Oxford and Cambridge current students discussion thread

[sandybayley]

Starting a new one as we filled it up!

Can't believe DS1 will be home in 2 weeks. Must remember to adjust the Ocado shop for when he's back. I suspect we may end up with a few days of his favourite meals 😊

I doubt it someone who seems young and possibly less experienced can do that much harm to a fresher. Your DT would probably have more to be concerned about if he was nearing the end of his studies.

Also, the new supervisor seems extremely young - like just finished his doctorate or in his last year of it. Might that mean he's really enthusiastic and conscientious - or - never have done any teaching before and not know how to 'pitch' supervisions?

mutterphore you worry far too much and possibly expect far too much! Of course tutors vary in quality, that's life. Nevertheless all these DC are lucky to be where they are, so for every tutor who isn't great at the tutoring bit of his or her job there's will be far more who are. And young/ old has very little to do with how good someone is. I feel sorry for this poor young tutor who is sufficiently keen to get in touch and put together a great big reading list for your DS1!

muttermore your ds could maybe get on with the reading list just as recreational reading? Have a go at enjoying it before he starts having to think about how to approach it.

It sounds as if he's going to get more guidance this term, which even if it's not experienced has got to be better than none!

My son's tested positive so can't take part in the choral recordings this weekend, ho hum. Apparently he's not sure when he can stop isolating - test and trace say 10 days from symptoms but as they weren't the major symptoms the college is saying 10 days from the test . He'll be home for Christmas, anyway...

@mutterphore it is normal for a supervisor to come from a different college if there isn’t someone with the relevant expertise in the college where your DS is or if that person is unable to take students this year for some reason. There is no point worrying about his level of teaching skill or enthusiasm at this point. Some young supervisors are super enthusiastic and will make up for lack of years experience by marking and returning essays quickly and being in tune with the undergrads. Some won’t. It just depends on the individual but there is absolutely no point worrying about it as there might be nothing to worry about!
With regard to the reading list, your DS doesn’t have to read it all. I’ve just asked my DD who is at Oxford and has lots of friends who do English if they read the entire list. Her response was “God No!” so he could be more selective and at least start with the titles which appeal more?

Bad luck Merryhouse.

@mutterphore, both DD’s supervisors so far have been out of college. For her college and subject they gently encourage in-college supervision for one term at least in the first year so they can « get a handle» on you, but dont insist on it and DD has enjoyed going «out» very much indeed .I would be jumping for joy that he has someone keen and enthusiastic after the term you report he has had and cant see at all why he wouldnt be desperate to be getting on with some reading. Probably best to let go of the disappointing term and move on !

Thanks for all the reassuring responses! DS1 of course is completely unconcerned by any of this and I'm just doing my usual off-loading/worrying on MN - especially about the very laissez-faire/ relaxed first term with his DOS - which has suited DS1's personality very well.

I think probably his next term will be - academically - much more like the experience he'd expected. I shall of course try not to overdo the 'helicopter-parenting' and leave it up to him to get on with it.

Merryhouse, I'm so sorry to hear your DS can't participate in the choral recordings this weekend. That must be very disappointing for him.

Merryhouse hope he has a really mild case.

Bad luck @merryhouse - on the need to isolate it's 10 days from the first symptoms observed. You don't pick and choose which symptoms to count, I got a sore throat, headache, fever and then lost my sense of taste - all on different days!

That is rotten Merryhouse. Your poor ds.

That’s unlucky for your DS @merryhouse.
@sandybayley, I hope you are now fully recovered.

Sorry to hear this @merryhouse. I hope the time passes quickly & he remains well.

@mutterphore, DD has had a variety of supervisors, both in and outside her C college. In her experience, the young keen ones remember better what it was like to be a fresher, so are really helpful. She said they were also quite competitive between themselves, so given your DS1's experience so far, I think it sounds positive.

@ofteninaspin - I'm much better thanks. Still no taste or smell though. It's strangely dispiriting and makes eating a joyless experience, day 4 and still not a sniff f anything.

Son seems ok - just bored! But he's caught up on Shield and a whole lot more tv (and he's always got horn practice).

It's kind of good that it's this year - he's already done two years and has a fourth year to go, so things could be a lot worse. (I'm very disappointed about the Christmas Eve dinner, I must say )

21st birthday tomorrow. We sent his present ages ago and I've addressed his card to the house so fingers crossed it gets there.

@merryhouse that's a shame for him

Do all the Oxford students have their Michaelmas term report or are some still waiting? DS is being super cagey about it and says he hasn’t received it yet but I think he should have by now...

D1 (History joint) has had two reports, but is still waiting for one - she reckons they've all been busy interviewing so doesn't want to chase it up yet.

DD4 has a report from two different tutors not that I'd have known about it had it not been for this thread (the older DC sometimes mentioned the interview in front of the beak at the end of each year, but no-one told me about any written report). When challenged I was given a one word precis and when pushed she flicked it up on her phone and read it out.

