Balliol’s one of the oldest, largest, famous-est and central-est Oxford colleges, just 350m from the Carfax chippy. Academic standards are high, yet the atmosphere remains relatively relaxed, with a cosmopolitan flavour lent by a high proportion of international students. The College's global reputation keeps its apps postbag fuller than most others, and the fact its student body has traditionally managed to link the two pursuits of Marxism and tortoise-keeping (it has two) gets it points for quirkiness. Looks-wise, buildings range from idiosyncratically Gothic to iffily stripy.
| Sex ratio (M:F): 64:36 |
Founded: 1263 |
| Full-time u’grads: 400 |
Part-time: n/a
|
| Postgrads: 208 |
Mature: n/a |
| State:private school: 47:53 |
International: n/a |
| Academic ranking: 3 |
Disabled: n/a |
Two bars; a handful of sweaty bops per term in The Lindsay Bar (cap 250); annual black-tie Balliol Ball; Music Soc recitals in dining hall (cap 450); choral groups; music room. JCR Arts festival with drama, poetry, film and photography; theatre (Michael Pilch Studio); weekly news-sheet (John de Balliol) in loos. TV room; secondhand book-sale service. Art loans for room decoration. Anglican chapel. Library (100,000 modern books, 10,000 pre-1800); 35 computers with 24-hr access; decent sports facilities and does okay in a variety of sports; sports fields 5 mins away. All students live in except 55% of second years, all rooms have broadband; pay-as-you-eat self-service dining; legendary JCR pantry. Hardship funds, living-out grants; doctor, nurse. A good option for students with studentlings – crèche with 16 places for 3mths–5yrs; morning nursery for 18mths–4yrs, £10 a day.Welfare reps for postgrads, international students, ethnic minorities, disabled students, LGBT support group; taxi fund; free condoms, attack alarms and tampons.
FAMOUS ALUMNI
Matthew Arnold (poet); Herbert Asquith, Harold MacMillan, Edward Heath (ex-PMs); Rabbi Lionel Blue (writer, broadcaster); Richard Dawkins (scientist and God-basher); Graham Greene (writer); King Harald of Norway; Christopher Hitchens (polemicist and God-basher); Aldous Huxley (author and LSD evangelist); Gerard Manley Hopkins (poet); Lord Jenkins (Oxford University Chancellor); Boris Johnson MP (straw-headed Tory buffoon and mayor of London); Howard Marks (dope evangelist); King Olaf V of Norway; Chris Patten (last governor of Hong Kong); Adam Smith (economist); Algernon Swinburne (perverse poet); Hugo Young (The Guardian).