My Project

Ok, I think I’m ready to talk about this.

I’m starting a project at Durham, and while I have a pretty clear focus in mind of what I’m wanting to make happen, the steps to between the goal posts are pretty hazy. It might not work, but I’m seeing how this goes.

My project is to create a biannual anthology of student writing. There is a general theme and then a more specific set of themes I have in mind, which I’ll keep to myself until things really start going. But overall, essentially I’m looking at starting a publishing gig.

How I’m Approaching This

1. Talk to staff
   My first thought was that I would need someone probably involved in one of the departments relating to the content of the anthologies. THe English department is obvious, however the content could fall under interdisciplinary, so there are a few people I could contact. Since my interaction with my lecturers is extremely limited, I went for someone I have a little bit of rapport with such as one of my tutors. While he’s got a pretty full plate, he’s forwarded my propositional email to (I think) a lecturer who published a book recently with similar themes. I have yet to hear from them.
2. Create an Outline
   Of course this is obvious, but in order to show that I’ve given this some thought, I’ve had to create a full outline with as many details as I can work out. There are somethings I’m not really sure how to go about, which I’ll address later. But at least, if I do get any professors or faculty involved, they’ll see that I’m mostly organized.
3. Made a List of Demands
   Not so much demands, but rather a list of people I’ll need to help with this. I know that I’ll need editors and graphic design people, but I’ll also possibly need help with a web page (though, push come to shove, I can do it myself) and ‘marketing’, or at least, distribution.
4. Contacted Clubs and Societies
   Because I’m 31 and in the first year of my program, and because I live 30 miles south of Durham, I don’t really know anyone. So I’ve needed to figure out a way of meeting people and getting the word out. So far I have reached out to two related departments who have both agreed to send out my project information in the newsletter – you know, the one that goes to everyone in that program (which is a little terrifying), as well as seven clubs/societies.
5. Research
   While I’ve heard back from four lots of organizations (for lack of better terminology), I still haven’t heard back from a few, and newsletters also haven’t gone out yet. While I read this really fantastic blog post the other day about how to wait to hear back from publishers and agents, I’m opting for my own method of anxiety-quelling by obsessively researching what I could potentially need.

Some Problems I’m having

1. I don’t know what I’m allowed to do
   Because I’m essentially doing this under the brand of Durham in the sense that my project involves Durham students and I am, myself, a Durham University student, I don’t know that I’m allowed to create this. I don’t know if I need a higher-up to moderate me or act as a mentor.
2. The Specifics
   1. With a little luck, I’ll get a flood of interested students ready to put their best foot forward toward this project. They’ll be dedicated, willing to work on this over breaks, and be reliant. However, how on earth do I choose my team? How do I decide that Alice was totally in but Beauregard seems flaky based on his email? Or should I gather them all together and interview them? How do I decide????
   2. While I know the basics of the team that I need, I don’t know how many people for each team role I need. I know that this is something that I’m going to be learning as I go along, but I do need a foundation team. Do I need more than one graphic design artist? Should I have one person just for the web page or should we all work together on it? Do I need just one other person to serve as editor, or should I have four of us? Most importantly – what role am I forgetting??
3. Publishing
   It’s one thing to say you want to publish a collection of short stories, but what about when you actually want to have physical printed nice beautiful and professional collections of anthologies? Where do I print? I could go the CreateSpace route and self-publish via Amazon, though then that might alienate potential independent bookstores that would be happy to support budding writers. Or I could go for something that might not be as cheap. Then, should I be looking at just buying a set lot of books available when the volume is released and then after that they’re gone, or should I make older editions available for purchase?
4. Money
   1. I was hoping that being that it’s something Durham-related, there might be some kind of start-up organization fund to help get clubs going. Because I’m still struggling to find answers, I don’t know if this exists or not.
   2. I will need start-up costs to advertise for writers (I got my editor-gig at The Bubble because I found a flyer in the Student Union. I personally am looking at every piece of paper and poster that I come across to see what is going on, so I know they work), and I’ll need to get a webpage going, which means buying a domain name as well as some web space.
   3. This is less of an immediate problem, but I’ll need initial start-up publishing costs for the first round of anthologies. Though that’s down the line.

Attempting Solutions

There are a few things I’m doing in an effort to find solutions and answers to my questions, though they’re not as clear, nor fruitful as I’d hoped.

