When I was first applying and looking at the different Oxford colleges, I preferred the idea of a smaller college environment. Mansfield then stood out amongst the smaller colleges due to its efforts to make people from all backgrounds feel welcome; it is the college with the highest proportion of state school students in Oxford.
I thought it seemed like a really friendly place. English was always my favourite subject at school, and I wanted to do a subject I knew I would enjoy for my degree. As university work, especially in humanities subjects, is a lot more self-directed than school, I wanted a subject that I would be really interested in and therefore motivated to study. Unsurprisingly, English students often have to buy a lot of books!
I use it often to claim back my book expenses, which saves me quite a lot. However, as Mansfield is a smaller college, you get to know everyone very quickly, especially the other people studying your subject.
Also, we have a big variety of societies and clubs even just within the college; we have plenty of sports teams, and I often go to our Film Society and our new Art Society! Outside of college, there are even more societies and sports teams, for almost everything you can think of. Also, the interview format is quite similar to a tutorial, so you can get a good sense of whether you would like such an individual teaching environment.
I mainly chose Oxford because I knew it would be intense and challenging. I chose Mansfield because of its reputation for being friendly and progressive. I did also look at more practical things like location and student accommodation. I liked that Mansfield was central without being on a main road, and that students would have accommodation for all three years.
