Alice Langard

BSc (Hons) Psychology, completed one Study Abroad semester at High Point University, USA

Why did you choose Oxford Brookes?

So I actually came for an open day at Oxford Brookes University.  I really liked the look of it and the Psychology course is quite highly rated for a polytechnic uni so I thought ‘great ok I’ll go there’ and I’m really glad I made the decision.

What do you enjoy most about your course?

I like how you can apply it [psychology] to anything. I feel like whenever I’m having a conversation with anyone about anything I have something interesting to say about my course or something I’ve learnt and I think that’s really nice. I’m not sure what I want to do after my course but I think psychology gives you a lot of options for what you want to go into, it’s quite broad and you can relate it to a lot of things. 

What do you like the most about living in Oxford?

I live on Cowley Road and I love living there so much as it has everything happening, so many bars and all the types of food you could ever want. I like that Oxford has an equal amount of nature and city, nature is quite important to me so I didn’t want to be in a really big built-up city so I like having the option of going to different parks and it’s also really beautiful in the city centre and in Cowley - different vibes but it’s all really nice and a nice place to live.

What facilities and services do you use at Brookes?

I always go to the library, I can’t do work anywhere else. We’re always in the silent room area and I find that really useful for studying. Whenever my friend has technical issues with her computer, there’s always a lot of options for computers to use, and the printers are also really easy to use as it’s all online.

Have you lived in university accommodation or private accommodation? Do you have any advice for students?

During first year I lived at Crescent Hall, which is student accommodation. I really, really enjoyed that and for the two years after that I went through an independent landlord. For private accommodation, try and get in there quite early because when you leave it too late everyone gets a bit stressed and you can end up living with people you don’t really want to live with and making the decision of who you want to live with is really important.

Can you tell me more about your exchange?

We went to America, North Carolina and we went to a university called High Point University. We left [the UK] in early January and the course ended in May but we stayed in the States and we managed to travel around a bit while we were there which was so much fun. The university was great, very easy, it was immediately obvious that it was all worth it. The teachers were great, I felt like they really helped me with everything academic. I think it was in a private school so I did have a lot of assistance with learning, I found that really useful. Adjusting to a different place was really nice, it was just refreshing. 

Do you have any advice or recommendations for students who may want to go on exchange?

Yes, I think that you should do it! If there’s an interest there to go away definitely, definitely do it .It was quite stressful getting everything sorted to start with but it’s always worth it. You have support from your university and the other university, you’re not by yourself trying to sort it out. Just be positive about it! We all loved it so much.

If you could sum up your time at Oxford Brookes so far using one word, what would it be?

Honestly, it’s been really exciting. At university you learn a lot but it’s also so much fun and I’ve learnt a lot about myself. It’s been a really fun time.

Do you have any plans once you’ve graduated?

I’m interested in going into the environmental side of things, so I’d want to do something to help the environment. So at the moment I’m thinking about going into the research side of psychology, doing environmental research and looking into people’s behaviour to do with the environment.