St John's College Student Life & Grants: Events, Officers, Courses, Support, Lecture notes of Music

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ALTERNATIVE

P R O S P E C T U S

Outside of working for your degree, there’s loads to get

involved with! We have a variety of sports teams from

rowing to ultimate frisbee or even croquet in the summer.

You can join the College Chapel Choir, contribute to the

undergraduate magazine, act with the St John’s drama

society, socialise at an LGBTQ drinks, or take part in

discussions at the feminist society. If something isn’t

already on offer, it’s really easy to set up your own society

which the JCR can support and fund. We also put on lots

of events to enjoy during term, such as in-college parties

called ‘Bops’, guest dinners in Hall where you can invite

friends from home to formal dinner and lots of themed

weeks such as Welfare Week and Arts Week.

St John’s is, in my experience, a very

caring, inclusive and encouraging

community. Students here work hard

(and always have something

interesting to say about their

subject!). However, there’s always

something going on socially to balance

the hard work. I hope you choose to

apply here and good luck!

Amelia, 3

rd year English

We are very fortunate at St John’s as all

undergraduates can live in the College for

the length of their course. This means it’s

easy to get to know people across all

years – through eating meals together in

Hall, playing College sport or just by

bumping into people in the quads. St

John’s provides lots of wonderful facilities

for its students, including two free gyms

and free printing! The College also offers

a great deal of financial support. Rents

are very reasonable; every student is able

to claim back around £335 of academic

expenses each year. There are also other

grants to support studying in College

outside of term time; such as grants for

travel or playing sport at University level

and hardship grants if a student faces

unexpected financial difficulties.

Welcome to St John’s

History of Art - 2

Human Sciences - 3

Law and Law with Law Studies in Europe - 8

Mathematics - 8

Medicine - 6

Modern Languages - 7

M u s i c - 2

Oriental Studies - 3

Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) - 7

Physics – 6

Psychology Combinations (Experimental Psychology, Psychology & Philosophy, Psychology & Linguistics) – 3

*All intake numbers are averages, as intakes for each subject sometimes vary slightly from year to year

Courses we offer and their intake*

Archaeology and Anthropology - 2

Biochemistry - 3

Biological Sciences - 4

Biomedical Sciences - 2

Chemistry - 8

Classical Archaeology and Ancient History - 2

Classics - 4

Computer Science - 2

Engineering - 7

English - 7

Fine Art - 1

G e o g r a p h y - 4

History-

History and Economics – 2

We also offer some joint degrees for arts subjects and joint degrees for science subjects. There are up to eight places available for joint degrees in arts subjects and two places for science subjects

We also offer some joint degrees for arts subjects and joint degrees for science subjects. There are up to 8 places available for joint degrees involving arts subjects and two places available for joint degrees involving science subjects.

Lizzie : 2nd^ Year Classics

05.45-8.30: Since coming to St John’s I’ve joined the Boat Club and cox (steer) the women’s second boat. This means being up bright and early a couple of times a week to head down for a session on the river! It’s great fun to be part of a team and we often come back for cooked breakfast together in Hall.

09.00-13.00: Mornings are usually taken up with a mix of language classes, reading classes and lectures.

13.00-14.00: I’ll grab some lunch – I like to meet up with friends in our favourite cafés around Oxford a couple of times a week.

14.30-18.00: In the Library I work on my translations and other set work. If I don’t have a tutorial, I’ll take some time to get some fresh air in University Parks. It’s a great place to clear your head.

18.00-22.00: When I’ve finished work I go for dinner. I prefer to cook for myself because I enjoy cooking. Often in the evening my friends and I will go out to plays, talks or concerts. One of the great things about coming to Oxford and meeting new people is that you end up going to all sorts of events. This year I’ve been to talks on ‘Ideology and Genocide’ and ‘The Philosophy of Art’. I’ve seen students perform ‘Henry V’ and ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and I’ve also been to jazz concerts and even harpsichord recitals.

Day In The Life Of...

Kai: 4th^ Year Mathematics and Computer Science

08.30-09.30: I usually wake up gradually and grab some cereal, or I'll go to the Hall for breakfast if I have a dreaded 9am.

09.30-13.00: My lectures tend to be in the late morning. I'll either wander down to the Maths Institute, just a short walk from College, or I'll scour through my problem sheets in my room.

13.00-16.00: We often meet as a football team in the afternoons, either for a match against another college kicking off at 2pm or for training at the Fortress (our state-of-the-art sports ground). We're incredibly lucky to have some of the best sports facilities in Oxford at our disposal.

