(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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