Oxford FAQ, Part 2: Student Life

In my first FAQ post, which can be found here,  I talked about academics. Now, I’m back to answer  questions about adjusting to life at the University of Oxford, especially during freshers week. 

Student Life

Q: What is freshers week like? 

A: Freshers week is busy, confusing, exciting, lonely, and fun, like probably every orientation week ever. I overheard two older Oxford students in a restaurant saying freshers week is hard for basically everyone, and I agree. It’s not easy to move to a new place, especially when you’ve never lived on your own before, and the JCR’s freshers week programming is there to keep all the new students distracted from their loneliness. (JCR = junior common room, kind of like a mini student union for the college)

Move-in felt surprisingly like freshman year move-in at my home school (just a lot smaller), except that I lugged my suitcases up two flights of stairs because there wasn’t a lift in our staircase, unless I somehow missed it. Exploring the Catz grounds was super easy - even though its the largest Oxford college, it still only has around 700 undergrads. 

During freshers week, there are some required events, but it’s not too demanding of a schedule. There are a few info session, lots of evening events planned by the JCR, the freshers fair (for societies, sports, clubs, and free stuff - definitely go), walking tours of Oxford and Catz, and various other activities. You’ll have time to explore Oxford or do other things you want to before classes start. I walked to the JRR Tolkien bench, explored the Covered Market, and worked on my grad school application essays in the Rad Cam (and at the Social Sciences library near Catz, but that was less exciting).

During the weekend, there are a lot of “taster” sessions held by societies and clubs. I missed this because I was on the IES Abroad field trip to the Jurassic Coast. I managed to audition for one college choir before I left, but many choirs and other organizations were mainly holding auditions and tryouts that weekend. The IES Abroad trip was definitely worth it though. Since it started on Friday, I had to be excused from a required session, but it wasn’t a problem at all.

Q: Is it weird to be in with the freshers/students younger than you?  

A: A little bit, but it wasn’t that bad. Some of them were very friendly, although some seemed a little intimidated or drifted off after finding I was a visiting student, probably to make friends with people who were going to stick around. But honestly, I think it’s silly to look down on those younger than you, especially those who are in the position you were in very recently. There are some differences between freshers and older students, for example, I’d already experienced moving away from home several years ago, while it was new for them. But ultimately your attitude towards the freshers really determines how weird you’ll feel being around them. You’re all new, you all want to make friends, and really you’re not that different. Treat them like equals, respect them, and don’t avoid them to hang around only visiting students, even if you don’t end up hanging around any freshers after freshers week. It’s a good experience to get to know some of them. 

Also, even though most of the students I encounter are a year or two (or three) younger than me, it doesn’t usually feel like they’re younger. I’ve met quite a few students who have impressed me with their maturity, as well as their intellectual abilities.

Finally, after freshers week, you’re probably not going to be around a lot of freshers unless you’re in lectures or tutorials with them, so just don’t worry about it too much.

Q: What is it like being a visiting student versus a matriculated student?

A: During freshers week especially, you can feel a little left out as a visiting student sometimes. Some things were just for freshers, such as club nights (I wasn’t sad to miss), several formal dinners, and the matriculation ceremony. Catz has a lot of visiting students, as does Oxford as a whole, but we still didn’t always get the information we needed. Sometimes we received conflicting information, such as being told that we weren’t allowed to go to the formal dinner with our college parents because there wasn’t space, and later being told that we were (when it was too late to sign up). 

There are good things too. We don’t have to take end-of-year exams. We had our own formal dinner after freshers week. We could still participate in plenty of things during freshers week. Most of us also got better accommodation than the freshers, many of whom had “community style” rooms and bathrooms, as we would say in the States.

Q: What is the housing situation? 

A: Most visiting students at Catz ended up in “new quad”, where students have their own bathroom and the rooms are quite large and well-furnished. There is even a small mini-fridge in each room, which is luxury to me. Some were in old quad, which has a mixture of private and shared bathroom arrangements. Rooms are situated in “staircases”, each of which you have to enter through a separate door, even though they are in the same building. On each floor there are rooms (my “flat” has six people) and a tiny kitchen. Tip: buy a small frying pan if you plan to cook - my large one literally wouldn’t work on our sensitive induction hob because it was too big. 

There’s not really a living space, but you get an extra, semi-comfy chair in your room. My only major complaint has been that my original mattress had springs sticking up everywhere - that thing must have been there since the building was opened, I don’t know. However, when I asked the Porter’s Lodge to change it, they got housekeeping on it immediately, and my new mattress is (comparatively) incredible. 

Q: I have more questions….

A: First, take a deep breath and understand that Oxford is bad at admin and being clear (yes this is a generalization, but I’m not wrong). Most of your questions will probably be answered with a little waiting. Freshers week was the time everybody told us logistics, sent out information, and (I’m guessing) finally got around to doing the administrative tasks they had put off all vacation.