<p>I'm curious how the two universities compare to each other with regard to the amount of American students accepted. On the Cambridge website, it stated that they only accepted 6 (6!!!) Americans coming fesh out of high school on average each year. I was unable to find any such number on the Oxford website. I would hope that since they have an international student union (which Cam does not), offices in NYC, etc, that they take in more Americans each year.</p>
<p>I don’t have specifics, but I have heard that Oxford takes a few more (undergraduate) Americans than Cambridge. I have no idea why anyone would want to go Oxford over Cambridge, but that’s another story.</p>
<p>There are basically more American undergraduates at Oxford than Cambridge because the myth persists that Oxford is for arts students and Cambridge is for science students (over 700 years it is true that Oxford has the edge is arts and Cambridge has the edge is sciences. But you’re not going to be there for 700 years! They are really not very different from each other. If Oxford is rated the best in the UK for one subject, all it means is that Cambridge is rated second, not bottom. I went to both so I should know!). Since US high schools are generally very behind other countries in science, particularly math, it is much rarer for US applicants straight out of high school to be accepted into the UK for science undergrad (not impossible though), hence much rarer to get into Cambridge, because that’s where US science students apply over Oxford (go on, buck the trend).</p>
<p>My personal observations suggest about 20 US students are admitted per year at Oxford for undergraduate. Most have completed a year of college in the US already. However, this is just guessing based on the number of people I knew. Don’t know where you can find the official statistics. </p>
<p>At both of these universities there are 700+ US graduate students.</p>
<p>I figured Oxford would have more, but I’m not entirely sure that’s because of a stereotype. I suppose it persists, but I think Americans like Oxford better because it’s simply a more recognizeable name. Everybody knows Ox. Not as much with Cam. It’s sort of like the other Oxford, the sequel that’s never quite been able to quite catch up name-wise to the original. Plus many see Oxford (perhaps erroneously) as this bastion of white privilege, which is very exotic since everybody over on this side of the pond is obsessed with giving (obscene) advantages to minorities and the poor.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m fairly confident I would have a good shot at admission straight out of high school. I’m very passionate about the subject I wish to study, and aside from learning other languages (which the University has a center for) I’m not interested in taking other classes. Obviously that’s not a guarantee by any means, but I don’t think I’d be an immediate “shoo-out,” so to speak.</p>
<p>I’m not interested in persuing graduate studies at Oxbridge much.</p>
<p>Oxford is simply far more receptive to Americans than Cambridge is. They come over to New York to fund-raise among Oxford alumni and to interview applicants. They will consider any student with 2100s on the SAT and several APs with 4s and 5s. They have redesigned their website to make it easy to understand how to apply. Cambridge basically assumes that no American can handle the Cambridge curriculum. It holds Americans to far higher standards than it holds UK citizens. It requires scores of 5 on as many as 6 AP exams. And the funny thing is that Oxbridge takes 1%-2% of UK school leavers. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford and MIT combined take less than 1% of American school leavers.</p>
<p>There were two Americans in my college when I was in first year at Girton, and Girton isn’t really a popular college at Cambridge. Most international students, particularly American students, are at King’s, Trinity, St. John’s or Churchill. The two Americans at Girton have also been admitted at Yale and Princeton.</p>
<p>My daughter (who has American, Irish and British nationalities) was just admitted to Cambridge. It was a long and very stressful process, with a series of discreet hurdles. She was educated almost entirely in EUrope (France and Italy), developed a passionate interest that we actively encouraged, and had a conscious goal to get into oxbridge since the age of 11. Indeed, we mobilized the family focus onto her endeavor for the last two years, with tutors, attention, and on occasion, pushing. We also had a strategy for her bac exam, which she had to completely ace. This all sounds more orderly than it was, of course. We were never very confident, though always hopeful. </p>
<p>Regarding the “receptiveness” of Ox or Cam, we visited both. Though she preferred Ox by reputation, it seemed closed and arrogant. Cam was open, friendly, and encouraging - the exact opposite.</p>