The Marshall scholarship allowed me to pursue two one-year degrees at Oxford: Financial Economics and Economic & Social History. The academic breadth that I was able to cover in these programmes--through courses as disparate as Asset Pricing and Polite Society in 18th-Century Britain--has been both stimulating and rewarding. Outside the classroom I've had a blast as the Magdalen College bar manager during our numerous "bops" (read: parties) and training for the Valencia and Paris marathons with a fellow Marshall scholar.
The Marshall community is incredibly diverse in terms of talent and geography (my classmates include accomplished musicians, star athletes, and published authors studying in places like Brighton, Birmingham, and Belfast). Although we are spread around the UK (we have friends to visit while traveling around Britain), there are a critical mass of events--such as the glorious Thanksgiving dinner, the annual Marshall trip to places like Scotland or Ireland, and the year-end "Send Off" Banquet--that allow us to build strong friendships with each other.