About me
Hello! I’m Kyle, a first-year DPhil History student (although this is not my first year at Queen’s!), and I’m from Kent. Oxford is one of the best places to do History. Not only does it have an amazing Faculty with staff of any specialism you could possible wish for, but also there’s so much History everywhere. Surely studying in a gorgeous old library naturally makes my work better and more historically informed?
College experience
Eating in Hall is the best thing about Queen’s. Most people eat lunch in Hall everyday (the library literally empties out at 12:30pm). Whilst I – and most people – have a group of people I tend to eat with, the small population of Queen’s means you can always walk into lunch and know you’ll have a nice conversation with someone you know from sports or music or your subject over some good food. Sometimes we’ll sit for over an hour (and get kicked out by the Hall staff) just chatting, and that kind of community over food is by far the best thing about Queen’s, and isn’t something I expected to have.
Oxford life
Anyone who knows me will tell you that my calendar is PACKED. I usually start my day pretty early, and if I don’t have rowing (which is at an unsociable hour of 6:15am), then I usually go straight to the library or College breakfast for about 8:30am. A few hours of work (in the gorgeous College library) or lectures later (often in Examination Schools) and I join the rest of the College for lunch. The afternoon is then either for more work (often I go to the Radcam for a change of scenery), or sometimes we have an EMS meeting (the College’s music society) or an MCR Committee meeting. My evenings are also packed: with choir three times a week, or with other commitments. After choir we always eat dinner together in Hall, and then often make a trip to the college’s Beer Cellar to end the day.
Advice for applicants
Really think about why Oxford is the right place to study your subject, and talk about that in your application and interview as if there’s no other university that can enable your research. Also think carefully when picking your college about what kind of experience you want. Obviously Queen’s is the best, but do your research!
