I Played Scholar for a Week at Oxford-and Discovered Why Deep Thinking Might Be the Ultimate Luxury

"It was an early-autumn evening and I was on my way back to the university where, a quarter-century ago, I somehow gained a degree in French and Russian. This time, however, I wouldn't be a hapless undergraduate, but rather a mature visitor-an intellectual voyager, if you will. I was taking part in the Wadham Experience, which markets itself as a "transformative academic retreat.""

"Like a lot of things dreamed up at Wadham College (which include, it turns out, modern science), the idea is quite clever. The weeklong, multidisciplinary residential courses, established in 2024, are an attempt to distill the singular magic of the oldest university in the English-speaking world and serve it up as an enriching vacation. For the college, it is a chance to turn cultural capital into actual capital; prices begin at a not-inconsiderable $13,050 (roughly what a British undergraduate pays for a full year of tuition)."

It was an early-autumn evening when a returning student traveled to Oxford to take part in the Wadham Experience, a weeklong multidisciplinary residential course. The program packaged Oxford's scholarly atmosphere into pricey, curated experiences that included close encounters with Shakespeare's Folio, Kafka manuscripts, art classes, recitals and museum banquets. The college monetized cultural capital with fees around $13,050. Participants could savor better food and wine and no exams, but a required reading list provoked last-minute panic and nostalgic worry about student-era cramming. The experience proved enjoyable despite the anxieties.

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