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<p>Not entirely, but there is some truth to that. Certainly the top 1% of UK high school students have a better shot at Oxbridge than the top 1% of US students would with HYP. Partly because Oxbridge admissions are more one-dimensional and hence easier to predict, and partly because of larger student numbers in the US.</p>
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<p>I think this depends on how you define “their peers at Oxbridge”. If you mean the people who got into HYP purely on academic merit vs the top 5% at Oxbridge, I doubt there’s much difference (and that would be a fair comparison based on the bigger US population and the fact that so many HYP students are “hooked” in some way, i.e. didn’t get in on pure academics).</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you mean the academic superstars of the Ivy League vs the average student taken from the whole of the Oxford/Cambridge student population, that’s not a fair comparison for the reasons I mentioned above. Just like it wouldn’t be fair to compare the best students at Oxbridge against everyone at HYP, including all the under-qualified people who somehow got in (my impression is that they are not a small minority).</p>
<p>As for the average student at HYP vs the average student at Oxbridge, I don’t know. HYP undergrads are a smaller and more exclusive percentage of the US population, but far more students are at Oxbridge purely because of academic achievements, and Oxbridge are also a stronger magnet for the best UK students than HYP are for the best US students. I’m inclined to think it balances out. Certainly there are some geniuses and stupid people at both.</p>
<p>I will say one thing for the best US students I’ve met, though. In general, they’re much more proactive in life, and conscious about taking part in extracurricular activities and enriching experiences and how it will look on their r</p>