Middlebury-CMRS Oxford Humanities Program

M-CMRS provides the perfect support system for a group of students studying abroad. The academics are both exciting and rigorous with a one-on-one tutorial system that allows for the personalization of subject matter to the student's choice. Students grow in both writing and research. Students are able to take tutorials with tutors from multiple different colleges in Oxford.

M-CMRS's affiliation with Keble gives students access to clubs, organizations, and events around Oxford. The social aspect of M-CMRS is what you make of it. You can be as involved or not involved as you wish although I recommend joining an organization in order to get the full experience. Social events also take place within CMRS. The affiliation also give students access to the Bodleian library, an invaluable resource for tutorials.

The location of St. Michael's is unmatched. Directly in the heart of Oxford, students are close to everything of need and of interest. The staff are dedicated to the program and its students. Beyond academic support, the staff is there for the students' overall well-being.

The program at M-CMRS is well organized to help students adapt and thrive in a new environment. During my semester at CMRS I found the challenge of the tutorial system to be fulfilling and exciting as I learned new skills in research methods, literary analysis, and in-depth note taking. The fast-paced format of the classes pushed my limits and helped me develop and become more comfortable with my writing process.

The staff members at CMRS are very helpful and are dedicated to the success of each student. Their interest surpassed academic advisement and they were deeply aware of each student’s mental and physical wellness.

The CMRS program is perfectly structured to enable students to experience all parts of Oxford student life. The location is right in the heart of Oxford and makes interaction with the greater population quite easy. Social events were frequent both within CMRS and at Keble and the other Oxford schools.

I would recommend the CMRS program to anyone interested who is passionate about Medieval and literature studies as well as anyone interested in experiencing the Oxford system. Overall a very valuable experience.

When I signed up for the Oxford program I knew what I was getting into. I wanted a rigorous academic experience in a place that could further my educational goals. Unfortunately my interests lay outside of the medieval and renaissance in Western Europe, and the program failed to give me the support I would have needed to meet these. Instead of finding a tutor who specialized in my area of history, the head tutor, an English medievalist, tried to tutor me himself. It was not a benefit.

That said, I treasure the hours I spent in the Radcliffe Camera and the Oriental Institute Library.

Beyond this, I made no friends while I was there, and the only person in our group who did joined the rugby team and was adopted by that group. Oxford was not an open social experience like you'd find in America. We had no opportunities to take classes with English students and even though I joined clubs and often tried to initiate conversations with people, I never felt that students were very interested in getting to know people not already incorporated into the Oxford social scene. Most of the people in our group that I've subsequently talked to since coming back feel the same way I do; that Oxford was a very strong academic experience, but that for various reasons we were unable to really experience the best of what life in that city could be. I don't miss it.