#wadham

[amerioxfordan]

hi! i’m a first year sixth former and i’m looking to study english and history at oxford, and wadham is the college that i’d like to put down on my application. can you tell me about what it’s like there, as in the accommodation, the people, the atmosphere, etc? tbh i’d be really grateful for any information that you can give me. thanks so much

Hi!

For accommodation, Wadham guarantees housing every year (although some people do still choose to rent a house privately to share with friends from other colleges). All first years and most third years live in the central college site, which has a mix of modern staircases we call Bowra which have all single rooms, a kitchen on each staircase, and balconies shared by a few rooms on the top floor, and older staircases at the front of college, with more historic vibes, both single and double rooms, but no kitchens. All the rooms have mini fridges. I lived in a double room first year and since I got on with my roommate it worked really well, we had two small separate bedrooms with a shared living room and ensuite bathroom, and when we wanted to cook we walked across college to the kitchen shared by the whole college. Second years live ~30 minutes walk (so most people cycle or take the bus) outside the center of town - the building was new at the start of this year, and we’re in flats of 3-7 person flats with a kitchen in each. Fourth years live in similar accommodation to second years, just outside of town in a different direction, but I imagine your course is just 3 years?

For meals in the central college site on weekdays, there are 2 sittings of dinner, one cafeteria style in the new refectory and one with wait service in the dining hall (although we don’t have to wear gowns or dress up) which cost £4.50 for a main and a dessert, while breakfast and lunch have several different mains and sides which you pay for a la carte - I’ve never actually been to breakfast, I prefer to eat something small in my room, but lunch I go to reasonably frequently, and normally end up spending about £3. Weekends the only meal is brunch, which is again a la carte. College generally charges for food at the beginning of the term, but any money you don’t use is reimbursed at the end, so some people in central cook for themselves, and most people out in 2nd or 4th year accommodation.

The stereotype is that Wadham is super liberal, and it is more left-leaning and political than a lot of places, and probably has a larger LGBTQ community. But there’s still a mix of people - my friend is jokingly our “token Tory”, but he still gets along with everyone - and while I don’t know everyone, I have a close group of friends and have gotten along with people outside that group when we’ve spoken. The college formed into groups quite quickly in first year, and while they changed a lot at first they haven’t changed much in second year, which could be difficult for some people. But I know I interact with people outside my “group”, I’ve met people at social events by the international students officer and the POC officers, and the college family system means I know most people on my degree in the years above and below me. Our student union president has done a really good job keeping us informed and asking the college leadership the questions we were worried about during the pandemic, and we also have an amazingly friendly porter, who cheered me up a lot before an internship interview and then congratulated me when I got the internship, if you want more specific examples.

Wadham is also known for being quite social, several of the Bowra staircases in first year have parties on their balconies and the college dances every couple of weeks are quite popular - the bops should be better by the time you get to Oxford, they’re finishing a new building by next fall. The college’s two outdoor festival-y events, Queerfest in November and Wadstock in May, also sell out, and Wadstock especially was fun, seeing live student performers for several hours. Personally, this year, I’ve been to a night club once, to Queerfest, and to maybe 2 or 3 college bops, and I do still have a social life, so you don’t have to go out all the time to make friends, but I think most people go out a bit more than me. There are also a lot of other traditions, playing Free Nelson Mandela at the end of every college bop, a college (opt-out-able) gossip magazine, regular bar quizzes, so there are those fun aspects of the culture.

More seriously, while everyone is stressed about the pandemic, the student welfare officers have set up several things to entertain us, a facebook group for sharing self care tips and another with silly daily competitions to do in isolation, and somebody else created a group for sharing photos of pets, since we can’t have the welfare brunches, coffee with the chaplain, or other normal welfare events. In addition to the chaplain and the student welfare officers, there’s another college welfare advisor, who I went and spoke to at the beginning of this term and she really helped me figure things out, so I do think everyone tries to be supportive.

I feel like this is probably already too long, but hopefully there are enough details to actually give you some idea what the college is like, and do try to visit and talk to people for yourself if possible before you apply! :)

[the-elevator-kids]

Oxbridge FAQ (from ya girl, who just finished her first year at Oxford)

I feel like both unis have a lot of stereotypes associated with them, and unless you know someone who’s been to either uni you won’t really know what it’s about. So if you’re even considering applying, whether it be for a stem subject or for humanities, give this a read, hopefully it’ll help clear some things up!!

There’s no specific Oxford ‘type’: one thing I was definitely scared of before arriving at Oxford was that I wouldn’t fit in- that people would be too posh or too nerdy or too straight for me. But this just isn’t the case at all! People at oxford are just normal people, and you’ll make friends from every background, whether cultural/socioeconomic/etc. The lgbt community is THRIVING and the uni itself is (in my experience at least) super supportive of minorities- Wadham, the college I go to hosts a gay festival every year called queerfest for example and it’s siickkk.

