American's views on Oxford! Cambridge...

Applying to College
1

This is my first post, I just wanted to ask people here about something,

Myself and my four friends from high school (at the moment two at Oxford, two at Cambridge, and I’m at Warwick :wink: ) were travelling through America four months ago (for a couple of weeks) and whenever we were talking to people about university and they asked “what school do you go to”, and my friends responded, they almost always said “WOW” to the guys from Oxford but almost never to the guys from Cambridge

This was REALLY weird for us because the Cambridge guys are basically the two genius guys and thw two oxford are clever too but not as clever. And in England Cambridge is seen as the “harvard” equivalent and oxford is like a “stanford/princeton/yale etc…”, kind of less good but still both are amazing. Oxford is older though! Even the oxford guys were surprised, needless to say they were ripping it out of the Cambridge guys for ages, they were lovin’ it!

I wonder why Oxford is more “prestigious” in the US. I mean its true that loads of prime ministers went to oxford but when you consider Cambridge has Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, twice as many nobel prize winners, the best philosophers mathematicians, and americans love things like monty python etc…, im surprised they thought they went to oxford!

Both are really good though, we just found it really weird how one is considered much more prestigious in the US. Maybe better marketing?!? Pretty interesting!

Btw Im not clever enough to go to either, but I;'m at WARWICK which is a good uni too (one of the best in UK!)!! We’re making a name for ourselves, top 10 English uni and great fun as well!

2

<p>I think that people who know Cambridge consider it on par with Oxford; I certainly don't know many people who would consider it more prestigious. But, yeah, among the majority of Americans, I'd say the name "Oxford" is much better known than the name "Cambridge". Not sure why, but I've known of Oxford for years and Cambridge for a relatively short time. </p>

<p>Does Oxford have more internationals or more affiliations with American universities, perhaps? I don't know.</p>

3

<p>I think on some level the name "Oxford" is just around more so people think of it more. There's the Oxford English Dictionary; Cambridge doesn't put those out as much, but there are abridged versions of the OED in kids' classrooms from the time they're young. I think that might be something to do with it...</p>

4

<p>"Not sure why, but I've known of Oxford for years and Cambridge for a relatively short time. "</p>

<p>REALLY?!!!! Wow, thats a surprise.</p>

<p>I guess in terms of just the name, here in England Oxford and Cambridge are synonymous. I mean they have their differences in many aspects, but in the UK everyone looks at them as one and the same (when looking at the name on its own), thats why they are called Oxbridge.</p>

<p>(even tho we have other universities which make up the "russell group", kind of like UK's Ivy League - Warwick is in there ;) )</p>

<p>Oo by the way LSE seemed to have an inflated reputation in US as well compared to UK, some people were asking me about it and I was surprised coz here in UK LSE is seen as the same as most "good" unis (ucl, kings, imperial, warwick, durham, bristol, bath, edinburgh, st andrews) but nothing special (like oxbridge)</p>

5

<p>I consider them to be equal. Oxbride...if you will.</p>

6

<p>I've always known of Oxford, Cambridge and LSE.</p>

<p>Oxford has always seemed to me the holy grail of colleges, even above Harvard. Cambridge and LSE I have always heard were also great schools, on par with the Ivy League.</p>

7

<p>Cambridge? Isn't that the city that Harvard and MIT is in? </p>

<p>= P jk.</p>

8

<p>"Oxford has always seemed to me the holy grail of colleges, even above Harvard. Cambridge and LSE I have always heard were also great schools, on par with the Ivy League."</p>

<p>holy grail of colleges! Yeah thats what I gather most Americans see Oxford as! Why is that?</p>

<p>I just find it really strange why thats the case, most Oxford students would give their right arm to be at Harvard, or any of the good US universities.</p>

<p>I just dont understand how Cambridge, which is widely seen as the best university in the UK by Brits (well, except those affiliated w/ Oxford!), doesn't have this reputation the other side of the pond!</p>

9

<p>btw has anyone heard of warwick?</p>

10

<p>oh yeh and LSE is not in the same LEAGUE as oxford cambridge, ivy's berkely, mit, etc...</p>

<p>LSE is a top 15 british school but nothing more. It has a really inflated rep in the us, i guess thru' good marketing and advertisement.</p>

