(chill piano music)
- I'm Maryam Abbas from Crimson Education and we're
here today at Oxford University to ask the Big Questions.
What's the best thing about being at
Oxford University?
- Definitely being able to live in a college
with loads of people for three years rather than just
living in halls and then moving into a house
with five or six friends, it's really nice.
- I feel like colleges give you a smaller group of people
that you can get to know better than just having a massive
university that has loads of people walking around
and then you don't really know anyone.
- The resources that we have access to
like the Bodleian Library and stuff.
- I think the one-on-one attention is really cool.
That's not something you get at a lot of American
universities so coming here, it was really cool to get that.
- Everyone's not boring, you think everyone would be really
boring but they're actually not, and everyone's
really normal and really like you so it's great.
- I'd say it's definitely the tutorial system
when you get to kind of talk about your subject one-on-one
with tutors, it's a really personal way to do education.
- Being plowed with alcohol as soon as
you get out your exams. (laughs)
- [Maryam] What would you say is the worst thing
about being at Oxford University?
- Definitely the tutorial system because you
just can't hide from anyone one-on-one.
If you don't know something then you really are
kind of not gonna go very well.
- [Maryam] Have you got any awful memories?
- Yeah like kind of not reading the books and being asked
questions about very specific part of chapters and having to
make it up. - Very naughty.
- Really naughty. - Very naughty.
- Like running through wheat fields naughty.
- Oh my God the workload obviously, it's actually crazy.
- I think it's how quickly everything moves, the time's
really short so you often, you'll find a topic you're
really interested in and then you write an essay on it
for two days and then it's done
and you'll never look at it again.
- Things change very slowly.
So me and Rose do history
and the course that we do is,
I don't think it's changed since like the 60s.
- I think the work, there's a significant amount of work.
- Yeah there's a fair bit of work.
- How stressful it is.
I think after two more years I'll lose my hair.
- I think the eight week term is
a really fast pace and you have to sprint
the whole thing which gets to be a lot.
- [Maryam] So what would you say is the best night out
at Oxford University?
- It's not your Berlin, or your London, or your Tokyo but...
it's individual. - It's your Oxford.
- It's your Oxford, yeah.
A formal dinner and then a nice pub
and then maybe one of these clubs round the corner.
- Okay so I would say...
I'm pledged with my friends
and I was getting a drink for four pounds
and they gave me an entire pitcher of cocktail.
- Oh my God.
- Which I really enjoy and they make the best drinks ever.
- I think we're gonna disagree on this one.
- What do you like? - I like Bridge Thursdays.
- Oh I think the Bully on a Friday or Saturday night is fun.
I don't know.
Bridge, it's just the queue is too long.
- The queue is quite long but I like cheesy music
so when that plays, I'm just like, "Yeah."
- That's a no right there (laughs)
- Yeah she's just like I'm so disappointed.
- The choice is slim but I'd say Thursday night
Bridge is a classic, everyone's always there.
- What's your favorite dance move?
- Wooo!
- Oxford has quite a lot of pubs,
it's quite a pubby place so lots of people we've,
we're both physicists and we'd had a physics trip
to the pub to chat at the end of exams so that's,
the people do go to the pub quite a lot as well
if they don't like clubbing.
- Used to be Wahoo but Wahoo's closed
so we're all mourning Wahoo.
- Definitely Kit Night for, I play lacrosse
so definitely Kit Night in Park End, Wednesdays.
- What happens there?
- I don't really remember much to be honest.
- Well for me it's Park End, the Cheese Floor in Park End
has, as the name would suggest, some really cheesy music
and that's like your 90s music and that's always great.
- What's your favorite track to dance to?
- Well, when Journey Don't Stop Believing comes on
and I'm sufficiently drunk, that's the best.
- [Maryam] What did you write in your personal statement
that you think helped get you into Oxford?
- Well I do PPE so obviously there's three subjects for that
so I think the main thing, for people applying to do PPE,
is to link them in when you talk about it so find one topic.
So I wrote about free will and then I linked it to
economics by talking about markets and stuff and
then I did it in terms of the refugee crisis for politics.
- Think my personal belief is actually, I'm not sure
how much Oxford University looks at your personal statement.
For Oxford it's mainly how does what you do,
link to the degree you want to do,
so I did lots of science projects.
- I worked at an astrophysics center for a while.
I was looking through telescopes and things
and so I wrote about that, I wrote about the pieces of
physics that I like the most and just books that I'd read.
- I'm a visiting student so the application process
was a little bit different for me, so I think my advice
would be just to sort of show Oxford why you're a
good investment and how this education will basically
help you make an impact to get to wherever you wanna go.
- Oh my goodness. - I mean, just walk around!
- Can we do that kick again?
Just one more time.
- Okay, one, two, three.
(electronic music)
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