Tim Hosgood (Mathematics, 2011)
Although recently graduated and now studying in Marseille, Tim is still infamous around college for his sharp wit, brutal honesty and ongoing commitment to Hertford.
My mum and stepdad (and, in fact, dad and stepmum) have always supported my academic efforts. My mum had to leave school at 16 to get a job and so wanted me to be able to have the chances she never had. We didn’t have much money, but my mum took up two more jobs and thanks to her untiring efforts and a generous academic bursary, I managed to get good grades at the local private school and, in the end, an offer from Hertford to study maths.
I had never imagined that I would want to go to Oxford – I felt uncomfortable enough about having gone to a private school – but after visiting Hertford for an open day, I realised that the students were nothing like the stereotypes that I had feared. I was given a tour by a student who had only had time to shave the left-hand side of his beard (lest he be too late to meet us) and I honestly fell in love with the people and the place almost instantly.
I had always struggled with choosing between studying maths and studying music at university. At the end of the day, my love of music was outweighed by my relative lack of skill, so I chose maths. However, at Hertford, in my first year, I joined a small ensemble that played ‘jazz’ at Hertford events. When most of the ensemble left at the end of the year, I was approached by Hertford College Music Society and asked to form a university-wide jazz band under their banner. Even though I was probably the least adept of all of them, the society really made me feel like I had something to contribute, and I ended up getting some informal conducting lessons from the other ensemble leaders (and making some brilliant friends in the process). During my time at Hertford, thanks to these great chances, I lived some incredibly memorable stories, and music at Hertford is truly an amazing pool of opportunity.
After graduating [Tim got a First, but is too modest to say…], I decided I wanted to pursue maths and undertake a PhD – and I’ve moved to the south of France to do so. It’s been an interesting change from growing up in a small town in Devon. Unfortunately, learning French at school does not prepare you for asking for a haircut, or trying to explain to the local authorities that the UK on your driving licence really does stand for ‘United Kingdom’, not Ukraine. Luckily though, studying maths at Oxford really did give me an additional useful life skill: being able to sit through an hour long seminar understanding very little, but feeling OK about it.