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Choosing an Oxford College

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hobnob
If these are statistics about Oxford colleges, how come they're being hosted by CUSU?:confused:


For comparison during rent negotiations, I think. And convenient for OUSU to plagiarise them.
Reply 761
Avatar for henryt
henryt
17
Merton! I <3 Merton. And believe me, we're not (all) academic high-fliers! I bombed on my collections - 55% - with the best scoring 96%. Ah well... Regardless, our rent is very good (the best, by the looks of it), with accommodation provided for all 3/4 years of your course - the best rooms in college are absolutely amazing, and we have a really fair ballot and pricing system - set price for bedsits and set price for sets - rooms are random for first years (who all live together-ish), then ballot for 2nd year, reversed ballots for 3rd year, and re-balloted for 4th year scientists/mathmos (there are funny but sensible for linguists and classicists). Food is at best - really really tasty! - at worst - relatively tasteless, but still completely edible. Merton lunch is amazing for £2.something - if you get there early, you can get soup, main, salad, cheese and 3 desserts! And it's so pretty, especially what I've seen of Merton in Spring and Summer! And everyone (and by everyone I mean everyone) is really very very friendly. And I almost feel glad that my tutors are going to ensure I get a good grade, whilst not actually having felt much pressure at all from them yet!

Basically, Merton is amazing. Apply! Apply! Apply!
Reply 762
Avatar for Elles
Elles
17
matthew_mi
What is the ideal method? Confronting them? =))


Pretty much if you can = 'flooding'.

Though some prefer a more softly softly graded behavioural approach - don't see how it would work in something like going to university though, unless you plan to move to the UK in your gap year & start open university/adult education classes? But even then that wouldn't necessarily be very "Oxford" like.

The problem with avoidance/delaying things is the risk of perpetuating a vicious cycle as you build up a situation, so becoming more anxious about it, so continue to want to avoid/delay &...
Although things like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be useful to try and break thought patterns, or medications for physical/emotional aspects.

But anyhow, if the decision is to have a gap year - enjoy & make the most of it! :smile:
matthew_mi
What do you mean? Why would there be problems?

I am not negative at all..I am just not %100 positive. Probably just because I am not that familiar with the system etc. Also College system looks cool but it may be terrible as well. Because then it is much harder to find people enjoy thing like you. In a regular university there are like 2000 kids in your age and they are just all there. But with the college system you are limited to 100 kids. Plus since accommodation/tutors/dining differs, it is quite risky...:s-smilie: :s-smilie: :s-smilie:


This really isn't something to be worried about. You're not "limited" to your college -- there are as many links between people in different colleges as there would be between different people in a normal (non-collegiate) university: clubs, subjects, societies, etc. In any case, most colleges are far larger than 100 people.
I meant 100 people in your age (or i mean 100 people who matriculated together with you) I suppose biggest colleges are like for 400 people...So 400/3.5 = 114 people...=))
Reply 765
Avatar for hobnob
hobnob
14
matthew_mi
I meant 100 people in your age (or i mean 100 people who matriculated together with you) I suppose biggest colleges are like for 400 people...So 400/3.5 = 114 people...=))

Well, leaving the fact that it doesn't need to be such a massive problem if there might be people who are a little older than you in the year above you (or - shock, horror - even a few in your own year) aside for the moment, let's be realistic: it's extremely unlikely that you'll even get to know every single one of those 100 people in your year, so what on earth do you want 2000 people for?:confused: If you feel that you don't have enough of a pool to choose your chums from, as it were, join a couple of societies or try talking to people from other colleges just before/after/during lectures. Alternatively, if the idea of being so "limited" troubles you that much, just go to another university (I assume you'll have quite a few to choose from by now). It doesn't have to be Oxford for you, after all...:dontknow:
Reply 766
Avatar for hobnob
hobnob
14
Huw Davies
For comparison during rent negotiations, I think. And convenient for OUSU to plagiarise them.

Would that work in their favour, though? I always thought Cambridge rents were generally a bit lower.:confused:
I don't know, but the link is from its rent campaign page:
http://www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/campaigns/rents/

I guess the data is useful to some extent.
henryt
Merton! I <3 Merton. And believe me, we're not (all) academic high-fliers! I bombed on my collections - 55% - with the best scoring 96%. Ah well... Regardless, our rent is very good (the best, by the looks of it), with accommodation provided for all 3/4 years of your course - the best rooms in college are absolutely amazing, and we have a really fair ballot and pricing system - set price for bedsits and set price for sets - rooms are random for first years (who all live together-ish), then ballot for 2nd year, reversed ballots for 3rd year, and re-balloted for 4th year scientists/mathmos (there are funny but sensible for linguists and classicists). Food is at best - really really tasty! - at worst - relatively tasteless, but still completely edible. Merton lunch is amazing for £2.something - if you get there early, you can get soup, main, salad, cheese and 3 desserts! And it's so pretty, especially what I've seen of Merton in Spring and Summer! And everyone (and by everyone I mean everyone) is really very very friendly. And I almost feel glad that my tutors are going to ensure I get a good grade, whilst not actually having felt much pressure at all from them yet!

Basically, Merton is amazing. Apply! Apply! Apply!


the fact that you consider 55% to be 'bombing' on collections proves the point.
Reply 769
Avatar for hobnob
hobnob
14
heliotrope
the fact that you consider 55% to be 'bombing' on collections proves the point.