1. The Higher-Ups
   The other day I went to what is called a Mentor’s Formal, where our college mentor tells us about a formal and we have dinner with them. During this, I happened to be seated next to the vice president of the college (not university, mind). I told my mentor about my project idea, and asked if I needed anyone who was faculty to be involved, and he told me I should talk to the vp. So I pitched my idea to her, and she only told me to write a piece to go into the annual college magazine that’s released in June so that I could find more people to get involved.
   While this is helpful in team building or finding submissions (which really is my goal by the time the college magazine comes out), it doesn’t really answer my question. However, due to her lack of addressing my question, I’m assuming that no, I don’t need anyone, and that I can just start it.
   Fingers crossed.
2. Specifics
   This is where my obsessive research comes into play. While I don’t really have the clearest idea of who I need or how many of what role, I do know the bare minimum I need/would like.
   As far as the selection process goes, I’m going to have to find out how many students reply to me, and then make my decision from there. Though I’m hoping to just gather everyone together, tell them the detail, tell them how much of their time I’ll need from them, and say whoever doesn’t think they can do that should go, and then I’ll just wing it from there.
   Like a pro.
3. Publishing
   I’m still trying to find the solution to this. So far I’ve been participating in writing groups and asking for opinions on the best self-publishing services based on experience. I’ve emailed the Student Union who says they do all the university’s publishing, and, unfortunately, they only do spiral-bound binding–not the quality I’m looking for.
   Once I have my team together I’ll be able to have more of a think-tank to iron out these details. But so far my favorite option is Lulu, simply because I have experience with them, I know they’re print-to-order, and I can keep a backlisting of anthologies available for anyone who’s interested in them.
4. Money
   1. I’ll admit I’m slacking on this aspect, but I can email the Student Union about this, as they’re likely to know the most regarding clubs and societies. I did email them already, asking if they knew if I needed anyone higher-up to start a society, though I have yet to hear from them. If I don’t hear from them by the end of the week, then I’ll pester them in person.
   2. The money situation is difficult. I’m thinking that as far as flyers go, that might just have to come out of my own pocket. I’m alright with that, as the Student Union has pretty decent prices.
   3. When it comes time for printing costs, I have every intention to use crowd-funding. I think there are enough people out there that would be willing to participate in the start-up costs of a publication that’s student-run.
      Fingers crossed again.

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So there you have it, my newest project. Should you have any advice or wisdom, please feel free to share it, because I’m running low!

Strike Action: It happened

So far my tutors and lecturers have been really great about letting their students know if they’ll be on strike or not.

Well, that’s what I would have optimistically said this morning as I left the caravan into the bitter northern snow flurries in my car clinging to it’s eighth of a tank of gas, and even what I hummed to myself as the flurries increased along the A1(M) toward Durham.

A moment of pause as I went to pay the parking metre–what if they were on strike? Nah, they wouldn’t do that. After all, I’ve been in regular contact with my tutor about other projects. We have a good rapport; he knows my living situation in Yorkshire, 30 miles away, and that I work to sustain myself and that university life leaves minimum hours for me to earn money to pay for petrol and food. He knows that I can’t be driving all willy-nilly that distance for no reason.

The locked classroom door and students waiting outside of it until ten past the hour told me otherwise.

No tutorial.

That’s fine, there’s a lecture I have later in the afternoon. Just because our lecturer hasn’t emailed us the class hound out like they normally do before a lecture doesn’t mean it won’t happen, right?

…right?

Ivy League vs. Oxbridge

I was very dead set on attempting to get into Durham University. That is where my sites have been set since I learned about it. It is the #3 over all ranking University in the UK and their English department ranks just as high if not higher (my brain is a little fuzzy on that one at the moment). It has history, it holds prestige, and Harry Potter was filmed there (cool, though not the selling point).

However, I received a letter yesterday from Columbia University in New York, asking me to consider their University as my higher education next step.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m extremely naive when it comes to these things, how Universities work and the like. I don’t really know what this means. My ego wants me to say that it means I would get accepted if I applied to go to school there, but the skeptic on my shoulder says that they probably send this out to anyone that gets into Phi Theta Kappa as a formality. Both could be true, I don’t know!

However, there are some students out there that are genuinely in a place of great debate as far as their next step goes: Which is better – Ivy league schools or Oxbridge schools?

What does Oxbridge mean?

• Is either Cambridge or Oxford
• Oxbridge is the term which combines both schools. They are so high in stature that they just combined the words to create their own league, essentially.
• In the United Kingdom

What does Ivy League mean?

• This is a group of eight prestigious schools with a longstanding reputation.
• Includes Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Darmouth, Cornell, Brown and University of Pennsylvania
• In the U.S.

What’s the difference?

Aside from the fact that they’re on two different sides of the pond, Oxbridge colleges are compiled of just two universities, while Ivy league have eight to chose from, and thus have eight which rank differently among themselves. On the Oxbridge website it explains the differences:

“While Ivy League schools are much younger than most Oxbridge colleges, they rival Oxbridge’s influence in the global job market, as well as its academic. Though they vary hugely in size (from a mere 4,000 undergraduates at Dartmouth to over 24,000 at Columbia), they tend to be more consistent in character throughout the university as a whole, whereas the varied collection of colleges at Oxford and Cambridge gives these universities a more diverse and complex feel.”

How do they rank?

