Oxford college reputations help

[laairventte]

Hi all,

My Dd is anxiousl awaiting her a level results, just as many in this board are.

She applied to study English at Somerville College.
She got an offer, but it is an “open offer”, which means that she will get allocated a college on results day if a place appears at another college due to someone missing their grades etc. If not Somerville will have to give her a place.

She applied there due to it being modern and down to earth, she couldn’t think of anything worse than an old college that make people like david cameron.

After a lot of terepidation, she firmed the open offer with the view to turn it down and go to Birmingham if faced with a college she doesn’t like the look of. I have left this decision completely up to her.

So trying to get my facts together, for the dreaded d day.

What colleges are renowned for being

High pressured
Posh
Conservative

My dd has just finished her first year at Merton College. She's from a state comp and a 'failing' sixth form college and has friends from a wide range of backgrounds. They are, however, all bright and hardworking and feel proud of their College.

Don't dismiss the opportunity of an amazing education because of a temporary wobble!

David Cameron would be David Cameron even if he'd gone to Brunel or Portsmouth or Stirling or UCLan or wherever.

I know people teaching at most Oxford colleges, and they are often as aghast as the rest of us at the entitlement of a very few students. But mostly they enjoy teaching bright hard working young people, so they're the kinds of undergrads they look for, and offer places to.

The main thing is the people in your subject tutorials. You don't get to choose those.
Don't worry about it as you can't choose the most relevant thing that affects you and that is the case at any college.

mateysmum after I posted I read your posts and thought, ‘wish I’d been as succinct as that - great advice, no waffle!’

I went to a relatively traditional college, but honestly she’ll meet people through her subject, through societies, etc. Twenty years on all my university friends are actually people from other colleges.

It honestly doesn’t matter as much as she thinks it does.

No offence to any Birmingham grads, but it would be INSANE to turn down oxford for birmingham.

The opportunities and career chances at oxford are much much better, regardless of college.

So I know you’re leaving this as her choice but maybe she needs a bit of guidance here.

The main thing is the people in your subject tutorials.

That's if you go to your tutes...

In my day at Christ Church, your first contacts were your college 'mum and dad'. The second years were given a list of the incoming Freshers and divvied them up into 'families' of two second years and two first years. There was some though behind the groups re common subjects and interests. The mum and dad were supposed to show the kids the bar and best college showers library and other essentials.

I am married to my college dad- so that seems to work!

After that, most people spend the first couple of weeks getting to know their 'staircase'- literally people who live up the same staircase as them.

Then people start to spread out and find people they really have stuff in common with as Fresher's week dies down and people look for societies, start going to lectures and tutes etc. But you always have your staircase to go home to!

It's a really easy system socially. You would almost think it had evolved with a bunch of socially inept braniacs in mind!!

OP, your DD definitely does NOT need to be socially intimidated.

I’m impressed with everyone with friends in all the other colleges. We have a college group of about 30-40 (it waxes and wanes as people go abroad and come back) who up until a couple of years ago were meeting up a couple of times a month for birthdays and whatnot. It’s splintered a bit now as kids and careers take off, but we’re all pretty tight. Speaks to us being a pretty friendly, albeit completely insular college! I did an arts subject, so lectures were few and far between, in terms of regularly hanging out with students from other colleges. Or maybe that’s what I’m telling myself...

I did my socialisation through university-wide societies which is why my friendship group came from all over. Other people had more JCR-based social lives so their friends would be from their own college.

Thanks Hingle. Must be from those 3 years of hand writing history essays in the days before computers, when you had to get it right first time.
My DS can't quite believe that that is how things used to be. The idea that you can't endlessly amend and cut and past horrifies him!

By the way ladies - *where has the OP gone? If you're there would be nice to have some feedback on the advice you have received.

highlight fail

Where are you OP?

Hi Ladies,

Thanks so so much for all this info! It’s taken me quite a while to read through (getting old). It’s been very helpful.

Ultimately I would like her to go to Oxford, but DH was badgered into going to a university he didn’t want to and had a miserable time. I really liked the point that she could go for a term to see if she likes it. I checked with student finance and they do have a false start year, something I was unaware of.

Somerville’s most famous alumna ! I think dd would faint, but who knows, she may return a braying tory? Sorry no offence meant by that point originally, just a little tongue in cheek.

From reading some posts online about open offers, it seems she’d be more likely to get a place at a more modern college. Even so, I’m inclined to agree that she should really just try it out.

I’ve read conflicting things about the advantage of having the name Oxford on the CV. Some say it opens doors, others say it doesn’t matter a great deal anymore.

The concensus seens that Christchurch, Magdalen and St John’s are the “scariest” ones. Let’s hope she doesn’t get one of those then. Yet again, some pervious posters loved their times there.

Thanks for the advice, I’ll be back on results day hopefully to give an update !

Thanks for coming back.

Please don't use the word "scariest" to your daughter. None of them are scary beyond the normal nervousness of anywhere new. I think you are projecting a bit here.

All students at Oxford have one thing in common.They were all clever enough to get in. That is a great leveller and breeds a mutual respect.

Oxbridge may not be the be all and end all that it was, especially for technical or scientific degrees but there is absolutely no doubt that it does open doors especially in say the law. That's not to say people at other unis aren't talented etc. but it is reality.

