a very honest review of my oxford university master's degree (theoretical physics at keble college)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 лип 2020
- a very honest review of how I found my masters year at oxford, studying mathematical and theoretical physics - it's a bit long, but see comments for timestamps!
meanwhile, find me elsewhere on the internet:
📸 instagram @alicejanelake
🐤 twitter @alicejanelake
for more videos:
🎓 oxford university vlogs & study with mes | • Uni Vlogs | Mathematic...
📚 lancaster university vlogs & study with mes | • Uni Vlogs | Theoretica...
📖 university advice & revision tips | • University Advice & Re...
🌟 science videos | • Physics! 🌟
🏃♀️ other adventures | • Running, Cycling & Oth...
If you're a company or charity looking to contact me: alicelake123@gmail.com
(for anyone else, please message me on instagram! I'm always happy to chat there when I have the time 😊)
so I know there are two big problems with this video: firstly that it's really long, and secondly that I filmed it outside assuming it would be quieter, but didn't quite realise just how much my camera mic was picking up the wind
I have spent ages trying to rectify these issues as best I can by collecting timestamps so you can skip things that don't interest you (see below) & by transcribing the video, which took well over three hours (turn on captions) - so please don't complain about either thing as it'll actually break my heart 😟
timestamps:
00:00 some background
01:46 what I thought of the course
08:05 why I felt lonely
10:53 other small stuff oxford do badly
14:32 the pandemic and how this affected my year
16:44 summer (online) exams
21:29 what's happening with graduation
22:44 the college system & my college (keble)
24:47 explaining formal halls
26:10 keble's graduate campus
27:00 keble mcr
28:39 cost of living in oxford
30:57 oxford traditions
33:03 extra curriculars + mental health
37:04 a summary
Hai alice, could you please give your physics notes in pdf format in your next video please
Now I can see, this is why you are in Oxford. You are a really hard worker.
Is it only me who finds the administrative ineffeciencies alarming for a university like Oxford?
err sadly I think it's probably a case of oxford having a strong enough reputation not to worry too much about making the student experience as good as possible, because even with bad reviews people will still apply there because "it's oxford" - less well-known universities wouldn't get away with anything like that because they'd be slated in the end of degree student survey, and then would definitely affect their intake
@@alicedoesphysics I am (was?) in the same boat! Was planning to apply to Oxford for my Master because 'it's oxford!?' Definitely keeping an eye open for all of the things you mentioned because at the end of the day they DO add up to the whole experience. Thanks!
I am still doing my undergrad at Oxford and I genuinely never realised that other unis produced personal timetables??? I just assumed everyone had a centralised department timetable and you noted down classes you had to go to and signed up to classes that worked for you?
@@ThatWeirdoCharlie haha no!! (although can completely see why you wouldn't realise!) at most unis you sign up to lectures and then they'll make a timetable for you on some kind of online portal, which gets automatically updated if lectures change times / places (my old uni also had an app with your timetable + the option to export it into your google calendar automatically, which I think is also pretty common)
Something like this would never happen at the Technical University of Munich:
TUM >>> Oxford
I love how its so honest and you're not really holding back. I find that way too many times in uni reviews (even tho I've been at uni for 4 years lol) they just mention the good without any detractors! Theres a lot I'd have to say negatively about my uni that no one else mentions in their reviews. But thanks for the longer vid, and sorry to hear Oxford were wank at dealing with COVID :(
thank you ❤️❤️
Ah thank you for sharing! And don’t worry, the sound quality is fine and so is the length!! 😄
❤️❤️ thank you
Your video really hit home. I was also an MSc student at Oxford this year and I largely felt like I was going through first term alone. What got me through was my social activities and professional clubs. I hope things are looking up Alice.
Loved this video Alice! I'm currently studying maths (fellow UA-camr!) and I've been looking at studying the mathematical and theoretical physics MSc at Oxford and I found this video really useful! Thank you☺️
Hey, this is weird, but I was one of your course mates ( i.e was doing the Masters as well this year) and UA-cam decided to recommend this to me. I just thought It was surprising with how much I agreed with what you said. One other thing that bothered me was that I signed up for two of the harder pure maths courses ( geometric group theory, algebraic topology ) and I thought it would be okay because I knew mathematicians doing them as well... And then they were allowed to drop them and not us... :c felt like quantum field theory all over again... :c
Is the oxford masters in math&theoretical physics worth it? I got an offer for MSc. QFFF at imperial, which also has a 3 months research component.
My interest is in theoretical high energy physics and theoretical cosmology
@@MudahnyaFizikwhat did u end up deciding and why
Alice! I’ve always loved your videos and it’s so wholesome to hear your completely honest review that’s not just 100% positive! I’m hoping to vlog my uni experience this September, Thankyou for inspiring me :) x
Hi, I've recently discovered your channel and binge-watched quite a few videos in the last days, I love the honest way you talk about your experience :) I appreciate how you shared this year's struggles, this has given me some food for thought on what went wrong with my year too (I'm a first year theoretical physics master student in Italy, here masters last 2 years). I'm going through a bit of tough period because I'm trying to figure out what to do after I graduate next summer, so it was quite comforting to hear about someone else going through this, especially in this isolation time when I didn't have a lot of opportunities to talk about this. Personally, I would love to see a video on how you looked for a graduate job, because I tried to do some research on Google and it was quite confusing.
