Tag Archives: Open Days

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, Studying at Oxford

Open Days – what to expect

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Last month, we brought you news that our open days are coming up in the next few weeks and months. As a reminder the dates are:

You need to book a place for all the open days above in February, March, and May, but you do not need to book for the July and September dates. You can make a booking here.

But you might be wondering what can I expect from an open day? How can I make the most out of my day? Which kind of open day is right for me?

Summer Open Days

Last year, we gave a detailed overview of the university-wide open days in the summer, which you can read here. Most of this advice will also pertain to the 2020 open days in July and September (although note that the dates are different from last year!). This is the right open day for you if you want to explore a few different colleges in one day, or if you’re not sure which subject you’re interested in, as most colleges and departments will be open on these dates. There’s a real buzz around these events but we highly recommend planning your day in advance as the city gets very busy!

Alex, who is currently in his second year of a degree in French and History, has this piece of advice for students coming to the summer open days: ” One piece of advice I have for prospective joint schools applicants would be to research which colleges do not offer your preferred combination before you attend a university-wide open day. That way, you’ll be able to prioritise visiting just the colleges which offer your degree, saving time on the open day and hugely simplifying the daunting college selection process!”

Language-specific open days

However, the Modern Languages-specific open days in the spring are a little different…

First, they include more academic content than a wider open day: because the smaller open days are so focussed in their scope, they can spend more time exploring a subject in depth. So, for example, on the German open day you can have an introduction to German film, linguistics, or different types of literature. On the Spanish and Portuguese open day, you can explore women’s writing in both languages, as well as begin to explore other peninsular languages like Catalan and Galician. The Italian open day will introduce you to one of Italian literature’s biggest names, Dante, and on the Slavonic languages open day you can learn about Czech pop stars!

While the bigger open days will provide a wealth of information about the courses we offer, as well as offer a fantastic opportunity to meet our students and tutors, the sheer scale of these bigger events limits the time and space we have to get stuck in academically. That’s why, if you already know you’re interested in a particualr language, we would encourage you to come along to a language-specific event if you can, as it will really give you a flavour of what it’s actually like to study at Oxford.

Second, the pace of the smaller open days is a little slower. While on the big summer open days you might find yourself rushing around the city, trying to fit in visits to three or four colleges and a couple of departments, the smaller open days are more measured and you will be escorted from one venue to the next. This gives you the time to have in-depth conversations with current undergraduates and tutors and to take in your surroundings.

Nadia, a current student, says: “I went on a Modern Languages Open Day. I found it very useful in giving me useful information on the course structure for both single and joint honours and helpful towards giving advice for the Oxbridge process for the admissions testing and courage to take my subject beyond the classroom. It was useful to also have taster sessions, which I found really enjoyable. It is an encouraging experience, so I would tell students on edge on whether to apply to go to these days as it will give you a gist whether the course and the place is the ‘best place’ for you.”

The general Modern Languages open day

If you’re interested in more than one language, or in studying a language in combination with another subject, you might consider coming to our general Modern Languages open day in May. The advantage of this event is that it offers both a wide overview of Modern Languages at Oxford in the morning, witha chance to ask questions about admissions, and plenty of time to speak to tutors from each language in the afternoon. You can therefore be exposed to more than one language but avoid the time pressures that can sometimes affect the summer open days.

So, if you would like to know more about several languages but you’re not able to attend more than one language-specific open day, this event will be a good opportunity for you to explore different options. There is also a separate Q&A especially for parents.

Fred, who is in his first year studying French and Linguistics, says: “I attended the Modern Languages open day in the May before I applied. I found it useful to understand how the individual subjects that interested me fit into the faculty as a whole, and how the faculty fit into the wider university. As someone applying for a more obscure subject (linguistics), the open day was a good opportunity to find out about the specifics of the course (how the teaching works, what module choices are available in second year) and meet the tutors in a more intimate environment.”

We hope that has given you a sense of which kind of open day might be best for you. Our top tips for any open day are:

  • plan your day in advance, particularly your route to and around Oxford. The city is not very car-friendly and open days can be congested so you will want to research transport options well in advance.
  • research the degrees ahead of time. The University outlines its courses online. Come to an open day with a list of questions to make best use of your time spent with the tutors.
  • talk to our current students. They have been in your shoes in the last couple of years and they remember what it’s like to be making a big decision about your future. Their advice will be friendly, honest and a fair reflection of what it’s really like to study at Oxford.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask questions. The tutors are very happy to talk to you about the degree, the way they teach, and how to apply. If something is worrying you or you’re not sure, we would much rather you ask for clarification or advice. As always, we’re happy to answer any questions about the degree(s) we offer and the admissions process if you email schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk

Hope to see some of you at one of our open days very soon!

