Snap - thanks. On the bright side, he's very happy that he was lucky enough to get into Cambridge and he's trying to express loyalty to his college. He does like the 'gamers/ engineers' and at least these aren't the ones getting drunk and high and being disruptive at 3am. They're a friendly bunch although not often very sociable anyway.
However, the fact that he's also not really getting quite the same academic stimulation that he'd expected and his DOS has only so far marked 2 of the compulsory 6 essays across the whole term just feels like a bit much.
DS1 keeps making excuses for his DOS saying he's probably overworked and I know that they've been selecting for interviews for next year's students, in recent times of course - but DS2's tutor has never got behind with a single essay and DS2's essays are almost twice the length of DS1's and involve a heck of a lot more reading too.
The two things - not yet meeting any people on his wavelength in college, plus not getting the kind of intellectual stimulation he'd hoped for - in the midst of course of a pandemic, 14 days isolation, lockdown - have meant he's had to adapt and lower his expectations of Cambridge.
I've suggested to him things like trying to strike up conversations with anyone he sees in the dining hall - but he says it's usually empty and people just grab takeaway food and disappear into their rooms - whereas DS2 (O) often eats near to others in his college and even has a household Formal tonight too with a special menu and courses plus wine! DS1's food tends to be junk food from a plastic tray, by comparison (he sends photos and it does look rather dire!).
I suggested DS1 asks someone from his household to go for a walk and get a coffee - the kind of thing DS2 is doing a lot of the time with people he now knows from other colleges as well as his own - but DS1 found this laughable as he says there's not a single person he knows that would countenance a walk and a chat. They just don't 'do' that kind of thing.
It baffles me that at a university like Cambridge, DS1 is left hungry for intellectual stimulation and conversation. Of course I'm sure there has to be others - hidden away in their rooms - feeling the same as he does - but he's not finding them.
If I had the power, I'd suggest that the university (and other universities too of course) start up a college-wide app. where you can go on and find people to do 'walk and talk' or 'outdoor coffee socials', as a deliberate means of helping students to meet others wanting to find like-minded people at a time when it's almost impossible to meet anyone outside of your own college/household/corridor - but not make it a thing only for people who are struggling socially - just a 'normal' thing in these current times. I'm surprised that there isn't already something like this or that colleges haven't been more proactive in helping people to get-together - safely of course.
In pre-pandemic times, you might expect students to take more personal responsibility to find like-minded others - but these are not normal times and I do think Freshers need a bit more help at present.
Meanwhile, DS1 has apparently been given no expectations of any work recommended in the vacation whilst DS2 will be revising for college Collections (and is already doing this anyway alongside his continuing essays). I'm also finding this difference very weird as I've never known any Oxbridge college not to expect students to be given work in the vac. DS1 will no doubt do some reading anyway but there's just been no guidance or any kind of expectation at all.