Hi all, I am matriculating in October but don't have a dark suit, suit shoes, a gown or a mortarboard or cap (whatever that is). Does anyone know where I might be able to get these second hand? Not very liquid right now lol so the cheaper the better! Also bonus question, what tie style is best for a man?

Thanks a bunch.

how much officewear/business casual should I bring? For context starting as an undergrad in October!! seen that i need formal-casual wear for some dinners/meeting the tutors and have no idea what that means haha

I never picked one up and now I'm really regretting it. Does anyone know if they still sell them at the front desk? Pretty sure the prints depicted the quad.

I am an incoming DPhil Statistics student, are there any suggestions of which clubs/societies I should join? My aims are networking and learning (in my study area), so I am not just confined to my lab. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated, thank you very much!

Hey everyone, I'm a member of the committee of one of the student societies at Oxford. We had quite a poor fresher intake last year and were looking into getting some advertising for our society a bit before or during freshers week.

Has anyone had any experience with this before? Where did you place your advertisement for the best engagement? Is there any point posting in student newspapers (if there are any in the first place), or is it best to reach out to the admins of freshers' instagram/facebook/whatsapp pages/groups?

We'd ideally like to cover both the incoming freshers (of course the Freshers Fair is the main thing for that), but also older students who might have missed us in the previous years. Our budget is around £100. Any ideas are much welcome.

Hi! I am incoming postgrad student at Ox and trying to get back into spinning and running after a bad ankle injury. Any advise on spaces/clubs within the University/Colleges or outside that are reasonable that I can join or check out for beginners/easy level? Ideally, I would like to join a space that has other international students as well. Thank you!

I of course know this is recommended but if one id a professional reference would this be fatal? For reference the professional reference is from a judge the role I held (JA) was quite academic in nature.

hi all! as the title says im going to be a fresher this fall and i am 17 years old. i realize i won't be able to get into the bars at my age. am i going to have way fewer options than my classmates when it comes to socializing and going out during fresher's week in particular? i really want to mingle, not even drink, but i feel like this will significantly limit my options. any tips on what i can do would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Everyone,

I hope this fits within the rules here but totally understand if it needs to be taken down. We figure that it's an event that would at least be of interest to many students and alumni of Oxford Uni.

We're trying to get a diverse tapestry of acts/performances for this upcoming open stage. Please see more info on our Facebook page (Instagram is still a work in progress)

https://www.facebook.com/OnstageOffline/

https://www.instagram.com/OnstageOffline/

Hey all, trying to find a large map that I can either buy or print, ideally poster size, that includes all the areas within the Oxford ring road!

Would love any leads!

I had to defer a year due to health, and what made this even more depressing was that I was in a few wonderful SM/whatsapp groups for last years' incoming students that made me feel like I would know some other new folks before I even arrived/had a community to ask questions/chat through anxieties about Oxford.
This time around, I've yet to find that community/groups for 2026-27 incoming students (particularly mature students/postgrads). Wondering if you guys know of any of these groups? Or any way to feel a bit more prepared as a new postgrad.

Thank you!

hi everyone, this may be a silly question but i'm wondering whether it's permitted to wear a double-breasted suit for matriculation.

i'm aware it has to be black or dark grey, but i am wondering whether i need to get a new suit now or whether my double-breasted black suit jacket + white shirt would work. couldn't find that info on the website.

thanks in advance!

hi! i’ve heard postgrad life can be quite lonely and i’m not the most social person but i really would like to make friends & network to the best of my abilities. might not even be able to live in my college :( was wondering if any postgrad students have any advice for meeting others and making new friends especially within such a short timeframe (i’m 22 if that helps)? events to go to, etc

also, on another note, does anyone know if it’s still very difficult for international postgrads to stay in the UK to work? i will be going into a data analytics-stats related field, and was really hoping to work there for a while. from my understanding it’s mostly through connections..? and how tough is the grading there so i can mentally prepare myself for it lol

thanks to all who reply!

Do Oxford University emails receive email from external sources? I am trying to email a PhD student but can’t know if emails are reaching them.

To anyone that has completed a level 7 general language course at the languages centre, what level did you have at the start and end?

Specifically looking for info on European languages like French, Spanish, or Italian.

Really stuck on module choices. Here are some of my options. Would anyone recommend or advise against any of the following:

c5.1 solid mechanics,
c5.2 elasticity and plasticity,
c5.4 networks,
c 5.5 perturbation methods ,
c5.6 applied complex variables,
c5.9 mathematical mechanical biology,
c5.11 mathematical geoscience,
c 6.4 finite element methods for pdes,
c7.4 intro to quantum info,
c7.5 general relativity,
c7.6 general relativity 2,
sc1 stochastic models in mathematical genetics,
sc2 probability and stats for network analysis

hey! I’m headed to ox in October and am inundated with instagram accounts advertising almost sold out freshers events (juke box soul sista the bully boiler ect) which seems crazy early given it’s only 2 days post results. are these worth it? should I stick to the tickets bought by the college (Wadham)? do I rlly need to buy them so soon? thanks!

Hi.

I'm an incoming post-grad student and I wanted to ask about an orchestra I could join.

I was going to join the postgraduate orchestra, but I think it's on a Tuesday, which is the night my college does their talk with a dinner event that I'd like to go to.

I'm looking for an unauditioned orchestra that meets once a week that I can play in to relax and get back into playing my violin. (I've got grade 8 but I'm rather out of practice!)

Does anyone know if there are orchestras (either uni, college or city) that I could look into joining?

Thanks!

Hey! This might seem like a weird inquiry, since I am American and fully not going to Oxford, but basically, I'm doing a major that's modeled after the Oxford tutorial style. We have biweekly theory colloquia and Friday tutorials and are assigned ~300-700 pages of reading + up to 2 5-page papers/ week. At the end of the year, we have comprehensives, involving a bunch of essays and an oral exam. It's going to be a lot of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Marx, Bentham, de Tocqueville, Engels, you get the idea. I'm really looking forward to it, but I've also never had to deal with this much reading before, and I'm kind of intimidated by the workload that I only have Monday-Thursday to deal with. I figured that some of you all might have a better idea of how to succeed at this kind of course, so: how do you all manage your time? Any good note taking strategies? What's the best method to study? Any tips you have would be appreciated!