Current Oxford/Cambridge students support/chat continued

[Panicmode1]

New thread.....!

I think ds as a Compsci did share at least one maths lecture course with the Natscis in the first year. But that is a tentative 'I think' not a definite one.

That’s DD dropped off. She wasn’t overly pleased about her room but I’m not sure how they rank rooms for next years ballot position. What’s better:

A- decent size room overlooking car park with sink. High windows so a bit prison like but helps to shield the car park from view. Sandwiched between showers and kitchen.

B - smaller room with huge window overlooking expansive gardens, no sink. Bedrooms either side.

No sink = killer.

No sink wouldn't bother me - being sandwiched between the kitchen and the showers would more. Lots of doors banging, people coming and going and standing chatting. Also staring out of the window over gardens while procrastinating would be better than a view of the car park. For me option B would definitely be better.

I don’t think engineers share maths lectures with natscis. My DS never mentioned a slow and fast maths course… but he started in covid times so who knows what was going on. He also has A star in FM but he’s still found the maths extremely challenging.

On the room front, I’m definitely Team Basin (pedantically I insist on calling it that and not a sink 😬).

DD has the room with a sink and I think felt less hard done by after seeing the other one. She took ear plugs so slamming doors shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

In DD4s college a couple of first year rooms were too small for either a basin or any form of wardrobe. Very pretty outlook but….

Dropped DS off yesterday, he's a 4th year and we ended up having to book private halls for him as he was holding out for a room in college which wasn't materialising! He's rather regretting not being more organised about finding a house share for 4th year (in theory college only provide rooms for 3 years which he has had, but a small number of 4th years go on waiting lists). It's fine, small room but large shared kitchen mostly Oxford Brookes students but expensive! And way out of town. Makes you appreciate the low cost of college accommodation. Still, he's not homeless, which was looking likely at one stage!

Have deposited DC at college for freshers week. They have a sink and a window seat so very pretty but i suspect will be very cold in winter.
Cream tea was really cake and brownies but nice to sit in the old dining hall with other proud families.
DH and I agreed we are both pretty jealous of what they will embark upon - Oxford was so pretty when we walked around it.

Oh goodness @beeswain. Would you be willing to give an idea of weekly private accommodation costs? It's possible ds might do a 4th year. Is there any funding?

I'll PM you @PermanentTemporary

@Teriyakieverything my DD lives a couple of minutes away from Aldi, albeit in a private rental. Not the nicest area but very convenient.

The Maths Q: DD was told for NatSci that there was one for insanely good mathematicians, one for "normal" NatSci maths people and "Maths for Biologists". I know she did the middle one but I can't remember which one it was. She had one nightmare lecturer and complained to her supervisor about them. The supervisor rolled their eyes and said he had had students every year complain about the same lecturer. He explained the content and DD was fine after that. I have no idea if they are still lecturing.

In DD's college, 1st years are all in the same block. Rooms are all ensuite and either expensive or very expensive. That college does ballots for 2nd & 3rd years with reversing the places the next year. DD came very high so had a lovely room overlooking the court/quad with shared gyp and bathrooms, which was considerably cheaper than her 1st year room. In her 3rd year, she managed to get into the skanky house on the college site. It was all rather shabby with peeling paint and shared bathrooms, but there was a massive kitchen which was fully equipped. Rent was even cheaper and she was able to leave stuff over the vacations. In her 4th year, she was back in the Fresher's block again, but able to share a gyp with friends.

@PermanentTemporary DD initially lived out in her 3rd year. They were paying £2,080 plus all bills for a 3 bed house off St Clements Rd. Her college only provided accommodation for 1st, 2nd and 4th years.

In DD's college, 1st years are all in the same block. Rooms are all ensuite and either expensive or very expensive. That college does ballots for 2nd & 3rd years with reversing the places the next year.

My DDs was similar though iirc the 1st year rooms were all one price. They were the nice ones used for conferences etc so only available for 30 week rental not 39 which dd preferred after that. She was almost at the bottom of the second year ballot, but it turned out well - a room in a house leased by the college, and her higher-placed best friend opted to go there too. They enjoyed having a house and proper kitchen for a year. Then the next year she was right at the top so got her pick (shame it was 2020...).

4th year she could have had a college room - not sure but I think they probably put the 4th years in the middle of the balloted places - but because of covid restrictions she chose to rent a house with some friends instead. That's always an option though of course Cambridge isn't cheap. Two were from a college which (unusually, afaik) did not guarantee college accommodation to non-overseas 4th years. (And their 2nd and 3rd yr college accommodation was actually flats above shops in town).

@Teriyakieverything DD (3rd year NatSci) took Maths B. I would agree that it’s easier to
move down to Maths A (a couple of people in her class did) than to move up. It was challenging but she enjoyed it. Just to note when the only other woman in Maths B dropped down to Maths A she was the only woman left, which was a new experience for someone who’d gone exclusively to girls’ schools.

DD4 has traded a rat colony in her first year (main college) accommodation for a squirrel who came into her room most days to eat chocolate in her second and third years (annexe close to college) for a fourth year badger. He agreed to a photoshoot last night and is large and docile. We are huge badger fans (lived for four decades in a Devon village featured in the Daily Mail - centre page spread - 'Village Torn Apart By Badgers' etc). She was definitely hoping that the squirrel would follow her to the fourth year accommodation but it's a bit further away, and he was quite a lazy squirrel tbf (hopped through the window onto her desk, ate chocolate, settled down for a snooze, repeat daily). Maybe a ten minute walk is a bridge too far.

Dd used to get a rather handsome black squirrel come to the window of her second year house.

Black?!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-49328867

Makes complete sense that they might be roaming the streets of Cambridge. Never heard of black squirrels before!

Foxes are the wildlife attraction at DS’s Cambridge college. Many photos of cute cubs in the old quad where DS lived in second and third years.

I've just got back from the US and there are black squirrels there (New Jersey). We thought they were a US species though.

Yes - the link upthread gives an explanation.

Did you manage to avoid the floods in NY HoneyMobster?

D1 enjoyed squirrels, a badger and the college cat when she lived in. Living out in 2nd year (Oxford) was £600pm each plus bills for a 6 bedroom house between Cowley and Iffley Rds with squirrels(and lots of slugs).
I'm currently reeling from finding out how much graduation photos cost, haha. £28 each (no that's not framed)

@goodbyestranger - we left Manhattan the afternoon the floods struck. It was fine though as we spent a happy morning at the Museum of Broadway and still managed to get a train to Princeton. It was worse on Brooklyn I think.

I have never seen such heavy rain. Over 8 inches at JFK!