Cambridge and Oxford - ongoing chat for those with a student currently studying there

[DadDadDad]

Some of us have found these threads helpful, so I'm starting a new one to take us through

...end-of-year exams (and parties)

...homecoming for the vacation (and hibernation aestivation for this thread?)

...return in the autumn (and more normal college life?)

Posters old and new welcome to join the discussion. Any tips for finding a summer job?

Oh, and for reference, I have a DS just completing his first year in a small humanity in a tiny college.

@goodbyestranger good to hear from you. Have you really moved up to Scotland? When I retire, I definitely want to head back to my home city. I've had it with so many small-minded people round here.

DD came home for a couple of days then (thankfully) got the train back, meeting bf in London for lunch. She now has her new graduates' gown and today is doing some MCR event, then supervisor training this week. She matriculates on Friday I think, possibly before the freshers arrive. No doubt there will be another lovely photo to buy - I need to get the graduation ones ordered!

Thank you Ironoaks! In fact my two dogs will do anything for a chicken and lamb treat. They are incredibly cheap.

Hello Malbec. Yes small minded indeed: I told three Sidmouth worthies where they could get off yesterday, when I was checking my tyre pressures. They berated me for panic buying fuel when I was nowhere near the bleeding fuel, so I’m afraid that I told them to feck off in no uncertain terms. Then they had the audacity to look shocked

DadDadDad I had a similar experience with the M6 Toll services today - queues like I’ve never seen before.

So dropped DD off again today in C. Her room is beautiful. I fell in love with her college all over again. The grounds were in full bloom! What a lucky young lady!!

Last year probs of my DC being at uni!

Enjoy the year everyone

DD back at C today. Lovely room.

Has already gone clubbing.

DD back at C yesterday. She loves her attic room ; very Being John Malkovic if anyone knows the film! Final flight of stairs is an orthopaedic injury waiting to happen. C was gorgeous yesterday. We saw the chap who does a Cambridge Diary wandering around while we were at the Copper Kettle, massive camera being a giveaway. Feeling more bereft than I was expecting today. Glad to have all three DC back, DS having F2F lectures which is excellent. Good luck to everyone with Freshers heading off!

Name change from last year. My ds will be a 2nd year Maths student (O) this year. He elected to stay home for Trinity which was disappointing. Then earlier this summer he had a big wobble about going back this year, said he did not like Oxford or the college system but after much discussion I think he realises he felt like that because he found the first term so difficult (isolation, lockdown, not being able to make friends).
Thankfully, with just a week to go he is more positive, has bought some new clothes and is looking forward to the academic work. I have suggested trying to get a job in the JCR bar as an easy way of getting out of his room and mixing in a less forced way.
Lets just hope I can get enough petrol to actually get him there.....

DD is going back on Saturday. If anyone is going back on Monday, there's a women's bike race causing havoc in the city centre on Fresher's drop off day. Fresher parents - each college has 2nd & 3rd years on hand to help carry everything. Don't be martyrs, they are happy to help.

It's great to hear happy return tales to O & C and Beeswain, I really hope your DS has a brilliant second year and finds some like-minded people. Good luck getting petrol for your journey!

For those who recently joined this thread, with Freshers about to start - a massive good luck to all your DCs. It should be much more 'normal' than it was for our Freshers last year.

When term starts, DS1 (C) is actually going to have - very belatedly - his college Matriculation Formal and photo at last, one year late. Yey!

A bike race? I'm going to pretend I didn't see that and not mention it to anyone. I don't do martyrdom. I do looking on as someone else does the heavy lifting, but I'm sure DD and DH will appreciate any helping hands.

DD is going to learn the hard way Dahlia. Her house has parking opposite the front door, but across a busy road. She can carry the pot plants.

dd is heading back to C on Saturday. Thankfully we have enough fuel for the drive.

Maths department are splitting their 4th years into two groups for the first week or so - with each group attending lectures in person for half the lectures and streamed for the other half. They then anticipate fully running lectures in person.

OYBBK, let's hope they can eventually do full f-2-f lectures soon. Glad to hear you've got enough fuel to get to C.

DS1 (C) is disappointed as he'd successfully auditioned for his college choir and was also waiting to hear if he'd also be given a choral scholarship, only now to find out that as his compulsory (and in-person) seminar this term clashes with one of the two weekly choir rehearsals this term, he won't be allowed to do choir at all.

