Student Profile: Tristan West

Tristan West

Physics

Life at Oxford is great! Although there is a lot of work for all subjects, there is plenty of spare time and fun to be had. Everyone who I've met here so far has been really friendly and down to Earth, and although there are a lot of people from public schools here, I certainly haven't felt inferior or at a disadvantage! Merton is especially good because it has a small community "feel" to it, but there's certainly plenty of cool people here and the bops we have are quite fantastic (not that I can remember much). The food and (more importantly) beer here is good and cheap and the college has some of the best accommodation that Oxford has to offer.

Doing physics means that in the first year you have three lectures a day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and one every Thursday and Friday. On Thursdays I also get labs, which can sometimes be tedious but is generally really interesting. We also get two tutorials and two classes a week. The good thing about doing physics is that we only have to do roughly 4/5 hours a week of work so far outside of lectures, labs and tutorials. This all means that although most days are packed full, you do get (almost) every night free and usually you get a reasonably free day on Friday as well.

Why did I apply here?

I chose to apply to Oxford because it is one of the world's best universities and was especially good for physics, the thought of being taught in small groups by the people who write the textbooks that the other universities use. I also really liked the idea of the university being split into "mini-universities" (colleges) so that settling in would be easier and that you would get to know a wider group of people than if you only mixed with people from your hall or subject.

I'm not exactly sure why I chose to apply to Merton, I think it was something to do with good, cheap accommodation and that the place "felt" friendly when I visited, but it was mostly to do with the Time Ceremony which just sounded mad and brilliant fun (which it was).

Merton has quite a reputation for being a college filled with boring people who work all the time. However although there are inevitably some people like that and we do tend to get worked slightly harder than most other colleges, I'm having plenty of fun (unfortunately, there are loads of pictures to prove it) so that shouldn't be a reason not to apply. Plus we're the oldest which automatically makes us the best and Ahmed's', the city's premier kebab van, is only a short hop from the JCR.

I have to admit that I didn't enjoy interviews at all. This was not really to do with the actual situation but due to my perception of the pressure and importance of the event. For my interviews, I was asked to arrive by Sunday evening and I told that I would have a maths test and my interviews on the Monday. I felt really nervous, so I spent the evening in the JCR with my head buried in a newspaper. The next morning I sat the maths test which went quite well, and got ready for my interviews. The interviews themselves surprised me a little because there was hardly any sort of a general part to the interviews; they just got straight on with the Physics. I thought that my first interview was a disaster and that my second one was only slightly better, which just goes to show that however you feel that you've done, you can't tell because you don't know what the tutors are looking for. I look back at my interviews now and regret not making more of an effort to socialise with the other interviewees. I know that you'll probably have heard this all before, but everyone is in exactly the same boat, and don't make the same mistakes I made; view this as an opportunity and not a problem!

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