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, Studying at Oxford

Oxford is open!

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If you’re considering your university choices, one of the best ways to get a feel for different universities is to visit them. To that end, we offer a number of open days for propspective students – a chance for you to meet current students and tutors, look around the facilities, find out about the course and the lifestyle, and get a taster of what it’s like to study a particular subject at that university.

In the Medieval and Modern Languages Faculty at Oxford, we organise several different kinds of open day: some are small open days for individual languages, where you can attend sample lectures and immerse yourself in a specific language; we also run a big open day in May which covers all of our languages in one day, offering an overview of Modern Languages at Oxford and Q&A sessions for the different languages and joint degrees; and finally, there are University-wide open days in the summer when most of the departments and colleges are open so that you can get a sense of the University as a whole.

Below you will find the dates of our 2020 open days. You need to book a place on the language-specific open days and on the main Modern Languages open day, but you do not need to book for the university-wide summer open days. You can book here.

  • German, Saturday 29 February
  • Spanish and Portuguese, Friday 6 March
  • Russian and other Slavonic Languages, Saturday 7 March
  • Italian, Saturday 14 March
  • General Modern Languages (all languages we offer and joint schools), Saturday 2 May
  • University-wide open days, Weds 1 and Thurs 2 July, Friday 20 September

Programmes for each of these open days are available here. Please note that there is no specific open day for French: students interested in French should attend the open day in May or one of the open days in July or September.

Stay tuned for more posts about open days – what to expect and how to prepare – but, in the meantime, if you’d like to meet us in person do book a place on one of these events. If you have any questions please get in touch at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk and we look forward to meeting you later in the year!

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions

Last chance to visit us before summer!

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Next Wednesday and Thursday we see the final open days before the summer holiday. These open days are taking place across almost the whole university, with most colleges and departments opening their doors to meet prospective students and their parents, carers, companions, or teachers. Here’s what you need to know…

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

Many students find that attending an open day is the best way to get a feel for the university. These events are opportunities to find out information about the various courses Oxford offers, discover the college system, perhaps go on a few college tours, ask the tutors and current students any questions you might have, and learn about fees and funding, and the application process.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The university is made up of different colleges and departments, as well as central bodies. Colleges are your home when you’re in Oxford: some of your teaching is likely to take place there, and you would live in college for at least part of your degree. Colleges are small, supportive environments where you can study, socialise, and feel part of an intimate community. Facilities often include: accommodation, a dining hall or cafeteria, a library, tutors’ teaching rooms, music rooms, laundry rooms, and a common room (known as the JCR). Departments are where your subject is based e.g. ‘Modern Languages’. Some of your teaching will take place in the department, and there is usually a departmental library.
The great thing about the July open days is that all the colleges and most departments are open to prospective students at the same time, so you can really get a feel for the different constituent parts of Oxford University. Departments will be running talks on the courses they offer, and on admissions, which will often take place in the morning. Colleges will also be offering talks and tours of their grounds, as well as opportunities for parents to talk to college staff, and for you to find out more about funding opportunities, adjustments made for disabilities, and the welfare system.
Every department and college will have a slightly different way of running their open days and will have different things on offer. Information on topics like bursaries, career pathways, admissions, options for mature students and options for international students will also be available centrally at the Examination Schools. It’s really worth doing some planning in advance and identifying a couple of key talks you would like to attend or colleges you might like to explore, as the city gets very busy on open days and you’ll find yourself pressed for time. That said, you can often just wander in on an open day if a particular college catches your eye.

Full the full list of talks and tours offered across the University, see the open day guide.

 

WHEN?

The open days are on Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 July.

There will be different timings for different departments and colleges. The Modern Languages programme is available here. We’ll be running formal talks on Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford at 10.30-11.30 and 2.30-3.30 (the afternoon talk is a repeat of the morning). You don’t need to book for these: we’ll be letting people in on a first-come, first-served basis so just make sure you arrive in plenty of time.

We’ll also be running a drop-in session from 11.30 to 12.30. This is your chance to ask the tutors any questions you might have about the degree.

WHERE?

Everywhere! The open days really do take place all across central Oxford: you’ll probably find that you cover a fair amount of ground as you explore. If you’re not fully mobile, you might consider planning your route between colleges and departments quite carefully using the open day map, and it could also be worth contacting the departments or colleges you would like to visit in advance so that they can advise you about accessible entrances to venues. Oxford’s Access Guide is available here.

