Boo

I applied to Oxford in spite of there being little tradition in my area of sending people, because I loved the city (I lived nearby in Newbury at the time) and my parents had a friend whose son had been at Oxford years before and loved it so much that he sold it to me hook, line and sinker! In terms of my subject, it is one of the very best for Biology, not least when it comes to your final project. At some universities you’ll be given a choice of six or eight projects; at others it might be up to a hundred. But at Oxford you can do your finals project in any aspect of biology you like as long as you can find somebody to supervise you, and with the world’s best academics at your fingertips that’s not hard! Jesus was my first choice college because I’d heard so much about the friendly atmosphere – which, now I’m here, I can say is well deserved! – And the fact that it offers accommodation in college and flats for all of your degree.

My (comprehensive) school did encourage me to apply, along with about ten other students, but it was rare for more than one or two students to get in, so I was hardly expecting great things. That was one of the best bits about my school – although I was well informed there was no pressure, so I rather enjoyed the whole process. I took A-levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and German – at 16 I fancied myself as a medic but I soon realised I preferred bacteria and plants to humans and changed my mind.

To prepare for my application I did far less than I should have done – I visited Jesus, but none of the other colleges so I’m quite lucky that I’ve been as happy here as I should have done. Had I actually gone to the Biology Open Day (which I’ve since helped out at) I think I would have been slightly blown away by the facilities on offer, and the mock interview (an undergrad student goes through the process in a lecture theatre – this year that student was me!) would have helped my own interviews to seem less intimidating. I did some background reading – everybody claims to have read The Selfish Gene, but it’s also worth getting your teeth into some other Dawkins or some Nick Lane.

Because I lived close to Oxford I was asked to come up on the morning of my interview, which gave me less time to panic. There weren’t any admissions tests, just two interviews. I arrived at 9am and had my first interview at Jesus at 9:30. My first interview was a bit intimidating; as the interviewers barely smiled the whole time and I was sure it had gone badly. I was given some graphs of biomass in various species in relation to light and asked to talk about their trophic levels. Another diagram I was given asked me to explain how twelve species of bird could live in one tree. They also asked me what should have been easy questions – about how I became interested in biology and what I’d done other than my A-levels to demonstrate my interest.

All biologists are currently interviewed at a second college, so the next day I went to Hertford. The interview here had a far more relaxed atmosphere and I was far more comfortable. It’s important to remember that the format of your interview will depend strongly upon whoever interviews you and is nothing personal. This interview was similar in that I was given graphs of UK population over time and asked to explain the peaks and troughs. I was also given some feathers as a prop and asked whether they were from the same species and how I could tell. The tutors nodded and smiled and gave me hints so rather than stuttering I just kept talking no matter how silly what I thought sounded and the result was that I got to the right answers much faster. I left convinced that if I got an offer from Oxford it had to be from Hertford.

In the evenings Jesus tries to put on a different event every night: films, pub quizzes and so on. During the day time there was a little group of us that got together and just ended up wandering around Oxford taking in the atmosphere and trying to work out which college was which.

If I had a chance to do interviews again I would have made sure to plan out answers to basic questions like why I loved my subject. I would have read more just to give me something to talk about (although beware if you say you’ve read the Selfish Gene actually read it – tonnes of people try to fake it and it doesn’t go well). Had I done a bit more research I might not have applied to Jesus – as happy as I am here, in the prospectus it said there were 5 places for Biology. What I didn’t realise was that that was spread across all three years – so I was fighting for one of two places. I also wish I’d realised in my first interview that it was better to say something not-quite-right than sit in silence panicking.

Interviews were more enjoyable than expected – in my second one it was just like having a great discussion with some real experts about topics that interested me. I was stretched, but that was enjoyable – and my enjoyment turned out to be a good sign as it’s meant I’m also well suited to the Oxford tutorial system. I left knowing that I’d be happy if I came back to Oxford, but that there was no pressure on me and that if I didn’t get a place, it was probably because I wasn’t suited and would be happier somewhere else.