Oh and good luck for results day - whatever happens. we'll be here to hold your hand if you need it.

Oxford matters! Especially for non specific job oriented degrees like English where nearly every university offers the "same" degree. It says something about you if you go to Oxford. Of course, it will not matter to employers what books she reads or poems she can talk about , but the pace of teaching at Oxford, the intellectual requirements and the standing of the university will probably get her on the short-list for a job provided she can pass pre tests if required. After that, its personality, transferable skills and a whole host of others things that will matter. Oxford does open doors but you have to do more to get through them!

laairventte while I’ll happily concede that fortunately there’s much less of the old boys network with respect to what university is on your CV, from the advice you’ve been reading, I would imagine no one has said that between two universities Oxford is a worse choice. I’m talking to recruiters at the moment, and though I graduated over 10 years ago they still murmur happily ‘see you went to Oxford, so you’re clearly bright’, making me a slightly easier sell to companies. It may not be very fair in terms of assumptions (bright does not equal competent!), but, hey, I’ll take any edge I can get. I’m with BubblesBuddy - having Oxford on the CV will not get you the job. But it will get you in front of interviewers.

laairventte, I’m actually very sympathetic to your daughter’s view - I interviewed at two colleges, and after I was done I said to my parents, ‘if I get an offer from the second one, I won’t accept it.’ I just didn’t get the same happy vibe in the second place. Clearly I was a callow youth with a very naive opinion, and I would hope that they would have sat me down gently, supportively, and told me, with love in their hearts, not to be a fool.

Echoing mateysmum, don’t talk about scary places. I met a few bozos at Christ Church, so the place ain't all that (actually, it is all that, it’s got an absolutely stunning front quad.) As for Magdalen - they've got their own deer park! If I’d been smart enough I would have applied to Magdalen; the idea of being pooled there would have felt like winning the lottery, so if your daughter is pooled, don’t let her say, ‘nah, I want to go to university in the actual midlands, not midlands-lite!’

Where is goodbyestranger? She’s basically an oracle of recent Oxford knowledge, and sensible advice.

I met a few bozos at Christ Church

We must have crossed paths Hingle.

I am neither super clever nor posh- I had a great time there. DH was poor as a church mouse and, as I said, College kept him in beer tokens!

IME the old boys network is far more schools than university. And while some courses are highly regarded at other universities, an Oxford or Cambridge degree still has much more cachet in most cases.

HesMyLobster - I think your DD may have an offer for my DD's college - she has just finished her first year and has had a fantastic time, it is so friendly and full of lovely people (apparently)!

Sorry, off the point of the thread, but just wanted to give the reassurance I could have done with myself this time last year.

I went to St John's, it was wonderful! Nothing scary about it. And it had lots of advantages - guaranteed accommodation throughout, cooking facilities, good location just on the edge of the town centre, and lots and lots of money so there were masses of grants and bursaries available making it fab for people struggling financially. Shite bar but you can't have everything and the drinks were dead cheap at least my friends were as mixed a social group as you can imagine (I am from the polar opposite of a posh background)

it will make a massive differencer to her life and earnings if she only picks Birmingham over Oxford and just because of a specious ground that she thinks some Oxford colleges are too posh for her. Is she going to refuse to work with people who are from a higher class than she is in 3 years' time? Does she want to make her life on class lines - in which case she would be better off sticking with poor areas where she can live and work amongst the very low paid I suppose and there are plenty of children of all classes who are fighting hard for places at all Oxford colleges. If she does not want a place at Oxford then let those desperate for places there have them I suppose but she would be making a mistake.

Cheers Hingle. I'm on a Scottish island actually :) but I've been reading the posts and they've been very good. OP your DD is young so it's quite understandable but if she were mine I'd tell her to open her mind which she'll need to anyway to do well at Oxford both socially and intellectually and not to miss an opportunity because it would be, as Xenia says, on specious grounds.

Thankyou bragging! That's very thoughtful of you. I'm so glad your DD is enjoying it. I may be back to pester you with questions after Thursday!

it will make a massive differencer to her life and earnings if she only picks Birmingham over Oxford

Because no Birmingham graduate ever earned as much as any Oxford graduate, obviously.

Worst comes to the worst, she'd just have to take her chances with the vast majority of the population, who have to rely on factors other than just the name of the university they attended to get on in life (and the vast majority of employers who would pick 'demonstrating qualities necessary to do the job' over 'must have that one, they went to the right university' any day of the week).

Depends on which career she wants. She should have a look at the websites of some of the kinds of companies she might want to work for and look at where most of those who just joined went to at university stage or otherwise check it out. You might find 40% are Oxbridge in some jobs and zero in others so in a sense you have to work backwards. More doors will be open with Oxford in many of the higher paid jobs but she may be content with lower paid work particularly if it means she does not have to mix with people who are upper middle class or whatever else it is she dislikes or is worried about.

I went to Mansfield, which is an old building, but was only made a full college in the late 20th century. I absolutely loved it, and it has opened many doors for me. I don't do a typical Oxbridge career, in fact I'm the only one at my workplace who went to Oxbridge (I'm a teacher), but it allowed me to get straight back into the workplace after 6 years at home raising babies, and it really impresses the kids I teach!

I met DH at uni, he has an absolutely stellar career. I think he probably would have done very well anyway, as he's exceptionally bright, but it certainly hasn't done him any harm!