Hello. I'm Nick Barton and I'm
a member of academic staff in the School of
Archaeology and a Tutorial Fellow in
Archaeology at Hertford College. Hello, I'm
a finals student. I've just finished
my final exams and so I've been at Hertford
for three years studying Archaeology
and Anthropology. Thank you Rosie.
So, just briefly, to introduce the subject,
Archaeology and Anthropology (or Arch and Anth,
and as we often refer to it) is not
something you're normally taught at
school. So we don't assume any prior
knowledge in our students when they
arrive here. You may not have read very
much about Anthropology but it concerns
mainly living peoples and you will be
able to learn how and why societies
structure their families, their economies,
and political systems in the ways that
they do. At Oxford, 
we teach the two disciplines
side-by-side in a way that emphasises 
the connections between them,
particularly from the point of view of
the diversity of human cultural experience
throughout space and
time. I should say that there are
relatively few universities that
teach Arch and Anth jointly and, in most, if
not all, after the first year, you 
generally have to specialise in
either Archaeology or Anthropology. 
In contrast, at Oxford, if you
wish you can study both in equal measure
throughout your three years here. The
course structure is very flexible and
allows you to do this by picking and
choosing amongst a menu of optional
courses. On the other hand, if you
prefer and you want to specialise in one
or other you can do so, again via the
selected option courses in your second
and third years, and by choosing to write
your dissertation on one or other
subject. So that's why we feel Oxford, and
the Oxford course, offers 
something rather special and
unique. But what would you say Rosie,
as someone who's recently finished here?
Yeah, I think it's just the variety of
things that you study. You will
never really get bored and there's just
such a broad subject matter so you might
be writing an essay on gender and then
you'll be going on to write an essay on
ancient Mesopotamia. It brings in 
so many different subjects and
disciplines. So it doesn't really matter 
what you study at A-levels -
we don't ask for set subjects, which
I think is quite nice because you get so
many different people studying it and
they're already interesting in their own
way. Yes, that's a very good point.
Well, before we go on to say a bit more
about the course itself, I guess people
would like to know the reason for
choosing Hertford. So Rosie - putting you
on the spot again -  why did you want to
come to Hertford? I think the main thing
for me really was the fact it has a
really high state school intake and it's
access is really good. I myself came
from a state school so applying to Oxford
was really quite daunting and just the
friendliness and the atmosphere at
Hertford when I went on the Open Day.
Unfortunately, you maybe won't get to see
Hertford before you apply but it was
just so friendly compared the other
colleges. You instantly felt welcomed.
It's right in the centre and you have
access to so many different books and
libraries. And the Librarian, Alice,
is so helpful. You don't have to, well
I've never had to, pay for any books on
my entire course. And books can be really
expensive, so although you might think
Oxford sounds quite posh and expensive
it actually is not because you have 
so many books available for free.
Thank you, that's
good. Yes, I think Hertford really has
a reputation, as Rosie is saying, for being
friendly, progressive, and inclusive.
And we seek, of course, to attract
applicants of the highest academic
ability and potential. But it really is
regardless of their background - we're
just really not interested, frankly, in
your background. So I wonder now
whether we could say a little bit about
the course. I mean you can read about
this more extensively on the website but
how would you describe the course in a
typical week Rosie? So I suppose the
biggest divide really is that you get
tutorials and then you get lectures.
And lectures you get at most universities -
you sit in a hall or a room and then
someone talks at you and you write notes
and then go away and perhaps read a bit
more on it. But I think Oxford is
really, like it's key selling point,  is the
tutorials. So you get a reading list at
the beginning of the week and you choose
what you want to read off it, you go and
get the books, read them, take notes and
then write an essay. And then you hand the
essay in and then you get an hour
or two to discuss it with another person
and a senior member of staff or a tutor
and I think that's just a really good
point because it means that you're never
too far away from seeing a 
member of staff that can help you.
