michaelmas [week 1]: oxford matriculation (saturday, oct 17, 2009)

Just as in the United States, your college experience at Oxford is bookended between matriculation and graduation. Although I didn't see too many families attending, there were some, and matriculation would be one of the events that you might want them to come to. That being said, the actual matriculation process took only 15-minutes, at which point we were all formally admitted into the University (rather than the College, which happened 1-week earlier when we signed our names in the College Registry). Here are all the undergrad and grad 'Freshers' waiting to get our College photo taken in the Exeter Front Quad at 8:00AM (brrrr...it was cold out there!)...

After taking our College photo we all walked out onto Turl Street, and made our way to the Broad Street to the Sheldonian Theatre where the actual Matriculation ceremony took place at 9:00AM. Here many of us are waiting patiently outside to pour into the Sheldonian...

...Here are some pictures from inside the Sheldonian where the Vice-Chancellor gave a nice speech welcoming us to the University (part of which was spoken in Latin!)...

...Here's a picture of me inside the Sheldonian all dressed-up in 'sub-fusc' (black suit & shoes, white bow-tie, black academic gown, and black mortar board hat). Interesting to note that grad gowns are longer than undergrad 'commoner' gowns. Also, you're not allowed to wear your academic hat during graduation (only after you've earned the right during graduation), so you must hold your hat in your hand instead...

...Back to the Exeter Dining Hall for a special 'Matriculation Brunch.' There were a limited number of seats, which you had to reserve online through Exeter's 'Upay' system. Unfortunately, only 2 out of 7 Exeter MBA were able to attend, so I encourage future MBA who want to attend to be sure to register well in advance to secure a seat...

...Ahhhhh and here's the food. To drink we had tea, orange juice, and Mimosas (OJ + champagne). To eat we started with cold cereal and freshly baked pastries. For the main course we had sunny-side up eggs with Canadian bacon, boiled tomato, sausage, baked beans, hash brown, mushrooms, and fried-toast...

...Finally, here are some finally pictures of me wearing 'sub-fusc' in the Exeter front quad during matriculation day...!