Anyway, I really appreciated this long chat, thanks!
thanks martina!! ❤️ I'm really sorry to hear you've been going through some tough times too - I hope that the next of the masters is much more enjoyable for you 🤞 yeah I can definitely make a video on how I searched for graduate jobs (I had no idea what I wanted to do for ages & I also found googling unhelpful!) x
@@alicedoesphysics Thanks a lot! Fortunately, in the last few weeks it seems to be going a little better with my masters, fingers crossed 🤞
This was really insightful. You've gone through a lot this year but your commitment& dedication come through strongly in this video. It is a real shame about some of these negative experiences that could be fixed so easily... timetabling and course materials are the bare essentials - how have the uni not got decent admin in place for this?!?
Honestly some of your feelings towards the course/uni I can relate to a lot. I think you've done a really good job at painting your university experience in an honest light & hopefully prospective students will take on board the pros&cons you mentioned.
Compared to masters at Imperial, your course sounds most similar to our QFFF masters in the theoretical physics group. I think your breath of modules is further reaching though - seeing all those modules available to you was really interesting. QFFF students take courses alongside 4th year physics undergrads (QFT, GR, hydrodynamics, unification of standard model) but then they have their own QFFF-specific modules (string theory, supersymmetry, adv cosmology, etc) which are in much smaller classes. From what I'm aware there isnt much overlap with our maths dept, so we dont get all the grad level maths courses offered like you can do at Oxford. The other main difference is the QFFF masters is 12 months, and there is a dissertation done over the summer before finishing the course.
I totally relate to some of the issues you experienced! Not having a results day date, having to do exams "as usual" with a small time for scanning as pdfs, pretty shocking admin, unhelpful lecturers.... Besides all this, you've given a really comprehensive & fair review of your (limited) time at Oxford. I think this has been the most informative video I've seen about studying physics there. Thank you.
Looking forward to seeing what you're up to next & what direction you take your channel. You've been really inspiring to me since A-levels & I feel like you've had a big influence on my own physics career. It's been amazing following your channel over the years - you're really a great inspiration to aspiring physicists! 💖
thanks so so much matt (for this, and for always being so supportive) ♥️♥️ I know you've also had a rough year and your department was pretty shocking, so huge huge congrats on making it through and I hope you're having a lovely relaxing summer x
honestly Alice you’re one of my biggest inspirations. i love your work ethic and how passionate you are about your subject.
i’m about to start my undergraduate degree at Lancaster in biochemistry and i want to join the cycling club as well. i honestly can’t wait. cycling is one of my favourite hobbies and i really want to start running as well as i’ve seen how much it’s helped you and others through their degrees and stress.
i really enjoy your videos especially the Lancaster ones. they make me so much more excited to start uni (if that’s possible aha). thank you 💕💗!
I've just finished my Biochem degree at Lancaster- good luck with it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! ☺️
Lauren Atha thank you!! can i ask a few questions?
- what textbooks did you guys use? i wanna get a bit of a head start (dw i won’t buy them lmao)
- how many hours of labs did you guys have a week?
- how many credits was each module worth?
- did you have an exam after each module and then a massive exams with all the modules at the end of the year? or did you just have a massive exam at the end of the year?
- how hard would you have to work to get a first in all 3 years?
- are placement years and internships really competitive?
- if it’s not too personal, what are you thinking of doing in the future?
thank you so much 💕💗!!
this is so sweet - thank you so much!! 🥰 ahh definitely join the cycling club (a couple of my good friends who will be 4th years next year are on the exec, so I know the club is going to be great!) and if you're wanting to start running check out LURAC (running and athletics club) as they're super friendly & run a "couch to 5k" programme 😁 hope you have a fantastic time ❤️❤️
Lauren Atha congratulations on graduating!! 🎉
@@user-zo3ty8gi9x
- We were given online access to a general biology textbook as well as most of the other resources that were recommended for us. The only textbook I bought was Chemistry^3 but this wasn't essential, I just found it helped a lot with first year. In 2nd and 3rd year there tends to be lots of different books and papers recommended which depends on which modules you take but these will be either available online or from the library for free.
- You will have one lab session for each module per week and 3 modules at a time. Each biology lab is timetabled for 3 hours and chemistry for 4 but you'll find you'll finish early once you get used to how they work and gain confidence in the techniques. Occasionally you'll have a workshop or computer lab instead in some weeks depending on the module.
- Each first year module is 8 credits. You'll take 3 at a time (15 total), each lasting 5 weeks, for 2.5 terms. The last half term is the exam period. Each module has an end of module test in the last week of each 5-week block and there will be an end of year exam too. The modules are bigger in 2nd and 3rd year and last varying amounts of time, but only first year has end of module tests.
- I think what it takes to get a first in each year will be different for everyone. 1st year is easier, particularly the end of year exams, but that's not to say it's easy to do without putting work in. I got a first every year and I would recommend learning early on to manage your time well and figure out how you learn best as well as how to take things in in lectures. Figuring this out sooner will save a lot of time.