The list of Ivy League schools as far as ranking goes (According to a 2013 article in BusinessInsider) is as follows:

1. Harvard – which also ranked #1 in affordability, job prospects and location. It also ranked #2 as far as academics goes.
2. Yale – This ranked #1 with student body (tied) and student life, and followed Harvard in affordability. However, it was #3 in job prospects, and #4 in academics.
3. Princeton – Priceton University tied with Yale at the #1 spot for student body, but that was the only #1 spot Princeton received. It did however rank higher than Yale in Job Prospects at #2, as well as ranking #3 in academics.
4. University of Pennsylvania – UP tied at #6 in regards to affordability, and ranked #5 in Job prospects and student body, as well as academics, though they hold the #2 spot for student life. “Despite a low ranking for student’s intelligence, Penn graduates tend to a get a high starting salary for the first jobs and many will end up multi-millionaires”
5. Cornell – Unfortunately, poor Cornell ranked at the bottom of the Ivy League schools as far as Job prospects and Student Body go, however, their campus was ranked at #2 (and it is a beautiful campus), and their student life was ranked at #3. They are at #5 in affordability, and tie at #7 in academics. Cornell has a high acceptance rate, which means larger classes as well.
6. Columbia – Ranking at #1 in Academics, that is the ranking worth bragging about among the Ivy League universities. It is at the #8 position in both student life and affordability, and #6 in job prospects and student body. However, they have classrooms with less than 20 students, which is what earned it it’s high ranking in academics.
7. Darmouth – tied at #7 in Academics (with Cornell), its campus, student body and student life also rank at #7. However, it is in the top half ranking for job prospects (#4) and affordability (#3).
8. Brown – the highest ranking for Brown is it’s student body at #4, followed by it’s student life at $5. It ties with the University of Pennsylvania at #6 in affordability, and also ranks there with Academics, and falls to the bottom of the list with its campus.

According to The Complete University Guide of 2015 (in the United Kingdom), the Oxbridge universities rank accordingly:

1. Cambridge – ranking at number 1 out of all the universities in the UK, it also ranks #1 in entry standards, and research assessment. However, in Graduate prospects it ranks third, following the Imperial College of London and St. George’s University of London; and follows Buckingham and St. Andrews Universities in Student Satisfaction.
2. Oxford – ranks at #2 over all in the United Kingdom, as well as in entry standards, and research assessment. It also ranks lower than Cambridge in graduate prospects and student satisfaction.

A 2012 article in Forbes published a list of the world’s most reputable Universities – all but one of which were either in the US or the UK.

1. Harvard University (US)
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
3. University of Cambridge (UK)
4. Stanford University (UK)
5. University of California, Berkley (US)
6. University of Oxford (UK)
7. Princeton University (US)
8. University of Tokyo (Japan)
9. University of California, Los Angeles (US)
10. Yale University

How Do you Decide?

“The biggest differences you’re likely to find between Oxbridge and Ivy League lie in their study programmes. As mentioned above, American courses offer a great deal more flexibility, operating a ‘majoring’ and ‘minoring’ system, where you pick one main subject area (your ‘major’) and combine it with other subjects, or ‘minors’, which do not have to be in the same subject. While some universities are stricter than others on the combination of choices, the benefit of this system is its ability to offer diverse courses to students with wide-ranging interests. Thanks to this flexibility, some American universities say they can offer up to 3,500 different courses. At Oxbridge, you’ll have to apply for one specific, named course, and the two universities differ slightly in their course structure: Cambridge opts for a broader curriculum in the first part of the course, after which students can pick modules – sometimes from the papers offered by other degree programmes – and specialise, whereas Oxford students go into more depth in each module from the outset.”
~Oxbridge

It of course depends on what you’re after, what degree you are wanting, and what you expect out of your university. Another thing to consider is costs. For some, it just isn’t an issue – an education is worth more than money and/or a person might be wealthy enough not to worry about it. For others, it can be a troublesome concern.

In the UK, all the schools have the same tuition costs – £9000 (although at one point I did find one that was £8500), which is about $14,000. In the US, Universities vary in tuition – from $14,000-$51,000+. There are of course scholarships available for all schools, though one might have to get quite a few to be able to cover that cost.

For me, the cost is a huge thing. However, that being said, I never thought that I would qualify to be considered at a school like Columbia, so it has changed things up again.

What factors would you consider?

Some More Helpful Links to help you make up your mind:

• TopUniversities.Com This link will take you more in depth as to how Ivy League schools rank in the world, among each other, and how certain departments rank as well.
• TopUniversities.Com This link takes you to a comparison between Oxford and Cambridge Universities
• University.Which.Co.UK This page examines the different aspects to consider when thinking about whether to attend Cambridge or Oxford, and compares them
• TED.Com This is an editorial piece about why we consider any of the above schools to be better than any other school, with further links to related TEDtalks videos