Sunday, 15 January 2012
College Profile: Balliol College
This is an article in my series on Oxford's colleges and PPHs. These 'profiles' are based entirely on my own personal perspective and opinions; prospective students are advised to look rather to the prospectus and alternative prospectus of any college they are considering applying to, rather than place too much stock in my descriptions. Previous articles describe what colleges are, then discuss Nuffield College, the PPHs, All Souls' College, University College, St. Antony's College, Christ Church, Oriel College, Pembroke College, and Magdalen College.
In the interest of balancing out my previous article on "T'Oriel", I shall turn now to the college with the Labour party reputation, Balliol. In so doing, the first thing I should point out, again, is that these stereotypes are blown way out of proportion. The head of the university Labour party was recently an Orielensis, and Boris Johnson, mayor of London and a prominent Tory, went to Balliol. So all these things need to be taken with a grain of salt. These are educational institutions which recycle their entire student body every few years, after all. Ποταμοῖσι τοῖσιν αὐτοῖσιν ἐμϐαίνουσιν, ἕτερα καὶ ἕτερα ὕδατα ἐπιρρεῖ.
Some of Balliol's most famous alumni are Adam Smith (who doubtless would not have been a Labour supporter!), John Wycliff, and Aldus Huxley. Founded in 1263, it is, with Merton and Univ, one of the contenders for the title of oldest Oxford college, and it commands a great deal of prestige, making it one of the harder colleges to get into.
In spite of that, the reason for its popularity is not immediately apparent. Balliol does not have the most impressive buildings (Christ Church), nor the richest endowment (St. John's), nor the best sporting record (Oriel), nor the highest academic success (Merton, as measured by the Norrington table).
Nonetheless, to a large segment of the "in-the-know" applicant population, there is no more fashionable college choice than Balliol. I suppose this is due to its all-around strength—while Balliol might not have claim to any superlatives, except a (dubious) claim to being oldest, it does rank highly in nearly every criteria one might come up with. So, it is not surprising at all that Balliol should come out on the top of many a student's personal ranking criteria.
Either that, or a vague perception among 18 year-olds that Balliol's "connections" somehow make it a pathway to power.
What Balliol does have is large grounds (especially in comparison to the nearby PPHs and Turl Street colleges), a fantastic location, and beautiful architecture that matches quite closely with the ideal of what a 'typically Oxbridge' college should look like. It is an easy college to fall in love with.
Fortunately, in my experience, the actual people who do attend Balliol are quite nice, and show nothing of the "superiority complex" that I had half-expected to find. Perhaps therein lies the true secret to Balliol's popularity: you're bound to get more applicants if the people who visit you go away convinced that your college has a great bunch of people to be around.
