Rachel

I decided to apply for Oxford because I liked the collegiate structure, the look of the city, but mainly because I liked the idea of saying I go/went to Oxford.  One of my sixth-form teachers advised me to apply to an all-female or previously all-female college because on my personal statement I had written about an interest in feminism.  I chose Somerville because out of all those colleges it seemed to be the closest to town so despite coming on a couple of open days before arriving in Oxford for interviews, I had never seen Somerville.  I liked the college, however, and wasn’t too stressed when first arriving, on the Sunday night for interviews.  Beforehand I learnt quite a few Shakespeare Sonnets and read a bit around the books or types of literature which I had mentioned in my application. On getting to my room on the night before the interview I tried to read some more, but decided to get some sleep instead. 

There were quite a few students staying up to help with the interviews and they were all friendly.  They had made a ‘Happy Interviews’ paper-chain to hang across the doorway to our main hall and there was a giant tin of sweets to calm everyone down.  Going into my first interview on Monday morning I was pretty nervous, but the tutors were really trying to make you feel better.  I know now that the Somerville English tutors are all super-nice and really just wanted to see everyone at their best.  Before having a discussion I was given 30 minutes to read an excerpt from Jane Austen’s Emma, to analyse and our discussion of this formed the beginning of the interview.  They simply asked what I thought of the section and a discussion launched from there.  The interview wasn’t actually particularly horrible.  Apart from one of the tutor’s having an accent I couldn’t really understand, it was fine- just an interesting conversation about things you’re into or that you’ve studied because mine at least (apart from the Jane Austen) was all based on what I’d written about on my application and the essays I’d submitted.  I remember a couple of times just starting a sentence with no idea of how to end it, and just stopping in the middle, but the tutors know you’re nervous and didn’t seem to particularly mind.

I had a second interview later that day, which was similar.  Again, beforehand I was given some literature to look at.  This time it was a poem by a contemporary author and I had absolutely no idea what it was ‘about’, but that wasn’t awful in the interview because they asked quite specific questions about a line or a word and as long as you considered it and showed some sort of thought process it seemed to be fine.  When not in interviews I met lots of other prospective students, quite a few of whom are now good friends.  Everyone was apprehensive and didn’t know what to expect.  It was really great to have a few days in Oxford, to walk round the city and get an idea about living there.  Although the time spent here was clearly over-shadowed by nerves and concerns, about how it was going to go or went, it was generally just a really nice break from A-level and an interesting taste of Oxford life.