University (or "varsity") life wasn't all about studies and exams. These articles provide a glimpse of what a student's personal life was like, both on and off campus. In Britain, "college life" stories tended to focus on Oxford and Cambridge, while the American section has some interesting statistics about women's health and marriage rates in college.

Student Life in Britain

The Oxford Union Society, by A.R. Buckland (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1878)

An Oxford debating society.

Frank Ross at Oxford (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1879)

A lengthy, semi-fictionalized account of student life at Oxford.

Undergraduate Life at Oxford (Scribners, 1879A)

The Fifth of November at Oxford (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

The traditional date of battles between "town and gown".

The Long Vacation at Cambridge (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

College Clubs (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1882)

Student Life at Edinburgh University, by Eric Robertson (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1882)

At a College Breakfast Party (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1884)

The [Oxford] Proctor and His "Bulldogs," by an Oxford Graduate (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1884)

A look at the gentleman charged with maintaining good behavior amongst Oxford students.

Winchester College: School Recollections, by Frederick Gale (English Illustrated Magazine, 1890A)

The Education of Our Girls: Life at Girton College, by Raymond Blathwayt (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1894)

The Oxford and Cambridge Union Societies, by J.B. Harris-Burland and St. J. Basil Wynne Willson (The Strand, 1894A)

Oxford at Home, by Harold George (The Strand, 1895A)

A look at the sometimes wild social life at Oxford University.

Commemoration Week at Oxford: Reminiscences of the Sheldonian Theatre, by R.E.S. Hart (Windsor Magazine, 1896A)

Concerning Girton, by R.S. Warren Bell (Windsor Magazine, 1897B)

"The Girtonian is little more than a big schoolgirl ; when she is not working she is playing - or talking - hockey, cycling, golfing, or drinking tea; she is blessed with an excellent appetite; she goes to bed early and she gets up early."

Varsity Tales, by Max Pemberton (Windsor Magazine, 1897A, 1897B)

Anecdotes of student life at Cambridge University.

1: Undergraduates I Have Known

2: The Don, with Some Sidelights on Deans

3: The Boating Man

4: The Proctor

5: In the May Term

6: In the Later Hours

To the Memory of the Brave, by George A. Wade (Windsor Magazine, 1900B)

"How public schools honour their dead heroes."

See also

• All About Oxford

Student Life in America

A College Camp at Lake George (New York) (Scribners, 1879A)

College Hazing (Scribners, 1879A)

He Playing She (Scribners, 1879A)

On performing in college plays at an all-men's college.

[Yale] Life at an American College, by Walter Squires (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1885)

Secret Societies in College, by Charles S. Robinson (Century Magazine, 1887B)

College Fraternities, by John Addison Porter (Century Magazine, 1888B)

Notes on the Health of Women Students, by Catherine Baldwin (Century Magazine, 1891B)

A look at health statistics for female American university students.

Life at a Convent School, by Ethel Ingalls (Ladies' Home Journal, 1892)

Dispelling some of the myths about the rigors of a convent education, including the idea that it's all about "conversion."

Festivals in American Colleges for Women, by A.A. Wood (Century Magazine, 1895A)

The Marriage Rate of College Women, by Milicent Washburn Shinn (Century Magazine, 1895B)

Here's one thing that hasn't changed: Statistics showed in 1895 that the rate of marriage for college-educated women was far lower than for their non-educated peers. As one woman explained, college women also want to "look up" to their husbands, but "the more we know, the harder it is to find somebody to meet the want."

A Day at Vassar, by Helen Marshall North (Demorest, 1896)