16.00-17.30: I get through some more work and make sure that I'm fully caught up with lecture notes. I try to avoid working late into the night as much as possible.

17.30-20.00: I rustle up dinner with my friends. Paella is my speciality dish.

20.00-00.00: I spend the evenings relaxing in College, whether we're preparing to go out clubbing or just chilling. Usually I can be found in the College Bar, the Games Room or the (hugely underrated) TV Room.

Room rate table (correct at time of publication)

Grade A++ room £1087.86 per term £18.44 per day Grade A+ room £1067.82 per term £18.10 per day Grade A room £1052.03 per term £17.83 per day Grade A- room £1042.31 per term £17.67 per day Grade B room £ 1009.51per term £17.11 per day Grade B- room £ 990.68 per term £16.79 per day Grade C+ room £ 942.69 per term £15.98 per day Grade C room £ 934.19 per term £15.83 per day Grade C- room £ 925.08 per term £15.68 per day

Kendrew Quad: Accommodation for Finalists Near the cafe and gym Has amazing kitchens

Front/Canterbury Quad: Accommodation for Finalists. Prettiest Quads in Collage

Garden Quad: Accommodation for Finalists. 90s architecture, peaceful

Accommodation

At St John’s we are very lucky to have cheap but well- equipped accommodation guaranteed for the duration of your degree. Most rooms have a sink, generous shelf space, access to communal bathrooms (shared between up to four people) and basic cooking facilities. First Years are placed in Tommy White Quad and the Beehive; Second Years are scattered all over the place, with half the year balloting for shared houses on Museum Road. Ensuite bedrooms in the beautiful Kendrew Quad are available to finalists!

The rooms operate on a sliding fee scale (see room rate table), so you pay more for bigger rooms; but, in general, accommodation is very affordable and compares favourably to other Oxford colleges. In 2017/18, rent was £925 to £1088 per term. You are only paying for the accommodation during term time, so it is a really affordable option

Christine, 2nd^ Year History and Politics

Tommy White (TW): First and Second years Sociable and near the bar

Beehive: First years Hexagonal rooms are cool

Museum Road: Second years College-owned houses

Through its grants, College tries to help you get the most from your time at Oxford, offering a range of opportunities to enrich your study or to support you in your extra-curricular pursuits. Special Grants are available to help fund study-related travel and there are a number of other prizes and grants available for specific endeavours. Blues Grants of up to £250 are available annually for helping to cover costs incurred through competing in University level

sport. For more details on financial support go to: https://

www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/current-students/grants-scholarships-and-

prizes/

Living Costs:

• Rates for accommodation are among the most reasonable at the University.
• Meals in Hall are heavily subsidised – on average: breakfast £1.50; lunch £2.50; dinner just over £3; formal £4 being one of the cheapest across the colleges. (Cost correct at time of publication).
• It may not seem it but one thing which makes a huge difference is free printing – especially if you have any long pieces of work to submit!
• We’re very lucky to have access to two free gyms on site, so keeping on top of your fitness won’t cost you a penny.

Mary, 3rd^ Year Classics

Finance

Both College and the University offer various means of financial support to their students, striving to do all they can to ensure that degree level is affordable for all.

The University itself provides several avenues of financial support: Student Fees and Funding

( [email protected] ) are your first point of

contact regarding questions about financial matters. Further information about University wide funding can be found at:

www.ox.ac.uk/student/fees-

funding/assistance/hardship

Although the University offers different means of support, St John’s also prides itself on the number and availability of the grants and scholarships it provides for its students. Students at St. John’s can claim up to around £335 a year on the Academic Grant which is designed to support students. St John’s allows students 21 days of Vacation Residence annually, allowing you to return to College early to revise/work before term begins at no extra cost.

Entz

Any hard-working student knows that you need to balance academia with some time to relax and socialise. As Entz (‘Entz’ is Oxford speak for Entertainments) Officer, my job is to organise some fun for the College. We’ll introduce you to Oxford nightlife and all its clubs and bars so you’re familiar with the city when you start going out with your new friends. Inside College, I’ll organise the Bops which are big fortnightly student-run parties with DJs, drinks, and pizzas. Future activities we are planning include ice-skating trips, paintball and water fights. We also hold open mic nights in the bar and encourage all of you to consider playing or coming to watch your friends. The barman is very friendly, helping us hold our cocktail tasting nights and is always happy to have more people around. If these events sound appealing, we’re always open to new suggestions! Dalva, 3 rd^ Year Archaeology and Anthropology

Students at a pink-themed St John's Bop

Left: Informal Hall

Right: Candle-lit Formal Hall

Food

Eating in Hall and self-catering are both popular options at St John’s. Most students have kitchen access and our Hall serves cheap but fantastic food. To give you an idea, a three-course informal or candle- lit formal dinner with waiter service is around £3.76 or £4. respectively. Kendrew Café is also a popular place for lunch and the bar has an endless supply of creative cocktails. Twice a term, there is a Special Guest Dinner where the Hall is decorated and everyone dresses up for a fancy meal!