DS2 (History) had all his reports at the end of term at O.

DS1 (English) still hasn't had any report from C and it's now 6 weeks and counting since he handed in essays that still haven't been marked or returned. As he wants to get an idea of how he's done in his first term, this is becoming increasingly frustrating.

He was also told by his DOS not to do any consolidation work across the vac. on last term and seems to have almost nothing to show he actually did a term at all - no notes and no supervision feedback except a tiny bit on the 3 essays he did get back.

DS2 had 2 to 3 full sides of written feedback per every essay from last term, from his tutor and his final end of term feedback and has been working already for his college collections for last term's work and starting in on preparation for next term's work.

DS2 had 2 to 3 full sides of written feedback per every essay from last term

mutterphore that's extraordinary! Is it constructive criticism? Or is the tutor so keen to continue the discourse that s/he moves to the written word? I've never heard anything like it! The tutor needs to calm down if s/he wants some kind of a life!

I'm sort of ghoulishly intrigued by our thread now. The very notion that I'd have been telling my parents how I was doing term by term is inconceivable ( not pregnant, dying of scurvy, risking being thrown out was the bar). I have however really enjoyed the nuggets thown by DT1, interestingly more verbose when she was criticised than when she'd done well but I don't feel inclined/entitled to ask. In fact I think I'd be rebuffed if I did .I feel way more involved in her and her sibs degrees than my parents ever were and ds's difficulties aside , I'm not sure its healthy. ( I know times have changed, we are paying, intergenerational relationships are different/better) I'm learning how to let get and it's quite( massively) freeing!
@mutterphore; when you say no notes; surely that's down to DT1 and the way he's approaching his self directed learning by this point?

@hobbema

I'm sort of ghoulishly intrigued by our thread now. The very notion that I'd have been telling my parents how I was doing term by term is inconceivable ( not pregnant, dying of scurvy, risking being thrown out was the bar). I have however really enjoyed the nuggets thown by DT1, interestingly more verbose when she was criticised than when she'd done well but I don't feel inclined/entitled to ask. In fact I think I'd be rebuffed if I did .I feel way more involved in her and her sibs degrees than my parents ever were and ds's difficulties aside , I'm not sure its healthy. ( I know times have changed, we are paying, intergenerational relationships are different/better) I'm learning how to let get and it's quite( massively) freeing! *@mutterphore*; when you say no notes; surely that's down to DT1 and the way he's approaching his self directed learning by this point?

@hobbema - I'm with you there. DS surprised me when he decided to share his (very positive) report, but as much as I would love to know the details of his academic and non-academic life in Oxford, I know I should treat him as an adult and leave him to it.

It's hard to make the adjustment and get the balance right sometimes.

Goodbye, yes it's really constructive and engaged feedback (DS2 seems to be doing very well and is getting on very well with his tutor) and his tutor seems to go the extra mile and is enthused and conscientious. He and DS2 have really hit it off and seem to have a similar approach to things. His tutor also juggles a normal life (has a family) and like DS2 'works hard and plays hard'.

DS1's supervisor, by contrast, has plenty of time to update his Twitter account regularly and has been spotted in town with his partner by DS1, yet can't manage to mark essays for weeks on end nor write much in the way of feedback on any essays he has managed to mark. Of course I have no idea what's going on in the background and there may be other reasons why marking essays has been so delayed for him. All I see is the endless contrast between DS2's experience and DS1's.

As a close knit family of three, we're used to sharing a lot and having long discussions and since term ended, we've spent a week catching up on life when we've all been apart from each other. DS1 and DS2 are very interested to hear about the other's experiences, as it's the first time they've every been apart for any protracted length of time and they're very close in so many way, despite also being very different to each other. So I've heard a lot about their lives at university.

DS1 has always been scarily laid back and relaxed about life and his college and DOS seem to be a 'good fit' in that sense, expect that he needs a bit more direction and propulsion to get going! He says no one in his cohort has taken any notes and many haven't even completed writing the minimum compulsory essays for last term, so that could be why the DOS hasn't marked even those handed in six weeks ago.

Has your DT1 asked about the essays yet? Perhaps they are sitting in junk mail or hitting a firewall. This is obviously festering with him, so he needs to do something about it.

As for being spotted on town and updating a Twitter account, so what? I would be seriously hacked off if I thought students were judging me on the fact that I had gone out for a coffee, gone to Boots to fetch a prescription or retweeted Mary Beard.

hobbema and DadDadDad exactly. I only asked DD4 about her report because I felt under pressure from this thread :) The most I have ever been told about the end of year interviews is an anecdote which was extreme/ funny/ etc. This report malarkey is new on me....

DD4 appears not to have been given a predicted grade but had she been I'd have taken it with a big bag of salt. After eight weird weeks? Really? Predicting a first at this stage is asking for all sorts of trouble yet if most of the cohort are being predicted firsts and a DC 'only' gets predicted a 2/1 then that's asking for all sorts of trouble too.