hi everyone my name is matt williams i'm a tutor in politics here at jesus college at the university of oxford i'm also what's known as the access fellow here at this college in today's video i'm going to be talking to you about what colleges are why they exist and crucially how you're supposed to choose them i will even go through a quick tour of all of the colleges you can apply to as an undergraduate student just to give you my take on on them i've taught for 26 of oxford's 30 undergraduate colleges and six private
halls so i've got some experience at working at several different colleges and i'm aware that it's one of the most confusing aspects of the admissions process because it's so unusual most universities are not split up into colleges so what even are colleges and why do they exist well i've got this this little presentation that you can follow along with on google earth if you like that shows you all of the colleges and halls at oxford there are 39 colleges at the university 30 of which are for undergraduate students nine of which are for postgraduate students
and there are six what are called permanent private halls which are like colleges but much smaller and you can see them all dotted around the university so the circular building in the middle of the picture is called the radcliffe camera and these buildings around it that have little quadrangles that you may be able to see these are colleges so directly next to their active camera here is braised knives college on the other side it's all souls college braised noses for undergraduates all sources for postgraduates and researchers so that gives you a sense of the different
colleges what are they well they're a bit like small campuses so the university of oxford has a population of students around 21 22 000 and it's divided up into these small campuses that have members numbering about five to six hundred each i work here in jesus college in fact right now i'm speaking to you from almost exactly here and we have a population of about 550 600 students and so we look after the teaching arrangements the the living accommodation the food and the welfare of the people that are members of jesus college but all members
of jesus college are also members of the university of oxford and that's the same for all members of all the colleges now why is the university split into colleges like this well it's down to history the university has been teaching people for about 900 years and it slowly generated these colleges as a way to be more efficient initially so when the university was first founded there were groups of scholars that were working somewhat independently and they started to coalesce in halls initially and then later when there was more money available into colleges the first college
is this one here university college at least there's some disputes to that most people tend to agree that that is the first ever college the most recent college was founded just a couple years ago it's called ruben college and it's a postgraduate college most of the colleges offer most of the subject so it's not the case that some colleges are for one particular subject so it's not a law college there's not a medicine college all of the colleges do pretty much everything with some exceptions amongst the postgraduate colleges so you're not picking a college based
on whether or not they can teach you your chosen subject you choose colleges more on social and financial matters that i'll discuss in more detail shortly you don't choose them based on which will give you the best education because all of the colleges share the university facilities and at the end of your studies you get a degree from this building here called the sheldonian theatre which is where you graduate and that will be administered by the university of oxford it doesn't matter which college you are a member of you get the same bit of paper
at the end of it so you're not choosing colleges based on which will give you the most oxford avoidance and educations because they are all the same you're choosing them in terms of as i mentioned accommodation facilities financial support amenities things like that okay so that's a quick overview of what and why we have colleges at oxford university so what about how to choose colleges well the first and important thing to note is that you don't have to choose a college you can do what's called an open application which means that you allow the university
to choose a college for you a college choice has to be made because technically the colleges admit you to the university if you're an undergraduate not the university itself but if you can't decide if you have no preference that's absolutely fine it doesn't give you any greater advantage or disadvantage if you pick a particular college or if you don't and that's because we use a pooling system to share applications between colleges so let's say for example you do pick a college and it happens to be a very popular college and you just didn't happen to
know that then we will potentially reassign your application to another college so that they can have a look at it it's in fact the same mechanism that will happen if you put in an open application so effectively the same result occurs the best students with the most competitive applications will be admitted to the university of oxford regardless of whether they choose a particularly popular college or indeed whether they choose not to pick a college at all so the upshot of that is you shouldn't over overthink college choice it's not terribly it's not at all impactful
on your academic outcomes because you get the same degree regardless of which college you end up at provided they can offer your degree course and also the chances of you being admitted to the university are equal regardless of whether you put in an open application or pick a a specific college so don't sort of try and be too strategic you don't need to look into all the numbers of which colleges get more or fewer applications and start to worry about whether or not your likelihood of getting into university will be impacted by college choice we've
put steps in place to make that not the case okay there's useful information on all the colleges on the university website which you can go through i'll put a link in the description it's well worth having a look at these perhaps the most useful in particular is going to be this page which describes the college facilities because that's the sort of basis that you should be comparing colleges on first of all make sure the college a college offers the degree program you're looking for and most popular degrees are offered by all of the undergraduate colleges
