<p>How early you should start planning for study abroad depends entirely on your major. As a philosophy major intending on spending a year abroad at Oxford I had to do virtually no preparing, as I get major credit for philo courses taken at Oxford. If you plan on majoring in a science, doing pre-med, or double (or triple) majoring, you may have to plan a little for going abroad. All in all, Williams makes it fairly easy to go abroad. The Williams-Oxford Programme is unique in that the grades I get at Oxford go directly on to my Williams transcript and count towards my GPA. </p>
<p>In the Williams-Oxford Programme you can take whatever courses you want. I’m just beginning my second term (Oxford has three terms) and I have yet to take one of the courses listed in the Williams-Oxford course catelogue–the courses listed are courses that are frequently taken and are offered at Exeter College (the Oxford College Williams students are enrolled at), and are by no means the limit of courses that you can take. As you may have noticed, no theology is offered in that list. This is because Exeter College does not offer theology. However, many Oxford students (including myself) take theology courses, often from Blackfriars or Greyfriars. One of the great things about Oxford is that you’re able to take classes in virtually anything you’re interested in.</p>
<p>I wanted to study at Oxford because I wanted the abroad experience without having to sacrifice a year of education to get it. So far, that’s exactly what I’ve gotten.</p>
<p>Regarding going abroad and ECs, that was one of my biggest hesitations to going abroad. I was super involved in all things Williams my sophomore year and I was hesitant to spend a year detached from all of my ECs. However, now that I’m here I’m glad that I have a year apart from all of that, a year to get extremely involved in a very different university. When I come back I’m planning on being very involved again (probably with student government among other things) and I don’t think there’ll be much trouble with that…assuming people are silly enough to vote for me again.</p>
<p>Regarding finaid, when you’re in the Williams-Oxford Programme, you pay Williams tuition…or whatever fraction of the Williams tuition you pay when you’re at Williams. In addition to this, you get tons of subsidies (transportation, cultural, extracurriculars, sports…etc) to help defray the cost of living in an expensive country. If you go abroad to another location, you will not be paying Williams tuition, but will rather be paying tuition at that abroad programme. Williams will cover the same %age of those fees as they cover of your Williams tuition (so if you pay 20k a year at Williams–about 1/2 tuition–and you study at a program that only costs 10k a year, Williams will still cover half of that cost: so you’ll only pay 5k a year for your year abroad).</p>
<p>Regarding Oxford and London, Oxford’s about an 1-1.5 hour bus ride outside of London. It’s super easy and relatively cheap to get into London and there are buses that run every 15 minutes or so. While Oxford isn’t in London, the city of Oxford is regrettably also very expensive. However, the Programme also offers student jobs, which combined with Williams’ generous subsidies, help make things more affordable.</p>
<p>I’ve only been at Oxford one term, but it’s been entirely worthwhile so far.</p>