Oxford and Cambridge current students

[sandybayley]

Nearly filled up the old one...

That is a dainty gathering. For mine (London not OxBridge) we queued up at one end of the stage in seat row batches, walked quickly along for brief hand shake, striped of the "certificate" 1 and a quarter inch plastic pipe and offski to the bar. When it all finished we were shouted so we could so we could be reunited with our parents. Luckily my course was one of the first ones.

I got hit with a pair of John Knox's trousers. Bit weird.

I'm giggling at these images, but especially of DadDadDads. My non Oxbridge graduation was very boring in comparison. It was very long, my hands went numb with clapping and I shook someone's hand before getting ? (I don't remember)

I've actually got the picture sitting on the shelf of me in that pose in the Senate House from my graduation, and I did think about posting that, but it didn't seem worth the effort of capturing it digitally and blotting out my face before uploading.

Now I'm off to google Oxford graduation ceremony to see what that looks like.

Hello all. Lovely to hear of DCs settling back in. DD snowed under with coursework, lectures and supos and also revision, so she's working very hard, but has some sport and outdoor socialising planned for the weekend.

DadDadDad I've been to eight Oxford graduations in the past nine years (two graduated twice, the one doing Medicine and the one who did a MSc). Basically, you queue for a very long time outside the Sheldonian, then you go in and sit on very hard wooden benches but it's all quite pretty in there with a nice ceiling with cherubs etc and all the while batches of students are arriving and all very chatty and excited then the big wigs come in dressed in quite zany gear then there's some extravagant latin then the VC welcomes everyone and makes two standard jokes then tells the students they have to find their family in the galleries and clap them to say thank you for their support then I think a bit more latin then basically they go through the various degrees from BCL to BA in descending order calling out colleges at a time and everyone claps for each college batch and there's a lot of bowing and latin and more bowing and more latin and then finally..... everyone is allowed to buzz off to colleges for a very, very welcome and much needed drink (stopping to say hellos and have photos between exiting the Sheldonian and legging it to the drinks). All the ones I've been to have been lovely.

I’m so glad that they’ll be having in person graduation. Edinburgh university told its students months ago that all graduations would be remote. So sad, disappointing and unnecessary.

@goodbyestranger - thanks for that nicely written summary! The big difference then is that in Cambridge, each college has its own ceremony - graduands walk en masse from college to Senate House (I don't know what the more distant colleges do), and there is a ceremony just for that college with (usually) the head of college acting as VC deputy. Plenty of Latin, but each graduand gets presented individually.

DadDadDad at Oxford the graduands walk from college too (it's the families/friends which queue) and there's usually several colleges on any given graduation day - maybe five or so - but not all.

At Oxford the graduands present themselves in rows to bow and there's not just bowing but cap doffing too (I forgot the to include the doffing last night), but no hand shaking. All graduands also do two circuits in and out of the Sheldonian - once to graduate and next to come in with their new gowns.

who queue perhaps?

@DadDadDad and @goodbyestranger thanks for these, most helpful.

I didn't go to Oxbridge so have only the experience of my own ceremony where we stood up in rows and shook hands with a couple of people. The Duchess of Kent presented mine. Afterwards we all went outside to meet our families, then she came out & made a bee-line for us saying that she always loved giving the Music degrees. She was absolutely charming.

I did turn pages for my personal tutor who was the university organist, so I sat through quite a few ceremonies beforehand. The organ was right at the top of the platform so we were right up above the dignitaries looking down on them. He was/is an amazing musician who used to sneak bits of other pieces in, especially when he was improvising before the ceremony started - he also played for our wedding and it was bloody brilliant!

I can't remember much about my own grad. / postgrad. ceremonies - one at O and the other at C - as they're much too long ago now but I do remember very well attending my younger brother's at Senate House, Cambridge, when I was heavily pregnant with DS1 and DS2...

At exactly the wrong moment, I started to feel faint and stumbled out, missing the key part of the ceremony, much to the chagrin of the rest of the family and drawing unwanted attention to myself away from the real star of the show. Perhaps, though, that 'hallowed ambience' was somehow imbibed by two tiny foetuses, who were kicking like crazy at that point and clearly couldn't wait to get out and sample the same world!

Ohhh... I am looking forward to that now, although does Google translate do Latin?

I went to the same uni as @sandybayley but have very little memory of my own graduation, and certainly don't recall being clobbered by John Knox's trousers at any point :)

Thanks @goodbyestranger for the description - I took Latin O'level (showing my age here...) but sadly can't remember much about that either. I'm pretty good on 80's song lyrics if that's going to come in useful at all?!

@MiniJellyBeans - it's a legend, might be true 😉

www.ed.ac.uk/events/graduations

@sandybayley - ah, it all makes sense now - thanks :)

DS thinks that the lectures, practical and supervision scheduled for Monday go ahead as normal. At my (redbrick) university I'm pretty sure we were allowed bank holidays off, so maybe this is a Cambridge thing? I can see the reasoning; it's a packed schedule which doesn't really allow for a day to be removed.

@Ironoaks -- correct. Bank holidays do not exist in full term in Oxford and Cambridge.

@Ironoaks I don't think I got Bank Holidays off - redbrick RG uni back in the late 80s. DD is just happy to have things to do so Bank Holidays don't really feature. She had her viva yesterday for her project which went really well and she found a house to share on Thursday, then crashed the home wifi by sending me a gazillion photos of it because the letting agents' were so rubbish. I have agreed to guarantee her share only and sent that off. Her college does have postgrad rooms, but DD would rather have a proper kitchen.

How are your DC getting on with accommodation for next year? DD is quite frugal so resented the cost of the ensuite rooms she had in years 1 & 4. In year 2 she had a lovely but small room overlooking the court & chapel and in year 3 she was in a Victorian house owned by the college, just slightly further along the road. The rent in the house was much cheaper but it had a proper kitchen with an oven and freezer. This experience has swayed her towards the private rental sector for next year, where she will be with a really good friend who is doing her PGCE, another PhD person, a medic and a vet. The house is also near the college boathouse, so DD is thinking about going back to rowing/coxing.

Bank holidays do not exist in full term in Oxford and Cambridge.

Well, they're not banks, are they?

I don't think mine has started looking for accommodation for next year, Malbec. She'll be working rather than a student, but quite a few of her friends are also staying in the area so she should be able to find a congenial set of housemates. I seem to remember they didn't start looking particularly early last year but I don't know if that was just because it was 'wtf 2020'

She's 3 down, 3 more to go with her finals. She's just got back from a walk with DH after a day's revision

I'm quietly surprised and impressed by DS who seems to have defied his "head in the clouds" usual approach to life and sorted out accommodation for his second year with 4 housemates. They found a house and completed most of the process before Christmas for a tenancy to start in August.

I got sucked in because I'm his guarantor on the tenancy agreement. It's for 11 months so it's going to be an expensive year. (His college is small and can only offer accommodation in 1st and 3rd year).

I shudder to think how he's going to cope with basic domestic responsibilities.

DS ballotted yesterday with friends for a college owned house for next year. It's basically next to the college and looks lovely from the outside!

He also apparently stayed up all night to see May day sunrise and played college frisbee this afternoon. I'm so pleased for him that he's doing some stuff this term. I've even resisted the temptation to suggest he has an early night tonight

It's lovely to hear everyone's DC doing normal student activities. DD handed in coursework with one minute to spare. She says there's a big party on Jesus Green tomorrow. Any DCs going to that?

I thought all C colleges gave accommodation forbthdd Ed while three years.. is this wrong? Or are the houses still college houses?