<p>I was talking to a friend about this earlier, and he says that Oxford is "vastly superior to Harvard". I strongly disagree with his (honestly ignorant) statement. I'm curious what the people on College Confidential think though</p>
<p>Have you gotten accepted to both and are trying to decide which to attend?</p>
<p>Haha, no I didn’t go to Harvard. (I’m technically not even a college student yet). Though I am planning to (attempt to) transfer to Harvard though. It just seems from what I’ve read, Harvard is vastly superior to Oxford, not the other way around…</p>
<p>No university in the known universe is “vastly superior” to Harvard. By any reasonable metric of overall institutional quality, none is even “marginally superior” to Harvard. Probably none is Harvard’s equal, although if I were to inclined to make the argument, I would not choose Oxford as the candidate (Stanford probably has the strongest case here).</p>
<p>Different strokes for different folks; I’d put them pretty much on par with each other. Harvard allows students to take courses in a variety of areas; Oxford expects students to concentrate in one. The college system at Harvard, though superficially similar as a housing arrangement, is quite different from that at Oxford. The tutorial system is fairly unique to Oxbridge, though colleges like Williams have replicated it here with some success.</p>
<p>For admissions, Oxford is primarily looking for academics. Harvard expects strong academics but also aims for those with excellent extracurriculars, athletics, and other traits. Factors like legacy and URM status are more likely to be factored in at Harvard. Oxford has clear admissions criteria for each department it expects students to meet, unlike Harvard, and its applicant pool is cut in half by the ban against students from applying to both Oxford and Cambridge. </p>
<p>Due to the stringent admissions criteria at Oxford, its graduates of some (but not all) departments may come out slightly more prepared than those at Harvard. A standard classics major at Harvard, for example, is only starting to translate Greek drama in his/her second or even third year, whereas Oxford classics students annually do a performance of a Greek play in the original language (!) even as first or second year students. This speaks more to the structure of the British educational system, however, than to the relative strengths of Harvard and Oxford. Both universities have virtually no discernible academic weaknesses and absurdly long lists of distinguished alumni.</p>
<p>It’s like asking whether pies or cakes are better. Who cares? They’re both tasty.</p>
<p>They’re definitely on the same level.</p>
<p>Warblers, how does Cambridge stack up to Yale in your opinion?</p>
<p>First off, I want to warn you that the transfer rate for Harvard is about 4%. Considering the fact that most transfer applicants JUST missed the mark during high school, you better do something absolutely outstanding to get in.</p>
<p>To compare them is fruitless as there are to many factors to consider, most of which can’t be quantified or ranked. If you are deciding on the two, I suggest you look at a range of factors from location, history, teaching strategy, and culture, all of which vary substantially, despite the closeness of their prestige.</p>
<p>If you really want to know which one is “better,” you should consider by what measures this should be determined. Academics? Starting salary after graduation? Nobel laureates? Endowment? The list goes on.</p>
<p>Think of it this way–If Oxford was in the US, it wouldn’t be considered on the same level of Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, or Yale.</p>
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Oh, nonsense. They’re all great. Besides, it’s like comparing Williams to Michigan, a Prius to a Land Rover, or Loretta Lynn to Pink. Why do it? They’re fundamentally different.</p>
<p>I’ll admit that I could be biased; all five of those distinguished universities are inferior to Oxford for my chosen discipline (mostly by default), so that could colo(u)r my view of things. Still, I think most reasonable people would consider them pretty interchangeable in quality – certainly professors in graduate admissions do.</p>
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That’s starting to go down the yellow brick road, which I generally do not like to do. I will only say that I’ve long held Berkeley, Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford to be the top 5 universities in the world.</p>
<p>Berkeley? As in, UC Berkeley?</p>
<p>@bitesize,</p>
<p>your friend and some Brits are still living in 1700’s or 1800’s. only they can say something like that. Outside UK, even in Europe, oxbridge is not highly regarded as the top US universities. I have several friends from German, France, Spain, Sweden, etc… and they all confirm that.</p>
<p>I’d put Oxford in the same level as UCLA maybe, some 20ish school, but compared to Harvard? Hahaha, what a joke.</p>
