Ruby Granger #18 Still no deal with Waterstones but half her food was mailed from home

[CatCafe234]

Just wanted to say that while Ruby absolutely wouldn't have thrived at Oxford, a LOT of students don't thrive there and you can still perform well at interview/be good enough to get in and also struggle with the lack of mental health support, ridiculous workload, intense terms etc once you actually get there. Struggling at Oxford doesn't mean that you're not good enough or that you just can't cut it. Support varies massively from college to college, tutor to tutor, and if you're an anxious/insecure person (as a lot of high performing students are) it can be really challenging.

It’s a very specific kind of university environment and it’s not right for everyone. I know a fair few Oxbridge grads and it makes me so sad the way some of them suffered through their courses - the whole environment seemed to work well for those who are very, very confident but if you’re not, or if you need a bit more support (as we all do …) you can come out quite damaged, I think.

That’s one reason I have very little time for university snobbery and the kind of hysteria that happens around A-Levels and university entrance actually makes me quite angry (oh, TSR, you have a lot to answer for …) There are lots of very different universities across the UK (and the world) and pushing yourself into somewhere that doesn’t fit simply because of reputation is wrong.

 

[Griftwood]

I've managed to obtain the audio transcript of the interview:

Ruby: "Hello, it's Roobee!"

Interviewer: "Hello Ruby, I'm Professor Farfington, I'll be carrying out the interview today. Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

Ruby: "Hello, it's Roobee, and today oiy'm gyowing tyoo bee telling you all about myself.

I despise the bay-nal existence of most students, and I'm much more enlightenified than all the modern teenagers who just go to parties, consume ethanol - which 19th Century poet Hughly W. M. Poffershire observed was "the devil's elixir" - and then inject marijuana and smoke cocaines before going on a crime spree. I enjoy a much more civilised lifestyle and am a total bookworm.

I love Emily Dickinson, because she got to stay home all the time and never interact socially, but also her poetry is just so pictatorial and eclacktic and I love how her words flow but halt and distinctly but serenely conjure up both images and emotions, too.

I'm such a natural planner, and I'm obsessed with organising so that all of my life is run like clockwork, which is why I was ten minutes late for this interview which I apologise unresordedly and unequavotably about but it was beyond my control as my backup planner for my to-do list only had enough space to put 15 entries and those were taken up by reminding myself to brush my teeth and listen to classical music, so there was no place to write the time of this interview. I one day hope to create a planner that has at least 16 entries though, which will racktify this crime that the universe inflicted upon me.

Speaking of being bullied, I was savagely bullied in school, but this made me a stronger person, because when I remembered I was bullied after making it up in the fictional book I wrote, I realised that you only get bullied if you're better than other people, because mummy says people are all jealous of me because I'm so much more special than other people, but it's important that we pretend to shop at Tesco occasionally to stay humble. And I think it's important that we normalise and romanticise that, because the entophy of our spirit is only emboldinged by the quaffness of our blurburr."

Interviewer: "And you say English is your first language?"

Okay, I’m now convinced you’re secretly Roobee’s mother, because who else would always be present everywhere she goes and so be able to bring us this accurate account?

 

[fayeloliik]

Slightly off topic but I saw this today and it made me cackle

 

[Sprezza]

This video was recommended to me and I am shook at how different she looked and sounded. She seemed so much healthier, physically and mentally. Obviously her face is fuller but she also spoke a lot more freely and casually, still posh, but without that affected Emma Watson thing. Now she sounds more like she did in the old 'Hermione' video she's reacting to.

 

[Ripley Rose Kat]

This video was recommended to me and I am shook at how different she looked and sounded. She seemed so much healthier, physically and mentally. Obviously her face is fuller but she also spoke a lot more freely and casually, still posh, but without that affected Emma Watson thing. Now she sounds more like she did in the old 'Hermione' video she's reacting to.

Omg, she's like a completely different person here!

 

[hannah123]

This video was recommended to me and I am shook at how different she looked and sounded. She seemed so much healthier, physically and mentally. Obviously her face is fuller but she also spoke a lot more freely and casually, still posh, but without that affected Emma Watson thing. Now she sounds more like she did in the old 'Hermione' video she's reacting to.

This is actually really sad, she looks so healthy, vibrant and like a young woman, not a teenage girl like she does now. Lockdown really messed with her.