Hmm, there are probably quite a few people outside Merton who also wouldn't exactly consider a mid-range 2.ii a great result, though.
I'm in agreement with what Hobnob said, but if you decide not to take up your place at Oxford for this reason it'd be a -very- silly decision. There is absolutely nothing at Oxford or Cambridge that limits you re: meeting people any more than at any other university. How do you think people get to know each other at other universities? They either have a club/society or a subject in common, they live in the same halls as each other, they just randomly meet, or they have a friend in common who introduces them. All of these happen in Cambridge and Oxford. PLUS you have the collegiate system, which is actually really good at -widening- your circle of friends: you can go down to the bar without having made any preperations and there'll be people there you know but whom aren't exactly 'friends'. And I can't speak for Oxford, but I know that my college has over 150 people in my year (and there's no reason why you shouldn't talk to and make friends with people of othe ryears), and that there are several which are as big or bigger. Ok -- you could end up at a small college. What I've found with them, though, is that there's just more inter-year mixing.

Seriously: This is absolutely nothing for you to be worried about. There'll be -plenty- of people who are like you enough that you'll get on with them. This has been, in my experience, one of the best things about coming here: so many people here are like me, they share my humour, whatever.
Reply 771
Avatar for Cirsium
Cirsium
19
Well yes but for his FIRST collection? I don't think I know anyone other than physicists, mathmos and lawyers that got a 1st on their first collection, and I know plenty that failed outright. I'm not saying 55% is great, but viewing it as "bombing" says something about the kind of atmosphere you're in.
Reply 772
Avatar for aglaya
aglaya
Thanks to everybody who has replied!! That helped me a lot!!!

scarlet ibis, if you dont mind me asking, which colledge did you go and why did you chose it?
Bekaboo
Well yes but for his FIRST collection? I don't think I know anyone other than physicists, mathmos and lawyers that got a 1st on their first collection, and I know plenty that failed outright. I'm not saying 55% is great, but viewing it as "bombing" says something about the kind of atmosphere you're in.

4/6 of the people on my course got a high first for their first collection. Sometimes I wonder why I chose my college, since they are clearly obsessed about exam results.
Reply 774
Avatar for henryt
henryt
17
Mm - I think it was supposed to be an easy paper - that's why I called it bombing. Regardless, I love Merton to bits, even if we do have a crazy, dare I say potty, Warden who is slightly obsessed with exam results and China and 'giving back to the College'. I think the point is everyone loves their college in most part (mainly because they're all similar) - there will probably always be a flaw or two!
Reply 775
Avatar for hobnob
hobnob
14
Bekaboo
Well yes but for his FIRST collection? I don't think I know anyone other than physicists, mathmos and lawyers that got a 1st on their first collection, and I know plenty that failed outright. I'm not saying 55% is great, but viewing it as "bombing" says something about the kind of atmosphere you're in.

Well, when I was in my first year we had to turn up individually at our tutor's office to talk about the results of our first collections. Naturally there was a backlog, so there were several of us waiting on the corridor, and shortly before it was my turn, my tute partner came out, practically in tears, because she had got the lowest result of the lot - a 62 or 63 - and the tutor had apparently told her she'd have to work a lot harder, because the college had set the pass grade for mods at 60. I've since heard that it isn't actually true, though (about the pass grade for mods being 60, I mean), so make of that what you will...:dontknow:
How do collections compare in difficulty/the way they're marked to the exams taken in the summer? Is it the same?
CarneLevare
How do collections compare in difficulty/the way they're marked to the exams taken in the summer? Is it the same?

They're usually past papers (for my subject at least?) so the same.
Reply 778
Avatar for hobnob
hobnob
14
coldfish
I'm in agreement with what Hobnob said, but if you decide not to take up your place at Oxford for this reason it'd be a -very- silly decision. There is absolutely nothing at Oxford or Cambridge that limits you re: meeting people any more than at any other university. How do you think people get to know each other at other universities? They either have a club/society or a subject in common, they live in the same halls as each other, they just randomly meet, or they have a friend in common who introduces them. All of these happen in Cambridge and Oxford. PLUS you have the collegiate system, which is actually really good at -widening- your circle of friends: you can go down to the bar without having made any preperations and there'll be people there you know but whom aren't exactly 'friends'. And I can't speak for Oxford, but I know that my college has over 150 people in my year (and there's no reason why you shouldn't talk to and make friends with people of othe ryears), and that there are several which are as big or bigger. Ok -- you could end up at a small college. What I've found with them, though, is that there's just more inter-year mixing.

Seriously: This is absolutely nothing for you to be worried about. There'll be -plenty- of people who are like you enough that you'll get on with them. This has been, in my experience, one of the best things about coming here: so many people here are like me, they share my humour, whatever.

Hmm, must have missed that post... Anyway:
:ditto:

To be honest, Matthew, I get the impression that your problem isn't just that you feel this is "the biggest decision you'll ever make" - which in the long run it probably won't be - but that you are putting additional pressure on yourself by setting it all up to be a hugely important decision in which there is one, and only one, correct choice you can make. Chances are that there isn't, though, and that you'd love both Oxford and Yale if you went there (though perhaps in a slightly different way and for different reasons). Try to think about it this way: if both of your options are "right" ones, it's no longer so terribly important which one you choose, so you may as well stop worrying, make a decision - any decision - and get it over with.
DahliaB
Exeter's cute, and next to all the shops. Therefore, it is the best :p:


I second how nice Exeter is, I applied there for English too, but sadly was rejected. Exeter is great in terms of location, and the buildings are beautiful , also have you seen the fellows garden? it's lovely and there's views over the centre of Oxford from the rockery at the end of it. Btw how did you find the interviews there?
The foods quite nice too.

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