Oxford open day next week :how are we supposed to fit it all in? How do we know which colleges to look at

[Opendaymaddnes]

Hello I'm trying to get my head around the open day and distances. The subject talk is quite early but it looks like we could spend all day at the subject talk area meeting tutors but we need to look at accommodation options also and colleges.

I've googled the best colleges for her subject and I hope to visit three? Does this sound like a plan? Is this what uther people do?

Oxford interview 3 people for every place, it doesn't really matter which college you express a preference for (you can also opt not to express a preference) this is all allocated pre interview. A large proportion of applicants are reallocated at this stage to even out candidates across the colleges. At interview stage this can change again - interviewees are sometimes sent off to other colleges for 2nd interviews. Lots of info on the Oxford University website. I didn't go to the open day with my D1, they did a trip from school - Oxford and Cambridge in two days in the school minibus (which broke down between the two so they didn't see much of C!)
As pp have said, don't discount non central colleges, accommodation at the central colleges is often off site anyway - D1's bf was at Jesus and was in a college house in Cowley.

My daughter went to Cambridge. Different I know . But we chose to let them allocate the college and she was successful and happy ( Lucy cavendish). Drop the control - enjoy the ride.

Times have changed. The majority go with a parent these days or in school groups. Arrive at the park & ride early or, if you take the train, don't expect to get anywhere near your reserved seats on the way back.

DD didn't have a department for her course (PPE), but her favourite college ran a session for each subject. The tutors made it clear that they woul only take Qs from the young people, not parents.

I think we looked around 5 colleges, but some visits were shorter than others.

@Opendaymaddnes what a shame that some posters feel they need to have a dig.

It’s clear that we’re all just doing our best, and coming at this from different starting points.

@bombastix not everyone’s circumstances are the same as yours were. From where we live it’s not possible to get to and from Oxford on public transport in a day, while leaving a reasonable amount of time to actually look around departments and colleges. We’ve failed to find well located, reasonably priced accommodation that an u18 can stay in by themselves so I’m having to go too. DS will certainly be taking the lead and attending the subject talks by himself. I don’t think having me along will be a hindrance.

@Muchtoomuchtodo in gobsmacked, wading into a thread with such snide rude comments what if a child has sen or is disabled or recently bereaved of a parent I'm just gobsmacked.
Appalled.

Anyway I hope it's been helpful to you, it's been extremely helpful to me and I'm really looking forward to my day around Oxford also!.

Perhaps you could just accept that what works for one person doesn't work for another. Loads of parents go on open days. Literally thousands - seen them with my own eyes. My DD has been to a few open days - she did 3 with friends, one with me and a couple with DH. So fucking what?

In answer to your question OP, you should prob go to the subject talk, have a quick look at a couple of colleges. I think they do a lot of reallocating though so I wouldn't really get hung up on colleges. They are all fine.

@ScaryM0nster thanks this is what's confusing me where is the department because I thought they were taught in the college? Do the teachers from their college teach them there or in a different place 🤔

In Oxford I did 2 colleges and the faculty talk, DC did the rest on his own. I partook of free lunch at Somerville, he sussed out a market lunch. He began his day early, I settled up at the hotel and stowed the bags. After the faculty talk I collected the bags while he did a bit more and met him at the rail station.

Durham was a lot less enlightening re colleges and not all were open to visit on on the open day, plus less easy to get to with so much to do on campus. It's a great campus though. Durham the city much less going for it than Oxford

@Opendaymaddnes me too. We’re going on Thursday. Perhaps we can compare notes afterwards!!

From what can understand, the whole cohort is taught in a centralised dept for common subject lectures and then tutorials are held in your college. As you get further along the course, if you opt for a module that your tutors don’t cover so well, you may have tutorials in other colleges.

@Muchtoomuchtodo thanks that makes much more sense 😄

Don’t over think college choice. Around 25% of those offered a place get an offer from a college they didn’t apply to. This means that if you do apply to an oversubscribed college it shouldn’t reduce your chances as they will reallocate a proportion of candidates to less oversubscribed colleges.

By all means stroll around a few (Oxford city centre is tiny and the central colleges are minutes from each other) and make a shortlist depending on what your priorities are (eg how much accommodation on main site, old architecture vs more modern facilities, central location vs green space) but don’t stress too much about it. Feeling sure that the course choice and Oxford teaching style is right for you is far more important.

St Hilda’s is only a few minutes beyond Magdalen and easily visitable. The northern colleges (eg LMH and Hugh’s are further out but we are talking 15-20 minutes from the centre, not hours. They often offer free ice cream as an incentive to walk up there

I'm also guessing that students can use all the college facilities anyway?
Probably not dining but they can use each other's bars and go to events?

