Witness Worcester stats the year Emma Watson was there.

Really truly your ELAT will be *way* more important to getting accepted than which college you apply to. Choose the one that you think you would like to go to most, knowing that you have a 25-30% chance of being pooled anyway.
(edited 9 years ago)
Hope this is the right place to post this. Thinking of applying to Oxford for biological sciences, and trying to make a decision over a possible college choice. My interests are mainly in the zoological side of biology, especially conservation, and so I'm interested in the kind of work the WildCRU do, which I think is postgraduate level research, but is linked to Lady Margaret Hall. I was wondering if by being an undergraduate at LMH, it would give me any an advantage in increasing the chance of working, or potential postgrad work, with the WildCRU and the researchers there? Or if the chances would be the same regardless for which college I apply to. As this would probably be a big influence on my choice of where to apply to. Thanks a lot.


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I'm interested in studying persian and Arabic at Oxford. Has anyone got advice on what college I should apply for?


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Original post by hahahoran18
I'm interested in studying persian and Arabic at Oxford. Has anyone got advice on what college I should apply for?


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Have you checked which colleges offer your course? If so, do list them so we know as well.

We'll also need something to work with. What factors are important to you? A good starting point is to think whether you want a big or small college, a central college, accommodation for all 3 years and also things which are important to you personally.

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Original post by hahahoran18
I'm interested in studying persian and Arabic at Oxford. Has anyone got advice on what college I should apply for?


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The only person I knew doing persian did it at John's. But that was because it was close to the department. A lot of language stuff is departmnetal, so college choice is less about teaching. Look for colleges with good accomodation, and maybe some travel grants for your year abroad.
Original post by Kingsley L Hunt
Hope this is the right place to post this. Thinking of applying to Oxford for biological sciences, and trying to make a decision over a possible college choice. My interests are mainly in the zoological side of biology, especially conservation, and so I'm interested in the kind of work the WildCRU do, which I think is postgraduate level research, but is linked to Lady Margaret Hall. I was wondering if by being an undergraduate at LMH, it would give me any an advantage in increasing the chance of working, or potential postgrad work, with the WildCRU and the researchers there? Or if the chances would be the same regardless for which college I apply to. As this would probably be a big influence on my choice of where to apply to. Thanks a lot.


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Postgrad research isn't really an important factor in choosing I think. I'm a chemist, and most of us are doing our masters years with professors not attached to our colleges. If you are interested in what tutes might focus on, look up professors at the colleges you are interested in, but you often get tutes at many colleges anyway.
Original post by somethin_blue
Hey!
Does any of you happen to know anything about Wadham? I really fell in love with the college. Especially with that whole "diversity" thing, since I'm an international (EU) and a bit worried about how they would feel about someone not from UK :biggrin: And I want to know more about it, I read their whole website and am just :heart:


Wadham is nice, its big which is good, has lots of accomodation, and lots of social events and things. (Don't worry about being international btw, most students will be curious about your country, not mean or anything. Diversity is large in most colleges)
Original post by Isobelkp
The only person I knew doing persian did it at John's. But that was because it was close to the department. A lot of language stuff is departmnetal, so college choice is less about teaching. Look for colleges with good accomodation, and maybe some travel grants for your year abroad.


Thanks for the advice. Ive heard st.johns is a good college for persian from loads if people so im applying there...

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Original post by hahahoran18
Thanks for the advice. Ive heard st.johns is a good college for persian from loads if people so im applying there...

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St John's is a good college for everything :wink:
im also applying for English. ANyone out there got good advice about which college to apply to..
hell out there..
does anyone have good advice about what colleges are good for English applicants at Oxford. Know anyone who's been?
Thank you!
Original post by personage
im also applying for English. ANyone out there got good advice about which college to apply to..


What kinda things are important to you in college choice? Like big v small, central v further out, etc? :smile:
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
What kinda things are important to you in college choice? Like big v small, central v further out, etc? :smile:


want good tutors who like teaching, rather than researching, and to be fairly central, and rooms okish!
Original post by dragonkeeper999
I'm at Cambridge rather than Oxford, so don't know anything about the specifics of the colleges. However, the Oxford admissions process with multiple interviews usually at a couple of different colleges does help a lot to even out the chances of getting into Oxford no matter now competitive the particular college you originally applied to was - so go with the college you prefer and would be happy living at :smile:

Have you had a chance to visit the colleges? I found that really helpful when narrowing down my college choice :smile:



Excellent advice.
Original post by personage
want good tutors who like teaching, rather than researching



Oh dear, does that still go on?
I'm not sure! is there anyway of finding out which Oxford college gets the most Firsts in English?
lol...did you see the post above?!

Last year all the English finalists at Somerville got firsts....but, choosing a college based on how many firsts its finalists got in any given subject is as hopeless as choosing it based on admissions ratios. Look at the Norrington tables over time, and you will see just how variable the number of firsts are at any given college. Magdalen & New are the only ones who have been in the top 10 every year for the last 7 years.

Stop trying to parse the results and spend more time looking at what the tutors are into. For example, Somerville tutors give their areas of particular interest as being

18th-century and romantic literature
Scottish and Irish literature
Austen
English literature of the seventeenth century
Medieval English Psalters
Biblical translation and interpretation
Development of the vernacular
Devotional writing.

Are any of those particularly interesting to you?

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