Oxford uni questions

[questioner123]

Hi all!

My DD is thinking of applying to Oxford uni for law. We have some questions though which hopefully you all help answer for us:

1. My DD is thinking of Pembroke, Oriel and Keble college, do any of you or your DC’s have any experiences of these colleges?

2. This may be a bit of a stupid question, but DD would like the option of being able to come home if she is having a bad day or just missing home, especially being able to come home some weekends if she wants too. Are the students allowed to do this at Oxford University?

3. My DD is worried at the smaller colleges that it may be cliquey or ‘gossipy’ like school, could/is this the case or are the smaller colleges more friendly and closer overall than the larger colleges?

4. What is the workload and pressures like?

5. How strict are the colleges on rules and regulations compared to other universities?

Many thanks

Interesting responses. Yes she is probably thinking too much into things, but she tends to do that often really!

Goodbyestranger, that’s great to hear about your DS. Yes at the open day we were told about how the exams are at the end of the third year, which seems extra hard, but hopefully DD (if successful with an offer) would be able to manage. She saw Oriel at the open day and really liked it, but she would prefer the option of choosing whether to go or not if that makes sense.

It’s a bit concerning to hear about being ‘sent down’- what exactly does that mean? I’m assuming being penalised for leaving to go home? Is this the case nowadays or is it flexible to go home when wanted?

Thanks everyone for all your replies again, most appreciated.

Sent down means expelled. Not necessarily because of going home - I've never heard of that being a reason to be sent down. A poor performance in Mods is more likely to be the reason. I scraped through somehow and came out with a 2:1.

Being sent down for not checking your pigeonhole daily may be unique to Christchurch! Have certainly never heard that one before. I used to pop home fairly regularly, the Oxford Tube was very cheap.

RSTera no. Classics is as onerous I think (not sure) but with that caveat Law has more exams in one hit than any other subject at Oxford, not that that was my point: OP asked about the pressure for Law specifically. But anyhow it's fairly irrelevant what others subjects do when and how pressured they are.

Being sent down is I believe pretty rare and not something that your dd should be concerned about unless she is planning to do no studying there. I only remember one person being sent down and nobody was surprised. He was a lazy so n so.

Being sent down for not checking your pigeonhole daily may be unique to Christchurch!
And thinking about it, some of Christ Church accommodation is (and was 20 years ago) down in the Liddell Buildings on Iffley Road. They're self contained flats so no way would they expect them to go in daily to check pigeon holes.
I lived there for a year (it's shared with CCC).
I suspect that's a story that's passed around with no truth at all like the throwing a rugby ball to see if they catch it at the interviewee at Keble.

It looks like Law finals has the most papers - is it 7 plus two optional papers which appear to be compulsory? For Classics there’s 8 papers, but one of them can be a thesis. But for a lot of those papers there is the 3 hour exam, and an additional 90 minute translation exam to go with it. Fewer papers, but potentially more exams?

If you’re talking pressure, what is, in my opinion, brutal for Law is that you have your mods in your second term of the first year. That is rough!

Classic mods used to be the longest set of exams, but they were in the second year. I think it was 12 papers, but they reputably were the longest set of exams except for a Chinese accountancy. Don't know if that last was true though.
I think we had 9 papers (although one could be a thesis) for maths finals.

I think that joint Modern Languages tops Law with 6 literature exams, 2 translation papers (1 for each language with translations into and from the language), 2 essay papers (again 1 for each language) and oral exams so even excluding the spoken element that makes 10 3-hour exams.

Nearly 30 years later I still have the occasional finals nightmare and have even had a 'forgotten to check my pigeon-hole' one.

Oriel is lovely and has great women's rowing. Lovely coach. Rowing is a lot of fun - chances are she's never thought of it, but it's a great community to join even as a complete beginner, which the overwhelming majority are.

Witchend it definitely isn't a myth. The rule is that you have to be resident in term time, checking your pigeon hole every day is the measure of whether or not you are resident.

It's an archaic rule- like St Johns being allowed to drive sheep down St Giles or whatever it is.

However- it is a rule that they WILL use to send people down if they think they have basically given up- not living in oxford, not turning up for tutes or lectures etc. We saw it used.

If you are not in that position, they don't care whether you check it every day or not.

Yes Hingle, 9. I like the idea of 'optional papers' actually being optional!

In the 4 years DH and I were there (we overlapped) there were around 10 people sent down. Usually for failing Prelims and then failing the resits. However, one person went for doing something bad that hit the press and the one that went for basically disappearing- I guess he gave up really- and being hit with the pigeon-hole rule.

And yes I think Classics mods are still supposed to be the grisliest.

In all the years my DC have been there (ten consecutive years with lots of overlap), I've only ever heard of one person ( a friend of one of my DC) ever being properly sent down - as in never darken our doorstep again type of sent down - due to lack of work. Lots and lots of rustications though, with a return the following year - all for health reasons. I thin k there's been a very marked shift towards the latter.

DH and I went to ChCh.
There (20 years ago) you were not 'allowed' to go home. Of course you could, but technically you had to check your pidgeon hole every day and not doing so was a reason to be sent down. We saw this used against somebody who was not 'engaging'.

Rubbish, I was there at a similar time. People used to leave at weekends all the time. As long as you didn’t miss lectures/tutorials you were fine.

The gowns at exams are a university requirement.

So in summary: you are allowed to go home when you want too, unless you are failing/not turning up to tutorials, which then they will use the ‘pigeon-hole’ rule? Or if you do not follow this rule in general you risk being ‘sent down’?! As you can tell the prospect of Oxford is completely new to me!

Also the degree sounds much more hard work then other universities, is it worth it though in terms of the overall experience and the future?

Interesting replies!

I have said several times that it wasn't enforced as long as they weren't after you for anything else.

But being 'resident' in Oxford in term time WAS the rule.

That was to Littlebear BTW. Yes OP, your DD will be fine to go home occasionally. You are only there for 10ish weeks at a time though, so she might find she doesn't want to.

Not sure about the keeping term rules. Somewhere in the many, many volumes of university regulations there will be a rule which will clarify. You have to be resident within three miles of Carfax during term time and if you go home all the time I suspect you won't be 'resident'.

Occasionally is different from every weekend though. There'll be a tipping point.

Arcane university rules won’t be applied to any student who is keeping up with their work and shouldnt be flagged to a 17 year old worrying about not being allowed home

Durham has exactly the same rules about keeping term not sure which other unis do. Presumably Cambridge does.

LittleBearPad the issue is that getting behind with work and going away a lot is exactly the issue which got DC's friend sent down. So not arcane, by definition.

It was the getting behind with work that would have driven the issue though. Either way making blanket statements that students aren’t allowed home isn’t helpful or factual.