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I applied to Oxford this fall, I was allocated to Pembroke for engineering, cupcake can you pls tell me hw pemborke is? Are we allowed to change the choice of our course later?
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<p>Pembroke has the highest rents of any college. I this it it's claim to fame! It's quite a small college opposite the really huge Christchurch buildings. What do you want to know about it?</p>
<p>Generally you're not allowed to change course once you have started. It does happen, usually in the first few weeks, but do not apply assuming you can do this. Usually people move from more competitive to less competitive subjects eg from Medicine to Biology. If there are no places in the course you want to move to, you might have to re-apply for first year entry. If you are not sure what you want to study, I think you should seriously consider whether a US undergraduate education will be better for you.</p>
<p>nelle 178: you asked about St Peter's College. I did my degree there (Modern History) although a little while ago, so I may not be able to help on the most up-to-date information. </p>
<p>Although SPC is one of the newest colleges (founded 1928) a number of the buildings are older. The library is C18th, the dining hall dates from 1832 and the chapel is a Victorian ex-church. The residential parts are a mixture, again with some pre-dating the college's foundation. As is the norm in the UK all rooms are single not shared (well not officially anyway;)) When I was there the college could only provide a room for more than one year for a minority of undergraduates. Nowadays everyone has at least two years living in, including some newly built accommodation 5-10 minutes walk from the main college site.</p>
<p>New Inn Hall Street is a quiet side street so none of the rooms should be noisy and certainly not at night. </p>
<p>The Norrington Table is calculated from the results obtained in the undergraduate finals. (Oxford Finals aren't like finals in US colleges, as I understand them, but the set of exams at the end of the 3 or 4 year course that determine your degree.) SPC tends to swing up and down a bit - it was 10th the previous year. It is generally seen as a friendly and relatively laid back place, which extends to the academic side. This doesn't mean it's less academically rigorous as exams are set and marked by the university not the colleges. However, it doesn't place students under the level of pressure that some colleges are notorious for (e.g. St John's or Merton - sorry qwerty175!).</p>
<p>i wanted to know whether pembroke ws known fr engineering n stuff. And about how the atmosphere is over there...so if it has high rents..does it mean the quality is better..or is it still the same at the others??</p>
<p>OK, this might sound really random, but where do students attend their classes? I know that the tutoring system is within the colleges, but what about the general classes that everyone withing a major takes? Do you get to study all over Oxford and interact w/people from other colleges that are studying the same thing?</p>
<p>i dont mind repeating a year of college if it means that i get accepted by oxford. One year is not comparable to a degree that one receives from Oxford or Cambridge.</p>
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OK, this might sound really random, but where do students attend their classes? I know that the tutoring system is within the colleges, but what about the general classes that everyone withing a major takes? Do you get to study all over Oxford and interact w/people from other colleges that are studying the same thing?
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<p>I have attended about 2 tutorials in my college ever. Lectures are held in a central place, usually the department relating to your subject eg I go to the departments of Zoology, Physiology, Biochemistry and Anatomy for various lectures in Biology. So you soon meet everyone doing the same subject from every college. Lab classes for scientists are also held centrally.</p>
<p>Tutorials are usually held in the college where the tutor is a fellow. This may or may not be your colleges depending on your subject and year. First years generally have most tutorials in their college. After that your director of studies may choose fellows (or grad students) with more specialist interests for you to have tutorials with. You can ask to see anyone you like. My PhD supervisor, for example, isn't a fellow so he holds his tutorials for students of all colleges in his office in Medical Sciences. I get the impression that this "college hopping" isn't as common among arts students as it is for scientists, but I am a scientist so I wouldn't know.</p>
<p>oh good! So are the departments centered throughout other colleges, or is there some other center for classes? Do the colleges function more like residence halls or lecture halls as well?</p>
<p>Departments are their own separate buildings where lectures are given and subject-specific librarys are held. They're not inside colleges. I mean I think I'd have blown my college up by now if I had to do science experiements in there! Also for some subjects the lecture classes are huge, especially in the first year. So they need big lecture theatres. </p>
<p>College is where you live, eat and socialise. You can of course visit friends in other colleges. You can study in the college library too but I find most people actually take books out so they can study in their rooms. Everyone gets a study desk, chair and ethernet connection in their college room anyway. I think some colleges do have small lecture theatres of their own and occasionally small lectures and guest lectures are held in the colleges, but not on a daily basis. I could be wrong but this has never happened to me.</p>
<p>nelle 178: There's probably not much more I can add to what cupcake has already said, and as you want to read biochem it will be more relevant to you than what I could say anyway.</p>
<p>However, for any potential arts types out there, the college is much more central to your academic life. Speaking for history, the faculty library is very important because the holdings are very large and you can borrow (no borrowing from the Bodleian). Lectures are usually held in the Examination Schools - the large and intimidating building in the High Street where most exams are held - but they are voluntary and a lot of people get through 3 years going to very few because tutorials are much more important. </p>
<p>There's a lot of college hopping for history. I suppose because the scope of the subject is so vast and there is a lot of choice on specialisms. So I had tutorials at St Peter's, Merton, Keble, Christ Church and Balliol and seminar classes at Wadham.</p>
<p>I would like to know what is the difference between MEng and BEng in an UK university, i had thought of it Masters in Engineering and Bachelors in Engineering but it makes no sense to me as they give the Bachelors in 3 years and Masters in 4 years. </p>
<p>And is there anyway to do a 4 year undergraduate degree in any UK universities and what is the procedure to go about it when accepted.</p>
<p>[sudu1989] Unlike in the United States, it normally takes only 3 years of post-secondary studies to get a bachelor´s degree in the UK (the main difference being that pre-university schooling lasts 13 years in the UK compared to 12 years in the US). Engineering education is an exception though in the sense that, in addition to the old three-year BEng degree, most UK universities now offer alternative 4-year undergraduate programs leading to the MEng degree. A few top universities like Cambridge offer the four-year degree only, which is widely seen in the UK as the current standard in the engineering profession. </p>
<p>The structure of the MEng course is similar to the older BEng course, except for the additional fourth year that normally combines a minimum required number of advanced classes with a year-long project. Note however that , despite its deceptive name, the British MEng degree is NOT a postgraduate qualification like the American M.S., but rather an initial academic degree equal in status to a bachelor´s degree. Several similar 4-year "undergraduate master´s degrees" are now available in the UK in the fields of mathematics and physical or life sciences , e.g. Cambridge's MSci (Master of Natural Sciences) degree or Oxford's MMath, MPhys, MChem, or MBioChem degrees. Students who hold 4-year undergraduate British degrees from top universities are normally admitted directly though into PhD programs in the UK without the need to receive a graduate research master's degree first.</p>
<p>sudu1989 - Most people who apply for engineering apply for MEng and at the end of their 3rd year decide if they possibly want to go on to further study, and hence stay for an extra year for the MEng, or leave with a BEng. If you are considering to go on to do a PhD in the future it's best to do the MEng.</p>
<p>Another thing that caught my attention in the Imperial site is that they clearly mention that they do not consider the Indian syllabus, but under special circumstances they accept student with exceptionally high marks. </p>
<p>Oxford offers have been officially released and some UK students have already received them. So they are on their way, somewhere in the Christmas post rush. If you're in the US I think you'll probably get them before Christmas. I find it takes about a week when I send a letter to my family there.</p>