Current Oxbridge students - continued again...!

[Panicmode1]

Think the other thread is full....!

@WutheringConniption it depends on the budget and cash flows. Dd basically used the free overdraft for spending, and I sent her off with a cash flow excel spreadsheet to help with lumpy finances. Not sure how helpful this is, as doesn’t answer your specific question.

Hi
Newbie here, Son starting on the 6th.

Quick question re bedding at Oxford colleges, does anyone have any idea if we need to bring duvets and pillows or is it just the covers for them?
And also what size beds, I'm presuming single? Thanks

duvet and mattress cover and pillow was provided for my dc - a single. might be best to ask college as seems to vary.

Re care pack - i sent L
£100 cash in an envelope in case of losing card/phone
pack of biscuits
chocolate bar
paracetamol
ibuprofen
cough sweets
diarrhoea medicine
wind up torch
tissues
lemsip
small sewing kit
safety pins
scissors
generic birthday card (came back unused)
herbal teabags (also unused)
seemed to go down ok

they also took a cosy blanket

i also sent a book of stamps with the instructions to buy postcards to send to GPs. They LOVED the postcards😁
re money for freshers - they had a gift of grandparents but i think an extra £200 for first month is ok. IF they need sports kit that can often be ordered/paid for later (the rugby club lure you in before asking for money!)
College puffas are about £60 i think and certainly at oxford they are worn a lot - again maybe a grandparent might be persuaded to fund that?

Also wanted to add - i was on a course (not oxbridge) at uni that had 'parents' - some got on really well (1 father married his daughter!) and some did not. i got on better with my friend's dad - mine weren't that interested.
I got on ok with my child, but didn't really see them at course nights out so never fully bonded.
It really depends on the person but it is a useful contact to give you ideas about exams/workload/social outings etc. Good to feel you know someone other than your year.

Completely depends on college.

Even if the duvet is provided - I've never encountered a sanitary one.

My DC have only ever had single college beds.

Maybe I'm mean or we were quite poor then but I didn't give DD a penny for freshers. She had had a job over the summer so wasn't exactly skint.

DD had a blingly make up bag full of medicaments, the bag having come free with a Superdrug delivery and was about to be sent to charity shop before I realised it was so awful it couldn’t be missed in the gloom or mess of a student bedroom so could serve a purpose. The awful sequinned bag is now a favourite of DD’s along with the now battered luggage label that says ‘take care of this student miniPWP’.

I also got DD some Wetherspoons vouchers for start of Y1. She did like those and don’t think they lasted long!. Her college bar isn’t the best. For Christmas, once realising she was enjoying the Cambridge theatre scene, ADC vouchers went down a treat as she could attend shows her friends were in,

I have already started on making DD a dress for Christmas as I just can’t justify the cost of buying something and have to fit it in around work and pinning to size before DD heads back, I should then have time before the May Ball season in June to make one more.

I’d like to join too please. My YP has been pooled to Trinity Hall (C). Logistics meant it has been too far to visit and their interviews were on line so the first time they will ever be in Cambridge is the day we move him in.

rather unnerved by the complex directions on how to find the college and unload all his stuff. I don’t think there appears to be a time slot- just turn up at will.

got a room allocation. Seems to be one of the less expensive ones so I would imagine it will be tiny!

Welcome @StunnedandHappy, how exciting. Besutiful college. I remember ringing the college (main number, porter's lodge) a couple of times as we approached, as I assumed there would be a time slot, and they were supremely relaxed, just telling me to ring again when I actually got there and they would open the gate for me. A bit scary as I had to perch on a bus-only street half across the pavement but then the gate magically opened... trust the instructions, it will be fine.

@Gingercatlover I would check with the college.

Both DS and DD had to provide all of their bedding - mattress covers, sheets, pillows, duvets and covers. DS's girlfriend was at Trinity and had pillows and duvet provided. Not sure about duvet covers.

We also bought mattress toppers because college beds aren't the comfiest.

My DS off to Cambridge in three weeks. I'm reading all your tips with gratitude especially as he's our eldest child.
I'm also worried about parking on drop off day. Doesn't seem to be a time slot system. Will have to read info from the college again. Exciting times!

The problem with parking is it varies so much between colleges. We had to park on the street last year with a '20 minute delivery pass'. Unloaded into reception and then dh parked car elsewhere.
My advice would be to get there as early as possible to beat the crowds. Maybe then go out for breakfast and return to help/greet other new starters!

