I know that the “Ask Me Anything” individual posts are not ‘allowed’, but as a current Oxford student I just wanted to provide a space for individuals to ask questions and receive answers (be it from myself or anyone).
What is the social scene like at Oxford? Do you guys have parties? What do you typically do for fun?
When kind of tea do you like? And what type of crumpets go best with tea? Have you met the queen? Why do you guys say “bloody” and “wicked” in every sentence? How is the crochet team? Where is the best place to get fish and chips? Do people try to be snobby or are they just born that way?
@Alpha101 : Can we please ask you the same questions because you are the one throwing shade.
@LarryBird33 to answer your question, the social scene is pretty much what you make of it. As a result of the relatively small student body, it is easy to find your niche or make your own. I have to say personally I have made the best friends I have ever had at Oxford College in a really short amount of time (and I’m not necessarily the most extroverted individual). There are social clubs as well if you are into that, but that isn’t for everyone. Parties…yeah, there are some larger ones (and definitely low-key ones as well), there are definitely more campus-wide events put on by different clubs and student organizations. It honestly depends on what type of “party” you’re looking for, because most people will go to Main Campus if/when there are parties over there. What people do for fun is relative, but for the most part people will go to main campus on the weekends. There are certainly activities going on throughout any given week relating to student organizations that are ‘fun’, but for the most part people just chill and hang out or go into Atlanta.
@Alpha101 I wasn’t originally going to respond to you, but I figured that would be rude. I wanted you to be aware that I’m not referring to the Oxford in England (if you had truly seen where this was posted you would have realized this). But I appreciate the shade you have thrown. Next time try to be more original. =D>
@Alpha101 Kiddo, don’t be a prick. Oxford College may not be the university at England but you shouldn’t look down on others like that.
@SuperStar101 and @thecoolboy1234 How do you feel about the following: (1) the new science building, (2) opportunities for faculty-mentored research, (3) the quality of teaching, (4) the rigor of courses especially vis a vis the main campus, (5) campus safety, (6) social life for those without a car?
@MyOdyssey, to answer your questions;
- The new science building is absolutely amazing. Personally I didn’t have experience in the old building, but the new building is really spacious and modern - lots of laboratory spaces and classrooms, along with the occasional study room.
- With regards to opportunities for faculty-mentored research, I’m not entirely sure if I can speak to this: if you are specifically looking for answers regarding science-based opportunities, I personally am not on that specific track. (Humanities major - and the only reason I can comment on your first question is because a science course is a requirement to graduate.)
- Quality of teaching is honestly a mixed bag. I can personally attest that the quality of teaching I have recieved thus far have been of an extremely good quality, but I have heard from others that this isn’t always the case. I’m not sure if it’s the professor or the course material that they are associating their frustration with, but for the most part, people seem pleased with the quality of instruction.
- Everyone here likes to say that the rigor of the courses here is much higher than that on main. I haven’t been exposed to classes on main, but the general consensus is that Oxford students tend to work ‘harder’ - or maybe have a lot more work in comparison. During the week, you really don’t have time to do anything but study and do things on campus.
- Campus safety - Oxford in itself is pretty isolated, and I’d say the campus is safe. You’ll definitely see security (police cars on patrol) at night and sometimes at random times. The school internally has other means of promoting safety/wellness (ie. RA’s) that are really good as well.
- Social life for those without a car (ie. quite a few people) - It’s not too bad, but I remember being told that you don’t need a car on the tour - not necessarily true. It’s definitely nice to have one to go and get food late at night or to go do things on the weekend without relying on the shuttle (or in case of an emergency). You can definitely survive without one. If you have friends who have one, great - if you don’t, you all are stuck taking the shuttle or using Uber (really common). A lot of social events (non Oxford student-organization sponsored events) take place on main campus. Normally, people go into Atlanta on the weekends and go to main campus (usually by shuttle). I guess the most important thing to remember about a social life is that it isn’t defined by the car, if that makes any sense. My friends and I stay on campus (more often than we should to be honest) a majority of the time, and we’re all really close. The only reason that I personally didn’t bring a car was for financial and practical reasons: if something went wrong, it’d be too much of a hassle to try and resolve.
Hi there, I got to Emory college but I forwarded this to a close friend of mine currently at Oxford and this is the response I got.
- New science building is amazing, best structure on campus great facilities except they close it on the weekend(?)
- Research isn’t that big here however they are creating a “research club” this semester and several students (including my friend) were hand picked for research opportunities. Its still a new thing but I’m assuming they want to expand that to accommodate for the huge amount of pre-med students.
- There are good at bad teachers like every instituion. Most professors care a lot so the quality of teaching is going to be great however its hard to attain a good grade for many of the professors.
- Compared some courses and it seems like Oxford is much harder. But Oxford does prepare students really well when come to the main campus.
- Really safe nothing much going on anyways.
- Pretty much superstar covered everything. Apparently its really boring over the weekends though.
I suspect Oxford is harder for social sciences (much smaller so teachers can assign more work without worrying about the grading load as much. Can also write more challenging exams and assignments) and mixed for sciences. Chemistry on main (like all classes) in general seems more difficult. Biology is a toss-up because professor variability is everything on main. Oxford would be more consistently medium/hard (because seems profs. coordinate. At Emory one professor will be lazy and teach at the level of a community college teacher and another at the level of even a top Ivy league and that can happen in the same semester of an offerings). Intro/intermediate math and physics appear to be harder over there. Math and physics at Emory really have research faculty who have limited concern for teaching. Life sciences and chemistry (okay that "can’ be considered at least a natural science) on main has many more research faculty members who try to teach well along with really strong lecture track instructors.
I’m basing this on what Oxford friends showed and told me. There is also this trend in the sciences whereby the best Emory instructors tend to write harder exams than those at Oxford, but Oxford courses have considerably higher workload within the lecture component especially (and still have reasonably challenging exams). Main campus at intro and many intermediate courses is mainly just studying for assessments. Not many projects or writing assignments that contribute to the grade. If I only looked at intro/intermediate. Main is like intermediate between an LAC model (at least in comparison to some of the other elite R1 university science materials and syllabi I’ve seen) and an R1 (because you have many teachers experiment with teaching and testing methods normally only seen at LAC’s, but at the same time, due to bugger sizes, the ability to do so is limited and you also have the fact that teaching just isn’t valued the same as at an LAC so getting “most” research faculty to buy-in is an uphill battle of sorts. Main has more faculty buying in than many other elite privates, but still not enough IMHO and then some don’t even implement the teaching strategy effectively, but that is a story for another day) whereas Oxford looks more like an LAC all around (More often maximizing engagement with the material across the whole semester and not just testing it periodically).
@thecoolboy1234 Are the research opportunities available through the research club available equally to freshmen and sophomores?
@MyOdyssey from what i heard it was hand picked by the faculty for this upcoming speing semester. Probably expanding it to both freshman and sophomores but i have no idea