So if you've struggled on that essay
for a week it doesn't really matter
because you have an hour to then talk
about it. You're not going to be stuck going
'oh my god, this is awful' for the 
entire term. They're always there. And
it changes. So, you get, on average, about
three essays over two weeks to write. So
if you don't like one essay it's over
quite quickly and you can move on to the
next one. So yeah, the pace of learning is
is quite quick but you also get a lot of
contact one-on-one or two-on-one
with a tutor. Yes, I think that's an
important selling point certainly for
Oxford. We have this wonderful
opportunity to be able to teach you in
very, very small tutorial groups, which I
think is a huge benefit. And we 
should also say that, apart from
from lectures which you attend, in your
first year you are obliged to complete
at least four weeks of approved
fieldwork, usually undertaken in the long
vacation of your first year. And really
you can do anything that you agree
with your college tutor - anything
from say a museum internship to maybe
Anthropological or Archaeological fieldwork. 
We will help make suggestions for you to
choose from. And we're very lucky at
Hertford in fact because one of our
tutors runs an excavation in Pompeii,
which is exclusively offered to our
students. So you can spend part of your
fieldwork in Italy and this is of course,
in this case, what you did Rosie. So
can you say anything about the
experience? It was just like the best
time of my life. It was so cool. It was
just amazing. I've been to Pompeii 
once before with my school but
to see it from a different perspective and 
to actually dig there was like such a
privilege. It was really good because
we worked with students from Germany so
you got to see how different countries,
different universities, did things and
everyone was so caring 
and so supportive.
It was just amazing and Pompeii is
just such a cool site, and such an
important site as well. So to be part of
that was like a really wow
moment for me. I think I woke up every
day was like 'oh my gosh, I'm here'.
You are jolly lucky, I must admit. And Mark
Robinson, the person who takes
our students off, is extremely
experienced, having worked there for over
20 years. And everybody who comes 
back then just absolutely adores the
site and the opportunity of working
there with him. I should add that
although the degree course is mainly
assessed though written exams in the third
year, there is in fact some course
assessed work and this is in the form of
a fifteen thousand word dissertation.
It's an independent piece of research
written over the second summer 
of the degree, or most
of it is anyway, and for which you will
be assigned a supervisor to discuss and
read early drafts of the work. And we're 
currently reviewing other ways to
introduce more assessment into the
course. Rosie, should we say something
about the application process? So I'll
just say that, first of all, of course it
is a selective process and we have the minimum requirement of three A's at A-level or
the equivalent, for example, in the International Baccalaureate and or the Scottish Highers.
And of course, as Rosie has pointed out, it
really doesn't matter, to a certain
extent, what A-levels you take - arts
humanities or sciences. I mean we
don't really mind at all and what you
do. Just as a matter of interest Rosie, what
A-levels did you end up studying? So I
did an AS in English literature and
then I did French, Biology, and Ancient
History. So quite an interesting mix
of things. But you know one could sort of
say any combination of science or arts
subjects is perfectly fine. So for the actual
process itself, you will normally
submit your UCAS form in October. 
On it you have to select a college of first
choice. I suppose one 
of the most important
things in that, or on the UCAS form, is
preparing your Personal Statement. And
these are the question we're very often
asked by people on Open Days.
'How do we prepare for a Personal
Statement?' And I would say the
best advice is that you need to
emphasise your interests and experiences
perhaps beyond A-levels. You needn't have
any experience of course in Archaeology
and Anthropology but obviously if you
can mention any books you've read
perhaps on the subject or Museums 
you've visited, any kind of relevant
travel. Obviously not holidays on the 
beach, unless, of course, you were
looking for Archaeological sites. That would go down as a big plus. Is there
anything else you can say about the
Personal Statement Rosie?
Yeah, I think it's often (well especially 
by my old college) made to
be this really, really, big thing,
which of course it is. It is an
important thing to get right but don't
panic about it. I recently had to
write another personal statement and,
yeah, I realised that I didn't need to
write six different drafts. It's quite a
small amount of words/lines/character
so I think the important 
thing for Oxford, and like
the top universities, they want to see
how you think and how you
engage with your subject and how you're
interested in it. And I don't think
anyway that you have to read thousands 
and thousands of books on Archaeology
and Anthropology. It's just picking a few that you were really interested in and,
basically, just writing your opinion.
And I think that's what they look for.
