What’s it like to study at Oxford University?

We spoke for former student Isobel Rout about her journey from Capital City College to Oxford University.

Making the change for college to university can be a big step. For Isobel Rout, her time at Capital City College (CCC) supported the transition from A Levels to an Oxford University degree.

Isobel Rout studied A Levels in Biology, History and Psychology at CCC’s Sixth Form centre in Islington. She is currently studying Biomedical Sciences at New College, Oxford.

What did you like most about your A level courses at Capital City College?

The thing I loved about my A levels was that they weren’t really tied to a specific textbook. When I wanted to do something more, my teachers would give us articles to read. I think that was really good preparation for uni, not relying on a textbook and finding sources about the subject yourself. In my psychology class, we’d start by talking about what we’d read outside of the curriculum that week. It was so different from GCSEs, and it made me interested and excited about learning new things. My teacher would print out a journal that completely disagreed with the textbook to show us that there wasn’t one correct answer. 

What did you like most about Capital City College?

I liked how big it was. I went from a really small secondary school to the biggest sixth form in London. The transition was actually really easy because the classes at the sixth form were actually smaller than my classes at my secondary school. In my A Level history class, there were 18 of us. It was a big college, so you could meet lots of people, but the classes were small enough so that you didn’t feel ignored.

The location of the college was great. I really liked being in central London as it was so easy to get everywhere. I live right on the edge of Greater London by the border of Essex and, while it took me around an hour to get to college, it was really nice to be somewhere where things were happening. 

What challenges did you face during your A levels?

I think one of the hardest things was that there was a lot of independent work and sometimes the amount of work felt overwhelming. It was a big jump from GCSEs but I think it’s a necessary jump if you want to go on to uni. 

It was a difficult adjustment in terms of workload but the teachers were so supportive. When I had questions, I could always get in contact and tell them what I was struggling with. We spoke to the teachers on a first-name basis and it felt like we had a connection with them.

How did the college support you in applying for your university course?

I found it difficult to apply to university and I really struggled with it. I didn’t know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. My personal tutor at the college was really helpful, and it was really nice to have someone who knew me outside of academics. I had a one-to-one session with her every two weeks to look at my personal statement and think about what I wanted to do and why. There was such a lot of support available from the teachers at the college, which I hadn’t expected when joining. 

How did the college support you in achieving your goals?

The best thing for me was the Scholars Programme, which gave me information about opportunities that you could apply for, advice on things to read, top tips for personal statements and applying to Oxbridge and Russell Group universities, and details about things such as visit days or essay competitions,

I found a lot of super curricular things to do outside of my academics and added them to my personal statement – and I think that really helped. I also took part in an online Oxbridge summer school, which was an intensive six-week course with lots of reading. I did a humanities one where we studied philosophy, English, history, theology and it was really difficult. It gave me an insight into whether I was suitable for Oxford, and whether Oxford was suitable for me. 

How did your time at CCC prepare you for university study?

There was a lot of independent work. If we looked at part of a chapter in Biology and I knew that in the next lesson we’d move on to the next one – I knew that I needed to know that content. It was about being able to put in the time to read the relevant chapters and anything else your teacher set, as well as completing the homework that was due. That independent way of working is a really big thing at Oxford. You need to do it yourself. For sciences, we get lectures which are an introduction to a topic, but they can’t cover all the years of research that you need to give an evaluation of it. 

At CCC, I was set extra work by my teachers. They’d often give us a paper that they thought we might find interesting, and that was a really good start for reading academic papers, because they’re so different from textbooks. You’ll read a study and then they’ll put a page at the end where they almost say “Our study is pretty bad, so maybe take it with a pinch of salt” whereas a textbook will say “We know this for sure but we don’t know that”. 

It was interesting to find that with everything that I thought was known, you can just come from every angle and attack it. This is something you need at uni and you need here [at Oxford], especially. If I submitted an essay that didn’t show a differing opinion or a conflicting point, I’d fail. It’s about being able to look independently at work yourself, and think about it, and that’s probably the most important thing that I got from being at college,

How have you found the transition from college to university?

