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| Sunday, 1 May 2005 |
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Student life in an alien world : College ties by Jeevani Mantotta In the summer there are thousands of tourists clogging up Oxford's streets and a lot of them will be looking for 'the University'. Unfortunately, Oxford University is not a single entity but is made up of various departments and 35 colleges. When you get accepted into the university, you really get accepted into a College. You remain a member of your College for the rest of your life (and they will write to you and remind you of this every year).
The Colleges differ in size, history and character. St Peter's is small, friendly and is known to be a sporty place with a strong representation from the North. St Anthony's is the place for political intrigue and Balliol once produced rulers of the empire. Wadham is known for being left wing (their Junior Common Room (JCR) once declared itself to be 'The People's Republic of Wadham', in response to which Keble JCR renamed itself 'The glorious Kingdom of Keble'). Magdalen, Christ Church and St John's are rich (so rich, in fact, that they are reputed to own some of the other colleges... only a rumour of course). As a result of all this, the richer Colleges tend to get more applications than the poorer, or less famous, ones. If you are lucky enough to get into a rich College you get cheap College accommodation, subsidised meals, travel bursaries and even book allowances. The standard of college food varies too. So, students spend a lot of time trying to get themselves invited to dinner at other people's colleges. It's also a good way to meet people outside your normal social sphere. There are inter College competitions ('cuppers') in things like sport and the arts. The rivalry reaches fever pitch around the time of the rowing competitions. You can often see people walking around in College sporting kits. Most have the distinctive colour combinations and College names on them, whilst a few take a more cryptic approach. For example Christ Church tracksuits tend to have 'House' written on them, whilst St Hildas', rather unfortunately reads 'beasts' (or 'Hildabeasts'). Some rivalries are so old they've become tradition. Trinity and Balliol, for example are known to have a long running feud which manifests itself in practical jokes and energetic snowball fights over the wall that divides them. These inter College divisions come out in lots of little ways, but there is no real enmity in it. We save that for people from Cambridge. |
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My choice of College was arbitrary - I put St Hughes and St Peter's
down because my teacher had heard of them, and then left the third option
blank, so that I could be allocated to one at random. I was allocated St
Hildas - the only remaining all female college. The Colleges you chose
interview you first, and then, if you haven't been snapped up, but show
potential, other Colleges with spare places will interview you. Curiously,
I wasn't actually interviewed by St Hildas, but was interviewed by Corpus
Christi (which I hadn't applied to). 