but there will be some that won't be able to offer certain degrees for certain for various reasons and next you want to look at various facilities so things like whether or not they will offer you accommodation for the whole of your studies whether or not they have certain amenities that you're looking for like a gym on site or whether you want 24-hour library access and so forth and so you can see from this table what how the colleges compare you'll also notice that the colleges are pretty similar in regards to these facilities so it's not
necessarily going to be the easiest way of delimiting your choices what i would suggest is be careful in looking up what other people have said about the colleges because there's quite a lot of myth making out there as mentioned i've taught for 26 of the colleges and halls and the students are brilliant to all of them the college is a fantastic communities so you will perhaps be misled if for example you believe what is said about college a being terribly sporty and college b being very political or college c being very snobby and posh those
differences just don't really tend to show up that clearly sometimes they might call it those that apply to colleges might sort of lean into that sense of the college's perceived personality but given that those colleges are actually large and diverse communities it's very unlikely that you won't find people to get along with at any college and of course you're not bound to your college you know you'll be taught at several colleges in order to make sure that you get the education you need so even though i teach at jesus college i'm currently teaching students at
worcester college and merton college and that's not at all unusual and of course socially you're not bound to college either and there are many clubs and societies that are university-wide so again i wouldn't overthink college choice it's not a terribly impactful part of the application process and more importantly going to be your admissions test if you have those preparing for interviews writing a good personal statement that sort of stuff and that's the sort of stuff that you ought to invest more of your time in i would have thought so now i'm going to go through
all of the colleges in turn in reverse order of age so starting with the youngest college and private halls and going through to the oldest okay and i'm just going to give you a few quick notes on each of them from my own experiences and perspective i'm not going to tell you anything about about any of the colleges because to be blunt there isn't really anything systematically bad about any of the colleges and as i mentioned previously a lot of there's a lot of talk out there about the strengths and weaknesses of different colleges and
frankly most of it's just hot air and very misleading so let's start with the youngest of all the colleges which is in catherine's st catherine's is modern by oxford standards founded in the 1960s it's got a really big site it's got modern buildings it's got modern facilities it's really well located it's right next to some of the big departments so this is the politics and international relations and economics building here this white sort of sugar cube thing and you're also next to the english and law faculties so really well located lovely modern amenities great college
okay next up the next youngest is st peter's college much more in the city center it's got a really huge beautiful chapel it's very close to institutions like the oxford union which is a debating society uh somewhat smaller in terms of physical sizes and catharines but again still in oxford college you still get the same university experience pretty much so don't over overthink some of these i would say minor differences st bennett's hall is the first of the private halls that we'll be considering physically very small compared to some of the colleges and student numbers
also much smaller than many of the other colleges but fantastic location near an area of oxford called jericho which has some really nice shops and bars and restaurants and things like that and again regardless of the size if it offers your course you're going to get the same fantastic education there so do have a think about some of the private halls as well next up we've got sinhilda's college st hilda's i have a very fond uh association with because it's where i got my first teaching job it's got this beautiful riverside location and some nice
old buildings but also some really modern fresh buildings as well fantastic place it used to be a women's only college but that was the last to go mixed in 2008 and has been mixed ever since next up we have got mansfield college mansfield college is another college that i've been privileged to teach for mansfield is known uh for being somewhat uh non-conformist i mean it was literally a non-conformist in terms of its religious affiliations in the past these days all of the colleges are secular so you don't need to worry about any particular religious affiliations
but mansfield is also non-conformist in a more general sense of being of being very diverse and having long been very diverse by oxford standards it has a very high proportion of state school students for example from uk schools and uh is therefore some would consider to be perhaps one of the the least oxford like oxford colleges but as i've hopefully communicated in other videos all of the oxford colleges are increasingly diverse and aspire to take the best students regardless of their school background or demo demography but mansfield is somewhat ahead of the curve i think
it would be fair to say hughes college is the most physically distant of the oxford colleges from the city center but as a consequence of that it has these amazing beautiful gardens it's really quiet and lovely and peaceful and it's a beautiful place so don't allow it sort of physical distance from the city center to put you off it's it's only about a 15-20 minute walk and about a five-minute cycle ride so it's really not that far out i wouldn't have said someoneville college is much closer to the city centre and in fact it's right
next door to some key departments like the maths institute humanities department and it's another previously women lonely college but is now mixed and has been for for some time so anne's college is another formerly women's only college very close to sun hill um to somerville um really interesting and i think beautiful mixture of architectures uh including some very modern buildings great facilities and amenities and fantastic location right in the middle of the science area okay and then lady margaret holds there's like lady margaret hall guest rooms but it is a college at the university uh