<p>Warbler seems to have it about right. Although in my opinion, the Oxford admissions process and the instructional approach (the tutorial system) do give it advantages over any school in the United States. Their admissions process has a stronger focus on academic merit. Admissions is based primarily on test scores, grades, and a serious faculty interview, with apparently none of the attention some American schools pay to legacy status, diversity, money, or extracurricular class-crafting baloney. The tutorial system brings one or several students together with a faculty member in discussion, writing, and problem-solving activities. So there is no escaping the material. </p>
<p>Classics is an excellent bellwether field. “The best that has been thought and said” and all that. Sounds like the Brits continue to pursue it earnestly while US colleges tend to marginalize or teach it as a technical specialty. The role of the whole British educational system would not detract from the fact that Classics are being studied at a higher level in British universities.</p>
<p>Really, though, I don’t think any of at least 15 or 20 American and British universities are “vastly superior” to any other. It’s more a question of where the strengths and weaknesses are in each school, with respect to their goals.</p>
<p>This is such a pointless and ignorant thread. Firstly, there is no way to compare universities from different educational systems without comparing their respective educational systems as well. </p>
<p>Secondly, if you really want a breakdown: The quality of teaching at Oxford is probably slightly higher due to the tutorial system in which classes have UP TO 4 people in them, no more, and are very strongly focused on learning, not challenging concepts and thinking for yourself, i.e. encouraging every bull***t attempt at participation for the sake of it (the Oxford tutors test these skills at the interview stage of the selection process because they expect their students to be already prepared for serious academic work; when you say something in class, they expect it to be intelligent and informed, and you can’t avoid speaking in a class of 3). However, Harvard is a more affluent university and probably offers better research opportunities to its most advanced students, as well as more fields of study, and maybe has more famous/renown faculty members. On the other hand, Oxford is infinitely prettier and has the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean Museum and buildings from the 14th century.</p>
<p>None of this, however, translates to one university being better than the other. Both are amazing places and anyone would be lucky to experience either.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why so many people feel the need to dismiss Oxford as a university and say that if it were American, it wouldn’t be ranked anywhere near as high. This is not true in the slightest and reveals some strange superiority/inferiority complex, I’m not sure which. Oxford hasn’t been ranked higher that Harvard in recent times, and there are reasons for this (reasons for its rank, not for Harvard being superior), but there are also reasons why it’s often been ranked higher than any other institution. To compare it to UCLA is ridiculous. UCLA is also an amazing university, don’t get me wrong, but if we somehow found a way to compare American and British universities accurately, Oxford would still be exactly where it is on the list.</p>
<p><em>yawn</em> 10char</p>
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<p>Thats because it likely would not be a top 10 school if using the US News Ranking. It has nothing to do with Oxford but if you use the metrics in the US it would not have that high of a ranking. Oxford would likely have high peer rating- though its graduate programs might be weaker than several schools in the US, but remember Oxbridge schools are the best- while in reality Harvard is really just one of the best in the US. You will find Princeton, STanford, mit and columbia all competing for the same quality of professors as Harvard.</p>
<p>I had a similar discussion with someone in another discussion </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/851678-rating-top-uk-universities-vs-top-us-universities-16.html?highlight=nairaland[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/851678-rating-top-uk-universities-vs-top-us-universities-16.html?highlight=nairaland</a></p>
<p>No, I get this. (And bear in mind that Oxford’s acceptance rate is much higher than that of the top 20 universities in the US, which would also harm its standing a lot.) This is why I said it’s impossible, imo, to compare universities from America and the UK under ranking systems like the USNWR.</p>
<p>But what I don’t understand is why people would take these rankings as gospel, and/or insist on Oxford’s academic inferiority when they have no idea about Oxford at all.</p>
<p>It is cambridge vs. H.</p>
<p>End of story.</p>
<p>President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agree, Oxford is definitely superior to that upstart Harvard…</p>
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<p>i doubt anyone is disparaging Oxford. Just get used to it though- people in the US disparage Harvard too even though they have never been 10 miles within the campus. I agree myself that its impossible to compare schools in terms of quality. </p>
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<p>That was exactly what I was thinking. However in America Oxford has a lot of rep, next on the list is LSE.</p>