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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Suggest to me an Oxford college?

71 replies

peplos · 08/10/2018 23:57

DS is following in my footsteps and will apply to read Classics. I went to the other place, but he is dead set on a larger town, so Oxford.

Can anyone suggest some colleges he visit when we get there?

He tends to like older architecture, he is quite studious (at the moment). If it could have cheaper rents, then we’d be happier!

OP posts:
HingleMcCringleberry · 10/10/2018 13:33

mateysmum I think it would have to be a time travelling tortoise as the race quoted was in 2010, and Tortellini I believe only graced St Anne's last year.

Witchend · 10/10/2018 17:26

Rosa Luxembourg used to be a regular winner of the tortoise race. I think it belonged to Oriel.

BasiliskStare · 10/10/2018 17:49

Goodbye Shock Was unaware of the tortoise scandal but I shall certainly look out for it now. Good boy Percy. Grin

A serious point is that the Univ students who were there on the open day were so friendly and helpful, they put themselves out I thought. It just made it seem a lovely place to go. For other reasons DS chose a different college but Univ certainly stood out for him in being a lovely friendly place.
As an Eng Lit graduate I probably should have referenced the lovely Shelley thing. Tragically , I remembered the tortoise more Grin

HingleMcCringleberry · 10/10/2018 18:17

BasiliskStare, your cheque is in the mail, thanks for the ringing Univ endorsement.

the lovely Shelley thing - you misspelled tacky. 'Thing' sounds about right though!

BasiliskStare · 10/10/2018 18:21

& also to say , no Oxford college is terribly far out. Some of this is not funny , some is , has anyone looked at Uncyclopedia re Oxford and Cambridge. This made me chuckle re Girton

Many people in Cambridge believe that Girton is one of the smallest colleges, in fact this is just a result of perspective. Students who study at Girton typically fly in to Cambridge from East Midlands Airport.

OlderThanAverageforMN · 11/10/2018 11:54

DD1 loved Univ and applied there..... got pooled to Magdalen (which she didn't like at all on open day). Of course she accepted, and she has just graduated having had the best three years of her life. She loved it, and is missing being there terribly.

HingleMcCringleberry · 11/10/2018 12:19

OlderThanAverageforMN - a very important message, thanks for sharing. I was interviewed at St Hugh's, and my reception by the student helpers felt so cold (especially in comparison to Univ) that I was turned off the place. I told my parents if I got an offer from St Hugh's, I probably wouldn't accept. That would have been moronic. I'm glad your DD is smarter than I was at that age!

Provided all her friends, like mine did, have migrated to London, then there shouldn't be too much difficulty in holding on to all the good parts of university, while experiencing all the great new things. University was the best years of my life... at the time. The years have got better and better ever since. Hopefully given time the same will be true for her!

Fillybuster · 11/10/2018 12:25

Not had time to RTWT but would like to put in another vote for St Johns. It takes one of the largest cohorts of classics undergrads every year, has a great postgrad and SCR community, a phenominal classics library on site and some of the best accommodation/lowest rents. I also benefited from a whole host of Classics funding/prizes/benevolent funds which covered the cost of a whole bunch of extras, including travel around Greece and the Middle East.

HingleMcCringleberry · 11/10/2018 18:42

Fillybuster, I hate to gainsay a (presumed fellow classicist) but in terms of cohort size it looks like in recent years St John's satisfies itself with 4 undergrads, compared to a few other colleges which have 6 or 7. The rest of your point is well taken though!

BasiliskStare · 11/10/2018 19:19

Not sure if relevant but Queens and Univ have current Classics students seemingly doing well ( as well as tortoises ) ( based on Ds's friends and less on actual knowledge i.e. Fillybuster)

Again I would just say you may get your 1st choice college but not necessarily - But no reason not to pick you first choice

Fillybuster · 12/10/2018 10:00

Hingle I’m happy to stand corrected - it’s been a few years since I was a student at SJC!