- I personally went abroad for my second year so I don't know about placement years, but internships are very competitive. It is especially difficult to get something for summer after first year- your best chance is summer after second year, which is when I did mine.
- I'm currently trying to figure out what I want to do. I really enjoy research in the biochemistry field but I don't enjoy laboratory work so I'm just about to start an MSc Computer Science in the hope of being able to find a job/PhD researching biology problems computationally. This might change though, so I'll wait and see what happens.
I wish you lots of luck for when you start and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)
This was so relatable and thank you for bringing awareness to how terribly departments can treat students- an Imperial theoretical physics student. I didn’t think it was possible, but somehow this sounds worse than what Imperial did. You should be immensely proud for getting through it all with all the other challenges you faced!
thank you so so much ❤️ I'm really sorry to hear that your department messed you around too (I saw a lot of things about imperial physics's covid response on twitter... seemed pretty awful) but well done on making it through the year despite all that!
Luke Parker the bureaucracy is nauseating. The content is mostly fine, but the way they structure and mark the non-exam assessments is what’s stressful. There’s just a real lack of transparency from both the department and the college
@@Asrequired274 Is this something you'd say about the whole University or your department specifically? Considering doing my MSc at Imperial and would love to know!
This was super interesting to watch, I study in Australia and it’s nice to see how masters go in other places as well
thanks!! 😊
Thanks so much for sharing this, it was really raw and honest. My daughter is thinking about applying to this exact course at Oxford, also specializing in condensed matter physics, so this will be really helpful for her in navigating her decision tree after she completes her undergrad degree.
your video was super informative! hopefully i can come to oxford if i can get my visa and experience these, then vlog them (inspired by you)!!
can't wait to see more videos alice :)
I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I empathise with a lot of it and agree with the majority of what you've said. I think a lot of us went through that horrible dip in 1st term while we adjusted to the absolute weirdness and bizarre isolation of Oxford. And then I was also very upset with how the department handled the pandemic. Having a safety net would have been very helpful for a lot of people and I think the way we were told to just suck it all up and endure wasn't useful.
Honestly though, I wish we'd hung out while you were still in Oxford. You've always seemed like such a nice person and I always meant to reach out to you when I got the time. It sucks that your experience wasn't even that uncommon. But whatever happens, you're right about what you can take away from it. You've grown a lot from this experience and will certainly be a better person going forward in a lot of ways. I'm sure whatever comes next for you will be a massive improvement and you can put Oxford in the rear-view mirror!
ahhh I wish we'd hung out more in oxford too, I also meant to try and get to know you better (your lovely emails genuinely always made me smile) - it's such a shame we never had a third term ☹️ and I'm so sorry to hear you struggled in first term too (it's such a shame none of us realised we were all struggling! would've felt so much less lonely!)
thank you, honestly, so so much ♥️♥️♥️ and huge congratulations for making it through the year too, even with some very tricky module choices! (especially given it can't have been easy being so far from home) ☹️ I hope you're having a wonderful summer so far and you've had a chance to relax xx
I was considering doing the Oxford Master's next year, also specialising in condensed matter, so this video is super useful
I did my undergrad in Cambridge and there's definitely a lot I identify with - for better or worse, I think both Oxford and Cambridge are shaped for the undergrad experience by way of many of the institutions and conventions. This is evident both in the course curriculum (e.g. for my subject at Cambs, the MPhil for the subject is sort of designed for people who did the equivalent BA beforehand) and also the social side: undergrads tend to get the swankiest most central rooms and a lot of the stuff organized at many colleges is crowded by undergrads e.g. rowing squashes / May Balls / chapel services / welfare days / libraries.
...I'm also amused to no end that much of the silly administrative stuff I dealt with over my time (e.g. scheduling supervisions in doodle polls or having 4 timeslots spread over 2 weeks in 3 different locations around the city) is the same over at the other place as well. Congrats on finishing your degree, it's all up from here :D
Hi Alice, I stumbled across your UA-cam videos when I was in second year and as a person who never considered Oxford for undergrad I never thought about doing a postgrad there until I saw your videos! I have just received an offer to study there for a masters I’m extremely passionate about and I just wanted to thank you because you are a huge part of me realising this is something I could do!
I am a second year physics student and I love your videos... I rewatch them so many times..... Please make more physics related videos ... How to study , tips and everything
Finally got to the end of the video , and it has made me think twice about applying
I have absolutely no intention of doing a masters at Oxford (even if I could get in lol) but this was really interesting ! I’m only an undergrad atm but it really makes me appreciate the blackboard system at Leeds, when we went online in March I was really frustrated at the fact that every module wanted you to all do something different, substituting all of their lectures in completely different ways and wanting you to send your work to a different platform etc. But I appreciate that at least I know I can find all my lecture notes in the same place. Thanks for sharing I didn’t know much about Oxford Uni at all before this video ! Good luck for the future x
thanks so much!! ❤️
I go uni of Leeds too, what do you study?
