Choosing an Oxford College

I could give you a long list of people being fined at Pembroke - I'm not saying it's necessarily more than at other colleges, but they are definitely happy to fine. Including fining someone they've already sent down for a term - as if that wasn't punishment enough.

Do these graphs represent last 3 years' statistics?

First graph bothered me a bit, it seems like less popular colleges are less picky about their applicants. I know that sample is small, but I wonder if you would get the same correlation with other years' stats. Just checked, and the same correlation exists :/

That's puzzling

Okay, so stuck in my college choice for PPE here, anyone have any advice?

I'm thinking either Magdalen, New or Lincoln. I'll explain my reasoning

I'd like a old, central, beautiful college, so obviously all three fit into that. What I'm really unsure about is atmosphere and size. I'd like it to be really friendly, and crucially, as someone who can't drink alcohol for medical reasons, where social life doesn't revolve around alcohol. Which is why I'm stuck between going for Large (New), bit smaller (Magdalen) or much smaller (Lincoln). I quite like traditions, but don't want too much public schoolness, so maybe not Magdalen? Anyone have any comments about the atmopshere of these three colleges, which one they felt was best? Cheers!

You'll find more people who don't want an evening to revolve around alcohol if you're at a larger college, so on that basis I'd go for Magdalen or New. What do you mean by "public schoolness"? You will find people who went to very exclusive schools whichever college you end up at – most of them will be nice; some might be a bit (or more than a bit) off. Again, you can avoid the bad eggs more easily at a larger college. I spent four enjoyable years at Magdalen and found the majority of people to be perfectly pleasant. There were certainly some people who were insufferable but I simply avoided them and I didn't feel excluded from things by doing so.

Again, you can avoid the bad eggs more easily at a larger college.

I'd argue that most 'bad eggs' are generally perfectly tolerable if they're isolated and forced to adapt to more normal behaviour. Its when you get 4 or 5 together that they might actually be a problem - exponentially more likely as college size increases.

Thank you for replying! What you said about size makes sense, guess I was just thinking a smaller, "friendlier" college would . Could I just ask you, as a Magdalen undergrad, is there still that community spirit etc. that smaller colleges pride themselves on? I think it's between Magdalen and Lincoln for me now .

EDIT: Earlier on the thread, someone described Lincoln as "cliquey". Is this true? I guess I'm just stuck between a big college and a close college.

Hmm... that's a good point that I hadn't considered.

Also, if anyone knows of any other colleges that have decent gardens but are still in the city centre and offer 3yrs. accommodation then any suggestions would be very welcome.

Shameless plug for Woosta (Worcester)! But seriously (just replied to your other post), if you really like St John's, then go for it

Woosta is really lovely - funnily enough my cousin finished her PhD there this year but I wouldn't want to steal her college!

Ah, I know that feeling! My first choice college when I was applying was initially going to be St Hilda's due to the music building they have there, but my sister went there, so I felt I couldn't apply there! Then my sister suggested Wadham but they didn't do music at the time, so she suggested Woosta, and the rest is history

I was almost swayed to go for Wadham - my uncle went there - until I found out that their Fellows' Garden is actually exclusively for the use of fellows! My brother is also applying for 2016 entry and we've already decided that we're not going to tell each other which college each of us is applying for so that we don't end up arguing over who has the better claim to a college...

Hi, I'm thinking of applying for English at St. John's College. I've never actually been up to see it/had a tour so the thing I'd really like to know is if the gardens there are as nice as they look, and you can actually walk on/use them? Also, if anyone knows of any other colleges that have decent gardens but are still in the city centre and offer 3yrs. accommodation then any suggestions would be very welcome.