After a blissfully long break from school, I finally settled into Pembroke College, one of the colleges at University of Oxford. The University is a federation of 38 colleges, each with its separate campus, student body, and administration. Pembroke is tucked away at the end of an alleyway across from Christ Church College, famed for its dining hall where Harry P
otter movies were filmed.
Oxford school year is incredibly short; it consists of three eight-week long trimesters called Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity, with six weeks of vacation in between. Due to my awful procrastination and delayed recovery from Fresher’s Week(think NSO with college-sponsored club nights), I’m writing my first post in the beginning of the third week.
The difference between learning in Oxford and Georgetown (or liberal art colleges in the U.S. in general) is striking. Instead of five or six standard class loads at Georgetown, I “read” two “tutorials” each term. For each tutorial, I attend a lecture once a week and meet with my tutor once a week to discuss the readings, lecture, and an essay I prepare each week on a relevant topic. Aside from these set commitments, I spend the rest of the we
ek working through a length list of readings on labor economics, teaching myself multi-variable econometric analysis, and preparing essays that will be thoroughly dissected and analyzed
during my tutorials. Consequently, learning here is absolutely contingent upon I push myself and budget my free time. I’m still trying to finding the right balance between imposing self-discipline and having fun, but I do like the freedom and independence I can afford in this system.
And now I’m going back to econometrics for a little bit—I will soon post an update about the social scene at Oxford!
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