U don’t get personal timetable it seems like lazy admin
Thanks for sharing the experience Alice, it was such an inspiration getting to know how different unis work! Just recently graduate from Bsc TPM at Lancaster and I am in the similar situation now, I have got the choices of continue my integrated master in Lancaster or doing a master in Edinburgh. I am worried about the courses in Edinburgh being held back by it's tradition (for some reason the student satisfactory is quite low in Edinburgh). Lancaster is truly a great place, but having the thought that I can experience different environment makes me hesitate.
I studied maths at Edinburgh. I had a bad experience. The teaching is very bad, the course materials were bad ect. It was common for me and friends to search out learning materials provided by other universities.
The university is ranked incredibly low for student satisfaction. It makes up for this by hiring top researchers to increase its international ranking (which is significantly higher than UK ranking). However as a result it is not uncommon to have modules with no lecture notes provided, where the lectures themselves are off topic and exam questions are irrelevant to the homework provided. This is justified by each module having between 5-10 books mentioned in the info page of the course which arn't taught. Which means exam questions can be drawn from any of them. The calibre of the students is high enough that lecturers can get away with this sort of thing as some students seem to find time to learn all the untaught stuff aswell. The other issue is that Scottish universities have 2 terms. This means you will be doing about 50% more work each term than English universities.
Interms of cost, Edinburgh is second only to London interms of living expenses. I recommend trying to find accommodation near the kings buildings as walking 40+ minutes in the winter is pretty dire, bus service ok but normally full, and the university shuttle bus has just been cut for budget savings. I am not overly familier with the course you will be doing, however I recommend you use the path system and speek to previous students if you can to work out which lecturers are good /bad. For example quantum information and geometry of general relativity are considered hard courses. You can also find past papers online or email the lecturers beforehand and ask for more information/resources before you start.
The pros of Edinburgh, it is probably the best place I have ever visited. The level of general education you encounter is higher than almost anywhere else I have been. The city is beautiful, nightlife is better than most cities of its size (though Glasgow is allot better). There are allot of good student societies, fun opportunities ect. But unfortunatly it will be probably be 50-60 hours per week minimum so I doubt you'll have time for it.
Hi Alice! Congrats again on finishing your degree despite those many setbacks, I'm sure it must've been hard but I bet it was also worth it! Some feedback on the video: I really enjoyed it, you shouldn't hesitate so much next time you need to film one like this, I'm used to watching 2/3-hour-long videos while I do something else, so I don't mind the length, and I'm sure many of your followers don't either! Hope you enjoy your very deserved rest! :)
thank you fabrizio!! 😁😁
The comments about the IT system (or lack of) and some the 4th year maths courses being pretty impenetrable for those with a physics background are very relatable!!!
It’s almost like some of the best mathematicians and scientists go to Oxford... I’m sure they could find away to get into the modern era if they could be arsed
For some reason this video was recommended to me. Many of your experiences echo mine just over 10 years ago (other than the panemic obviously). I actually got my certificate 3 years later due to renovations of the Sheldonian. I did law. I choose Oxford for the reputation because I used to want to be a barrister (most went to Oxford). It messed up my PhD funding position (having previously graduated top of my class at a reasonable university) and it was the same for many others (not everyone obviously - helped some).
I felt similar having done a Masters in Finance at Cambridge. To add on, I also felt that the career staff at Cambridge were not engaged with their students. It felt like the faculty / staff expected the university name to carry you. Minimal effort was made for community building and personal growth
Thank you for your honesty take on your experience. The policy with the diploma delay and the substitute PDF is very strange indeed.
This video was great- thank you so much for your honesty Alice! What you said about the ineffective admin and the lack of one virtual learning platform like moodle is really interesting- perhaps they’re cutting corners to save money, but surely things like that are the bare minimum for unis in this day and age haha. My boyfriend is starting the MASt in physics at Cambridge in October (after getting rejected from the same course you just finished at oxford). I know that Cambridge at least have a moodle and give you a timetable so that’s a plus 😅😂 but anyway! You should be so proud of yourself for powering through what was undoubtedly a super tough year! Your low mood in first term and then a whole ass pandemic and crappy uni admin couldn’t stop you from getting that MSc and you should be so proud of yourself! ❤️❤️🌸
thank you SO much savannah, that's so kind & I really appreciate it ❤️❤️❤️ wish your boyfriend good luck in the MASt from me! (on an unrelated note - I really enjoy your videos btw!!)
alicedoesphysics thank you, I will ☺️ and thank you so much!! That really means a lot 🥺💛💛 hope you’re doing well 😄🌼
Hey Alice, I used to watch your videos a few years back before I decided to go to university to study Physics! You could say you were a factor in making the choice to do so. I am now a second year going into third year studying Physics at Cardiff currently on the BSc course!
Really interesting video as I’m thinking about either switching to the MPhys at Cardiff now or applying for MSc’s or grad schemes that specialise in renewable energy/nuclear maybe although I am still unsure in what I want to do. Struggling to decide what’s the better option as Cardiff doesn’t do much to do with renewable energy/nuclear but it does do a bit of quantum or condensed matter which I find interesting. This video makes me want to stay at Cardiff as the teaching is amazing there, scared to move universities -maybe to Bham to do their nuclear MSc- now as they might not be as student friendly there?