As @sytron says, it really does depend on the college. There are probably around 40 spaces at DD's college so we were generally ok. The first drop-off was the worst for parking. Due to how far we are from C, time-slots don't work for us. I have done home to that college in 3 hours 40 by leaving at 6am and not stopping. The A303, M3 and M25 were all pretty quiet. On the other hand, it can take 7 hours+ on a bad day.

I would imagine that central colleges are very much more challenging than those a little further out. Plan for the worst, hope for the best and I'm sure it will be somewhere in between.

Hi @Malbecfan good to see you on these threads again after the last uni one.

@Gingercatlover check with college but at DC’s if you take your own duvet cover and pillow cases you have to wash and dry them yourself but if you use the college provided ones you get a clean set weekly. So have never needed own set 🤣

Is everybody set for the new term ?

@bettbburg DD is off for a few days from tomorrow to visit a school friend at another Uni and another school friend is joining them so there will be three of them. It is a far cheaper town than Cambridge (shots for £1 I am told with great gusto and exicitment!) and with the short Oxbridge terms it is nice DD has been able to visit a variety of towns and see friends whilst they are at their Unis.

She is planning to take much less this time round than she did last year. More because the logistics of carrying it all (well most, minus what she can fit in her lockable storage during the short vacations) back and forth just don't appeal to her. She doesn't take her own duvet or pillows for example but does have her own covers and she isn't at a college that does the laundry for them but she does have easy and free access to washing machines.

Mine is planning on travelling light too, they've worked what is needed and what is not.

They've got accommodation further away this time as they were on the main site last year but are still only a short distance from their college.

Like your DD, they've been travelling and spent summer with college friends who live overseas as well as seeing ones at university here as soon as the Oxbridge term finished.

DC2 has been back at O for 2 plus weeks and finds out at the end of this week if she's been cut from the squad or is through to the next stage of trialling for her sport. She's having a great time. It seems like a friendly squad unlike the men's squad DC1 trialled for a couple of years ago.

DC1 who graduated in July today drove off to start a new life in a city about 3 hrs from us. Just pipped to the post with the job he interviewed for last week but they wrote a really lovely email and recommended him for agency work which he's been accepted for so he hopes to start that very soon. The actual employer said they will take him on permanently in the next three months if another vacancy arises. It seems the Council don't have to readvertise in that time period. Anyway he's sorted a house share via Spare Room and is terrified and excited in equal measure.

Not sure @bettbburg! I need to book a car for the trip to college. Ds seems OK but a bit bored, going to the gym twice a day. Some of his friends have already gone back to their unis but he srill managed to find someone to play squash with. He's got another set of job interviews on the go, something like 5 interviews for this one, a graduate job. The next one he does will be number 3 so he's making progress. How are things with you?

DS has received some info from the college, but nothing from the department yet, apart from a form to express interest in demonstrating or supervising. Perhaps he just presents himself at the Cavendish Labs at 9am on 1 October? He plans to email his supervisor next week for clarification.

Mine has settled and for herself a bar job which is great news. Any tips on where to get a safe secondhand bike from in Cambridge?

Treading water a bit here - no contact from college parents, no news about accommodation. DD getting more anxious about it all but is getting on with the reading at least and enjoying it I think.

@Newgirls DD got her bike from FB marketplace for £50. It was an upgrade on the one we bought originally from our local recycling centre - Devon recycling centres sell off stuff that can be reused, so if you need crutches, golf clubs or bikes, take a trip to Devon!

@Ironoaks it might be worth him messaging the DoS for his subject in college, trying to seem keen. DD had as much supervising as she wanted in the 1st year of her PhD. She also did some demonstrating. She did less supervising in her 2nd year, and last year just did demonstrating as her workload ramped up, or the date of the end of her stipend loomed closer. I messaged her last night to see if she could come home for a week next summer to enable me to go on a school residential and she agreed immediately.

@FreddieStandensBFF up to you of course, but if you want to PM one of us with the name of the college, we can try to help you. O or C? Sorry if you have said already - I was teaching at 8am, got home at 6 and may have consumed a lot of wine since!

DD2 heads off soon to start her job, but letting agents in Herts are bloody useless.

@Malbecfan that's a good idea