The college system is a super incredible and super underappreciated aspect of Oxbridge life: both Oxford and Cambridge are split into different colleges, ranging from 60-160 people in a year on average. Your social life will more than likely revolve around the people you meet in college and it means that as soon as you arrive, you’ll know an entire 100 people to make friends with instead of just your flat/course like at other unis! It makes for an incredible community environment right from the get-go.

Work is much more manageable than you imagine it will be: yes, you’ll be working probably at least 3x more than the people you know studying at other unis. But if you got a place here, it means you are more than capable of dealing with the workload. I do English, and I write 2-3 essays a week and although this was super daunting at first, I quickly got used to the pace of work. Not every essay can be perfect, and your tutors know this and won’t mind if you’re late on a piece of work/write an objectively crappy essay. Sometimes, it’s the essays you wrote super hungover after a big night out having done barely any reading that turn out the best!

You will never get bored at Oxford: if you’re the type of person who likes going out, then you really don’t have to worry about oxford having a dead nightlife (Cambridge is another story however). I go out 4-5 times a week which is more than most of my friends at other unis and there are sooo many different events and college parties etc. Alternately, there’s loads of stuff for people who don’t enjoy going out as well! My jcr (junior common room, where undergrads hang out) is always full with people just hanging out on any given night, playing fifa or pool or whatever, and there are sooo many societies to take part in, from sport to journalism to charity organisations. Whatever your vibe is, you’ll find something to do.

Finally, there is something so nice about being surrounded by passionate people: everyone studying at oxford is obsessed with their subject or are professional piano players or do something different and cool and interesting. Having friends who have such a varied set of skills means you are constantly being challenged and inspired not just through your degrees, but through your everyday interactions (that’s not to say that you can’t just chat to people about love Island or the kardashians as well!)

If you have anymore questions about specific subjects or which college to choose etc, don’t hesitate to message me and ask. I study English at Wadham in Oxford, so obviously my experience will be closely linked to these specific things, but I can do my best at explaining anything else!!)

[the-elevator-kids]

Rose’s Room, First Year Trinity Term, 2019

Wadham College, Oxford University, 2019

[amerioxfordan]

It’s all melted by now (and been replaced by lovely little purple flowers i will try to get photos of as well) but a few days ago, it snowed in Oxford! It was honestly just the right sort of snow for photos - enough to make everything look beautiful, not enough that it stuck around long and made you sick of it. There wasn’t really enough settled to play with, though - a few people made a snowman, and one person through a snowball at me, but if we want to do that more we’ll need it to snow again...

[amerioxfordan]

in hindsight on my first term

since i did such a poor job telling my followers what oxford was like while i was there, and since i have so much more time over break, i want to give some summaries of what different aspects of my life as a physics student at wadham were like!

so for the first one: in hindsight on my first term: living in college

wadham provides accommodation inside the college to first and third years, and has off site accommodation in summertown for fourth years, plus is planning to finish more off site accommodation on iffley road for second years. I know a little bit about the off site accommodation in iffley, because that’s where we’re gonna be next year, and there have been a lot of SU meetings arguing over the rent. (If you want a sumary of what i know about it, i know that the students would like the rent to be lower, we’re going to have 9 month leases, it’s a long way from central oxford, and you live in modern suites where you just the group you live with, up to 6 people or so.) But mostly I know about the accommodation in college, where I, you know, live.

So accommodation in side wadham is all the same price, but still varied. There are old rooms and new rooms, shared suites and singles. Most of the rooms are arranged around staircases, which first years are supposedly assigned to in such a way that they have stuff in common with the other members of their staircases. (There’s a survey before we start, but who knows if you can really tell who people are based on that.) The shared rooms are in the older part of the building, and consist of two small separate bedrooms with a comparatively spacious shared living space and an en suite bathroom. The single rooms are in a mix of old staircases and new staircases, and while smaller and only one room, have a washbasin in place of an en suite bathroom, and otherwise the two types of rooms have really similar stuff, a fridge each, a desk, a coffee table, a couple of chairs... most of those things there are twice as many in a double room as in a single room, except the fridge and the coffee table, those are the only things you have to share.