The Modern Languages events will take place at The Taylor Institution (number 22 on the map) on St Giles. This building is also the home of our Modern Languages library, and library tours will be running between 9.15 and 10am, and between 12.45 and 2pm.

TRAVEL TO OXFORD

Open days are very busy events and the city sees a high volume of traffic, as well as more congestion on trains and bus routes. Parking in Oxford is extremely difficult. If you are planning to drive to Oxford, we would suggest you use the park and ride facilities and allow plenty of time for your journey. There’s lots of travel advice for open days available here. Helpers will also be stationed at the Park and Ride, and the Railway station to offer advice. You might be able to benefit from help with the cost of travelling to an open day. See here for more information.

WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFORMATION?

You can find out all about the Oxford open days on the university’s website. We’d love to meet any prospective students and their parents, carers, or teachers at the open days. If you can’t make it this time, there will be a final open day on Friday 20 September. And if that’s also not an option for you, we’re always happy to answer questions from prospective students – get in touch at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions

Open Days – the big one

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We had a lovely time meeting lots of you at our open days for German, Spanish and Portuguese, Slavonic Languages, and Italian in February and March. However, for those of you who were not able to join us at these events, or those of you who are interested in languages not represented at those events, we have another open day on the horizon and we would love to meet any and all prospective students. This is particularly true for Year 12 students, but you are equally welcome if you are in Year 11 and are starting to explore your options.

This open day will cover ALL of our languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Modern Greek, Czech, and Polish. Most of the joint school degrees will also be represented.* It will offer an overview of the degree, Q&A sessions for indidivdual languages, and a chance to chat to current students and tutors.

The open day will take place at the Examination Schools on the High Street on Saturday 4 May. A full programme is below. Booking is compulsory – at this link. We hope to see many of you there!

 

 

*Joint degrees with Linguistics, English, History, and Philosophy will be in attendance, with Classics TBC. Students interested in the degree in European and Middle Eastern Languages should note that the Faculty of Oriental Studies will also hold an open day on the same date. You are therefore advised to visit both the Medieval and Modern Languages open day and the  Oriental Studies open day in the same trip. A programme and booking details for the Oriental Studies open day can be found here.

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, Italian Literature

Another open day – Italian

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This week, we bring you news of yet another open day we have coming up later in the Spring. You may remember that we posted a few weeks ago about our German open day, which will take place on Saturday 23 February, our Spanish & Portuguese open day, which will take place on Thursday 28 February, and our open day for Russian and other Slavonic Languages, which will take place on Saturday 2 March. You can book for all of those events at this link.

Now some good news for the enthusiastic Italianists out there – our Italian open day will take place on Saturday 9 March at our beautiful Modern Languages Library, the Taylor Institution. As well as offering an overview of the Italian undergraduate course at Oxford, and guidance about how to apply and different options for the year abroad, the day will offer prospective students a chance to attend mini-lectures on ‘Dante’s Ulysses’ and  ‘Reading Italian’. These lectures will be suitable both for people who are studying Italian at A Level or equivalent, and those who are interested in picking up Italian from scratch. They are designed to give you a flavour of two different elements of the degree – the literature and the language. There will also be a separate Q&A for parents and companions. This day is a great chance to talk to current tutors and students about what it’s really like to study Italian at Oxford. If you are interested in attending, please book a place here. Here is the full programme…

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, Hispanic, Portuguese, Russian, Slavonic Languages

More open days – come and try us out

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A couple of weeks ago, we posted about our upcoming German open day, a chance for you to learn about the German course at Oxford. This week, we continue the theme by bringing you news of our open days in Spanish and Portuguese (Thursday 28 February at The Queen’s College), and Russian and other Slavonic Languages (Saturday 2 March at Wadham College).

As with the German open day, these events are a fantastic opportunity for you to explore what an Oxford degree in those languages looks like. They offer a mixture of academic tasters so you can get a feel for the content of the degree, information about applying to Oxford, and interactions with tutors and current students, who will be happy to answer any questions you have about languages at Oxford.

Highlights of the Spanish and Portuguese open day include: an introduction to Portuguese in 15 minutes, an introduction to other peninsular languages (Catalan and Galician – for more on Galician, see our post here); a spotlight on Portuguese-speaking Africa; and a Spanish Translation workshop.

Highlights of the open day in Russian and other Slavonic Languages include: a mini lecture on ‘Home from home: Russian writers in interwar Paris’; a mini lecture on ‘Russian Grammar in Time and Space’; and a parallel discussion for parents and teachers.