was the first of the women's only colleges to be founded in the 19th century um but it is now as with all the colleges mixed by gender um it is as you can see right next to the university park so it's got some amazing green uh greenery on its doorstep it's also next to the river cherwell so it's beautiful riverside so really nice if you want a college that is a little bit quieter and surrounded by beautiful countryside and greenery so after lady margaret hall we are whizzing over to wickliffe hall wake cliff hall is
one of the permanent private halls so even though lady margaret hall is called a hall it's actually a college it can become a bit confusing later we'll come up come up with regents park college which is not a college as a whole it's all a bit confusing but provided that they offer your course i wouldn't over think the names at all wickliffe hall is still predominantly a theological college so it's closer to the older model of how oxford university used to be organized hundreds of years ago but it still offers some undergraduate degrees so it's
still worth checking out if they offer your particular course okay keyboard college is unusual in terms of its appearance relative to some other products for colleges uh it's it was described by queen victoria's looking a bit like a knitted jumper but i think it's really beautiful and it's incredibly well located if you're a science student it's right in the middle of the science area physics department is just across the road here computer science is just here engineering is all around there so if you're into your sciences it's very well located and frankly if you're into
any subject it's a great location okay next we've got regents park college which is mentioned is a hall although it calls itself college it's therefore a bit smaller than most of the colleges but great location right in the thick of the action very close to jericho really friendly place very well worth checking out if they offer your course harrison manchester college is a mature student's college so this is for students that are aged 21 years or older um it's a great place if you're looking to come to university a little bit later than is typical
for british students it's very diverse in terms of nationality and background and really lovely place again i've been very privileged to be able to teach there and had amazing students there okay next we've got worcester college worcester college is it's almost the ideal location it is centrally located but most people don't know it's there most tourists don't know it's there so it's very quiet and it's incredibly expansive so once you've come through the relatively small doors on the outside you get this huge internal space including magnificent gardens and most notably this incredible lake it's got
its own lake it's got all its sports fields on on site so worcester is truly lovely and worth checking out next we've got pembroke college pembroke again i have very very fond memories of pembroke having taught there for several years incredible students absolutely wonderful it's also got these fantastic facilities because it expanded across the ancient city walls recently to have all of this new construction google earth doesn't do it justice but it's a really beautiful college and and just fantastic community of scholars there now what in college bottom is perhaps where my heart most fondly
lies because this is where i was a doctoral student and so i spent several years here both as a student and as a tutor uh wadham has reputation for being quite socially progressive which it leans into to a certain extent but it doesn't mean that if you are perhaps not political or not inclined to those politics that you won't get on there it's also got a great reputation for the sciences even though i didn't study a natural science i studied politics um because in these beautiful gardens it's got the royal society was first founded so
wadom is just a truly special place and very well worth checking out okay and now of course my current employer and my my true love i should say jesus college which is known as the friendly college i remember before i started at jesus college i couldn't quite believe that one college would be more friendly than another but there is something about that i think the the location of jesus college right in the city center the fact that it's quite wealthy and generous with its money uh the fact that it can support its students with accommodation
for all of their time studying does seem to make it a really genuinely friendly place not that other colleges are unfriendly but anyway i'm perhaps a bit biased we've also got this huge new building under construction we should be finished very soon which is right next to the college buildings in the city center so we're very lucky to have been able to expand so much uh recently okay then we've got st john's college st john's college is one of the richest colleges so again generous financial support available it's not to say that people at other
colleges cannot access financial support the university has financial support for the poorest students but the rich colleges have even more funding available for students from poorer backgrounds so john's has a really interesting mix of architectural styles it's got big beautiful gardens and it's got and um yeah as i say it's it's wealthy and uses its money to support its students okay then we've got trinity college trinity college is pretty much in the center of the action but still retains large beautiful gardens including this amazing front quad that they've got um it's known for its food
amongst many things it's got really gorgeous food um i remember when i was studying i was quite jealous that i used to have baked camera bear every night every week i'm not sure if they still do that but that was something that sounded pretty good to me okay from trinity college we are going to wash to christchurch christchurch is very large very grand quite a lot of famous films were used it as a set including harry potter it's if you like the most oxford looking of oxford colleges if that doesn't if that makes any sense
but as with all the oxford colleges you get the same education and despite its grandeur the students that i've worked with there have been really great down to earth and the college as with all the other colleges is utterly committed to diversifying the intake at oxford university so don't be put off don't sort of think that christchurch is going to be full of very snobby very rich people it's just like all the other colleges to be frank it is next door to the much smaller corpus christi corpus christi should not by any means be underestimated