So now that i’ve summarised what it’s like, what do i think that it’s like?

i have a double room, but i’ve also spent a lot of time hanging out in my friends’ rooms who have single rooms. i spend quite a bit of time working in my room, and there’s plenty of space, and enough light (or at night when the curtains are closed, they’re lovely curtains, the room has a nice home-y feel to it), to work comfortably. i also really get on well with my roommate, so it’s worked out really well. it might not be ideal for everyone, but i like having my privacy as well as having somebody i can casually run into at all times throughout the day. my roommate was like, a built in friend from the beginning of the year. even if i don’t really feel like going out or something, i still see alice

but the single rooms i’ve been in were also pretty decent. people who live on the top floor of the new buildings get access to balconies connecting between adjacent staircases, but even the other rooms in those staircases, while basic, are usable, and we’ve managed to fit lots of people in a single room and have a good time. so the rooms in college are varied, and it is kind of luck of the survey what you get (until you’re a third year, and get first pick of the rooms), but i think there is some sort of room to suit most people

and then living in college is pretty great, having all the other first years in college thirty seconds away from you, being able to chill in the jcr, or watch a movie together in somebody’s room, or meet up to go out for dinner, at a moment’s notice, as well as being right in the center of things, between Blackwells and the Science Library, around the corner from shops, with a pub literally within our walls

the negative sides of college accommodation are probably having to move all our stuff into storage in between terms, 

the only other college accommodation i’ve seen in person was st hilda’s, so i don’t know how we compare to the grand scheme of things, but we have better accommodation than hilda’s i think, and it’s really quite lovely

i still haven’t gotten over the heated towel rail in the bathroom, like what an unnecessary luxury

it’s not the most coherent summary of living space in wadham but overall i’m happy with my room and my suitemate and if there are any other questions about accommodation at wadham, or any other aspect of my college life, let me know so i can answer them :)

[amerioxfordan]

in hindsight on my first term #3

a lot of time at college is spend indoors - on my practical days, we’re in a basement from 10 to 5, except for our lunch break, and even other days, it’s easy to just rush around from lectures to tutorials without paying much attention to the space in between (and since the physics department is quite close to my college, there’s not too much space in between to ignore)

and it’s the winter, and gets dark early, and while there hasn’t been any snow yet to make going outside fun, there’s been enough cold to make going outside an annoyance

so i guess i wanted to talk about trying to get fresh air and nature in oxford!

this is something i definitely could have done a better job of - i haven’t been to the botanical gardens yet, or the natural areas outside of oxford, even though several were mentioned in our college freshers’ guide way back before zeroth week

one well-known bit of nature is probably University Parks. Uni Parks is very close to the engineering and science areas, not too far from central oxford - at the beginning of term, when i was going running regularly, i used the gravel paths that wander around Uni Parks several times. the parks are on the larger side for natural space in oxford itself, so it’s easy to wander around for a while, although portions of it are also open space for sports fields. one day i ran up one of the paths next to the end of the parks, as well, and got all the way to Old Marston, at like 9pm, because the park isn’t open at night but there are no gates on the path, and sometimes you really want to see fields in the dark, but i’m sure it’s interesting during the day as well

the other large, public open space i personally like better (although it’s further out of my way) is Christ Church Meadows. i walked all around it with my mum when we visited oxford before term started, and posted some photos on tumblr then, but basically, it has cows, and that’s all you should need to convince you to go. also, right next to the meadows there are gardens, similar to what a lot of other colleges have, which in the right season are good to look at

although i like those two areas outside of college, i much more often manage to get fresh air while staying inside college

like christ church (and a lot of other colleges), we have gardens inside our walls. the back gardens have a lawn you are allowed to walk on (unlike the front quad), where in good weather, we sometimes sat together in groups to do work (or before we had work, sat together and chatted and played games). our gardens kind of wrap around the main building, so if you go past the rows and rows of locked bikes, there’s another space around the corner with a sculpture of Bowra, or you can walk to the back of the garden, where surrounded by plants there are some benches and alcoves. My friends and I took a lot of our matriculation photos on those benches or within those trees!

and going even less out of the way, one really amazing place in wadham i love is the terrace garden. just to the left of the entrances to staircases 10 and 11 (i found my old photo of the wadham college map, so it’s the Barbara Naylor garden in the bottom left, while the main college garden is the Fellows’ Garden and Cloister Garden in the top left), there’s an outdoor set of stone stairs

when you climb up them, there’s an arbor, and flower beds spaced between stone pathways, one of which leads to another set of stairs back down to the ground. having the terrace garden is amazing not just because it’s a tiny bit of nature in the middle of all the other hectic stuff, but because you can fit it into a route from the front of college to the jcr or to dinner or the back gate out of college without losing much time, so it’s just a tiny moment of being refreshed I’m so grateful to have. i don’t have any good photos of the garden itself, but here’s a photo taken from the garden of the weather vane on top of another college, at the end of a night out, as one does! it’s easy to forget to get outside at uni, but it’s also so easy to be outside and aware of where you are and what you’re seeing just for a little bit each day, at least?

