Incredible Year at Oxford Past Review
By Morgan D (ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE/LETTERS., Barnard College) for
University of Oxford - Visiting Students
Absolutely. It sounds sentimental, but this was, without doubt, the best year of my life. I hope to live in the United Kingdom (and/or Ireland) again at some point in the future, either for work or for grad school. I feel that I have a good understanding of the United Kingdom, England in particular, and a much greater understanding of the United States than I did when I left last September. And frankly, the way that I think about books and about English literature in general has been dramatically changed. I feel that my understanding of literature, and of the novel in particular, is much deeper now than it was a year ago, and I say this as somebody who has spent her entire life reading books voraciously. I am so grateful that I got to have this experience and I am profoudly sad to be leaving Oxford behind.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 2 weeks - 1 month |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
As anybody looking into studying at Oxford is certainly aware, students do not (for the most part) attend classes or seminars but instead have tutorials that meet either weekly or biweekly. These are hour-long meetings with a tutor and are usually one-on-one. You have to prepare an essay using primary texts and secondary sources for each tutorial and spend the hour discussing your work with your tutor. This is extremely rewarding and intellectually rigorous. Although my tutors were not intimidating or off-putting in the slightest, they are extremely intelligent and trained in their fields, so you really need to be on your game during your tutorials. I found this system -- both the emphasis on writing as a method of learning and the tutorial meetings -- EXTRAORDINARILY beneficial to me as a student. With all due respect to Barnard and Columbia, which are obviously excellent institutions, I feel that I learned more at Oxford this year than I did in two years of study at home. Of course, what you will get out of your tutorials depends very much on how much effort you put into them. I put a lot of effort into mine and reaped the consequent benefits, but if you slack off you will really hurt yourself. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
I really appreciated the efforts of Dr. Cari Morningstar, the dean of study abroad students at Mansfield. She set up our tutorials for us and was generally a helpful and encouraging presence at the college throughout the year. That said, there was not a lot of effort put into integrating us with the Mansfield students in general over the course of the year. I did not much mind this since I made friends through other channels, but I know that some students found it somewhat frustrating. More of them did manage to make good friends at Mansfield, and it is really all about the effort that you make, but the administration probably could have done a few more things to try to mix us in with them a little more. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The dorm building we were in was perfectly satisfactory, and in a decent neighborhood, close to a couple of grocery stores, many restaurants, and an independent movie theatre (although around 15 minutes' walk to Mansfield College). We were living almost exclusively with Americans, which could be frustrating at times. It was extremely cold during Michaelmas term, after which the college bought us all individual space heaters, which helped immensely. |
| * Food: |
You could eat fairly cheaply at the dining hall at Mansfield, but I generally chose to cook for myself. The kitchen on our floor was well-equipped and spacious. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
My social experiences here had nothing to do with Mansfield but were instead a result of my taking part in the social life of the university in general. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
I never felt unsafe in Oxford. There is an NHS surgery just down the road from the accomodation and we were all registered there. I went to the doctor once and everything went very smoothly. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | Gosh, I'm not sure. Maybe £60? £80? Really hard to say. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | I didn't do much spending except on food, movie tickets, and books (so many, many books). With the exchange rate it probably wound up being about the same as in New York. I also did some travelling in the holidays, which was the biggest drain on my finances. |
Language
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
Select all that apply |
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Do it. Do it if you are smart, and eager, and willing to be told that you are wrong every once in a while. Do it if you want to learn. Do it if you love to write. |