 

[gossip_guy]

Omg, she's like a completely different person here!

I completely forgot she studied Spanish. "Hola, yo soy Ruby!"

 

[3calico3]

I completely forgot she studied Spanish. "Hola, yo soy Ruby!"

I'm really surprised that Ruby hasn't shown more of an interest in languages, given her purported interest in the use of English in literature. There was a trend not long ago where every studytuber was/is learning a new language (Jade being the obvious one who claimed to be nearly fluent in Dutch after a very short time).

 

[xoxoxo13]

When did she start talking in whispers in her videos? Is the malnutrition so severe she can't speak normally or is it to make herself seem ill?

 

[Auga]

She's taking attention away from Martha.

I suspect this is the story of Martha's life.

 

[CarlotaJoaquina]

Probably been mentioned already, but did anyone else notice she talks about 'adults' in her video like she isn't one and has been for at least three years now?

Also, as an introvert, I love uni. The idea of uni not being fun or whatever because you don't like parties and introverts are not made for uni is absurd. I love every second of my freedom at uni, because I get to be an introvert now.
At school, I had to go places because school told to or my parents did or you were 'supposed' to do things, but now I get to choose if I spend all day in bed or in the library or cycle to the woods or whatever. I can take long midnight walks in the city and cook for myself and talk to whoever I want to. In my country we don't live on campus, we just live in apartments in the city and it's up to the student to figure it out, so I got to decide where I wanted to live and what I could afford etc. I I can choose to eat nothing but toast for the day without anyone telling me different. And I can tell people I don't want to see them.
To me, this freedom was a large part of growing up because I also realised; everyone is doing this, figuring out who they are and want to be and do at this stage. No one cares if you like or dislike something, because they're all on the same journey as you are.
I think this is especially liberating for an introvert.

Damn if you ever decide to do Erasmus in Lisbon, please let's be friends?

 

[buflesse]

It’s a very specific kind of university environment and it’s not right for everyone. I know a fair few Oxbridge grads and it makes me so sad the way some of them suffered through their courses - the whole environment seemed to work well for those who are very, very confident but if you’re not, or if you need a bit more support (as we all do …) you can come out quite damaged, I think.

That’s one reason I have very little time for university snobbery and the kind of hysteria that happens around A-Levels and university entrance actually makes me quite angry (oh, TSR, you have a lot to answer for …) There are lots of very different universities across the UK (and the world) and pushing yourself into somewhere that doesn’t fit simply because of reputation is wrong.

It's so true. And I don't even think Oxbridge always has the best courses - so much of their appeal is based on the prestige, the old buildings, the 'exclusivity', the complex admissions process, their resources, rather than the actual student experience. I didn't get to study a single work of literature written after 1940 because my college wasn't big on modern stuff - and I also didn't get to study a single work by a black writer. The course was completely linear and student experience varied wildly.

Tbh it's one thing I think Ruby actually did right - deciding to go to Exeter instead of reapplying. It's not worth it, and certainly not worth building your entire sense of self worth around.

 

[username21]

Haven't been here in a while, because her latest video was full of affectations and pretentiousness that it annoyed me SO MUCH, I couldn't even stand to think about her. the way she speaks, her mannerisms, the way she constantly looks away from the camera, lisps on purpose and keeps saying "a" instead of "e" in random words.... she is just so far gone in a role inside her head. She thinks she is THO THUPERIOR to everyone else I'm just speechless. And compared to that video you all are posting above, it's mostly her behavior that has changed so much (although her looks have obvi).

 

[YellowLadybird]

I agree If anything I’ve always felt that her school did her a bit of a disservice around the whole interview process. I have no idea what her school’s Oxbridge prep and support was like but Ruby seemed totally focused on doing loads and loads of extra work, and whilst this can have value she never seemed to think about the actual interview. It seems like that was where she was let down, because as soon as she had to think on her feet and make those links between her knowledge and research and the stuff she was presented at interview, she panicked. I always thought private schools tended to do a lot better in terms of things like practice interviews but I wonder what support Ruby had in that line.

She's an over-preparer and I expect her school fed into that. They probably gave her lots of practice questions to think about and some practice sessions, and I suspect she fell apart when asked to go off topic and do something off-the-cuff.