So glad to see your still posting videos two/three years later! You were such an inspiration when I was choosing this university course!
Omg happy birthday!
Thanks for this video. I am thinking of doing a PhD and Oxford is one of my preferred options. Everything you said was useful and clarifying, including all that stuff about physics and maths, your passion about cycling and your dislike for elitist traditions.
Hey Alice, I have been following for a while now (mostly on ig) and I want to say that I am impressed that despite those difficulties you finished your Masters.
However, I feel you in terms of university response to Covid. I am studying in Poland and here we didn't get lecture materials at all before covid. You either go to lecture and make notes really fast or you don't have the notes. During Covid some lecturers emails us powerpoints instead of doing a lecture, some sent us materials and did lectures and some didn't send us anything.
We had online exams with LESS time than normally to "avoid cheating". For multiple choice questions we normally have 60 seconds for a question and during covid we had 40-50 sec. And we had one question at the time and moodle sometimes broke when we were changing questions and lost time. We were supervised with our camera and microphone on. It was super stressful and I just wish people running universities would be more human.
Hey Alice! I watched the entire video, and I had a couple of thoughts (especially regarding some of the concerns you had):
TL;DR : Wind wasn't annoying, long videos are AMAZING, and thanks for showing the negative aspects of Oxford that personally are important to me.
Firstly, the wind wasn't that annoying, I think you managed to mitigate those problems really well. I was able to follow you 90% of the way without subtitles, but the subtitles definitely helps (especially from an accessibility perspective, so thank you).
Secondly, I feel like you have greatly underestimated the half-hour-long-video market on UA-cam, because that is almost always the average length of the videos I watch these days. It's one of those things that's really great to put on the background and still derive great value from. So I would _love_ more longform content from you, especially if it is in this conversational manner because I didn't want to click away at any point in time.
And finally, to talk about your experience at Oxford - duuude, I'm glad you're done with it.
As a person from India which already has a "complicated" relationship with the UK (in that Indians generally despise the UK for colonialism reasons but also highly value their institutions), Oxbridge has always been held in high regard for no reason. I was never fond of any level of elitism which seems to be prevalent in these high-tier Universities, but listening to your experience there makes me feel like I'd hate it.
I'm an international undergrad (studying Physics, what are the odds) in a European University at the moment (the University of Groningen in the Netherlands) and while they have a lot of the old stuffy "Latin titles"-y things, for the most part, they have been "modern", let's say. The professors are generally approachable (sometimes _too_ approachable) and are generally very allowing of any kind of extenuating circumstances. But they do some things that make no sense and sometimes it honestly feels like me having to spend literally ten times the amount of money (with no possibility of financial aid!) as EU students makes me very upset. It's made me upset enough to maybe consider the UK for masters, but listening to your Oxford story (and also Simon Clark's Oxford story) sounds like basically it's a horrible place to be if you don't have any extracurricular activities that are represented by a club of sorts by the University (music for him and cross-country for you).
I think the cultural anachronisms (such as the gown wearing) combined with the technological anachronisms (weird scheduling conveyance) just reveal that the actual "life" _as_ an Oxford student is just ridiculously tedious for no reason. I understand that college systems are weird and all, but the lack of centralized information systems _make no sense_. It's annoying enough to actually be a dealbreaker for me, personally - why would _anyone_ take out several hours from my life (or in my case, a whole day because I'm a nervous wreck about missing out classes) when I could spend all that time, you know, doing physics, the reason why I'm supposedly here.
It's only increasingly weighing towards that direction of my perception that people go to Oxford for "Oxford" and no _real_ reason (generally, of course). If you're going to have a bad time in general and your highlights are the parts of that Oxford has no control over, what is the point even?
I think your review painted a picture of Oxford I don't often hear about from physics UA-camrs, and I'm glad that I won't be losing out on anything academically speaking (although Oxford written on your degree must sure get some employers going) if I didn't go to Oxford for my grad studies.
Thank you so much for making this video, and if you've made it so far, thank you for reading this long comment.
The lecturer not giving you lecture notes is outrageous, did u complain
Would you be able to make a video giving advice on online exams? It would be super helpful considering most people exams next year will be online x
I do understand you! I've finished five years long residency program. Then they cancelled final exams in Marz, only to do them in June! But even then they don't want to give us the certificates! And we are stuck...
I was super close to leaving my undergrad uni where I’m studying - integrated masters, & began to plan / cobble together my application to apply elsewhere for my MSc inc. oxford (dream course etc) & Durham & coronavirus came around just as I had to make the choice. & I don’t know whether or not it was the right decision but I decided to stayed put. mainly bc, I don’t know how I would physically or mentally be prepared for the academic rigour (shorter terms etc) & having to deal with that all during a pandemic.
Thanks for sharing your perspective on oxford masters life bc I think, some people ( not all ) tend to sugar coat to outside word it especially if they left someone they felt was “homely” for UG.