11

<p>Blame Clinton... lol (He went to Oxford right?)</p>

12

<p>Television and Books....</p>

13

<p>When's the last time anyone got a "Rhodes Scholarship" to Cambridge? It's just off the radar screen, just like all other European universities. Hey, most Americans don't know what a Dartmouth or a Brown are either, and certainly not a Williams or an Amherst.</p>

14

<p>the name "OXFORD" is just cool and sounds prestigious and old and harry potter like</p>

<p>like an ox. and ford.</p>

<p>cambridge...eh...nice city in MA...sounds pretty</p>

15

<p>"the name "OXFORD" is just cool and sounds prestigious and old and harry potter like</p>

<p>like an ox. and ford.</p>

<p>cambridge...eh...nice city in MA...sounds pretty"</p>

<p>So you ve not heard of cambridge in uk? Both unis are very old and historic, oldest in europe is University of Bologna by the way!</p>

<p>"When's the last time anyone got a "Rhodes Scholarship" to Cambridge?"</p>

<p>But Rhodes scholarships are just for oxford, they were set up by some rich guy for foreign students to study there! So of course no other university in the world accepts rhodes scholars!</p>

<p>"It's just off the radar screen, just like all other European universities. Hey, most Americans don't know what a Dartmouth or a Brown are either, and certainly not a Williams or an Amherst."</p>

<p>"Television and Books...."</p>

<p>But how come they (tv and books) talk about Oxford so much more than Cambridge? id have thought with ppl like Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Wittgenstein, watson+crick, Rutherford, bertland russell, charles babbage (invented computer), john venn (the diagram!), Erasmus, Francis Bacon</p>

<p>And even when it comes to media, everyone knows about cambridge alumni: ian mckellen (gandalf), monty python, fry+laurie, sacha baron cohen and loads more</p>

<p>and writers like sylvia plath, john milton, samuel pepys, aa milne, douglas adams (hitchikers guide), william wordsworth, cs lewis, (although in general oxford BEATS
cambridge on writers!)</p>

<p>and of course John Harvard (i mean he even named the uni town he helped construct over his alma mater!)</p>

<p>I mean those are just the ones ive heard of! Theres loads more, but i cant tell you them. Most people would say cambridge has better alumni than oxford (but oxford beats cambridge HANDS DOWN in political figures, eg almost all british prime ministers were from oxford!)</p>

<p>We all found it weird how despite the fact that Americas best university town is named after cambridge, they still dont know about.</p>

<hr>

<p>By the way, i dont want to come across as against oxford! It is my favourite city in the UK (much more fun than cambridge!), and is really good fun.</p>

<p>Im actually just doing some research (getting opinions from the useful medium of a message board) for an article in warwicks student paper about reps of british unis abroad and esp. in the us (i was asked to do this after travelling around america)</p>

16

<p>Sometimes these things just happen I guess</p>

17

<p>when i was younger, i was told by my parents and my teachers that oxford and harvard are the best universities in the world. and cambridge is like a yale or princeton or stanford. in fact, my 8th grade teacher told me harvard is the #1 university in the US, but oxford is #1 in the world. but nevertheless, i still get the wow factor if i met someone who went to either university. the sad thing is, i have the impression that many americans consider oxford and cambridge to be below HYPSM (i believe they are at the same level)... but many students from the british commonwealth consider oxford and cambridge to be among the best universities in the world. i guess its just where you grew up, how your culture was like, and how ... ethnocentric (?) your country is.</p>

18

<p>I guess you can add me to the list... I've always been under the impression that Oxford is the best university in the world, matched or closely followed by Harvard. Buut... you could tell me that you go to Yale, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, etc. and you'd still get the same HUGE wow.</p>

19

<p>You know what's annoying? How you can't apply to both Oxford and Cambridge!</p>

20

<p>I've always considered it to be sort of people who go to Oxford are great at being scholars in ivory towers whereas people who go to Cambridge are the future scientists. I think another part of it has to do with the fact that you hear of places named "Cambridge" on this side of the pond and there aren't very many "Oxfords" at all (the only one I can think of is in Ohio), so people automatically know which one you're talking about whereas for Cambridge they're not quite sure. If that makes sense...</p>