 

[xoxoxo13]

I've watched part of her video, couldn't bear to watch the whole thing.
But, she does realize that just because someone says something it doesn't mean it's true, right? Just because people/society/Ruby herself says that university years are the best of someone's life, it doesn't mean it's something that must be right otherwise you're living life wrong.

She mentions how in first year it felt like everyone had their lives together and were having fun, but they later admitted they were struggling too. I think people realize this by the time they're past their teenage years? That everyone is human and struggling and you just see their highlights reel instead of the behind the scenes of their lives. That people are not two dimensional characters and that NO ONE has it all 'together' or 'figured out'.
She's regressed into pretentious, know-it-all, eleven year old, first HP book Hermione.

 

[sleepypasta]

One thing that really annoyed me was that she said society expects you to socialize as a form of self care and I feel like I’ve never hear that??? Even as a biased introvert I have never heard that you must spend time with people as a form of self care. I feel like she just says stuff with such complete certainity that make no sense whatsoever.

 

[xoxoxo13]

One thing that really annoyed me was that she said society expects you to socialize as a form of self care and I feel like I’ve never hear that??? Even as a biased introvert I have never heard that you must spend time with people as a form of self care. I feel like she just says stuff with such complete certainity that make no sense whatsoever.

Self care is portrayed as skincare, candles, bubble baths, shaving, moisturizing, doing yoga, Netflix watching and drinking tea.
I follow so many self-care accounts on all social media networks and no one has ever suggested socializing? All they say is catch up with friends, sometimes.
Is anyone questioning this in the comments of her videos?

 

[GoinDowntown]

One thing that really annoyed me was that she said society expects you to socialize as a form of self care and I feel like I’ve never hear that??? Even as a biased introvert I have never heard that you must spend time with people as a form of self care. I feel like she just says stuff with such complete certainity that make no sense whatsoever.

Someone probably said to her (her mum most likely) that it'll be good for her if she took a break from studying every now and then and go out and have fun with her friends a little bit more. And she's turned it into a "self care means you must socialize", everyone is pressuring me scenario.

 

[space.cat]

Someone probably said to her (her mum most likely) that it'll be good for her if she took a break from studying every now and then and go out and have fun with her friends a little bit more. And she's turned it into a "self care means you must socialize", everyone is pressuring me scenario.

This. It's also very likely something her therapist suggested for her to do but she twisted it around into some kind of attack on her identity.

 

[Auga]

Re the study tubers not trying again, Jack Edwards has (three times?) but he seems obsessed and has wagered all his self-esteem on getting in. Jade got hooked by the Minerva scam's claim to be more exclusive than Oxford, and the brain stopped thinking right there. She paid a deposit upfront before finding how much it costs per year (cleverly hidden by Minerva on their publicly available Costs page) and that Minerva didn't do the courses she talked about taking (cleverly hidden by Minerva on their publicly available page about their courses. As for Ruby, I agree with those who say a gap year would have done her the world of good, but she probably wouldn't have taken advantage of it, and a second rejection would have been catastrophic.

Not getting into Oxford was the best thing for Ruby and her mental health. She would never have coped with the 2 essays + other work a week, the short terms and quick topic change, and the tutorial system. You don't have time to endlessly rewrite essays. You don't have time to turn all your notes into flashcards and drill them. You don't have time to draft and memorize what you will say in your tutorial. Your tutor will be trying to have get you to spontaneously think through criticisms of your arguments, which is where Ruby fell down in the interview. She took a massive folder of stuff she memorized but struggled to think on her feet when given an unseen poem. She was also at the height (or should one say the lowest point?) of her first year Hermione idealization and had only just published Erimentha...so I can (with a lot of cringing) imagine her approaching the interview as Hermione/Erimentha. Let us hope she didn't at one point say "Did you know...?"

As for Jade, I am ashamed to say I liked her a lot back then in the Oxford application days, before she fell for the Minerva scam and began lying to her viewers. But I don't think she would have done well at Oxford either. She said months before that she left a better performing sixth form and rejoined her old "big fish in small pond" school because of the top school's reluctance to help her when she was struggling in maths (I think). The impression I had, especially after she got all A*, was that she preferred to be spoonfed the material and memorize it, rather than puzzle through herself. And like Ruby's reliance on memorization, I can see that attitude revealing itself in interview and being a real problem if she got in.