I don't know if this will help at all but I spent ages wondering if I'd made the "wrong" choice by leaving lancaster to go to oxford (particularly in first term when everything was just going a bit wrong) - but I later came to the conclusion that there was no "right" choice, and I'd always have wondered about the "other" option, whichever one I'd chosen 🤷♀️ wishing you loads of luck for your master's, and hope you enjoy having an extra year to explore your undergrad city ❤️❤️
alicedoesphysics They do always say the grass is always greener on the other side! ❤️ (only time will tell but I feel so settled in Southampton for now)✨
Thanks for sharing you honest thoughts about a really prestigious uni! I can't believe the fees to study at Oxford and they won't even hire an admin department to use basic timetabling software :O
thanks josephine!! I knoww, it's not like the don't have the money?? 😭
Thank you for this video, it helped a lot xx
Wow this was a really great video, thank you for sharing your experience! I had the same issue with a lecture not emailing me notes and it does really seem like sometimes lecturers just try and make stuff hard for the sake of it! I can't believe Oxford doesn't use Moodle or like a similar site, I would imagine it would be very difficult using different platforms and such for different modules. I'm honestly so surprised how you had to do your exams in normal conditions only online, I remember hearing you mention it in twitter a while back but it was good to get a better idea of what you meant. I study in Glasgow and we got 24 hours to take and upload exams, I can't imagine how stressful it would have been doing them in the same time limit and not having a safety net. Massive congratulations on getting through it all though, and for getting a job in a field you love! Hope it all works out well 😁
thank you so much! ♥️ well done on making it through such a tricky year too! hope you're having a lovely summer x
I loved this helped a lot
i don't know how i ended up here but it was fun to watch :)
just did my Bsc in Bio - now I dunno whether I should do a Msc or find a job. I feel like Bsc's aren't enough anymore.
Thanks for this honest review :) you mentioned that you were on scholarship? How did you get one? Do you have any advice for where prospective students should look for all that stuff? Thank you very much
Great video , thank you for your help
Hey, thanks for the honest video. I'm going to think a bit more about applying now, but if you don't mind me asking something about the application procedure? I want to do plasma physics, and I think I'm pretty passionate about it and have things to talk about in that regards. However, what bothers me about applying for this masters is I'll be "up against" people who are capable of doing string theory, and super advanced things like that. Do you basically have to be top few % of the year to get in, or is some strong interest with some background enough?
It is nice to watch your point of view.
I honestly wish I could do a masters before I find a PhD... but my god the costs for one year at Kings is insane...£12,000 just in fees, wouldn’t even be covered by the loan...
Not that i would have had a chance getting in lol but it is too expensive as you say. An integrated masters (also theo. phys) in Scotland for me was free as an EU boi, so easy choice in the end to stay after my undergrad
Sorry but not having a university map or a timetable provided is sheer laziness on the part of the university. Most other unis do it as part of their admin; and you’re paying them ALOT of money to be educated. Sounds like elitist laziness tbh....
Even more so for new people who don't know the uni. My uni gives you a timetable of the course online too!
Filming outside was great. The greenery was beautiful, and don't worry about audio issues. The various types of stress you felt sound very normal in this phase of your life. You've learned that running and triathlon greatly help our capacity to deal with anxiety and change, you've learned that social activities enhance this further, you are a very physically and intellectually fit young lady, and whatever your choices, the world is your oyster. Contribute to mankind in some way whether big or small, and if possible make a bit of money and have a bit of fun while doing it. Cheers ! (I'm also based on what you've said tempted to buy you some gear for your bike, Shimano gear systems are pretty reliable, a pushbike shouldn't be giving you too much grief if maintained a little now and then, do you use two? a commuter bike and a traithlon bike? )
Enjoyed your discussion....My Master's is in Literature... while very different....your discussion brought memories of my time studying. It isn't easy... the Art's & the Sciences, but, a cliche...says, the " hard" makes it great...i.e " the education on life" and resilience. peace. good luck...
I'm looking at one of the masters from the maths department (not Math Phys) and have a question. Suppose you are still in your final undergrad year when you apply. Could they give a conditional offer specifying that you need a certain percentage (i.e. asking for >80%) or can they only demand a certain degree classification (i.e. 1st, regardless of whether this is 70% or 90%)? As well as that, can they have additional requirements (as well as the overall grade, say a 1st) specifying that you also have a good percentage in your final year alone (i.e. 1st overall, but rejected as you got
yes, universities can ask for whatever they want and I know that sometimes masters offers are dependent on specific percentages (e.g. cambridge maths part iii often ask for >80% in your final year), but my offer (for both courses) was just to get a first overall - obviously no idea how it would work with coronavirus and safety nets etc
"someone talking Latin at me"!! LOL.... the "at"!!!
Alice, you and I are really different on this one :p
I have found a knowing a bit of Greek and Latin is useful for understanding some words used in physics. And yes, personally I like traditions, and I imagine Oxford wouldn't be the same without the Latin spoken at ceremonies. :)
Finally, thank you so much for this video, for being so honest. I really enjoyed it. And the video is not too long. Personally, I would have actually liked it to be even longer. Details about your experience that may seem unimportant to you may be very important to other people.
commoners gown got me crying in the crib laughing
I was watching this video an I started feeling identified with a lot of things. I never though that those burocratic issues could happen in a university like Oxford. If it helps, in Spain they always send us a .pdf when we finish our degree and we cannot get our certificate until one and a half or two years because it has to be “signed” by the King of Spain. And you have to pay for that ~200 euros. Sounds like a joke, but saddly isn’t :( Btw thanks for sharing your experience!
