Quote:
Originally Posted by humblewinner
Thank you oxfordblogger for your detailed post.
Does the cost differ with respect to accomodation in these colleges ? Are the costs listed anywhere.
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Hi humblewinner,
Hey no problem for the post. It was my pleasure. I sure did benefit from reading Pagalguy while I was applying to Oxford back in January for R2 admission. I'm just returning the favor. I'll try to be active on Pagalguy until Sept 23rd when I fly to Oxford. After that the best way to reach me, and ask questions is through the *official* Oxford MBA blogsite:
http://mba.sbsblogs.co.uk/. I should be posting there in October, so give me some time. In the meantime, I still have my personal blog going at:
CONFESSIONS OF AN OXFORD MBA.
To answer your question, most colleges charge about £500 per month for a single room with an en-suite bathroom (yay - no sharing!), and a shared living room & dining room (okay, not bad). It's not uncommon to see colleges quote a daily rate, such as £17 per day, which is what I'm paying. Unfortunately, there is no single data source to find comparable data for all 39 Oxford colleges. This is one of the disadvantages of having a decentralized collegiate system. Further, there is nowhere on the website that I know of where you can find this information. Typically, you won't find out until AFTER you've been not only accepted by the B-school, but also by your college choice, since it is the college that will actually send you the housing information. This could take up to 2-months after being admitted by the B-school! That's why I think that early application (R1+R2) is best.
From what I've seen so far from fellow Oxford MBA classmates, those looking to share private accommodations, rather than college housing, are looking to pay slightly more - about £600 per month. You'll have more choice on where you live, but finding a place and a roommate will all be up to you. The B-school does not really help much in this regard.
While I'm on the topic, I forgot to be more clear in my post to adabass regarding the roles played the B-school and the Oxford College. You will spend most of your time at the B-school. All classes are held at the B-school. And since the business library and computer lab is at the B-school, you will spend the majority of your time here even when you're not in class. There's even a small cafe in the B-school for quick drinks & snacks. However, the B-school does not provide housing or meals. This role is provided by the Colleges. Colleges provide you with housing, meals, and the opportunity for extracurricular activities (sports, social clubs, etc.). At one extreme you could regularly eat meals out in restaurants (or pack your own meals from home) and manage to never set foot in your college, except for matriculation and graduation. In fact, sometimes you'll have no choice. For example, breakfast at Exeter College is served from 8AM to 9AM, but if I have to take a class at the B-school that time I miss out on breakfast (plus lunch for that matter if I have class from 12PM to 1PM). Nevertheless, I hear that the biggest regret MBA students have is not making the extra effort to get involved in their college by taking meals in hall (when they can), and by getting involved in sports and other social events.
Also, adabass, if I remember correctly, then I was allowed to fill-up to four professional credentials in the Oxford application. Luckily for me, I had four, and I used each and every one. They were all professional financial credentials (i.e. Series 7 Stockbroker, Series 24 Registered Principal). I don't believe there was room to extrapolate there, though. Similarly, with the hobby section I just used enough space necessary to write my sports and volunteer activities, along with the website and position held (i.e. Microfinance Club of New York [
www.mfcny.org], Board of Directors). HOWEVER, I used up almost EVERY character possible when I typed up my job description. If I were you, this is where I would focus my time. I literally wrote an essay on each of the three jobs that I listed under "work experience." Finally, for the CV, I started with "professional licenses" --> "work experience" --> "education" --> "association memberships" --> "other interests." This might go without saying, but don't include a photo of yourself on your resume - it's not considered professional.
Finally, gaintrobot, as per Essay 2, the only advice I can give is that you should choose a topic that allows you to develop your personal "brand." I'm not sure if you're familiar with this term, but it's very popular in college applications now. Your brand should accurately describe you, be emotionally connected to you, and be logically consistent with your life/work choices. You can always develop a brand by working backwards. For example, what do you do now for a living? Why do you do it? How does it connect with other things that are important to you in life? How does it relate to what you aspire to do? These are just some of the deeper questions that Essay 2 tries to get you to answer.
For example, I worked for 4 years on Wall Street as a personal financial advisor. So, I had to look within myself, and ask if there might be some reason for why I chose this specific job. You need to look for a more meaningful reason than I took the job because of: the money, by accident, it was the only job available in my town, etc. Personally, I grew up in a family that didn't have much money. My parents had also divorced. So I made the connection that I became a personal financial advisor, because I wanted to help others avoid the tough childhood that I had due to a lack (and mismanagement) of personal finances.
To further this point, I had a track record for three years teaching financial literacy to poor inner-city children. I also continue to serve on the Board of Directors for a New York microfinance nonprofit. Using this as the basis for my brand, I chose for Essay 2 the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki, whose story somewhat paralleled my own. But I must stress, that although I was very systematic in my approach, I ALWAYS remained genuine and authentic. You can actually go to Amazon.com, and see that I've written almost 10 different book reviews on various Robert Kiyosaki books for the past several years. You should not make anything up. BUT you should search inside you to discover connections that you may have never noticed before (or ones that you forgot, or buried because they were unpleasant).
To conclude, I think you'll have a much easier time finding an appropriate topic to write about, if you first give some thought to what your personal brand is. Then choose a topic that allows you to bring that out. You have to make the emotional connection between your job now, and why you chose it, how it fulfills some deeper mission, and it has to be logically consistent. It would be great to whittle your personal statement (brand) down to about 3 sentences, or less. Sometimes, you can come up with just one word - I did, it was "social intra-preneur," which I found while reading a Skoll Foundation paper (
Corporate Innovators & Social Intrapreneurs: Make Change From Where You Are). A social intrapreneur is someone who applies their entrepreneurial background to push for social change from within a large corporation where one can reach critical mass. Good luck.
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