The Change of Scene Is One of Oxford’s Selling Points

To the editors:



The two authors of “Oxford Blues” (oped, Feb. 26) lament the fact that Oxford is not Harvard, but to me that contrast is one of Oxford’s key selling points. I loved my time at Harvard, and I also had a wonderful time at Oxford, but the two experiences could not have been more different. At Harvard, I was an over-scheduled joint concentrator, varsity athlete and extracurricular participant. My days would start with a 9 a.m. class and end with an 11 p.m. club meeting, with classes, sports practice, and a lunch meeting in between. At Oxford, I played a few intramural sports, and I didn’t join any clubs. Instead, I spent my time researching my dissertation, running through the University’s parks, and meeting friends for tea or a beer after class¬¬—and class usually only happened three times a week.

Sure, I experienced the frustrations of libraries that closed at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and short shopping hours on Sunday, but the beauty of living in Oxford was that life moved at a slower, saner pace than my hyper-scheduled Harvard existence. Rather than going-going-going all the time, I was sometimes forced to pause and consider why I was writing my dissertation, what I really wanted to be learning, and how I wanted to move forward after graduate school.

Most of all, the authors give little credit to the reality that Oxford is, in fact, in England. Like many Harvard students who are too caught up in their studies or extracurriculars to take a semester off to study abroad, I had never lived in a foreign country before attending Oxford. The experience of living in a different culture—particularly in a place as diverse as Oxford, where the majority of graduate students are international—was perhaps the best learning opportunity of all.

On one front, I agree with them: Oxford is not for everyone. If you want a graduate experience that is just like undergrad, stay at Harvard. However, if you can deal with odd library hours and an institution that is admittedly less financially well-provisioned than Harvard (but what school isn’t, really?), then I would encourage you not to be dissuaded by “Oxford Blues.” Oxford will be different, but as long as you are prepared for that reality and can accept the experience for what it is, you can have a wonderful time. Plus, Oxford really is as charming as it looks in the pictures.



RACHAEL WAGNER ’04

New York

February 27, 2007



The writer was a 2004 Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford.