Hi! I’m Charlie, a second year biologist at Merton College. I specified Merton on my application after looking round a few colleges on open day. Merton appealed to me mainly because accommodation is provided for all years of your course, so no messing around trying to find a (usually more expensive) house in the outskirts of Oxford. The rooms are nice too, often quite big with kitchen access, and a good chance of an en-suite and even a separate bed and study room, especially in third year. Merton’s location is also amazing- about a ten minute walk from the very centre of the city. This means all the shops, nightclubs, and most subject departments are really close but the college itself has the space to have a beautiful garden as well as all the quads, and generally just not feel as cramped as some colleges do.
Merton is also famous for quite a few things. We are home to the oldest quad in Oxbridge- mob quad, built in the 13th Century. We also have the cheapest formal hall of any Oxford college, a three course meal served to you in the hall for less than a fiver. Our fortnightly BOPs (themed fancy dress parties) are legendary for providing free alcohol and you may even have heard of our annual time ceremony (it’s a great responsibility of ours to protect the space-time continuum, Google it to find out more). On top of all this, we often place near or at the top of the Norrington table, which is a yearly ranking of all Oxford colleges based on how well their finalists did in exams. Unfortunately this last point gives us the stereotype of Merton students being all work and no play but hopefully you’ll agree that this isn’t true (but if you do become a Merton student, be prepared to argue it with any member from a different college).
We recently got a college dog called Geoffrey Biscuit (GB for short) who lives with our Warden- head of Merton. Our Warden is absolutely lovely and is always eager to hear from the student community. We have a diverse student committee voted in every year to promote equality and student welfare, who organise inclusive events (for example socials specifically for minority groups) and events to build morale (such as free ice cream trips or farm animal visits). Overall Merton is just such a wonderful place with an amazing community of students and staff, and I can highly recommend putting Merton on your application form. It’s good to research a few colleges and make sure you can see yourself living and working in each one but for me, coming to Merton was the best thing I’ve ever done.
