Hometown & Region: Farnborough, Hampshire
Degree: Philosophy and Linguistics
A levels: English Language, Maths, Geography and Chemistry
Year of study: First year
When I’m not working I’m…
...On the University dancesport team which means I compete for the university around the country in Latin and Ballroom. It takes up a lot of my time as they expect you to do roughly 10 hours of practice and training a week. It’s a lot of fun though as there is an awesome social side to all the clubs and teams.
Other than that, a lot of my free time is spent in friends’ rooms which normally involves a lot of tea and biscuits!
The night life is pretty good and I very rarely miss a Thursday night bridge! Quieter evenings are normally spent down the bar or at a pub.
What made you choose to study at Brasenose and/or Oxford?
I knew I wanted to apply to either Oxford or Cambridge simply because of their academic reputation. I fell in love with Oxford as a city, and the linguistic department here was a lot broader than many other linguistic departments I’d seen around the country which appealed.
I applied directly to Brasenose for a couple of reasons - It’s location is 2nd to none, and I liked the fact you could get accommodation for all 3 years. But my main reason for applying to Brasenose was that everyone was so friendly and welcoming, and after 3 open days of looking around Oxford, they were the only college that managed to locate the linguistic department for me!!
Is life in Oxford different to what you expected it to be?
Oxford is a lot of work, but I guess that’s expected! It’s more intense than I thought it would be, but I enjoy that as it means for the 8 weeks at a time your in Oxford, you basically live and breathe your subject.
People also go out and socialise a lot which was a relief!
What do you like most about studying in Brasenose?
Brasenose is a really friendly, tight knit community, which makes it a fab place to study and generally just live. Because of this, it means there is always someone around to help you, whether it be with a question or getting through a packet of biscuits!!
I love having this smaller community within the University - it made settling in in freshers week easy, and has continued to make university life fab.
A quality you think is important for someone looking to study at Oxford?
Motivation and determination - Oxford is a lot of work, most of it being individual study, so you need to be able to motivate yourself. Also, the work you get set is hard, so having the determination to keep going even when answers don’t come as easily as they did at school and college is also important.
What are the perks of your degree?
As there are only a few people studying Philosophy and Linguistics across the university, I’ve had a few one to one tutorials (Although all subjects will have tutorials in small groups). It was pretty cool as it meant I could go through whatever parts I didn’t understand with my tutor in detail, a luxury you don’t get at most universities!!
Also, studying a humanities subject means you don’t often have to suffer the 9am early start!!