<p>Hi :) I'm new here, so sorry if I've broken any rules in where I've posted this.</p>
<p>TLDR -> please rank Cambridge and HYPSMC for undergrad :D</p>
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<p>I applied/am applying to Cambridge (UK) and HYPSM + Caltech.</p>
<p>At HYPSMC I would hope to study econ+math, either as major/minor or just econ major with extra math courses.</p>
<p>At Cambridge I applied for the economics tripos, since it's rigorous enough to be compared to a math minor + econ major in the US anyway.</p>
<p>My questions were:
1) How does the difficulty of admission compare across Cambridge and each of HYPMSC?</p>
<p>2) How would you rank each university at undergraduate?</p>
<p>3) What should my order of preference be, assuming that I don't care about anything other than prestige, employability and quality of education? I don't know whether I'll work in the US or not, I could easily work in Europe. Also I'm not this shallow, it's just that I can factor in other preferences myself.</p>
<p>They are all tops for math and economics at the undergrad level. At the graduate level, probably Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford are a notch above Yale, Columbia and Cambridge. While it’s good to start your research on these schools early, you should probably get in first as all of them are ultra selective.</p>
<p>^ the graduate level is irrelevant to me at this stage. I appreciate that they’re all top schools but is there anything between them? both generally at undergrad and for the specific undergrad programs I’ve outlined?</p>
<p>And does the competitiveness vary between them at all?</p>
<p>I also hear that HYP are somewhat ‘corrupt’ in their admissions, as well as MS to some extent.</p>
<p>I don’t know how competitive Cambridge is in comparison to those schools. I know its acceptance rate is closer to 20% but the application process there seems to be a lot more self-selecting. </p>
<p>Even in this group of schools, Harvard stands out to me for Econ and Math.</p>
<p>^ yes, the admissions rate is somewhat misleading due to heavy self-selection (can only choose 5 schools) and the inability to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge (which doubles the acceptance rate at each university). So an adjusted admissions rate is certainly < 10%, but it’s impossible to tell where exactly as measuring the quality of applicants is quite difficult across educational systems.</p>
<p>After graduation, you will be able to identify the conditions that might make such a statement true. And realize how unrealistic and flawed your statement is.</p>
<p>Your question has been answered by Hunt. Search for his post on prestigiousity index. It covers your question with all the attention it deserves.</p>
<p>^ what are you talking about re: the acceptance rates?</p>
<p>Preferences between Oxford and Cambridge are almost perfectly evenly distributed, and if you could apply to both then the vast majority of candidates would do so.</p>