Hi, I’m Olivia, a second year CAAH (Classical Archaeology and Ancient History) student at Corpus.

Before coming to Oxford, I was nervous about the workload and if I would be able to have any time to make friends, or if I would always have to be working. Thankfully, I soon realised that the workload is much more manageable then I thought it would be, and although term time can be busy, it definitely hasn’t stopped me from having plenty of time to socialise.

I wasn’t sure when I was applying if I wanted to study Classics or CAAH, but I ended up choosing CAAH and I’m really glad I did. This year I’m studying Greek and Roman coins, the late Roman Republic, Greek and Roman religions and a Latin paper (you don’t need to study Latin or Greek for CAAH, but I chose to start studying Latin in first year). That’s really only a small sample of the different options you can take, so the course options cover a wide range of interests. I had never studied any archaeology before Oxford, but that is the case for most people, and lots of CAAH students have never studied any Classics related subjects at school. Everyone also does two weeks of fieldwork at the end of first year, and it’s one of the highlights of the course! It can be challenging to study something new at university, but tutors are always very friendly, and some of my favourite options I’ve taken so far have been things which were completely new to me.

I chose Corpus because it has lots of Classics students and tutors, which is great because CAAH is a relatively small course so it’s nice to have plenty of people in college who share your interests (and it also means that most of the books you need are in the college library). Corpus is also in a very central location and provides accommodation for all of your degree, which are both things I now really appreciate. It's definitely one of the smaller Oxford colleges but that means you quickly get to know people and its really easy to get involved in lots of different things. There are plenty of people in Corpus who are always happy to help, and we have a good welfare system in college so there’s always someone to talk to about anything you’re struggling with’.

If I had one piece of advice for anyone applying, it would be to just go for it. There is no perfect Oxford application and you really do never know what will happen unless you apply. I remember having lots of questions when I was applying, so don’t be afraid to reach out!

Resources



Resources categorised by subject and by Key Stage, as well as materials for applying to Oxford and finding out more about Corpus, can be found here.