<p>I don't exactly know admissions statistics, but I'd imagine as they are both considered two of the best universities in the world they are pretty steep.</p>
<p>Roughly speaking, most universities in the US have a three-tiered system of honors: (from highest to lowest) summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude. Some universities split up those who earn these by a flat GPA (i.e. 3.8 and above is summa no matter what); others will do it by class rank (top 5% get summa, top 15% get magna, etc.) to assure they aren't giving everyone honors (this happened at Harvard a lot until they clamped down on it a few years ago).</p>
<p>Some universities, like MIT, don't give honors. It's an honor just to graduate from there. I'm sure anyone at Oxford/Cambridge will respect an MIT degree.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with the last poster, as it just depends on what your major is and how the administration is feeling about grade inflation. That said, Stanford is incredibly well known for grade inflation.</p>
<p>If you're going into the humanities (or liberal arts as they're better known), prepare to work to the bone teaching to earn your way through. Unlike the sciences and engineering, there's very little money for liberal arts students; all my friends in these departments have to TA every semester. I don't know about Oxford/Cambridge, but I'd imagine it's much the same.</p>
<p>Finally, you ought to look at graduate schools in the US too on your hunt. Though everyone blasts us for our poor high schools, the US still has the best graduate schools in the world, and it's worth looking into.</p>