Claire, 2nd^ Year French and Portuguese

Kendrew Cafe

Sports Dinner 2017, Men's football

Women's boat

Sport

Sport at St John’s continues to thrive and excel. With Blues (University level) representatives in sports such as rugby, football, fencing, ice hockey, athletics, rowing, kickboxing, dancesport, skiing, handball and tennis amongst others, St John’s provides a place in which University level sportspeople can flourish and develop. With two free-to-use gyms inside the College grounds, as well as squash courts, a rowing ergometer room, a brand new pool table and an events room that can be used for everything from circuits to zumba, the College has fantastic facilities that are unparalleled in Oxford. In addition to the excellent University level competitors, St John’s also boasts an excellent calibre of College teams. In just the last four years, the men’s and women’s rugby teams have reached five Cuppers Finals between them (winning three) while the men’s football team has boasted three league titles in the last three years, reaching both of these milestones unbeaten. Recent successes have also included the mixed tennis team winning Cuppers in 2016, the women’s rowing team finishing 97 th^ out of 320 teams in the world’s largest women’s Regatta this year, while the 2016 volleyball Cuppers’ (colleges competing against each other) final pitched St. John’s 1 st^ team against St John’s 2 nd^ team. The College is proud to host a plethora of highly popular sports teams, including cricket, women’s football, squash, badminton, ultimate frisbee, netball, lacrosse and many more. The sporting scene at St John’s is forever growing, thanks to outstanding facilities and welcoming atmosphere.

Sam, 3rd^ Year History

Myth Five: Oxford students are all massive nerds that live in the library and never see the sunlight and don’t know the meaning of “fun” Yes, we certainly are very interested in and enthused by our subjects, which keeps us motivated to regularly hit up the library and work on our essays and tutorial sheets etc. We do generally have a higher workload across all subjects compared to other universities. However, this difference tends to even out over the years. Come your finals, you’ll be working hard no matter which university you end up at.

Nevertheless, we certainly do a lot of other things with our time. Oxford has a very diverse and large range of societies and sports teams, as well as hundreds of bars, pubs, clubs and cute cafés. There is also a big cultural scene, loads of talks, events, shows, theatrical productions, college and intercollegiate socials, beautiful parks and gardens, a river to punt on, amazing museums and a beautiful city to stroll through. Myth Six: The interviews are a very elaborate and mysterious form of intellectual torture, akin to MI5’s new interrogation techniques, designed to make the student feel incredibly uncomfortable and weep in despair at impossible questions The purpose of the interview is for the tutors to get an idea of the way you think, your suitability and enthusiasm for the course and, ultimately, if you will do well at Oxford and if they would like to teach you. Interviews are not there for the tutors’ annual vindictive entertainment and are not designed to catch you out.

Myth Seven: It’s too competitive to bother applying Oxford courses can be very competitive, but this should not deter you from applying. The University has approximately 3, undergraduate places to offer each year and these are only going to be filled if YOU apply. If you are a motivated and hardworking student, predicted to achieve the right A Level grades for your chosen course, who is enthused by your subject, there is no reason why you shouldn’t consider applying!!

Céline, 4 th^ Year Medicine

Myths around Oxford and St John's

Myth One: You have to be Super-Crazy-Einstein-Genius-Child- Prodigy-9-A-Levels-Smart The tutors here are by no means expecting you to be fluent in eight languages, to have challenged Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in a detailed 488-page thesis and to have developed the first effective vaccine against malaria and all before the tender age of 12. Any student meeting the specific academic requirements for their chosen course and who is motivated, enthusiastic and interested in their subject, (and can convey this at interview), along with intellectual curiosity, will be in a position to make a competitive application. Myth Two: Oxford is for posh people As at any university in the UK, students at Oxford come from a wide range of different backgrounds and are bound together by a passion for their subjects.

Myth Three: Only privately educated students have a chance of getting a place In 2016, the University offered 59.2% of places to students from state schools. This split approximately reflects the independent/state school split in applications. It is also worth noting that data such as your school’s average academic performance (and how the applicant’s achievements compare to this) are also taken into account when considering individual applications.

