Computer Science major at Oxford Past Review
By A student (Wellesley College) - abroad from 10/01/2018 to 03/08/2019 with
Worcester College, University of Oxford - Visiting Students Program
I loved Oxford, the city and the school. It's an amazing and unique place and Worcester College is a great place to be a student. You will meet many interesting people, even if they are not British students, and you will have a lot of fun. They're a lot better at having a work-life balance at Oxford than they are at Wellesley and I was noticeably happier there.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
I am a CS major and was expecting my courses at Oxford to be quite rigorous, but in reality they were not very challenging and I didn't learn as much as I would've at my home institution. It was easy to get As with the bare minimum and the tutorial system is not great for CS. Really consider this before choosing the year-long program if you're CS |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Program was very organized, we had many special events for just visiting students that were a lot of fun (high tea, formal dinners, Cotswolds tour, plays, etc.) |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Housing was great, everyone gets a single en-suite room on the college grounds. This is an anomaly for Oxford visiting students; most at other colleges were housed somewhere far from their college and had roommates. Also our rooms were cleaned once a week by "scouts" |
| * Food: |
You don't have to eat in the dining hall, but the food there is pretty mediocre. I went to formal halls mostly for the experience |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Integrating with the Oxford students is difficult and requires a lot of effort. I was only friends with other visiting students during my time there |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
You will be on NHS healthcare which I've heard is great, but don't have any experience with. My only experience with healthcare was with the on-site college nurse. She was helpful and it was easy to meet with her |
| * Safety: |
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| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
I wish I had only done the fall term. It ended up being too difficult trying to work out leaving early for my summer internship and I wasn't allowed to come back for the third term, causing many financial aid-related issues for me. I had been told by some students that it would be possible to negotiate an early departure with Worcester but it really isn't. I also felt like an entire year was too long to go without challenging academics |
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) |
If you eat out, you're going to spend a lot of money. If you cook, probably a lot less, so it really depends. Something I didn't think about before coming to Oxford was how much going out costs there, and then of course you need formal clothing for the balls, parties, and dinners. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Don't eat out often, and beware of the costs of going out and drinking. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | No |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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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? | 0 |
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? | How difficult it would be to negotiate an early departure for summer internships, how expensive a UK year-long visa is, how expensive participating in the social life would be |