As it took most of the summer for DS2 and I to persuade him to consider joining a choir this year (he's the most musical one of us in the family), it's sad to see he can't now take up the chance. He thinks that he needs the college choir master's backing to try for a different college.

Does anyone know how 'open' and relaxed C college choirs are about people joining from other colleges and also how strict they are with rehearsal attendance? I presume his own college choir is never possible for those doing subjects with far more compulsory academic commitments like labs., seminars, lectures etc.

DS2 (O) easily joined his college choir last year (although is less musical than DS1) and they're very relaxed if you can't always make every rehearsal. In my day at O, I was in 3 inter-college choirs and also remember a relaxed atmosphere about rehearsals but maybe C is different?

@mutterphore that was similar to DD's experience. She auditioned for her college choir and was of the appropriate standard but couldn't do the hours they wanted. In her case, the DoM phoned or emailed the college down the road and told DD to go down there and speak to that DoM. After a quick chat and sing, DD was accepted there.

Suggest that your DS asks his college's DoM to do the same thing. One advantage of not singing in your own college's choir is that if you miss or skip a service or rehearsal, their range of sanctions is much less (or so I was informed by a former student a couple of years older than DD!) DD has also met some lovely people in her choir's college that she wouldn't have met otherwise. She gets her free formal per week there and can comment with authority on which college has better catering. PM me if you want to know which college choir she sings in.

Many thanks, @Malbecfan. I've PMed you.

College looks much more normal this year, planning formals and allowing guests in. Best bit of that for us, is use of a loo on drop off.

DD (fresher) was dropped off today - she's very excited. Her room is lovely; the college was fab and gorgeous. It was so nice to see it and meet the lovely porters. I think she'll have a wonderful time - hope so, anyway. The emails about covid restrictions have all sounded very sensible and reasonable which is good. Long may it all last! We got to pick up her gown as well...

Taking DS back for his second year at C tomorrow. Still no petrol to be had in our part of London, so I haven't dared drive anywhere all week. I have just about enough in the tank to get there and back. At least I'll be able to look around the college this time!

DD in Oxford has a tiny room, thin but not long, although with a reasonable view over the grass belonging to another college. After the second trolley load of kit was dumped in her room (with two more bigger trolley loads to go), we actually couldn't access the room. I'm not convinced that the Cambridge undergrads know how the other half often live.... Anyhow, I left DD to work out what of her kit she actually needed, or whether sleeping in the corridor was a viable option.

DS's (C) room (set) exceeded all expectations at drop off on Saturday. Beautiful view across the old quad too.
Squeezed enough petrol out of the tank to get DD back to Oxford yesterday. She has a fab room, recently refurbished (with a brand new fridge) in a college house in North Oxford, close to North Parade.
Wishing everyone's DC a happy, successful and comparatively "normal" Michelmas term.

The B&B we used to use in North Oxford was recently bought by Hertford and converted for graduate use - lucky students.

Perhaps it's only my kids who get less than fabulous rooms in Oxford. Some have done well but by and large they've been put into cubbyholes, similar to their cubbyholes at home. Although not shared cubbyholes, which is a vast improvement in their eyes. Perhaps that's how rooms are allocated (on expectations culled from home), hence MN giving a false impression of reality....

That's an interesting theory Goodbye

dd did a course once at Oxford and had the tiniest of rooms. We don't actually know how big her room will be or how much storage she will have. I'm fascinated to learn whether she too might need to sleep in the staircase. Apparently everything packed is utterly vital.

It's nice to here about lovely rooms. And the 'set' is enviable. I wonder if we don't share when things/rooms are less than glorious! Wonder if Oxbridge parents are eternally optimistic and so grateful our DC have these opportunities!!

That being said, I moaned like stink about DD's first year room. It was so dark, it was like a cell!

Good luck to freshers! So exciting!

DS knows which room he is getting (identical layout to last year's room) but doesn't yet know who he'll be with. He thinks that two of his friends might be in the same staircase.

@mutterphore - ds’s friend joined another college’s choir as their choir was a bit hardcore. Ds went along with her to the parties and rated them 5*s!!