Hi! My name is Casey and I’m a second-year English Language and Literature student at Lady Margaret Hall (LMH). My journey to Oxford is quite a strange one: I originally applied to Cambridge on my UCAS application but was unsuccessful after an interview. Slightly disappointed but pretty set on my second-choice university, I continued working at my A-Levels as before and put my Oxbridge dream aside. It wasn’t until I received an email about LMH’s foundation year scheme that I even considered the possibility that the door wasn’t completely closed to me. I again allowed myself to get excited about my prospects and submitted an application – this time a successful one! The foundation year was truly a life-changing experience, and it allowed me to apply as an undergrad to study at LMH, and the rest is history.
The diversity in LMH’s student body was definitely one of the main things that allowed me to feel at home there. Between being the first women’s college in Oxford and the first college to implement a foundation year scheme, I knew that this was a college set on pioneering new opportunities for those not considered the usual ‘Oxford type’. If you want to be a part of a college that challenges these stereotypes and does all in its power to increase the accessibility of the university, LMH is definitely the college for you.
Coming in at a close second for the college’s pros, however, is the absolutely beautiful grounds. The wildflowers in the quad and the huge gardens means you can properly experience nature without ever leaving college grounds (and watching the sunrise from the gardens at 5 am is as good a place as any for an essay crisis).
The gardens will be there for you for the duration of your degree, too, as LMH guarantees accommodation for all of your undergraduate years. I’m not going to lie, the rooms vary wildly across college; some are huge, some are tiny. Some have en suites, some don’t (although if you need one on medical or religious grounds, an en suite will be guaranteed for you). You do move up on the room ballot as you progress years, though, so you’ll never be stuck in the same ‘bad’ room two years in a row. The one thing that doesn’t change, however, is the corridor comradery. You will always be living close to those in the same year as you which means you’ll get to know your year group really quickly, especially when you’re all stood outside of the building at 3 am in your pyjamas because someone burnt their toast and set off the smoke alarm.
Now, one of the many things you might have heard about LMH is how far away it is from the city centre and many of the other colleges and, I’m not going to lie to you, sometimes it is a bit of a pain in the backside having to walk 20+ minutes to Tesco. To solve this problem, though, LMH has its own college sHOP, which means that you don’t have to trek all the way down Norham Gardens for a bottle of milk/wine/whatever floats your boat. Personally, as someone who’s never lived in a house with a car, I’m more than used to walking that little bit further to reach the city centre, and in fact, I love the fact that LMH is a little bit out of the way of the hustle and bustle of Oxford life. Walking down Norham Gardens back to the beautiful arches of the college very much feels like returning ‘home’ and escaping the chaos.
And, of course, home isn’t truly home without a pet. LMH, in fact, has more than one. We have our own ‘official’ college cat, who you can visit in his home whenever you’d like, but we also have a library cat (who adorably travels around on our librarian, James’, shoulder). On top of this, we have many cute dogs running about, belonging to various members of staff. The vast gardens of LMH are, after all, the perfect place for them to run around to their hearts’ content.
Overall, I could not be happier in my choice of college, and I know many other LMHers feel the same. After all, as we all say, it’s not just LMH – it’s LMHome.
Visit the LMH website for more details!