Great video!
Interesting video, always nice to be able to get a feel before applying. How difficult is it to get a room with a shower at Keble college? As opposed to a shared shower room I mean
I was thinking about doing a master at Oxford , did maths at soton , why career u wanna do ?
Ok I just want to say that the Oxford scheduling is SO confusing. I did a year there as an undergrad in exchange and I thought it was just me.
"Confusing" is one way of putting it. "Incompetent" sounds like a more accurate word.
thank you for this comment, made me feel validated - spent the whole year wondering why everyone else was acting as if this was normal 😭
Really interesting video thanks for making it! Have you decided what your plans are now after graduating?
thanks!! 😁 yeah I've had a job lined up since just before christmas, and I start soon 😊
So question, you don't recommend studying at Keble? I wanna study Computer Study when i'm older at Keble. :DD
Did you also apply for Part III Mathematics in Cambridge?
So would you rather prefer part iii Cambridge than oxford?
LOOOOL what they cant send u ur certificate?! omg hun i'll paypal them the postage x
I know 😭😭 if only there was, I don't know, some sort of national service which let you send a sheet of paper from one address to another 🤔 want 2 cry
alicedoesphysics sounds like they can’t be arsed....
Can you talk about the entry requirements/ exam? What are the chances of getting in?
I think it's very hard for students who didn't do undergrad at Oxbridge to adjust to the culture of it, because it really is such a different system. I do wish more people were open about that because I suspect this is a common experience.
Ooh so random, we have the same undergrad alma mater, so cool 💃🏾
Hey, umm do you have any information on the MSc Mathematical Modelling course by any chance?
www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/msc-mathematical-modelling-and-scientific-computing
@@alicedoesphysics Thanks!
I'm going to keble for chemistry in October and I am excited but the Battels thing is worrying me as it seems to be much harder to keep track of how much I'm spending. I guess I'm going to have to use a spreadsheet or something. It does seem to be orientated towards people who don't have to worry about money at all.
well done on the offer, & good luck!! 😁😁 I think (I'm not too sure, sorry! the credit website was pretty complicated 😅) you might be able to put credit onto your account by paying in advance (I just never bothered to look into that since I never racked up more than ~£20 debt in a term), and the accommodation fees might work differently for undergrad accomodation x
(spreadsheet is probably a good idea in general though!)
@@alicedoesphysics thanks for the advice!
1 week away from finishing this MSc, I can say that all of these issues are not specific to covid. It’s still like this and maybe worse in some areas
☹️ I'm really sorry to hear that - congratulations on (almost!) making it through and good luck for your final exams x
Im an American undergrad who spent Hiliary Term 2020 at Keble and I would not go back to Oxford for my masters
Did you ever meet Jonah or Toby P? Toby was Keble Physics but undergrad I believe, Jonah (Exeter College) was masters physics
"joint degrees don't seem to work"
not the thing I wanted to hear when I'm about to start a 4 year (bachelor's and master) joint maths and computer science degree
Literally same yikes I am going to do bio+physics at durham😶
Will I be eligible for this course with a pure math bachelor's degree?
Very candid review - thank you so much for sharing. Really useful for me as I am considering applying for MSc Mathematics at Oxford. You mentioned a few times that you feel you did not get enough support - would you mind elaborating a little on this? Were the number of example classes adequate? Was work marked regularly in all modules? Did you have good lecturers?
Hi could you maybe do a video on how you got your masters scholarship?
ua-cam.com/video/RylBUEdkt3w/v-deo.html talk about it here at 11:15 :)
What scholarship did u get ?
I did my Masters in Lancaster (18/19) and hearing how cheap your on campus accommodation was is wild - I paid £136 a week for mine, for a 50 week contract! (Apparently the price went up to £143.99 a week for this year!) Admittedly, it was “superior en-suite” but that’s the most plentiful option in grad college, so there’s not a huge choice if you’ve ruled out townhouses/studio flats. Even standard cost over £100 a week and they were all the old bits of accommodation that faced out towards Cartmel or Pendle posh, and I heard from friends that the undergrad colleges could get pretty loud tbh, especially during Extrav week. I got lucky and all the kitchens had been renovated in our house, which was nice, because some of the others were proper 90s looking student flat kitchens haha! I do miss the porters being there to collect my mail though lol, don’t think I’ll ever not miss that
yeah of course you can choose to pay more in lancaster if you want nicer and more modern accommodation / an en suite etc, but my point was cheaper options are available (basic standard is still less than £100/week on campus afaik, chancellor's wharf is ~£100/week, and the private market is much cheaper than campus and most non-freshers live out) whereas in oxford my cheapest option was the college-owned accomodation for >£150/week, since the private market was even more expensive.