That sounds absolutely right. And, in addition to that, you submit
essays. These are two recently marked
pieces of work done as part of your school or
college course and, of course, marked by
your teacher. The subject itself
doesn't really matter but we prefer
essays that are written over a
relatively short period of time rather
than say school projects, compiled over
many months. You know that's something
which if you can only send us a
project, obviously we'll read it. So
I think just... Oh sorry, and the other
thing I forgot to mention is that we
ask for a 500 word short essay and
that is on a subject which is, 
you know, 'What can
we learn about people, past and present,
from their material culture?' So, you know,
this is an extra bit of information that
we need, that we find useful, just to see
what ideas you've come up with. You could
maybe expand on some of the things that
you've written in your Personal
Statement. Maybe you haven't had, you know,
there's not enough room to add
little bits which of course you can put
into your 500 word essay.
Do you think that sort of covers the
actual application itself? Yeah, I was
just going say that the 500-word
essay sounds really, really scary because
obviously it's such a massive question.
You could write a book on that or
several books but I think the important
thing is you don't have to write about
everything. I tried to do that and
obviously I went over 500 words which is
not surprising knowing me. Yeah, so just
pick out points that you are really
interested in or you think are quite
cool and expand on them. So don't
feel like you have to include
everything under the sun that is related
to material culture, past and present. And
although this isn't marked, we just
find it very useful when it comes to the
the interview process, so again we've got
something that we can talk to you about. That's the main thing. So, actually,
this brings us very neatly onto the
Oxford interview itself. So I should say
that if you're selected for interview,
and in fact about 80 percent of
applicants are typically interviewed by Oxford, you'll be looked at, of course, by your
first-choice college and you'll
also be interviewed by a second college,
which we select at a departmental level.
So in other words you'll be 
interviewed by two colleges. I'll say a little
bit about the structure of the interview. It
normally begins with a short passage. The
interviews last for about 
half an hour, by the way.
We normally give you a short passage which 
you prepare beforehand. You read it
and we give you some questions on it. 
It's really just, in a way, as an
icebreaker - just to get 
the conversation going.
We then have a small range of
ethnographic and archaeological objects,
which are on the table or, you know, 
which we show you. And it's not
necessary for you to know any or all of
them at all. I mean, what we would
emphasise is that it's not an exam in
any way, but it does allow you to
demonstrate your breadth of knowledge
and interest in Archaeology and
Anthropology. And so we are interested in
how you look at the objects and how you
might make deductions about them. 
How good you are at thinking on
your feet really. And then 
the third and final part
of the interview consists of questions
in which we test some of your knowledge.
And this is often based on your personal
statement and, say, your essay, perhaps. So
we always suggest that you don't 
make up things to impress us in your
personal statement. But Rosie, what
can you say, having been through the
process yourself? I mean, it is a bit daunting isn't it? Yeah, it was quite scary. Sorry! It was scary because everyone, at my
college especially, were like 'oh my god, it's Oxford it's Oxford' but when I arrived and we had a
meeting with you and Mark (the other
tutor) beforehand and that really settled
my nerves because it made me realise that
you're just nice people and it was all
going to be okay and I wasn't gonna get
savaged in the interview. I think that some schools do
do practice interviews and things
and well I had that and like one. And I
think my teacher just googled basic
Oxford questions
to ask interview and obviously like they
were quite random and really scary. One
of them was like do you think you're
smart. I have no.. I couldn't answer that
obviously. But the questions they asked
in the actual interview are only going to be
really related to the subjects that you
want to study. And the tutors,
they did with me,  like they helped me
they like kind of pointed me in the
right direction and that doesn't mean
that they think you're rubbish.
It's just that they're trying to help you along
 the process and they don't expect you to
be at a degree level already. Like, that's
the point of applying, so that you can gain
knowledge. It's just to see if you're
enthusiastic and interested and
passionate, I think, most of all.
Yes, now that is really important - your
enthusiasm must come across because
obviously we've got a limited number of
spaces and we are, you know, we want to
give them to the best students and obviously
those who are going to benefit from the
course the most. So I think that probably
is where we'd like to leave it today. If
if you feel that we haven't been able to
deal with all of the your questions,
you're free to to look at the main
University website to see if any of the
questions are answered there for you or,
if necessary, to contact me at Hertford. 
You're very welcome to ask
questions and I'll do my best to 
try and answer them for you.
So I guess that, from Rosie and 
from me, for the time being,
thank you very much and I hope the
information that we've given here might
be a little useful. Thank you. Bye.
