<p>Which would you choose? Why?</p>
<p>As great as Harvard is, I just don't think I could resist the glamour of Cambridge ;p
But then I'd be terribly torn if I were to make that choice...</p>
<p>Ultimately, it depends upon which type of education system you prefer. Read the following two scenarios.</p>
<p>Harvard- Do you prefer a liberal arts education, where you have the freedom not only to choose your major a year after you enter the college but to change it later simply because your interests are now different? An addition to this is that you also have an entire menagerie of extracurriculars, sports, clubs, and anything else that suits your fancy not only to better those academics that you’re studying but also just to enjoy college life. This is made better by the an amazing urban scene where you have so many restaurants, museums, theaters, and other cool things to do.</p>
<p>Cambridge-Do you want to enter college with an immediate focus. Do you already know what you want to be and what career you want? In this scenario, you apply not to college in itself by the major in college. For example, you don’t apply to Cambridge but you apply for Economics AT Cambridge. The scene here is pretty well, in want of a better word, “cozy.” The area is semi-urban but pales in comparison to the one described above. Also, there are just much less E.C’s. Also here, you would have a kind of “tutoring system.” (check below)</p>
<p>[Tutorial</a> system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutorial_system]Tutorial”>Tutorial system - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Now, the choice is yours. Hope that helped.</p>
<p>Indeed, the major difference is between the US style liberal arts model, and the UK model in which one studies a particular subject, without any minors. The Oxbridge style tutorial system is unparalleled in the world. I would also add that the extracurricular activities play a major role in Cambridge as well, for example the College sport teams, and the rivalry between the colleges is a way more important than at Harvard (of course the Harvard colleges are just residential colleges, whereas the Cambridge colleges are independent institutions on their own right, even if all of them belong to the University). Not to mention the loads of societies…</p>
<p>For those who fall in love with one subject, say, economics, the Cambridge style education is better, as there’s no need to learn anything else, just economics. But for those undecided, it’s quite the contrary, the system can be too narrow.
Cambridge is a 802 years old university, and have hundreds of fantastic old buildings all over the town. Naturally, US universities cannot complete against the architecture of Cambridge. (Although many, such as Chicago or Yale tried to copy the Oxbridge architecture.) However, people tend to forget that the research centres, faculties, departments and most of the libraries are based in brand new buildings, not gothic castes. </p>
<p>Personally, I would choose Harvard over Cambridge, as it’s the best university in the world. Cambridge might be second, but not the best, even if the QS rankings places it on the top.</p>