Oxford Program

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.