To be really honest, I kind of hated it at first. It’s a really difficult transition. In my first year, I had two essays a week, of around 1000 words each as well as lecture reading and stats work. With A levels, history was my big essay subject, and that probably involved an essay every week or every two weeks. I remember being very overwhelmed when I started uni – it’s a scary transition and you’re away from your home and people you know. You’re also surrounded by people from completely different backgrounds so you’re trying to make friends, but you’re also thinking “I’ve got all this content to learn!” but it’s something that you pick up really quickly.

Now, I know I can write an essay in a day and a half, whereas, in first year, that seemed insane. In my exams at the end of my first year, I had five essays to do in three hours. I remember thinking “I can’t do this, I’ve done one essay a week, I can’t do a 1000 words in 30 minutes”, but then I sat the exam and I could do it. You don’t really realize the skills that you build as you go here. 

Just as you adapt from GCSEs to A levels, you adapt from A levels to uni, and also then build skills that you didn’t think you had. You don’t see it happening, and it does feel really scary, but then you look back it’s just an adjustment, like everything else. One of the nice things about being at Oxford is that everyone’s inundated by work, so if you tell people that you can’t go out because you’ve got an essay, they really understand. It’s nice to have that connection, because you all feel like you’re in a really similar place, but you’re kind of getting through it together.

What do you like most about studying at Oxford?

I really like being able to do what I want. You have to do a set amount of things to start with, but by the third year, for almost every subject, you can pick exactly what you want to do. So I get to bin all the stuff I hate and focus intensely and deeply on some really interesting fields that we don’t know anything about.

I get to read a paper that someone published four months ago that I have special access to, because we’ve got one of the biggest libraries in the world. It’s great to be able to do that and explore something I find interesting. 

Being able to find a niche and explore it is something really exciting, regardless of whether it’s academic or not. It’s amazing to be able to explore a new topic and then, within a week, read a researcher’s work about it and then meet that person and discuss their work, because that’s my tutorial for the week. I’ve been granted that opportunity because of the prestige of the university and the resources they have available. I’m being taught by the people writing the content and meeting the people writing the content, and then I’m able to do exactly the type of work that I want to be doing. You end up kind of fangirling and with your own set of personal celebrities from your content, just because you found an academic niche that you like. 

Another thing that I’ve loved is that when I wanted to change subjects, my tutors supported that I had an interest. It’s nice to feel seen, to know that people know what you’re interested in and want to help you do that.

What’s a typical day look like for you?

An average day in my third year involves waking up about 8am, going to two lectures in the morning and then getting lunch with a friend or making something in the kitchen. Then, I’ll do some reading based on my lectures and some work for my coursework. If I have an essay due or a tutorial coming up, I’ll work on that in the evening for as long as I can, until I’m ready to go to bed or do something with my friends. One thing that’s really nice about Oxford is, even though there’s so much work, there’s always something to do. My friend recently organized a ball, and some of my friends are in the Electronic Music Society, so I can always go to something they’ve got organized. I think my days are way less structured than they used to be, but because of that, I’ve figured out how to manage my time and move things around to prioritize effectively. 

What are you working on at the moment?

At the moment, I’ve got to do a review of an article. I’m looking at one of the first articles of neuroimaging in infants, looking at facial processing in two-month olds and figuring out if infants have the part of the brain that is responsive to faces – and this is the first ever study finding that they do, and that’s really exciting. So we’re considering if that’s innate and what we can learn from that – so I’m writing 3000 words looking at the impact of that and whether or not it’s a good study. 

I’m also working on my research project looking at rehabilitation in stroke patients with visual loss. There was a six-month study carried out by my supervisor looking at whether putting things in their blind field, which is where they can’t see, can improve their sight. I’ve been looking at their brain activity and seeing how and why this rehabilitation works  – and there are some really cool findings. Basically, we think there’s an area in the brain responsive to motion, and we think that’s strengthened in these patients. It was really exciting to be involved in new research and creating new data rather than just reading it. 

What’s next for you?

I’m not sure. I think I might stick around and research for a bit because I’ve been trained for that and it’s interesting. I think a good path for a lot of people is doing a PhD, and that’s definitely encouraged here – but I know there’s a lot more out there. I’ve got a career meeting soon with three people that used to go to New College who did similar degrees, one is a clinical psychologist, one does radioimaging in neonates, and one works in marketing. There’s so much that you can do so I’m just exploring my options.

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