I spent both semesters of my junior year at Keble College, Oxford. The Keble program is unique because of WashU students’ total immersion in the social and academic life of the college: instead of living in flats in neighborhoods around Oxford, I stayed in a dormitory with other Keble students, who were also my classmates and tutorial partners.

The tutorial system is the primary mode of instruction at Oxford.  Large lectures are provided only as overviews, in contrast with the intense focus that characterizes weekly tutorials, in which professors meet with one or two students at a time.  Each “tute” almost invariably requires an essay, submitted in advance, which will be dissected by tutors who expect an oral defense of your ideas.  WashU students at Keble follow the traditional Oxford curriculum, and although this set course allows less freedom in choosing specific areas of study, its breadth is rewarding, exposing students to the key works of English literature from Chaucer to the Romantic poets, alongside a handful of non-canonical texts.

Beyond weekly tutorials and the occasional lecture, academic life at Oxford consists of reading staggering amounts of literature and criticism in stunningly beautiful settings.  I’m particularly fond of the upper reading room of the Bodleian Library, which offers a view across the entire Oxford skyline.

The city’s ubiquitous stone buildings and spires are constant reminders that Oxford is a place that embraces tradition: students sitting exams must dress in “sub-fusc,” and at the end of Trinity term, the streets are teeming with students clad in suits, academic robes, and mortarboard caps.  These same robes are also required at dinner in Keble’s dining hall, where a Latin prayer is still read each evening before meals.  This same sense of history fuels everything from the rowing rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge to the annual May Day celebrations, which involve staying awake all night and watching the Magdalen College choir sing from the rooftops at dawn.

In addition to music performances, a thriving student theater scene, and several museums in Oxford (Pitt Rivers has a fascinating hodgepodge of artifacts from outposts of the British Empire), London is about ninety minutes away, with buses running almost constantly.

My year abroad not only introduced me to friendly new faces and unfamiliar scenery, but also provided a fresh approach to my study of literature, and I recommend the experience wholeheartedly.

– Melanie Mohn, class of 2010