Hi, my name is Archie and I am a second year PPE student and the JCR Access and Outreach Officer at Pembroke College, Oxford.
If I am honest, I didn’t put much thought into the college I applied to; I knew that I wanted to be somewhere that had an ‘Oxfordy’ vibe but without the intimidating structures of some of the larger colleges. I found this in the historic yet welcoming quads of Pembroke. Beyond this vague metric of approval, I only really cared about the library and the college bar. Again, Pembroke didn’t disappoint.
Whilst I admit that a ‘vibe check’ isn’t the most thorough vetting process of colleges, it is a good starting point since the things that drew me to Pembroke initially are a source of its greatest strengths. Pembroke’s medium-sized grounds means it is small enough to encourage a sense of community across the college yet not so small as to make it a struggle to find like-minded friends. Within weeks of arriving I was strongly integrated into college life and surrounded by great people. Indeed, pre-COVID I could easily divide my time between work and play as there was always someone around to have a coffee, a laugh and drinks in the evening with.
Pembroke’s size also means the JCR committee- which represents the interests of the college’s student body- is very engaged with college life. They organise countless events throughout the term which support the welfare of our diverse community, such as regular talks on issues from the environment to gender politics. Unique to Pembroke’s JCR committee is the fact we have 4 Welfare Officers meaning openness and support of students’ mental health is top of our priorities; confidential help is available to students whenever they need it. As well as supporting mental health, the committee makes sure Pembroke is a fun place to live, organising bops which get the whole college partying together. Bops are a great chance for everyone in college to let their hair down in a safe, familiar environment. I can’t overemphasise how important a strong and passionate JCR is, and Pembroke’s is truly great.
Pembroke is not without its faults however, the average accommodation cost is among the more expensive and compulsory hall meals raise costs further. However, a banded system means that the lower-priced accommodation ends up well-within budget. As a former-resident of the cheaper accommodation I can confidently argue it is still better value than similarly priced accommodation at other universities. Additionally, given meals are pre-paid in advance, this actually helped me budget better since the left-over money was purely allocated towards breakfasts, lunches and nights out (I’m sure more interesting individuals had more varied budgets). They are also of a significantly higher quality than the meals I would have cooked myself! Nonetheless, this remains something to consider in choosing your college.
One final factor in my decision-making was a gamble, one that I think paid off and is therefore worth devoting some time to here. As a state school student, one of my main concerns when applying was the state-independent ratio. Upon learning that Pembroke’s stats were relatively unfavourable I had to properly consider whether it would be the right place for me. I figured there were two possible explanations: (1) Pembroke was biased against state school students, (2) the stats were self-fulfilling (since they encourage applications from independent schools and discourage those from state schools) so that Pembroke received a smaller proportion of competitive applications from state schools than from private schools. It not being the 19th Century, I bargained on the latter, encouraged by Pembroke’s admissions team that these were statistics that the college was working hard to remedy. I now know this to be true and as JCR Outreach officer one of my main pieces of advice to students from a non-traditional background is to take this kind of reasoning into account when looking at college statistics.
Overall, I am not aware of any particular stereotypes associated with Pembroke which I can only see as a positive. However, I understand the general perception of Pembrokians to be a positive one; we are known as a strong community filled with interesting people. I haven’t scratched the surface of the diversity of individuals and interests that reside in this college but I’m sure if you speak to any of our students (easily contactable through @pembrokejcr on instagram) they will reaffirm what I have said with their own experiences. Therefore, I hope I have outlined why I love the Pembroke community and would encourage anyone, irrespective of background, to apply here.