[amerioxfordan]

mt9

it’s been a really, really long time since i made an original post

so term’s over, and i did a really poor job of talking about what being a student at oxford is actually like, but maybe i’ll manage better talking about what being an oxford student is like during vac, so here goes, a short summary of both my life at the moment and how much more i know about oxford than i did just a few months ago:

what do you mean, vac?

vac is short for vacation, there are short, 6 week-ish vacs running December-January and March-April in between terms of the same academic year, and a longer vac over the summer. it’s just one of many words oxford students use to sound like they’re oxford students and different from everyone else

why is this post called mt9?

oxford academic years have 3 terms, Michaelmas (MT), Hilary (HT), and Trinity (TT), and within those terms weeks are numbered 1 to 8. the week before term starts is week 0, and the week after term ends is week 9, so mt9 is the week after the end of my first term of oxford. this is the end of that week, but whatever, it’s my post about term just being finished, so i’m calling it after week 9

when did your term end?

as kind of just stated, it ended last week - the last lectures and tutorials and practicals were November 30th, and as well as all that academic stuff we had Christmas dinner that evening and a last bop that night, and then Saturday was move out day. it’s a much earlier end to the term than a lot of universities have, none of my other US friends are home yet...

what did moving out feel like?

it was really surreal to see this place i was so used to full of all these friends i’d made slowly empty out. wadham uses most student rooms for interviewees during the vac, so other than a few people who pay extra for vacation residence, we all had to fit everything we’d lived with for a couple of months into a few small storage boxes. i actually didn’t leave college until sunday, because my grandparents who i wanted to stay with for several days were just getting back from a holiday themselves and my showing up would’ve been too hectic, so i spent the day shopping for last minute presents to bring home around oxford, and ate dinner with my one remaining friend in college, who’d paid for vacation residence, it was kinda weird

what sort of work do you have for the vac?

the way my tutors described it, it’s supposed to be the equivalent of two weeks worth of term time academic work. as we did problem sheets over the course of term, we would often be told not to do a couple of problems, so whichever ones we didn’t do (or any that we did do but didn’t do very well) would be saved for the vac. we also have collections (another fancy oxford word that just means check-up-ish exams, they don’t count towards our degrees but it lets everyone know if we know what we’re doing so far) as soon as we get back from the vac, so we’ve got to review what we’ve done over the past term for when we’re tested on it. not everyone has it, but with physics we have to choose from one of our labs to write a report due two weeks after the practical was done, and since i did practicals within the last two weeks of term, the lab report for either of those would be due first week of next term, so i need to get that done over the vac

what have you been doing since term ended?

as i mentioned, i spent a few days with my grandparents, which was good fun (my other grandparents considered visiting me to have lunch on my last day, but in the end weren’t able to, so hopefully i’ll see them at the end of the vac, or next term). since then, i flew back to the us, and it’s been good to be able to visit my old school, go to my younger sister’s concerts, see our family pet chickens again, as well as starting to relearn things i didn’t feel like i understood properly during term and look at the assigned vacation problems. i know i shouldn’t worry too much about my weight but i did eat quite a few biscuits during term without doing much exercise so i’m trying to do a bit of exercise each day. and then having found a friend group with people from so many different places during term, we’re not really able to visit each other, so we’ve also collectively spent a shameful amount of time reading oxfess and oxlove so we can tag each other, playing civ v or cards against humanity together online, and generally messaging the group chat saying how much we miss everyone. today my family also put up our christmas tree and most of our decorations so that was good!

how do you feel about your first term at oxford?

i didn’t work as hard as i could have, but honestly i don’t mind too much. it was my first term, i was definitely still figuring things out for quite a good part of it, and now that what things i’m participating in outside of my subject is more established, i have a reasonably close group of friends i feel like i can somewhat rely on, i’m close enough to the other physics students in my college to feel a bit more comfortable asking when i need help on a topic (shout out to my friend who pointed out that momentum is not only invariant but conserved because i apparently forget obvious facts like that in the middle of a special relativity problem sheet), i should be able to be more organised next term. so it didn’t go perfectly but i’m not, like, ashamed, and i’m still optimistic about the rest of my time at oxford. i already downloaded forest for the vac because i was doing a bad job making schedules of the sort i did at the beginning of the summer, and thought maybe having a timer would give me the same motivation to work without being so intimidatingly inflexible

are these all the questions you’re willing to answer about your first term at oxford and/or your first vac?

of course not! if you can come up with better questions to ask me about oxford university generally, wadham college specifically, physics at oxford, my first term, my first vac, anything, i will as always gladly answer them!

[amerioxfordan]

now that i’m at college and i haven’t posted very much, i thought i should show you my room! it’s a shared room, there’s another bedroom off to the right for my roommate, and an en suite, and then all this big living space, with two desks and two arm chairs and a fridge and so on, is shared between us! some other rooms in the college are newer singles with balconies and mezzanines, but we seem to have one of the very old, character-filled rooms. Honestly so many of the rooms I’ve seen at Wadham so far have been wonderful, I’m really glad to be living here, and I love the people as well (especially my roommate, she is incredibly, incredibly sweet!)