Much to love, and for that reason much to regret August 29, 2026
By A student (Philosophy, Brandeis University) - abroad from 10/06/2025 to 06/19/2026 with
Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford - Visiting Students Program
Besides the course material? What it means to live in a space the size of a town, to exist locally. Can be a bit of a luxury for those who primarily grew up in automobile societies. Everything else is too personal to disclose.
Review Photos
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 6 months+ |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
I wish, especially at the start of the program, the administration had given a more proactive explication of what sort of resources are available (outside the mere essentials) and how we might take advantage of them. There were far too many opportunities I found out far too late (and often accidentally). Not because the admins did not know about them when one asked, but because oftentimes one does not even know what to ask in such situations. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Having a room to myself was unexpectedly grateful, and everything was generally convenient. However, the heating in the hall during most of the program, especially during the winter, was malfunctional. My room was 14ºC every evening for a good portion of winter, making it somewhat miserable to be in there. Apparently this issue is and has been very widespread at LMH in particular such that the faults office do not even respond to tickets submitted, since too many tickets get submitted. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Since most of my time had to be spent on my own work, and I have very little intersection with the routines of matriculated students, most of my interactions had been confined to other international students and my instructors. Though I suppose this is somewhat natural given it is such an unstable community. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
Not applicable (but I cannot refuse to give a rating, so I chose the middle value). |
| * Safety: |
The town of Oxford is generally quite safe. There are some con-artists, oftentimes posing as homeless, who are very proactive in targeting students, guilt-tripping them to agree to help them with essentials only to transcend that agreement by demanding far more non-essential spending. Also, pickpocket signs are everywhere, though my impression is it is less of an issue here than in major cities. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
It gave me access to basically everything I could have hoped for; the inabilities to take the most advantage of that were bugs rather than features. |
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? | 160 |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Buy groceries from smaller grocers (minimize both waste and cost, and the quality is generally better) and talk to cohorts about dividing resources (especially things like detergent and kitchenware). |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | No |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? |
A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Again, how to make better use of academic resources, or rather which sorts of questions one could have asked about these things. |
