Hi, I'm Georgia! I live near Birmingham, I'm an Experimental Psychology (EP) student at Corpus Christi and I'm about to start my second year.
Applying to Oxford was something I'd pretty much ruled out in school - I thought I'd feel out of place because it seemed too 'formal' for me, especially coming from a state school background, and I didn't think I'd have a chance of getting in anyway. It was my sixth form college who really encouraged me to apply, and now I'm so glad I did. I've met so many incredible people here who've made me feel so welcome and like I fit in at Corpus. Although there are many traditions and formal events here, I actually really enjoy them, and college life is a lot more friendly, relaxed and 'normal' than I imagined it would be.
I applied directly to Corpus (but had an open offer). Although it is a small college, the main quad is beautiful, and there's a roof terrace which overlooks the gardens. It's really easy to make friends from different year groups as most people socialise in the JCR or the college bar, so it doesn't take long to feel like you know most people in college. In the first year all the freshers live together just across the road, in Jackson, Oldham, Kybald or Magpie. This is very convenient for going to college dinners together, going to the shops (the high street is one street away), working in the libraries, and going on nights out. The science area (where your lectures will be) is about a 15 minute walk, and the Department for Experimental Psychology (where your stats tutorials are) is a 25 minute walk. The new Life and Mind building is currently under construction and should be finished in the next couple years, so hopefully it'll be done during your time here.
In the first year of EP, you study 5 psychology modules (developmental, perception, psychobiology, social and cognition), neurophysiology and statistics (which is done through coding on python). Psychology is my favourite of the papers - all of the topics are fascinating and varied, and the essay topics allow you to think critically and be creative in your arguments. Neurophysiology is very 'sciency' which I found quite tough to start with, but you definitely get used to it as you go through the course. I found A level biology was a very useful foundation for this, but it's not essential. I was worried about doing stats before I came as I hadn't done A level maths, but because all the work is on python and you are taught step by step how to code each command, I don't feel not having done maths is a disadvantage. If you take PPL, you can switch one or two of the papers for philosophy and/or linguistics. The workload is usually 2 essays and a coding exercise per week, with 3-6 lectures and 3 tutorials, which feels intense to start with, but you'll quickly get used to it and find there's still plenty of time to socialise and have fun.
Outside of my degree, I'm class rep in the JCR, which means I represent students from state comp school, lower income, first generation, care leaver, estranged and working-class backgrounds. I organise class welfare teas and social events such as joint-college rounders to help people meet other students from a range of backgrounds, and I'm always happy to chat about anything class-related! Aside from this, I also go to yoga in Corpus each week which is a good way to de-stress, and I'm very lucky to have an oven in my building (I'm in Kybald this year) so I bake as much as I can!
I hope you found this useful. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions - I'd love to help!
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.