Oxford / Cambridge - current students support / chat thread

[DadDadDad]

Continuing a thread for anyone who wants to talk about their sons' and daughters' experience being a student in Oxford or Cambridge. (Or nephews, granddaughters, sisters, uncles - or if you or they have now graduated but you want to share your thoughts - all are welcome!)

I have a DS in his second year at Oxford, studying a small humanity in a tiny college.

Over to you...

@HewasH2O

For those worrying about returning in January, the word on the street is that Oxford is planning to make the criteria for returning so broad that it should be almost impossible not to go back. They will do whatever they can to avoid a repetition of last year.

That's good news.

Anyone heard about Cambridge?

DS would like to do a physics research placement in the summer vacation after his second year. He and I have both looked online and not many exist. Of the ones that are available, some require three years of undergraduate study.

He has managed to find three schemes so far (one in Germany, one in Switzerland and one in Oxfordshire) and has applied to the maximum number of projects he can for each. A fourth scheme opens in February, and there will also be some openings via Cambridge University he can apply for in the spring. All of these seem very competitive (20-30 applicants for each place) and the most likely scenario is that he won't get anything. I've suggested that he asks his main DOS for advice at the start of next term.

@Ironoaks, my DD did something very similar after her 2nd year. She was given the contact details of a research group at the university closest to home. I admit to having a hatred of the place due to the way they have treated DH and DD's experience was not ideal but looks good on her CV. Speaking to your DS's DoS is a great idea as well as supervisors.

I'm not 100% sure how careers fairs work and DD won't be home to ask until tomorrow (LFTs permitting). However, the college's alumni relations office is another place to try. DD's college is very keen to foster links of all kinds, and they may know of something suitable.

Thank you @Malbecfan I'll suggest that to him.

For those of you who had freshers at Oxford last academic year, what was it like during the covid restrictions? DS was at school and it was all online and kids were at home. Did Oxford send the students home or were they able to stay in college to do online lectures? Did all the colleges have the same policies? Fretting away here!

@cornishcornettos I think there was quite a lot of variation between colleges, but basically students were in college for Michaelmas and Trinity, and at home for Hilary. At the beginning of term, we were allowed in for an hour to help D1 move in. Her college was very strict and had few cases, they were in 'households' and had to eat in hall with their household. Scouts did not come into rooms but would clean the bathrooms and kitchens. If isolating, they ordered food from hall to come to their rooms, or got deliveroo to the plodge. There was virtually nothing on for freshers week or societies. All lectures and tutes were online. Library spaces had to be booked. It was really quite miserable. Trinity was a bit better, some tutes were in person, and things were a bit more relaxed.

Not an O or C parent, but a reader of diverse threads. You might find this one helpful

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4144058-Discrepancies-between-Oxbridge-Colleges

And possibly this one interesting
www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/07/oxford-university-uses-lockdown-loophole-to-allow-in-person-mba-teaching

I think one thing about summer placements, is don't worry if it isn't really in the field you are interested in. dds first two were not in her interest area, but they helped her I think to get her third placement, which was very relevant.

Keep looking at different universities too. Talk to his DoS but also talk to supervisors and ask them if they know of anything.

Cornish DD didn't have a great first term, as the colleges were all finding their feet in the same way as the rest of the world. She was allowed to go back to her room in College after Christmas with online learning. I think she had a couple of F2F tutes across the entire year. She took up rowing and continued to play tennis throughout. She sat her prelims with Covid, which was grim, as the catering was hit & miss. There was no choice of food with a hot meal delivered at random times, including once at 11.30 in the middle of an exam.

I will have no hesitation in sending her back with a big box of emergency supplies after Christmas. Her experience was so much better last year than many of her friends had elsewhere. I strongly recommend packing up a box of essentials in case your DC does have to isolate at any point. Snacks, treats, Lego, painkillers etc.

Thanks for the info re covid last year - hopefully the colleges will be better prepared this year. And top tip re sending them back with an isolation package! Thanks also for the links- interesting to see the differences in approach from different colleges. I'm hoping that they get to go back at least, even with restrictions, and at least this year they have had a good first term to meet other people.

Thank you @OhYouBadBadKitten - he is casting the net quite wide at the moment.

