EUCATASTROPHE

My personal feelings on ‘dark academia’ as a lifestyle (whatever that means) aside, whilst I completely agree with the sentiment of these posts, I do want to clear up a few things as someone who actually goes to Oxford. The posts in question say that you can create your own dark academia experiences even if you don’t go somewhere where dark academia is ‘a given,’ which misleadingly suggests that there are places in the world - like Oxbridge or the Ivy Leagues - where the dark academia vision is a reality, and I just want to say firmly that this is not true.

Oxford is an amazing university because of the resources and funding it has available, and the city is very beautiful - I know I’m fortunate to go here and I’m not trying to deny that. But at the end of the day, it is just another university. You still get students sadly making instant noodles in a shitty kitchen at 3am, or vomiting into their sinks because they couldn’t make it to the toilet, or drunkenly eating yesterday’s pizza out of a bin. Oxford students don’t sit around discussing literature or philosophy any more than your average student, and the view from my bedroom window is this:

The work culture here is more rigorous and intense than at most other unis, but that is more because of our shorter terms than anything else. And that ‘academic vigour’ is not something to be envious of or aspire towards, because it’s not fucking healthy: I know the DA community likes to talk romantically about pulling all-nighters to study because of your unquenchable thirst for knowledge or whatever, but being at a uni where you have no choice but to pull frequent all nighters to get through all your work can actually be pretty horrible sometimes, and the state of mental health here at Oxford is absolutely appalling as a result.

I spent weeks being ignored in seminars, had my ideas stolen (and praised) in front of me when I'd been shot down by the seminar lead, and even had one elite boarding school guy make fun of my regional accent which isn't even that strong... It took a total of three weeks to destroy the little bit of self esteem I'd gained during my undergrad degree, and it took my wonderful undergrad supervisor getting in touch to make me apply for the course I'm starting at University of Warwick fresh this year.

In my experience Oxford has some amazing people there, such as my new supervisor. But the elitism, sexism, and racism is alive and kicking no matter what they have you think. For some people this doesn't effect them too much and Oxford is the right call - but it was NOT for me. I'm glad I'm a white woman tbh or I imagine it could have been a lot worse.

Oxford is a beautiful city and under different conditions it's a fabulous university to attend as one of the most well funded and prestigious institutions in the world. However, it's not the intellectual vision we have of it on the outside. Just like anywhere else it has it's flaws - and students will always act like students, drugs, drink, and breakdowns galore...

My personal feelings on ‘dark academia’ as a lifestyle (whatever that means) aside, whilst I completely agree with the sentiment of these posts, I do want to clear up a few things as someone who actually goes to Oxford. The posts in question say that you can create your own dark academia experiences even if you don’t go somewhere where dark academia is ‘a given,’ which misleadingly suggests that there are places in the world - like Oxbridge or the Ivy Leagues - where the dark academia vision is a reality, and I just want to say firmly that this is not true.

Oxford is an amazing university because of the resources and funding it has available, and the city is very beautiful - I know I’m fortunate to go here and I’m not trying to deny that. But at the end of the day, it is just another university. You still get students sadly making instant noodles in a shitty kitchen at 3am, or vomiting into their sinks because they couldn’t make it to the toilet, or drunkenly eating yesterday’s pizza out of a bin. Oxford students don’t sit around discussing literature or philosophy any more than your average student, and the view from my bedroom window is this:

The work culture here is more rigorous and intense than at most other unis, but that is more because of our shorter terms than anything else. And that ‘academic vigour’ is not something to be envious of or aspire towards, because it’s not fucking healthy: I know the DA community likes to talk romantically about pulling all-nighters to study because of your unquenchable thirst for knowledge or whatever, but being at a uni where you have no choice but to pull frequent all nighters to get through all your work can actually be pretty horrible sometimes, and the state of mental health here at Oxford is absolutely appalling as a result.

Times are troubling and hard right now-but never forget, your Beet loving Grandmother loves you very very much and wants you to be safe.