Geography Subject Guide🌍
- eleanorcassidy0
- Feb 8, 2021
- 4 min read
This subject guide provides insight into what studying Geography at Oxford is like and also offers some handy-dandy tips for applications.
What does a typical day studying Geography at Teddy Hall look like?
Geographers usually start the day later than others, since first year lectures don't start before 11am in the School of Geography. That means plenty of lying in!
Normally in first year you will have 1-2 lectures a day there, and then a practical session in the School in the afternoon once or twice a week. This ranges from programming with R to fun policy-making focused sessions, and time in the laboratories. One of my favourite practicals in first year was looking at sediment dating in the luminescence lab, which is completely dark, and has a funky Tardis-like feel.
In second and third year, one day a week you might have a 2 hour lecture-seminar combination session which tends to happen in the morning in smaller groups, accompanied by 2-3 lectures a week. We generally have 1 tutorial a week, which is an opportunity to discuss an essay that you have written and submitted (and the associated reading) with 2-3 other students and a tutor. Our tutors at Teddy Hall are very supportive and helpful, and provide individual detailed feedback on our essays. They are always happy to help.
In the afternoons, there is time to work on a tutorial essay or participate in extra-curriculars like sport, drama, music and society events. In the evenings we have lots of fun, including attending society balls and events! On the right we were attending the amazing ball organised by the Cambridge and Oxford Geography societies - we got a full formal dinner and the chance to meet our geographer companions at Cambridge!
Other than attending balls, one of the best things about Teddy Hall is our social life. We have BOPs (Big Organised Parties) which either happen in college or a local club, usually Fever. This being said, there's never any pressure to drink or party if you don't want to, and there are always alternative non-drinking, non-party events on too!
Why do you like studying Geography at Teddy Hall?
The Teddy Hall community is really supportive. We normally have six geographers a year at Teddy, so the subject is really close-knit and we always help each other out. You get to know everyone quickly since we all attend lectures, practicals and tutorials together.
One of the best things about studying Geography at Oxford is our fieldtrips! In first year, you go on a UK-based fieldtrip - we went to Dorset in 2019 - and then in second year you get the choice out of 2 overseas fieldtrips.
Fieldtrips help you write your fieldwork reports which are required in first and second year, but aren't too pressuring, and the department is really supportive too.
Personal Statement
Oxford recommends that your personal statement has around 80-90% academic content and 10-20% extracurricular content. This means you'll need to be reading around Geography and doing some 'supercurricular' activities like reading, attending lectures etc to be able to fill up that character count. Some of the best advice I ever received was to group my paragraphs into themes and include a supercurricular activity as an example, so this may be a useful structure to format your statement. You can link your extracurriculars to geography by writing about what they taught you about connotations for the environment, or the geographical relations you saw whilst participating, for example. One of the most important things to remember is that you need to have read every book, watched every lecture/video you include in case a tutor asks about them in your interview!
Here are some resources that I can recommend which might be helpful to springboard your personal statement from:
‘A Very Short Introduction’ books - you can find these books on pretty much any geographical topic, from climate change to migration. They are very handy and accessible introduction to topics and you can usually find them at your local library or very cheap second hand!
Feral by George Monbiot - an engaging and topical discussion of what ‘rewilding’ Britain might look like.
School of Geography online events - most events run by SOGE are free and online, and can offer you insights into lots of different parts of geography from climate science to 'affect'. https://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/events/
Overheard at National Geographic podcasts are a really useful short form of finding out more information, which might inspire you to go further: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/overheard
Interviews
The main thing to remember about Oxford interviews is that getting one is a huge achievement in itself - be proud of yourself!
Interviews at Oxford are more like a discussion about your subject and why you love it. The tutors might ask you about things you wrote in your personal statement - a broad topic, or a specific thing - or they might ask you about things you may not know about. Geography tutors love to see you interpret data, so hone up on your graph and map reading skills!
I had two interviews at Teddy Hall which were predominantly split into human and physical geography. One lasted about 20 minutes, and the other about 30 minutes. I definitely felt more calm and comfortable in the second one after I had settled in to the format! I would emphasise that it's important not to worry about what they might think of you if you don't know the answer immediately - just think through your ideas out loud and take their comments on board. If you think you've made a mistake, then say it! I got a question completely wrong, and my tutor guided me towards the right answer step-by-step.
Also, don't be afraid to ask them to repeat a question, or say that you're not sure. If you're feeling overwhelmed, ask for a minute to think about the question, take some deep breaths, and think out loud! You've got this. After the interview, relax and pat yourself on the shoulder. You have done incredibly!
We hope that this guide has been useful and good luck with your application!
Check out this Q&A to meet one of our Geographers, Ellie, and find out more about Teddy Hall!
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