Not sure about psychology but chem - son had lectures every day for two hours in the morning in the chemistry department and labs for the rest of the day on Thurs and Fri - again in the dept. The college thing is where the tutorials come in - academics have their research groups in the labs/depts but are attached to colleges so he had at least two, if not three tutorials a week in college with the same person for the year. The college tutorial person is not necessarily the same person as those delivering the main lectures in the dept, but obvs experts. They got problem sheets. Go away, do them yourselves, hand in 48 hours before the tutorial and then be prepared to discuss / work through/talk about your thoughts process in the tutorial. Tutorials in college were with the other chemists in his college. (6 this year for st peters ). That's pretty much the gist of it, from what I've gathered from him!

I did this in the 90s. Worked out a shortlist of three based on the colleges that I was most likely to be accepted by (number of places for my subject, mid-ranking etc) cross-referenced with the colleges that I thought I would most enjoy (larger, quieter, as close to 50:50 sex split, not one of the famous city centre names). Ended up at my first choice (mentioned above) and loved it.

Mansfield is small but has a great atmosphere and loads of student support. Excellent location too, off South Parks Road.

(I should add that accommodation is an important consideration!)

OP do the subject talk, don't stay any longer at that than you need to and then spend the rest of the day meandering around colleges. Just dot in and dot out. Do any number crunching about numbers etc after you've been.

I went to Cambridge and I’m going to tell you a story about one of my friends.

This was in the 90s and information was much harder to get but there were some charts about the different colleges. My friend had carefully gone through these charts and figured out the best college to go to. Which was great except she had misread the line and applied to and got into the one below it in the alphabet.

And then we all laughed at how lucky it was that she had come to our college and not the one she meant to apply to which would have been rubbish!

Your Oxbridge college is like your football team - yours is always the best.

All the plans to game the statistics are also a bit misguided - if you are that borderline then you would be far better off going to one of the dozen other great universities in the country where you won’t have to struggle every day. Oxbridge is tough even for the best. Getting in is the easy bit. The work is the tough bit. You only want to get in if you are easily good enough to get in.

Students can’t use facilities at other colleges other than as a guest of a student from that college. They can go into other colleges of course (and often do for teaching as well as for general sightseeing ) but you can’t just rock up to the St Hilda’s bop (disco) if you are at Oriel, unless you are invited by a St Hilda’s student or work in the St Hilda’s library just because you like the seating. Academic events are obviously different - I’m assuming you mean social events.

Some teaching will be organised centrally and other types in college: the proportion depends on the course. Lectures will always be centrally arranged and tutorials will be taught in a college, but sometimes tutors may arrange swaps for tutorials with a colleague if a student is taking a specialist option later in the degree.

Big one, small one, modern one, old one.

There are huge differences in the young people attending open days. Some may have oodles of confidence or already be familiar with the universities. Some may find their parents embarrassing and not wish to be seen with them. Others may value their opinions, knowing they will spot things which they don't. Some may still only be 16, travelling long distances or may just want their mum or dad with them.

My DD went to one university by herself, visited Oxford with me, travelled over 400 miles to one university with her dad, detouring to another open day on the way home and finally visited her last choice for a couple of hours announcing that she couldn't see herself going there. She will finish her masters there later this summer!

Do what works for you and welcome to the world of Oxbridge applications. There is a lovely thread which has been running for many years where the parents of current students chatter. It's very kind and they help with adhoc queries. An Oxbridge applicants thread usually also gets set up around now.

100% agree with what @Mumofteenandtween said. The vast majority of students think their own college is the best and friendliest, whether or not it is the one they originally applied to. Colleges are extremely good at building loyalty and community.

@caramelty @bombastix @AlastheDaffodils @Muchtoomuchtodo yes was also my experience in the 90s. Almost all students went to open days on their own. Very few parents ever went. My parents also had zero input on my choice (a choice which was a disaster, totally wrong for me)
But guess what.......... times have moved on now. Parents are now involved. They go to open days. We've been to 6 within the last year and at all of them at least 99-100% of the students there were there with a least one parent, often two. Its standard now.

Maybe not at Oxbridge (not on our list) but certainly at the ones we've been too - parents wandering around having a look, asking questions, chatting to their kiddo about it all - is standard. A student on their own........nope, rarely happens not unless they are 25+

As an academic I can confirm that the vast majority of students at open days (at any university) are now accompanied by parents. Everything has changed since the 90s, most notably the introduction of fees. With parents paying so much to support their children, and the students leaving with so much debt, it isn’t surprising that both students and parents want more parental input into the decision of what uni if any to go to.