Profiles
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Tim Kelly Law Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Hey, I'm Tim, a third year 'lawyer' (that's what they call us) from Belfast in Northern Ireland. Coming from Northern Ireland, you hear a lot of stereotypes about Oxford, and it's not always easy to distinguish between all of them. For one, one of the guys in my year at school supposedly turned down his place to read modern languages at Oxford on the basis that he thought it was too much work having gotten his reading list.
I interviewed in December 2007 and got my first choice (a deferred entry). I got a reading list too, Problem was, I didn't actually get back from my gap year in South America until about 10 days before university. Amongst all the stress of actually packing/preparing for uni (and in particular, sorting out my fancy dress costume for the Wild Wild West Fresher's theme), and I actually managed to read about 150 pages of one of the books. As was my luck - the book in particular that I read, was for a module we did in January! As such, I can proudly say that I had in effect, done no reading for my first term at Oxford, and I can tell you that I survived. So, myth number 1 dispelled - you'll have no summer if you come to Oxford.
It takes a particular type of person to study law, and its entirely different from anything I'd done before (I studied Maths, Biology and Eng Lit to A-level, and French to AS). But if you think you might enjoy Law, then I can honestly tell you that Oxford's way of teaching law really forces you to engage with it, instead of just learning what the law is, you really get involved in what the law should be - for instance, is it justified that if you intend to break someone's arm (i.e. the mental requirement for grievous bodily harm), but, unintentionally, the person dies, that you have in fact committed murder, when all you intended to do was break their arm? It's a lot more interesting to actually argue in tutorials about what the law should be, rather than just learning what the law is, as it might feel more like in other universities.
St Anne's is a great place to study law - I can confirm that my new record from back-gate to lecture theatre is a 3 min power-cycle, and that there are far fewer lectures than in most subjects, and even fewer at 9am, which is a bonus. The tutors were really chilled out at interview and really wanted to encourage you to perform at your best - there were no tricks, in fact, when overcomplicating one of the questions i got told just that - don't over think and don't overcomplicate it. In general, what's great about St Anne's is just that it's chilled out - about as far removed from the really pretentious and academic colleges as it gets.
Oxford's not just about work though - I split my time this year between being Rowing Captain and rowing on the college 1st VIII, being on the JCR as 'bar rep' (which means I liaise with all undergrads in St Anne's regarding bar matters and organise events for the bar and so on.) I also find time to have nights out frequently - from sports socials ('crew-dating') to college bops and just general nights out in clubs in Oxford (From Kukui to Escape, the Bridge and Lava Ignite).
Regardless, coming to Oxford's not nearly as scary as it seems - St Anne's is definitely proof of that.