My Oxonian Experience Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Oxford (St. Edmund Hall) is very rigorous academically and the library resources of the university as a whole are fantastic. I took tutorials alongside 2nd years or on my own (3rd years are preparing for finals) and often times I felt like because of this arrangement tutors kind of forgot that I was new to the tutorial system so wouldn't give many guidelines, but then expect something very specific. This problem resolved itself for the most part as the tutorials progressed, but there was rarely any concrete feedback until the end of the term. The tutors were very, very knowledgeable and welcoming, but don't expect the same level of accessibility in terms of office hours or discussion prior to tutorial--you see them once a week when you read out loud or turn in a completed essay.

On-site administration of your program

St. Edmund Hall, Oxford was organized in terms of sorting out my housing, courses and meals but other than that the administration was nonexistent. I never even met the person supposedly in charge of visiting students. People were very welcoming and helpful (especially the porters) which was very good since we didn't even have a map of where buildings were within the college so constantly had to ask. Students who came in the fall had the advantage of participating in freshers week (orientation) while those of us who arrived in the winter only had an hour meeting with the principal and others, most of which was taken up with fire safety. I quickly learned that St. Edmund Hall was very accommodating, but only if you sought them out or asked specifically--they don't come to you.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I had a really nice, big single in a converted guesthouse about 10 minutes from college (all visiting students live in college housing, but not on the college site itself). The building was really nice, but it felt really isolated and even with other people in the building, there wasn't really a true sense of community since most people were working on their solitary academic pursuits. People didn't congregate in the dorms (although it seemed like it might have been better if we had actually been on the college site and integrated more so).

St. Edmund Hall gave you more than enough dinner credits for each term, and the food was actually pretty good--better than a lot of other Oxford colleges I have heard. Dinner was a very social event and during the week pretty much everyone goes at the same time (they have a smaller time frame than most US schools and fewer options, only 1 hot line). They always had a veggie option, although it wasn't super varied. The one thing I wished they had done better was a true salad bar, they had a few things, but didn't even have salad dressing. Lots of potatoes too...

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Because of the academic system at Oxford, students mainly pursue their own academic work each week and occasionally attend huge, university-wide lectures. Given this format, you can't really rely on classes to make friends. Joining a club or sport or really making an effort to get to know students in the subject you are studying (and therefore might have met at a subject event) are really the only ways to meet people. The dorm life doesn't really facilitate meeting people. I definitely saw the other visiting students more than I saw other Oxford students.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I never had to use the health system, but from what I heard from other people, the system was adequate.

Oxford felt very safe for the most part, I didn't worry about walking around town, even at night because there were always other students out as well.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Oxford is definitely more expensive, especially given the exchange rate, but having pretty much all my dinners included in the program cost and the cheap lunch options at the cafeteria that I could pay for substantially reduced my expenses. Transportation costs weren't really a factor very often in Oxford because pretty much every where I went regularly was within walking distance.

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• location- Oxford
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