however um it's a intellectual powerhouse i think they've won university challenge and they've got a a fantastic food really incredible and they've got a lovely little college tortoise or at least they did the last time i was teaching there so i hope they still do then we've got braised nose braised nose could lay claim to being the most centrally located college it is right next to this round building called the regular camera it's absolutely stunning fantastic location um really doing amazing work on accessibility for more diverse students in particular under the stewardship of dr joe
organ my counterpart there so brace nose is just a fantastic place that you should check out okay and now we're getting into the seriously old colleges with mordelyn mordelin is another very large very impressive place beautiful buildings it's got a deer park for for reasons i'm not quite clear on but it's also got a riverside location beautiful greenery really stunning place but again don't be put off by that don't sort of feel intimidated if you if you like modelling college it's not going to be full of any particular type of person it's a very diverse
community they are very supportive of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds and um if you do apply it's not likely to affect your chance of getting into oxford so don't be sort of put off applying if you think it's going to be popular because it is popular next we've got lincoln college lincoln college is our neighbor on turl street it is quite physically small or at least it looks small but it's actually occupied a lot of the buildings around it so for example this this former chapel church here is now lincoln college library and they've occupied
the buildings on the other side of the road to them so even though the the college side looks quite small they've actually economized with the space really cleverly and taken up lots of room uh lincoln is as with all the other colleges beautiful with lovely people i mean i know that's just becoming what i'm saying about all of them but it is true um new college next is incredibly misnamed because it is uh very old it was founded in the 1300s again highly impressive used a lot in filming including harry potter and mamma mia because
of its spectacular architecture it does consistently well on what's called the norrington table which is the table of colleges by their academic performance in finals exams but again all of the colleges tend to do very well in that so you're you're not going to get a significantly better education it's just new college has some very particularly good academic facilities and good support and it also creates this culture of working hard academically which has rewarded them in good results consistently okay next we've got queen's college which is right on the high street queens college is architecturally
quite unique it's a neoclassical style as opposed to the more gothic style which is typical of the older colleges um but no less beautiful for that it's got a subterranean library which is incredible it's also got this beautiful big indoor library as well an old library so really spectacular buildings again i've been very privileged to teach there students were amazing so lovely place well worth looking into now we've got oriole college so this now we're getting to this really seriously old colleges oriole college um is again sort of seemingly quite small but again has occupied
spaces around it in order to make sure that it has enough room for its purposes um it's had some because it's been around so long it's had some interesting alumni including walter riley the guy who brought potatoes and tobacco back to the back to the europe from the new world um so fascinating place okay next we have got extra college extra college is one of our neighbors on turtle street in oxford it uh is jordan college in the mythical his dark materials universe created by philip pullman because philippa was a student there as was jrr
tolkien so it's got some good literary credentials then we've got hartford college half college has the iconic bridge of size which is often associated with the university hartford college like warden college is known as being quite a progressive socially liberal place but again all colleges have diverse communities so whether or not that suits you or not i wouldn't read too much into it then we've got edmond halls and edmund hall is one of the oldest in terms of its organization of the university so it's one of it's closest to the way the university was organized
when it was first founded um really small by the standard scale of colleges around it but nonetheless beautiful for it and still again as always gives you the same fantastic education then we have got merton college merton college is notorious for having fantastic academic results consistently in the noriten table of performance in finals but it also has incredibly good food i can tell you from personal experience so those are things to consider but again you know weigh them up with all sorts of other bits of information and don't read too much into it would be
my advice then we've got baylier college baleal is another college that's renowned for being quite political it's certainly produced a lot of senior politicians from the uk and overseas of all political stripes i must add um but also great location and very friendly place it's got these it's got a student-run bar which is quite unusual for oxford colleges and then last but obviously not least is university college again very sort of happy to say that i was able to teach here for several years and do admissions here loved it really fantastic place such a friendly
community amazing location right in the city center and it's got this beautiful shrine to percy shelley the the poet um amongst its many sort of wonderful communities so amazing place so those are all of the colleges that you can apply to as an undergraduate i'm finishing on the bodily library simply to underscore a point that all of the colleges and all of the halls get to use all of the university facilities you ultimately get a university degree so i wouldn't over sweat college choice too much look into the sort of facilities that are available think
about the accommodation provision think about any financial support that may be available for you but ultimately college choice won't impact your chance of getting into the university and it won't impact the quality of your education which will be absolutely first class regardless of which college or hall you end up at i hope this has been helpful if you have any questions that emerge out of watching this then do drop them in the comments section below and i'll try to answer them as soon as possible this is part of an ongoing series of videos to help
support students that maybe don't have access to such information get it and make the most informed applications to the university of oxford thank you for watching take care all the best bye now thanks you