Myth Four: Oxford is very expensive Studying at Oxford is no more expensive than at any other university in England and Wales. The standard annual tuition fee of £9,250 (as of

2017. applies to all Home (UK) or EU students undertaking their first undergraduate degree. As far as living costs are concerned, for some students, Oxford was one of the cheaper places they applied to. The University of Oxford is determined to ensure that all bright students deserving of a place should be able to study at Oxford regardless of their financial circumstances.

Another interesting fact that you should probably know before applying: In 1645, Archbishop Laud was beheaded for supporting the King against Parliament and was buried beneath the altar in the Chapel at St John's. He still haunts the Laudian library in Canterbury Quad with wails that can be heard throughout the College. His ghost has apparently also been seen bowling its head towards the feet of anyone unlucky enough to meet it.

Art-wise, we have a couple of hidden gems. There’s a Marc Chagall painting floating about in the JCR art collection which goes out on loan to students. We also have a birdbath worth £157k by Henri Gaudier- Brzeska, a French sculptor who fell in love with the English Vorticist movement. This is very well hidden and most people at St John’s don’t even know it’s there. It is so heavy that when it was put centre stage on the grass, it started to sink. So, that is why it is in its current spot and why no one had been able to run off with it.

All in all, the strange facts and facets of St John’s are probably best related by the students themselves. Everyone who comes here has their own take on the College buildings and their inhabitants (both former and current) so come along and have a chat!

Olivia, 2 nd^ Year History of Art

Fun and cool facts about St John's

St John’s has always been pretty prestigious. Anyone in Oxford can tell you that. But it’s not just reputation that makes it a good place to live out your student days. If you’re thinking about St John’s there’s some other fun stuff that’s part of the College experience. Read on for a couple of slightly more obscure facts and titbits.

We’ve got some fairly snazzy alumni. If you’re a die-hard Skins and/ or 2000s indie math rock fan, the Foals singer Yannis Philippakis went to St John’s to study English for a year or so before dropping out to pursue his music further. If you’re more into the fascinating annals of A Level philosophy courses, religious scholar Anthony Flew went here.

For the literary inclined, there’s Kingsley Amis, Robert Graves and Phillip Larkin. For the sporty folk, we’ve had England rugby captain Sue Day, as well as Paralympic gold medallist, Jennifer Howitt Browning. Inspector Morse definitely 100% drank in Tommy White Quad (don’t let Turf Tavern steal all our thunder). We also housed Sir Winston Churchill, but not the one you’re thinking of. This Churchill was the Cavalier ancestor of PM Winston Churchill who never finished his degree because of the Civil War.

James: I enjoy cycling so much that I have shaved my legs several times

Caitlin: I have two dogs called Charlie and Lola

Jess: I have used the President of Bangladesh's toilet

Christine: I've only ever been picked to play male characters in drama performances

Mary: I went to one of my Oxford interviews with a Christmas wreath on my head

Louise: I was in the world record for the most people dressed as bees in one place

Lucy: My middle name is the same as a Welsh hill - Cwmyoy

Charlie: became an internet hit after he featured in the 2016 University Challenge team that made it to the final

Céline: I have three different birth certificates and a court case about my name

Sam: I made the BBC news after being attacked by an elephant

Mary: I spent my summer digging up fossilised parts of a giant proto- elephant

Rohan: I used to be ranked in the top ten for high jump in the UK, now I’m the shortest guy in my year (ha ha!)

Lizzie: I am always baking (cake aids good studying)

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Contributors' Fun Facts Kelly: I can juggle, use a diablo and ride a unicycle

Georgia: I w a s s h o r t l i s t e d f o r a B A F T A a w a r d

Dan: I sang with Gareth Malone once

Clare: My favourite foods are ice cream and nachos (not as one dish) and I'm giving up both to make an extra commitment to my role as E&E officer by becoming vegan

Charlie : I’m trying to learn British Sign Language at the moment

Izzy: I can't stick my tongue out straight

Jonathan: Instead of paying to do my washing in college, once a fortnight I walk home and do it myself for free

Alistair: I was once saved from losing a rowing race by a swan

Selin: I once ran through a field of wheat and nearly got caught!

Sofia: I have four chihuahuas

Eoin: Justin Timberlake once winked at me

Louise: I recently learnt to bake sourdough bread from scratch so yeah hit me up if you want fresh bread

Olivia: I once got barred from a Wetherspoons for going there too often

Dalva: I've lost (and cancelled) my debit card seven times since I started my degree

Greta: 2nd Year Fine Art Jess: 4th Year Medicine

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St John’s College