May I also take this opportunity to auto-correct “phenomenal” Blush : the dangers of rapid typing on mobile during a meeting & posting without proofreading...

Amateurish · 12/10/2018 11:30

Nice to read about so much love for Univ. I can also recommend it and I made many lifelong friends there.

HingleMcCringleberry · 12/10/2018 12:31

OP is never, ever, ever, coming back on here, she-eeee is never, ever, ever, coming back on here. She asked us, and we told her, and then she went away...

To be sung to the tune of Taylor Swift's 'We are never getting back together'.

Only joking peplos, hopefully some of this stuff has been useful. Amateurish were you at Univ? Or are you one of those well-adjusted people who managed to make friends in lots of different colleges?

HMC2000 · 12/10/2018 12:36

I'm another Oxford grad, but I have also worked at the University, and several of the colleges, and am currently in the College office of one of those that does not offer classics! I'd back up the point made by so many pps that many new undergrads are placed at colleges other than the one they applied to - the pool system is increasingly important. So don't get too attached to a particular one!

Equally, the Northington table isn't a great indicator of how an individual student is likely to fare, simply because different colleges use different methods to encourage good results. Some apply a lot of academic pressure, which works for some students, but can be a little problematic for those who are less resilient. Other colleges can successfully use a heavily involved and nurturing environment to encourage good work, which again works for some but is annoying for others.

And while all of us alumni can tell you what our colleges were like when we were there, colleges change character with each new cohort, and especially with changes in staff. That's what working in Oxford has really shown me - that because college communities are small, their character really is influenced by small changes, and what a college was like 5 years ago, or 10 years ago, isn't always very useful.

None of which is very helpful, sorry! I'd agree with using the quiz on the Uni Admissions site, and then reading the Alternative Prospectus from Oxford SU (no longer OUSU!). Definitely take the info about number of applicants into account, and then visit the top few.

And I'll add my faves - because why not? - are currently Univ and Worcester. And that Teddy Hall remains very posh!

HMC2000 · 12/10/2018 12:38

Bloody autocorrect. Norrington. Not that OP is coming back.

HingleMcCringleberry · 12/10/2018 13:24

HMC2000 - good point about a college changing as the student population churns (and indeed as the senior staff change too). With your insider view, can you elaborate on what is it about the two colleges that make them your current favourites?

At least it didn't autocorrect to Chuggington... and now I've got that stuck in my head. Now to go stick the song in someone else's head!

Puzzledmum · 12/10/2018 13:52

HMC2000 thanks for the insider view on the colleges you mentioned. Worcester seems quite popular, very interesting! My DD loved the grounds but was not very keen on the fact that most student seem to self cater and cook rather than eat in hall.
I’d really appreciate your view on Christ Church also, as she put this as her preferred college on her application. She stayed there for a couple of nights on the June open day and fell in love with it.

HMC2000 · 12/10/2018 18:50

Oops sorry I thought I'd killed the thread as usual! You really should ignore my preferences, as they're based almost entirely on the fact that the students and staff I know at those two are lovely (and those gardens!) Much more sensible to base it on things like catering arrangements. (And eating in hall is really important for community). Christchurch is a great college - one of those that's very impressed with itself, but with good reason. And extremely Hogwarts (they actually used the dining hall for some of it).

Puzzledmum · 12/10/2018 20:14

Thanks HMC2000! With my daughter apart from the social aspect, eating in halls means she never has to cook or worry about food shopping, which she is not even remotely interested in. Grin Thanks for the reassuring words about Christ Church. I do like it, of course, just slightly concerned with the size and the constant flow of tourists, but that does not seem to have put her off, since she’s put it as a first choice. It just seems to me that hardly anyone ever picks it as a first choice and I could never understand why that is.

BasiliskStare · 12/10/2018 22:41

I suspect Christchurch will be nice when it's finished Grin

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