Earlier in the week Ruchika gave us three reasons to apply to Worcester College but she has even more!
The Location
Picture this: it’s 9am, you’re bleary-eyed and dressed in ratty clothes, on your way to a lecture, and then suddenly you hear the click of a camera shutter. You turn in horror, hands already covering your face and your un-brushed hair, but it’s too late.
Photos are eternal, after all. The image is probably already backed-up on the cloud.
Now stop picturing this because it’s a horrifying image, and know that Worcester is not the tourist attraction that Christ Church is. Exhale in relief. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.
I knew when I applied to Oxford that I didn’t want to live my life worrying about visitors peering into my windows or having to fight my way through a sea of tourists every time I wanted to get back to my room, but I also knew that I wanted to be in city centre so that I’d be close to everything. Worcester is a fantastic compromise. Situated by the Ashmolean Museum, it’s about a six-minute walk to the absolute centre of city centre – far enough out that many tourists won’t include it in their High St, Broad St, St Aldate’s tour but close enough to still be in the city centre itself. This means that Worcester is relatively quiet during the day, and that you can dress in an old hoodie and torn-up jeans without worrying that you’ll be the unwitting centrepiece of a tourist’s Instagram post. Right outside the college is busy Beaumont St, so coming in really does feel like you’re escaping the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s great for people who want that idyllic Oxford image but still want to be where it’s happening.
The People
Finally, we come to one of the most important influencing factors: the people. Although I’ve not met a single Oxford student that I haven’t liked at least a little, and every college is full of interesting, intelligent, fantastic human beings, the community at Worcester is just amazing. Like other Oxford colleges, we engage in democratic discussions at JCR meetings and the usual formalities of Oxford, but the atmosphere isn’t intimidating at all – Worcester is a college where people make an active attempt to include others and to make sure that everyone feels welcome, I’d say. With 400 students we’re not the biggest college, but there’s certainly a large pool of people to make your friends from, and they’re all awesome in their own way. I still don’t know the names of most people in college (this is because I’m bad with names in general), but I know that I’d be comfortable approaching any one of them and asking for their advice or help, and that’s the most important thing. It’s hard to describe the atmosphere in words – I’d really recommend coming to visit, especially before summer/peak tourist season – but it’s just so lovely, and we’re really lucky at Worcester to have such a great community.
So, there you have it! If you guys have any questions about Worcester or the application process, please feel free to comment below or drop me a DM on Instagram – and like I said, if you want to see more of these types of posts then let us know!