Degree
English Language and Literature
Hometown
Nottingham
What do you enjoy the most about LMH?
Spending time with other students - everyone is so lovely, passionate and friendly and having such great people around me makes the workload and fast pace of Oxford much more enjoyable!
What has studying at Oxford been like so far?
Challenging but so fulfilling. I really feel like I’m being pushed to think for myself, come up with my own ideas and develop my passions. My tutors are genuinely interested in what I have to say and that kind of individual validation is what gives me the confidence in myself to keep going. It’s also not all consuming! I still manage to have a good social life too, whether hanging out with friends around college, trying new cafes, watching student productions or going out to eat.
What do you enjoy most about your course?
I love that we get so much freedom to follow our interests. Tutors actively encourage you to pick your own questions for essays and write on texts or topics that you are particularly interested in. Nothing is too niche or unusual and so whilst you do get a good sense of the classic works, you can also explore much less popular works. It means that you are basically forced to figure out where your passions lie, and this is really helpful as you move through your degree and have to think more and more independently. You get a good sense of who you are as a reader and writer, and which areas of literature are your favourite.
What’s your best advice for a prospective applicant?
Never count yourself out. It’s really common to feel a lack of confidence or belief that you can succeed in your application, but it’s important to have faith in your own abilities. Above all ability tutors want to see that you are passionate and invested in your subject, that you have things to say, and they won’t believe this unless you believe it about yourself.