We asked current undergraduate students at St Anne’s College some of your most frequently asked questions. See their answers below!
Rebecca, First Year, Materials Science
How did you choose which college to apply to?
First of all, check the colleges that do your course. I study Materials Science so I had a choice of 7 colleges to apply to, but most courses have a lot more choice. There are lots of things to consider when picking your college and it really depends on what matters to you.
I would recommend researching them online and making a shortlist and then going to visit in person if you can. For example, I wanted to go to a college which had great cooking facilities, out of the centre and reasonably close to my department. And you also need to know what you don’t want – I really didn’t want to live in a centuries’ old building with dodgy heating and one microwave for all of the students.
When I found St Anne’s, I knew it was the college for me – it ticked all my boxes and more.
I’ve heard that Oxford is very stressful and the workload is very intense. How do you manage it?
The workload at Oxford is definitely challenging! The most important thing that I do to manage the workload is making sure that I’m looking after myself so that I’m in the right place to work efficiently. I then find that mostly everything falls into place as long as I am disciplined and having something to look forward to doing in the evening really helps with this (and can help with stress as well!).
Megan, English Language and Literature
Cameron, Third Year, Engineering Science
What’s the best and worst thing about studying at Oxford?
It’s so important to ask universities and current students what they think is the best thing and worst thing about studying there. Everyone will have slightly different answers. Here’s what one of our students says.
What’s the difference between school and university?
Amelia, First Year, Materials Science
How did you choose which subject you wanted to study?
I’m nervous about moving away from home for university. How do you find living at university?
Amy, French with Linguistics
How did you choose which college to apply to?
I chose based on the atmosphere of the college, as I didn’t make it up to Oxford for an Open Day and just wandered around on a weekend. I think the architecture of St Anne’s is a nice reflection of its more laid-back, modern approach which appealed to me as I felt the big old buildings in some other colleges were slightly imposing. Some people love that kind of thing (which is perfect because there’s plenty of beautiful old buildings in Oxford!) but for me I liked the fact that St Anne’s was a bit different.
I recommend going up to visit colleges to help make your choice, but if you can’t then take things like location, accommodation offered and year group sizes into account and have a look online. Whilst I loved the atmosphere of St Anne’s, it was the three years of on-site accommodation that really sold me in the end!
Don’t stress it too much though; you’ll love wherever you end up.
Who can go to university?
Anyone who is passionate about learning and their subject can go to university. Full stop!
Whilst there may be various factors which make university study daunting, there are also measures in place designed to mitigate these. For example, if you have financial concerns, you can look into bursaries; if you have concerns that you won’t fit in you can look for societies filled with people like you, and if you don’t have parents or family members who have been to university who can help you with the application process, you can contact outreach teams for information. What is important is that everybody knows they can study at university if it is something they are driven to do. University should be accessible for everyone, so if there is a barrier halting your application you can absolutely get in touch with our outreach team!
