Studying Abroad
Aug 24th, 2011 | 08:45 PM
#1
Original Poster
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Studying Abroad
Hi!
I am studying abroad at Oxford this fall, and have never been overseas. I am a little apprehensive as I have never been away from home for more than a few weeks. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience in doing so. Where are some good hang out areas for US students, and I guess any other info. Thank you so much!
I am studying abroad at Oxford this fall, and have never been overseas. I am a little apprehensive as I have never been away from home for more than a few weeks. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience in doing so. Where are some good hang out areas for US students, and I guess any other info. Thank you so much!
Aug 24th, 2011 | 09:52 PM
#2
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 2,190
Likes: 0
http://www.ousu.org/resources
might be an idea to look through the University student union website,i think you might find relevant info there.
hopefully there will also be a few folk on here with info too.
might be an idea to look through the University student union website,i think you might find relevant info there.
hopefully there will also be a few folk on here with info too.
Aug 24th, 2011 | 11:52 PM
#3
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 30,553
Likes: 4
Ok, which university and which college. If you are at Oxford University (rather than say Oxford Brooks) then which college. Some are very small and even the biggest is unlikely to have more than 100 people in a year and often much smaller. This assumes you are doing a first degree (19-22 years old) or you are doing something higher in which case your college year will be even smaller.
This gives you a good home base of similar people and almost certainly there will be other Americans in your college.
You could spend your whole life in just this college but you will also have the opportunity of
1) "Freshers week" for across the university societies
2) The Union which is a social college for the whole university (pay once and you are a member for life)
3) The Students Union (which is yet another social centre)
and so it goes on, there is plenty of support including your moral tutor who is there to make sure you have no crisis and your college dean who is there to catch you breaking the more sensible rules of the college and guess what a similar system exists across the university.
It will be fine
These
This gives you a good home base of similar people and almost certainly there will be other Americans in your college.
You could spend your whole life in just this college but you will also have the opportunity of
1) "Freshers week" for across the university societies
2) The Union which is a social college for the whole university (pay once and you are a member for life)
3) The Students Union (which is yet another social centre)
and so it goes on, there is plenty of support including your moral tutor who is there to make sure you have no crisis and your college dean who is there to catch you breaking the more sensible rules of the college and guess what a similar system exists across the university.
It will be fine
These
Aug 25th, 2011 | 03:35 AM
#5
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 17,268
Likes: 0
"Where are some good hang out areas for US students, and I guess any other info. "
I assume from your use of "at Oxford" that you're studying at Oxford University, and from "I have never been away from home for more than a few weeks" that you're an undergraduate.
What on earth is the point of studying abroad if you're going to try to recreate life in your own country? Worse: what's the point of going somewhere that's been an international centre of learning for 900 years if you seriously intend limiting your social life to your own nationality?
The ONLY places to hang out are your college bar and/or JCR (where for most other people in your year, except possibly at Christ Church, it'll be the first substantial amount of time away from home as well) your or your friends' rooms and the local pubs (some people still hang out in the Oxford Union, but in my day this indicated serious social inadequacy, and no heavyweight politician has graduated from it in living memory.Though Boris Johnson's a bit bulky)
No British undergraduate would attempt to hang out only with fellow-Britons without being dismissed as a racist buffoon. You've got the rest of your life to hang out with your fellow-citizens
This isn't another Fodors website scold. You'll be just one of 3,000 freshers, almost all of whom are going to be (though many affect otherwise) intimidated by the place and all of whom are feeling their way round at the same time as you. You'll be overwhelmed by a pigeonhole stuffed with solicitations to do and join things, and again as Bilbo says, more offers of moral support than any sane person needs. The only significant advice worth giving is:
1. You're there for an Oxford experience (which is ultimately about learning intellectual and practical discrimination and critical skill), or in a few eccentric cases for heavyweight study. You're not a US ambassador.
2. Forget you're foreign. So are a substantial proportion of the university's population. The English neither notice nor care: why should you?
3. But get yourself an extra dose of skin thickener. British daily conversation is deflating, deference-intolerant and piss-taking. Don't take it personally - but you'll be judged on your ability to take it with good humour and retaliate in kind.
4. Participate. In your first couple of weeks there's a near infinite amount of invitations to try all sorts of things. Try practically anything. Then decide what you want to stay participating in
5. Language. Of course you speak funny. But professors are very senior academics: most people teaching, even if they've been doing it for half a century are global experts on the subject and more widely respected globally than people calling themselves professors in countries where grade inflation is a way of life aren't professors but dons. Collectively in your college "the SCR", not the faculty. You're living in a college (a self-contained, self-governing, teaching and learning community that's probably about twice as old as your country) not a "dorm"
5. College servants rule your life. Make sure you get on with your scout and your Head Porter.
I assume from your use of "at Oxford" that you're studying at Oxford University, and from "I have never been away from home for more than a few weeks" that you're an undergraduate.
What on earth is the point of studying abroad if you're going to try to recreate life in your own country? Worse: what's the point of going somewhere that's been an international centre of learning for 900 years if you seriously intend limiting your social life to your own nationality?