The open days are open to anyone in Year 12 who is interested in studying those languages at Oxford, including if you are interested in picking up the language from scratch (with the exception of Spanish, which we do not offer from scratch). Sessions will be suitable for learners who have no prior knowledge of the language, as well as those hoping to apply post-A Level. There are a limited number of places for accompanying parents and teachers. The events are free of charge but a place must be booked through the faculty’s website.

The full programmes are below, or available to view at https://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/schools/meet-us

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, German Literature

calling all germanists: come and meet us…

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Happy New Year from Adventures on the Bookshelf! To kick off the blog in 2019, we’re diving in at the deep end and bringing you news of our German open day. If you’re thinking about applying to study German as an undergraduate at Oxford, this is an excellent opportunity to meet some of the tutors, try out a couple of academic taster sessions which will give you a flavour of what it’s like to study German, and take a look around Oxford. See below for the full details and programme. If you would like to attend, please book a place via our website.

What? The 2019 German Open Day, designed to showcase the Oxford German course and answer any questions you might have.

Who? If you study German at school and would like to continue it at university, this is your chance to see what degree-level German is like, and how we go about teaching it. But equally, even if you do not already study German but think it could be something you’d like to pick up at university, this event is a chance for you to ask any questions about studying German from scratch, and see whether it’s for you. In short, all budding Germanists are welcome, regardless of whether you have already studied German in the past.

Where? The event will start and finish at the Taylor Institution on St Giles, and the middle portion of the day will be spent at Worcester College.

When? Saturday 23 February 2019, 10:30am – 3pm

How? Book a place by registering on our website and signing up for the event.

Here’s the programme…

Keep your eyes peeled for our other open days coming up later in the term.

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions

Open Days in 2015

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taylor
The Taylor Institute Library, where you get to study when you’re a student here.

 posted by Simon Kemp

If you’re considering applying to study at Oxford, then the best way to check us out is to come to one of our open days. The Modern Languages Faculty holds four open days in the course of the year, in which you can see some of our facilities, hear about all the courses we have available and ask questions of the tutors and current undergraduates.

Due to pressure of numbers, all the open days need to be booked for, which you can do online. The May 2nd day is our largest event, and usually gets fully booked, so it’s worth getting tickets early. The other three days, on July 1st and 2nd and September 18th, are smaller scale, but have the advantage of coinciding with the general university open day, for which all the colleges of the university open their doors for you to wander around the grounds and meet the tutors. (You don’t need to book in for college visits.)

Here’s our schedule for this year:

 

Open Days schedule and bookings

Open Day Date Programme Bookings Contact
Main Faculty Undergraduate Open Day 2nd May 2015 Programme Book a place | Amend a booking | Cancel a booking Nicola Gard
*Faculty Undergraduate Open Day 1st & 2nd July 2015 Registration will open in the next few months Nicola Gard
*Faculty Undergraduate Open Day 18th September 2015 Registration will open in the next few months Nicola Gard

After booking, you will receive a ticket via email. If you do not receive your ticket within 24 hours, please check the spam folder in your email system and, if it is not there, contact it-support@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

Due to restricted places on our Open Days and the sheer volume of students wishing to attend, if after booking a place you are then unable to attend, please do cancel your place using the ‘cancel’ option(s) above, or email the relevant contact above to cancel your place for you.

Further Information

The Modern Languages prospectus for undergraduates is available by clicking here

A general prospectus for undergraduates is available by clicking here

Further information from Undergraduate Admissions is available by clicking here

Further details on our Open Days can be found by clicking here.

We hope to see you there.

Events and Competitions

Open Days

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posted by Simon Kemp

It was lovely to meet those blog readers who came along to the Modern Languages Faculty Open Day on Saturday, which we held in the university’s swish new Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. The day was fully booked, and everyone seemed to have come armed with all kinds of challenging questions to test my detailed knowledge of how the university’s courses and admissions process work. I think it went very well, at least after someone pointed out to me that I was trying to talk into the reading light on the lectern in the brand-new lecture theatre rather than the microphone, and I hope those who were there found it a useful experience. Our brilliant undergraduate volunteers were also there to help, and obviously did a much better than people like me at telling prospective applicants what it’s Really Like to apply here, go through the interview process, and study on the course. One of those volunteers, Jessica Allen, will be offering her further thoughts on the transition from sixth-former to undergraduate in next week’s post.

The Modern Languages Faculty at Oxford runs three more open days this summer, on 2nd and 3rd July, and 19th September. Do think about coming to see us, if you’re at all interested in applying to study here in the future. You can book your place for the modern languages events here. Plus, the colleges and other sites of the university will be open for visitors (for which you won’t need to book). I hope to see some of you there.