Good tip about asking supervisors

@Cornishcornettos, with one DC at C and one at O, I was able to compare and contrast continually between their different colleges in their first years. Both were put into isolation after only 2 weeks at uni because of others in their 'households' testing positive, despite my DCs never testing positive themselves. This was really dire, especially for DS2 (O) who does an enormous amount of exercise each day and is rarely even in his college room, as he's always thrived on being so busy and out and about. Despite the extensive college grounds at both DS1 and DS2's colleges, neither was allowed out at all for any solitary exercise.

DS1 (C) was only provided with 2 small meals a day by the college. They refused to provide breakfast at all. Lunch was a small, dried up white bread sandwich of some plastic looking filling (no choice of filling either) outsourced by the college from what I think was the cheapest suppliers, plus a bag of crisps! Not exactly healthy. Not filling. Basically terrible! I got lots of photos!

At one point, I actually drove to C and took a parcel of breakfast foods to the Porter's Lodge for DS1 and they said they'd take it up and put it outside his room. The Porter was surprised that no breakfasts were being provided for students. It was incredibly difficult as a parent being unable to help out and provide basics for my DCs. Supper for DS1 (C) was usually something horrible on a plastic tray - often foods he didn't/couldn't eat. So many others were isolating at the same time that there was no chance of a 'friend' delivering food and in any case, he'd barely met anyone by that time.

DS2 (O) who completely coincidentally was also in isolation around the same time in his college, suffered more from incarceration but had better provision, as other students brought meals and food shopping to their rooms. However, DS2 found it pretty much unbearable.

Most teaching for both of them was online as that first term went on. I think each had the occasional supervision/ tutorial that was face to face, masked, socially distanced and outside in the freezing cold.

The second term, both their colleges refused most students return onsite so they did that whole term from home. They never got to meet their tutors/supervisors for that term and probably never will. At least they had each other's company and mine and could get out for lots of exercise (as much as we were allowed at that point) and move from room to room in the house/ go in the garden.

I remain incensed at how badly the colleges handled restrictions and could think of lots and lots of better and totally safe ways that students could have had even their basic needs met by the colleges. It was an awful start to their independent lives but they more than made up for this in the third term and also this recent first term of their second years.

I really really hope they can have some kind of normality next term and be allowed back. Neither is the type to stay in their rooms all day and both have good routines going where they work in different libraries and cafes around O & C, getting lots of fresh air and exercise between stints of study and socialising. They're both 'champing at the bit' to return, whilst enjoying time at home too.

Both refuse to contemplate that they might not be allowed to go back or that life will be very restricted if they are allowed to return. I think it's too awful for them to consider and if I gently hint at ways of managing - should things be a little different again next term - they get very angry. So I'm not speaking with them about this and we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

@mutterphore wow thank you for that info - that sounds so grim for them both. I wonder if many students ended up deferring/dropping out after such a miserable start.

I so hope they will be allowed back, even with limited mixing and bad food in College, DS would rather not be at home. I'm really hoping that this time round the government will be prioritising keeping schools open and therefore unis would follow...

DS is really hoping that his lab practicals will continue to take place in person.

@Mutterphore - that is so upsetting. DS1 (O) had a very different experience, which proves that if a college has a will to make things as pleasant as possible during lockdown, they can. His college had an 'elf' system whereby students who weren't in isolation would run errands for those who were - dropping off mail from the porter's lodge, picking up fresh food and pharmacy items.

meanwhile during lockdown, their college principal decided to do several sittings of very socially distanced candle lit formal hall each week, so they got some of that Oxford experience that all hoped for. They created an outdoor bar with a marquee; they created bubbles of 12 people, they split the choir into three sections and sang in three different areas of college by candlelight, live streamed to parents. It honestly went as far as it could to make that first year magical and memorable.

It can be done well if the people in charge care sufficiently to come up with creative solutions.

Cornish I really wouldn't worry. DD had to SI just over a week after arriving, along with around half of the freshers in her college. That was tough as they hadn't really made friends at that point.

After Christmas around a third of students in her College were back. They allowed them to form their own households, opened up (sort of) kitchen facilities and let them entertain themselves with a fair degree of trust. More came back as time went on.

