Oxford / Cambridge - current students support / chat thread 2022

[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!)

Some of us on this thread go back to I think to late 2019 when our DCs were going through the admission process. A lot's happened since!

Over to you...

@goodbyestranger - we were 24 hours after the tunnel issue and had flexipass so went to the front of the 3 hour queue yesterday. Highly recommend flexipass!

DS got a lot of paperwork yesterday including a JCR booklet that refers to a college JCR Facebook group and a college freshers FB group. He is not a fan of social media, has never had a FB account. Just wondering if other colleges have this and whether it is essential (in which case i will try to persuade him). Thanks

Hello all!
Another ‘new recruit’ with a DD that will be reading Classics at Oxford.
Neither of us have been to Oxford so ‘dropping off time’ will be the first time she and me will have seen her college ‘in the flesh’.
Can anyone recommend a cheap hotel for an overnight stay- we’re travelling from the NE - that would welcome a Ddog?

College JCRs and some societies use Facebook to initially connect with as many new students as they can, then a lot of the subsequent communication takes place via WhatsApp (in DS's experience). DS was invited to group chats via Discord and Instagram. He logs into Facebook very rarely (once or twice a term).

I agree. FB is just an easy 'gateway' for groups to connect. When DS1 started it was just that, a way to connect - the discussion then moved elsewhere.

@Takox as with others above my DS doesn't like Facebook but has had to relent for societies etc. where he says it is used quite a bit. Probably varies by society.
Ds doesn't like communicating electronically and especially not with people he doesn't know so didn't join any groups before going up but it hasn't held him back. They all muck I together in fresher's week. I did make an effort to find out about freshers fair - there was an app which was great for scrolling through and seeing what was on offer as it is so big you can miss clubs you might be interested in.

My dd is going into her fourth year. Her college subject group and the uni wide subject group have all communicated via Facebook messenger throughout the last three years. Would definitely recommend setting up a profile.

Ds is on Facebook but says his Fresher college connection is all happening on WhatsApp.

We've just done a marathon of ploughing through letters sent to us. Fresher's week looks great, and I'm going to drop him at college and disappear because it looks like he'll be busy from the first mealtime.

Buying a dark suit off eBay... aiming for under a tenner...

DS college has a Facebook Freshers page run by two second years. Once he got results they were invited to a Freshers WhatsApp group which he says is very active and helpful for info. He met the other 4 history folk on there and they have started a history subgroup! He isnt very sociable at home and although he had a Facebook account for uni contacts since year 12 he didn't really use it. He is also now following the swimming club Facebook page as wants to swim whilst there. He has surprised me with his social presence so far!

There’s an Oxford uni parents group on Facebook that’s very handy for questions about local hotels, college details and stuff like that.

Both my older DC only joined FB because they felt they had to in order to join all the college groups. DD2 has just done the same. They’re far from SM purists but they regard FB as being for oldies.

DD2 has just had details of all the concerts she’ll be doing as a choral scholar. She’s so excited and so am I 😬

Thanks all, will try to get him signed up. The sub fusc deal the college referred us to seems extremely reasonable at 29.99! Is that what everyone has? Cotton gown, mortar board and tie…he has a black suit unworn from 6th form. Love this thread, grateful for the insights

yep, that sounds like the standard sub fusc set. My DD got hers from shepherd and Woodward.

Mine missed out on stash last year because she doesn’t pay much attention to Facebook 😂 She did end up with a departmental hoody later on so it wasn’t all bad.

She’s also a choral scholar - Michaelmas term was a brilliant for concerts last year, even with covid, and the list for this year looks even better. She went on tour last year as well, and had a great time.

Don’t be surprised if other students get her muddled up with postgrads with the scholars gown though

That sounds lovely @Scrobbler!

As a small PS for the sub fusc… black ribbon (for the “female” option) can be had from anywhere, not necessarily the tailors in Oxford. That way they can get the right length etc.

As far as I know, my son has heard nothing about anything at all to do with freshers , sub fusc (?? Going to have to Google that one!), accommodation, Facebook or WhatsApp groups etc etc. He only accepted his offer on Tuesday and he’s now away at Leeds festival so perhaps he’s heard and just not had the chance to tell me.
What should he have sorted out by this stage? I’m so stressed!

DD got an email from her college earlier this week, might have been Tuesday. But most of the info has also been posted on the college website. Her college seems much more organised than DS1's was!

Might be worth a look on the college website to see if anything has been posted. From what I can make out little changes from year to year so you'll probably get a sense of what is happening even with info from a previous year.

Thank you. I’ll pin him down on Monday when he gets home and go through the stuff on the college website. I’ve just had a brief look and it all seems to be on there.

There's still well over a month... when we read the paperwork we found there really wasn't anything we needed to do yet, or much that would matter if ds did it on arrival. Just that he needs to set a bank account up, but he already has one, and will need to register with a GP when he arrives.

Im pursuing the dark suit for matriculation because I want to get it v cheaply is all.

Scarlett beyond accepting the place there is literally nothing that a DC needs to do atm. Over the next month read a reasonable number of items of the reading list maybe. And if moved, respond to overtures by college parents. Other than that, everything can be done on arrival, same as at other unis.

Oh also fill in preferences for college accommodation, if that's a thing at the relevant college (so eg Oriel and Brasenose ask for which grade of room new students would like, whereas eg Magdalen and Wadham don't differentiate).

At least they didn't, that might have changed in the last few years. But all colleges who band first year accommodation will make it clear by email.

I wouldn't worry. DD had 2 friends going to other colleges, both of whom knew their accommodation and move-in date weeks before DD was told anything. At some point (that felt quite late; definitely into September) she was asked to rank accommodation and she was asked to pick her first year papers before she even had her results - but other than that, she had very little contact before she started. There was a freshers' what's app group but she didn't engage much because it was full of the same people. Colleges seem to vary a lot! The only thing that probably genuinely is worth checking is that the email address your ds is using is not his school one as, if he is, he could be missing information.

ScarlettDarling DS got an email
from college this week with about 20 attachments, stuff like registering with GP, timetable for first 2 weeks, forms to fill in. Has to be returned by 2 September. So no drama yet. He got some passport photos taken today as needs those for a couple of the forms.