The ONLY places to hang out are your college bar and/or JCR (where for most other people in your year, except possibly at Christ Church, it'll be the first substantial amount of time away from home as well) your or your friends' rooms and the local pubs (some people still hang out in the Oxford Union, but in my day this indicated serious social inadequacy, and no heavyweight politician has graduated from it in living memory.Though Boris Johnson's a bit bulky)
No British undergraduate would attempt to hang out only with fellow-Britons without being dismissed as a racist buffoon. You've got the rest of your life to hang out with your fellow-citizens
This isn't another Fodors website scold. You'll be just one of 3,000 freshers, almost all of whom are going to be (though many affect otherwise) intimidated by the place and all of whom are feeling their way round at the same time as you. You'll be overwhelmed by a pigeonhole stuffed with solicitations to do and join things, and again as Bilbo says, more offers of moral support than any sane person needs. The only significant advice worth giving is:
1. You're there for an Oxford experience (which is ultimately about learning intellectual and practical discrimination and critical skill), or in a few eccentric cases for heavyweight study. You're not a US ambassador.
2. Forget you're foreign. So are a substantial proportion of the university's population. The English neither notice nor care: why should you?
3. But get yourself an extra dose of skin thickener. British daily conversation is deflating, deference-intolerant and piss-taking. Don't take it personally - but you'll be judged on your ability to take it with good humour and retaliate in kind.
4. Participate. In your first couple of weeks there's a near infinite amount of invitations to try all sorts of things. Try practically anything. Then decide what you want to stay participating in
5. Language. Of course you speak funny. But professors are very senior academics: most people teaching, even if they've been doing it for half a century are global experts on the subject and more widely respected globally than people calling themselves professors in countries where grade inflation is a way of life aren't professors but dons. Collectively in your college "the SCR", not the faculty. You're living in a college (a self-contained, self-governing, teaching and learning community that's probably about twice as old as your country) not a "dorm"
5. College servants rule your life. Make sure you get on with your scout and your Head Porter.
Aug 25th, 2011 | 03:45 AM
#6
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 12,268
Likes: 0
Hi Kbear congrats on your studies have spent time mainly conferences in Oxford it is a beautiful little uni town
with many spires you will adjust quickly.Easy for me to fly
in train up not far...
Oxford travel tips, reviews, photos and more from ... by Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor of England and ... VirtualTourist®© 1994-2011 VirtualTourist.com, Inc.
members.virtualtourist.com/m/1b153/4b08a
www.hospitalityclub.org sign up here for folks to help u
free eats stays up to 3 days till you get the lay of the
land.
I usually wait till I get there to lock in on lodging
boots on the ground.
www.travel.state.gov UK and columbusdirect.com or other
student insurance sites always wise to review...
Relax if Bill Clinton survived it oods are u will too...
Try not to "inhale" too much like he did while u are there.
Congrats!
with many spires you will adjust quickly.Easy for me to fly
in train up not far...
Oxford travel tips, reviews, photos and more from ... by Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor of England and ... VirtualTourist®© 1994-2011 VirtualTourist.com, Inc.
members.virtualtourist.com/m/1b153/4b08a
www.hospitalityclub.org sign up here for folks to help u
free eats stays up to 3 days till you get the lay of the
land.
I usually wait till I get there to lock in on lodging
boots on the ground.
www.travel.state.gov UK and columbusdirect.com or other
student insurance sites always wise to review...
Relax if Bill Clinton survived it oods are u will too...
Try not to "inhale" too much like he did while u are there.
Congrats!
Aug 25th, 2011 | 03:52 AM
#7
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 12,268
Likes: 0
www.generatorhostels.com one of the best places
to overnite for students in LON to/from
It is a happening place...
to overnite for students in LON to/from
It is a happening place...
Trending Topics
Aug 25th, 2011 | 04:24 AM
#9
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 11,212
Likes: 0
You'll be fine once you get to Oxford. Your semester abroad will be enlightening and rewarding. It's no different than going to college for the first time - you'll soon meet people and figure out where things are.
This board is mostly made up of mature people (mature in age, anyway), well past the study abroad age. Why don't you pose your questions on the lonely planet thorntree forum where the age group is more similar to your own.
This board is mostly made up of mature people (mature in age, anyway), well past the study abroad age. Why don't you pose your questions on the lonely planet thorntree forum where the age group is more similar to your own.
Aug 25th, 2011 | 05:34 AM
#10
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 30,553
Likes: 4
I agree with flanner's tough love. I think you shoiuld join in with the mass rather than just hang out with the Americans but in the first 8 weeks it is nice to have a "family" to hang onto.
Oxford is full of foreigners, so being American is acutally kinda boring compared to the wide range you will meet. Just like at home the other kids will be ultra competitive and extremely arrogant. This will not be obvious as Brits have a strange cultural need to be seen as not being the above. It is not they are lying they just have this a cultural issue.
Oxford is full of foreigners, so being American is acutally kinda boring compared to the wide range you will meet. Just like at home the other kids will be ultra competitive and extremely arrogant. This will not be obvious as Brits have a strange cultural need to be seen as not being the above. It is not they are lying they just have this a cultural issue.