Trinity term was almost back to normal, except for a big outbreak of Covid across the uni at the end of term. By then the students had sussed out the system, had friends taking on takeaways for them etc.

DD only had about 8-10 to days at home from Jan to July. I know she was very lucky and I worried about her non-stop but she has far more fun than she would have had stuck at home with us.

Hive I agree, I think some Colleges were far more pragmatic than others.

DD1 is HOME!

To those asking about last year, although not a fresher but a 4th year, she was back in her C college after Christmas due to the useless wifi at home and both parents trying to WFH, although I ended up working from school and teaching the kids remotely. She submitted the request to her DoS more in hope than expectation and it was granted almost immediately. After Easter, she had to SI when she returned although the porters gave her a PCR test to do and she was released around 24 hours later. During that time, food was left outside her room and she was emailed with a limited choice of food options, but she was able to select food that she can eat - she has a food intolerance. However, unlike @mutterphore's DS, she was allowed outside in a particular area of the college's grounds for up to an hour per day.

I seem to remember her college suggesting that students had a supply of tinned or packet food that they could prepare in their gyp so DD had loads of cup-a-soup, tins and pasta. Maybe I am biased but her college does seem to have been caring and considerate throughout.

On the drive home, she was explaining all about how supervisions work from the supervisors point of view and how she completed her students' reports. She supervises 2 from her own college and three from another; one from her college is also supervised by one of her housemates in a different subject so they were comparing notes about him. It's nice talking about how to assess someone - I teach so it's part of the job - and listening to her rationale for the grades she gave. She also received a report from her PhD supervisors which seems to be quite complimentary. She will be allowed back next term as she doesn't live in college and has to spend time in the labs. All NatSci lectures are online anyway due to the vast numbers of students. The labs have been doubled up so they run twice as many of them with half the number of students and lots of plastic screens up. She's not complaining when she gets paid for demonstrating or supervising in them!

My dd's first term at Oxford was a bit of a mixed bag both in terms of teaching and food provision; socialising was minimal but luckily her household/staircase got on really well and a few of them are now sharing a house.

Her second term was more difficult in that they had a rota for the tiny, poorly equipped and not exactly clean so called kitchen. A few international students couldn't go home at all over the Christmas holidays but they seemed to be reasonably well looked after and supportive of each other (some were ex-boarding school so possibly more resilient ?)

College was pretty flexible in letting students return after Christmas, as long as they remained in their allocated bubbles and were ok about more basic way of living. The Accommodation Manager also gave them mini fridges which had either been donated or left behind by older students.

She still had a great time though! Loved the tutors, the course and making new friends.

Thank you for all your replies re covid college experiences, such huge differences. Though am increasingly hopeful that they will all be allowed back.

Ds says he thinks the exams at the start of term might be online and so does anyone know if that means they would go back to uni later?

They should just go back as planned.

We had a Christmas hiccup here. DH tested positive for Covid early on Christmas Eve, just as we were meant to be visiting vulnerable Grandparents. DD is understandably very anxious about catching it again herself, as she still has long Covid symptoms clinging on since June & hasn't been able to have her booster yet. (One perk of online exams Cornish is that you can sit your exams with covid.) I bundled her into the car & drove her back to Oxford, after checking she was still negative herself, along with emergency supplies, Christmas presents and a Christmas dinner of sorts. I'm still negative, so I'm hoping DH will get negative results for his day 6 & 7 tests so she can come home for her booster at the weekend. Luckily we had already had a few days away, effectively having our proper Christmas early.

@HewasH2O thanks for the reply. So sorry to hear your DH has covid. And that your DD still has long Covid from summer. Hopefully she can get her booster soon...

Happy Christmas everyone! Have loved having D1 home from Oxford, she's had a good term (and excellent report) which is such a relief after the disrupted first year. She seems to be managing her perfectionism and anxiety, which I'm convinced was exacerbated by the disrupted first year. I'm really hoping they'll continue to have a more normal time next term despite Omicron - I think there will be information from the university on 4th Jan. She's had her booster, but couldn't persuade her to get a flu jab too! She's booked tickets for two balls, and struggling to find dresses - any tips from old hands?