Stanford v. Oxford for prestige?

College Search & Selection
41

<p>Although completely irelevant, it is worth noting that Oxford (founded in the 11th century) is the oldest elite university in the English-speaking World and Stanford (founded in 1891) is of the youngest elite university in the English-speaking World. Only Carnegie Mellon and UCLA were founded after Stanford.</p>

42

<p>Academically speaking, Stanford is more prestigious without a question. Even ARWU completely overstates British universities’ relevance, which is in steep decline (largely because Britain hasn’t been a superpower in the world for a long time). Add to that that Oxford isn’t as “scientific” as Cambridge.</p>

<p>@Alexandre
Caltech was found in the same year as Stanford. -.-</p>

43

<p>Oxford is probably more prestigious, particularly outside the U.S.</p>

<p>But Stanford is much harder to get into–I am 100% sure of this.</p>

44

<p>Actually my impression is that Oxbridge’s reputation INSIDE the US is quite overrated. Just look at how many posts on this board stating that Oxbridge are the best schools in the world, etc… I think Americans tend to romanticize Oxbridge, and England in general. My hunch is that if you asked a Frenchman or Chinese, Oxbridge wouldn’t be at the very top of their lists.</p>

45

<p>I think that as a whole, Oxford is more prestigious than Stanford but only very slightly.</p>

46

<p>Stanford = Bentley
Oxford = Rolls Royce</p>

<p>Bentley any day.</p>

<p>In all seriousness, it completely depends upon the course of study. Stanford Engineering? Stanford Spanish? Stanford Classics? Besides which, you cannot compare different systems.</p>

<p>If the question refers to an ambiguous sense of gravitas when hearing the name, Oxford for sure due to its historic significance among english speakers.</p>

<p>As to the side question of which is more selective, I get the feeling from posters here, especially Asian, that Oxford/Cambridge are easier to get into than HYPS.</p>

47

<p>I don’t think Stanford even has the gravitas that Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT and Columbia have here in the States among the college age population.</p>

48

<p>

I was in high school when I last posted in this thread…I think you win the “oldest thread bumped” award.</p>

<p>[Click</a> here to claim your prize!](<a href=“http://images.ncix.com/forumimages/B4386DEB-2CCF-4945-8AA4545D355A48FC.jpg]Click”>http://images.ncix.com/forumimages/B4386DEB-2CCF-4945-8AA4545D355A48FC.jpg)</p>

49

<p>Reading sentimentGX4’s posts I literally held my hand over my face.</p>

<p>I had never heard of Stanford until last year, and I still wouldn’t have if I hadn’t researched US universities; whereas Oxford is known by nearly everyone to be amazing.</p>

50

<p>Dionysus58: inasmuch as Oxford is not in the US, how good could it be, really?</p>

51

<p>

</p>

<p>Because you never heard of it doesn’t mean it is not prestigious. Stanford’s prominence in engineering/Science is disturbingly unmatchable except by MIT</p>

52

<p>meant to add a smiley to post #47</p>

53

<p>Stanford has a better football team. Great win over USC!</p>

54

<p>sefago: I’m not suggesting Stanford isn’t a prestigious university, rather that the users of CC, and Americans in general I would argue are worryingly ignorant of the differing in opinion with regards to university prestige abroad. It seems an obvious point, but prestige differs according to ones geography.</p>

55

<p>I wholeheartedly agree that prestige differs geographically. But then, really, you haven’t ever heard of Stanford before? And you live in London?? I mean it is perfectly natural to believe that Oxbridge are more prestigious, but being totally ignorant of Stanford is a little unbelievable. We aren’t talking about err Dartmouth or Duke or St. Andrews here. Do you regularly read stuff like science news?</p>

56

<p>Nop I’m not a scientist. I remember hearing the name in some terrible film (I think called First Daughter) about a presidents daughter attending college there; I just assumed it was fictitious. The only US universities I had heard of before researching them was Harvard, Yale, Princeton and MIT.</p>

57

<p>

I explicitly specify “academic” prestige, so it doesn’t really matter what you think or your mom thinks or your neighbor next door thinks but educated individuals around the world think. </p>

<p>The number of Nature and Science articles generated by Oxford pales in comparison to those from Stanford as well as highly cited articles (as measured by ARWU). </p>

<p>[ARWU</a> 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp]ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp)</p>

<p>I am not speaking from my knowledge of subjective international opinion but from my knowledge of academic prominence and influence. Oxford simply doesn’t compare to Stanford.</p>

58

<p>Whether you explicitly specified it or not, “academic” prestige as you put it does not exist in any real sense. Prestige is a fickle and rudimentary thing; it is not built upon recent research or scientific breakthroughs, or indeed numbers of articles in scientific journals, but the common assumptions of me and my neighbour. </p>

<p>Are you really suggesting the only opinions that matter with regard to university prestige are those in academic circles?</p>

59

<p>^ I actually agree with the first paragraph except that you used “rudimentary” wrongly. Even academics are prone to judging a school based on common reputation than “informed” reputation.</p>

<p>Academics are usually the ideal group of people to ask about the prestige of a university because most often than not they know what goes on in the “ivy towers” of other universities based on research collaboration, having colleagues at other institutions e.t.c
Lay opinion about a school is based on popularity than informed opinion.</p>

<p>If you have sat down with professors (This is common amongst American professors as opposed to those outside) they judge a school based on their colleagues who are teaching or researching at that school. For example if a professor does a post-doc at xxx university he is going to think its a great school no matter what. And if his fellow post-doc friend moved to an academic position at xxx university- the professor would automatically think highly of that department. </p>

<p>Academic prestige in circles is strong dependent on faculty reputation not how good the school is really. Faculty strength is not the ultimate factor for determining the “prestige” of a school though.</p>

60

<p>

So academia = science. Good to know!</p>

<p>Stanford “pales in comparison” to Oxford in my areas of the humanities (in some cases by default…Stanford doesn’t even have some of those departments). Does that make Oxford better? My professors nearly wet themselves when they found out they had an applicant from Oxford applying for graduate studies, which would not have been a response even for Harvard. People in academia are no more immune to the lure of Oxbridge than anyone else, regardless of how many publications they do or do not have.</p>

<p>

I had heard of Stanford in high school, but I just vaguely knew of it as a decent school in California. Oxford would’ve gotten much more of a “Wow!” response from me. My opinion of the two is admittedly more balanced these days.</p>