alicedoesphysics oh yeah, I totally get what you mean (a lot of the on campus undergrad accommodation was cheaper in Lancaster than it was at my undergrad uni), I was just noting the difference between undergrad and graduate accommodation prices on campus! Afaik grad college accommodation hosts over 1000 postgrads on campus, but there’s only 100 ‘standard’ rooms (which were just under £110 a week this year) and the next cheapest was a townhouse at approx £130 a week (44 rooms) - everything else is over £140 a week atm! It’s just interesting to note, considering the majority of us moved to Lancs specifically for postgrad, so there was the element of fear/not knowing when it came to renting off campus; especially when several of the grads I knew who lived off campus had to move onto campus anyway for the summer when their lease ran out on their off campus house! I think it’s all compounded by how badly funded Masters are, at least for UK students, but that’s a factor across the board, unfortunately
I got rejected from Oxford hearing you slag them off was beautiful
I have been admitted to the MMathPhys, is there anyone who has already attended the course that can give me some advice?
Please start uploading videos again
Happy birthday once again person who has same birthday as me 😎
Please introduce some secondary school level mathematics and physics books for student,david halliday is really difficult to understand .
Conceptual physics
Hi Alice. I am fishing my career in Peru. I am really interested to study in the UK. And I have a lot of questions as supports, scholarships or grants, about the admission and more.
I am a physicist. 😄 And I want to study a master on theoretical physics
CAMBRIDGE VS OXFORD????
Did you apply for undergrads in oxford?
DO OXFORD VS CALBRIDGE
just finished my MPhil at Oxford, could not agree more on the traditions - felt so uncomfortable and totally anachronistic.
well done on finishing the MPhil, especially in such a tough year! 😍
That’s a fair criticism, but everyone knows that Oxbridge has these unique, historical traditions - if the traditions are something that really bother you could have gone to literally any other U.K. uni as the majority are extremely modern. I personally like the traditions and don’t find them particularly anachronistic.
@@Sara-ld6nh I am not speaking on behalf of every Oxford student, and I also never said they were so unbearable that they would make me reconsider the university course I enrolled in. Just like everything else in life there are some aspects of things you enjoy and somethings you don't - that doesn't prevent you from taking up the activity/position/job etc. There are many things I enjoyed at Oxford, and I'm now a PhD student here. I was, and still am, on a full scholarship here and come from a different background than my peers, so some traditions rubbed me the wrong way even though many of my friends enjoyed them.
@s it's not as simple as "go somewhere else" though - I was on a full scholarship at oxford, as many other people are, which pretty much no other university (other than cambridge) offered for an MSc because they just don't have the funds that oxford does
plus if you have high expectations of the course, which I did, you might think it's worth putting up with the parts of the university you don't like (after all, whatever university you go to there will be things you don't like)
also, like I said, as a postgrad you can skip most of them and live like a regular student anyway
I'm (genuinely) glad you like the traditions, but not everyone does (which, a lot of the time, is due to their backgrounds) - and that doesn't mean we shouldn't go there 🤷♀️ you're allowed to be critical of the university you attend
alicedoesphysics I’m from a working class background and didn’t feel alienated by the traditions (like the formals and latin), but I get it’s a personal thing. I didn’t mean to imply that people who dislike aspects of the Oxbridge experience shouldn’t go there, as I’ve found certain things such as the enormous amount of private school students to be alienating myself.
Unis should obviously be open to criticism, all I meant was that I wouldn’t want Oxbridge to abandon aspects of itself such as the traditions - to me that’s what makes the experience so unique and interesting. If Oxbridge (and other unis such as Durham) didn’t have those historical traditions, practically every U.K. uni would be the same (ultra-modern).
I think the main solution for this would be to end the disparity between the funding different unis have. No one should feel forced to go to a certain uni simply because it’s the only one with sufficient funding.
Do a skincare routine
Why did you choose to do the Oxford MMathPhys instead of Part III at Cambridge, given that you got into the latter? Part III is a far more established course (in terms of how long it has been running), so it would probably have been a lot better organised.
I had a full scholarship at oxford, and I obviously didn't know about the organisation issues before I started
*Hai **alice*, **could **you **please** give **your **physics **notes **in **pdf** format **in** your** next ** video** please
I study political science and here I am lmao
hope it wasn't too boring 😅
mate get over yourself & let people study what they want to study - I love having a range of subjects here, but having people with such narrow opinions? not so much
also not even true that there's only "one correct answer to each problem" in maths / physics, and shows you haven't studied either to a particularly high level
yeah, you're right - even though I have a master's degree I have no understanding of how physics or maths actually work
"run stein" is my favourite physicist 😍
that admin is unacceptable
You should be a commercial pilot
Sorry you had such a bad time with the course. Sounds like the maths and phys course is a nightmare. I'm on the maths with a fair few friends on the physics course and they are structured a lot better with a lot better organisation
how much does a master in Oxford costs? 👀
depends on the specific course, where you're from, how much funding / scholarship / grant you get, etc etc - google is your friend!
Lol! I don't even understand how levers work.
मतलब ही नहीं समझोगी तो कंप्यूटर को कमांड लौरा देगी math बना क्यों था