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<p>I think a lot of people who have studied at both would disagree with you. The student experience at Oxbridge is absolutely unparalleled.</p>
<p>@eating food,
Exactly.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply, but I would have chosen MIT, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Penn, Cornell, Chicago, and Stanford over Harvard. I visited and it just wasn’t for me. Fit>prestige.</p>
<p>Stanford, Just because
Yale, So I could be tapped for Skull and Bones
Michigan, Because it is the best of everythingness</p>
<p>Besides all these people who are pretty much saying their own school is better than Harvard, the New York Times published some numbers a few years ago about cross admits. Yale takes the most significant portion from Harvard, with students leaning 66 Harvard-34 Yale (which is actually reasonably close).</p>
<p>In my personal experience, I’m a prospective student who was accepted YPC and waitlisted HS (only schools I applied to). If I had gotten into Harvard, Yale and Harvard would have been a big choice for me. I would have started leaning to Yale–but who knows? I never got a chance to do their overnight days or get their recruitment, so maybe I would have gone to Harvard after all.</p>
<p>I was just browsing and wanted to put my 2 cents in. I was going to apply to Harvard, but I got into Brown ED. Brown is my perfect school. Harvard is nice and I would’ve loved to go there, but there’s something about Brown that is different from other schools for me. You’re an idiot if you don’t think Harvard’s “all that” because it kinda is. Still, I feel like all ivies + other top schools are like that and to just have the chance to choose schools like this is an honor.</p>
<p>CayugaRed2005 - oh please :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Can I ask if you have ANY first-hand experience with either (Ivy, or Oxbridge in particular)? I should disclose, that whilst I don’t have any experience with Harvard (or any other Ivy League school for that matter), Oxbridge is a different matter and my experiences of the Ivy are accounts from friends and family who have attended these institutions.</p>
<p>The student experience is at best, perhaps possibly equal to that at Harvard (although my opinion is that its probably worse!) and nowhere near on the level of “unparalleled” as you put it. The two reasons/high-points students who have no experience of Oxbridge commonly refer to as good about the institutions are: the college system, and the tutorial system.</p>
<p>Regarding the former, you have the likes of Yale etc which opt a very similar system in the Ivy League (and places like Harvard to a lesser extent with houses). It depends on the person, but generally it isn’t anything to rave home about at Oxbridge - with the exception of literally one or two colleges, the financial endowments/positions are horrendously poor for most (and NOTHING compared to the Ivy League universities - although this is b/c universities in the UK are not private). This leads to a tremendous reduction in quality and lifestyle (in terms of facilities/opportunities on offer) at the university/college - I think the combined budget of say Oxford is about $5 Billion (or about £3-4 Billion), which is also THEN split between colleges, NOWHERE near the level available at even the lower ranked Ivy’s. Thus student experience suffers a great deal as a result. Yes the college system is more established (having been around for longer), but it is a negligible difference in a student experience in my opinion (as one can find such social circles pretty much anywhere).</p>
<p>Moreover, its not like being at Hogwarts (or any other Harry Potter reference you may think of - another ‘highlight’ of the student Oxbridge experience) by any stretch of the imagination! My experience is with Trinity College (Cambridge) and Christ Church College (Oxford), both one of the richest colleges at their respective universities, with Trinity being the richest of both universities (but as I said above, they are still VERY poor compared to the Ivy’s). ChCh had its dining hall used in Harry Potter (although in real-life, it looks nothing like the movie given the special effects and props used etc) - and honestly, Harvard’s Annenberg >>>> Christ Church dining hall. The whole persona that studying at Oxbridge must be very gothic/magical etc etc is just nonsense to be honest, and the student experience (if this is a issue/prospective positive highlight of Oxbridge), suffers as a result. </p>
<p>Now regarding the latter topic of tutorials (which is the most over emphasized hype placed on the supposed brilliance of the Oxbridge student experience), The colleges have no bearing on teaching WHAT SO EVER, nor its quality. Your tutorials in the first year are conducted by first-year professors at your college, which perhaps may lead to a difference in quality, but all in all, the professorship quality is maintained on an equal basis throughout the university during your first year (i.e. each first year professor is given a quality check etc).</p>
<p>During your second and third years, most of your tutorials aren’t even in your college, as often the professors covering the topic you are studying are in different colleges. Moreover, teaching (i.e. lectures etc) are done on university-wide basis.</p>
<p>People think (particularly from the US) that the whole tutorial system at Oxbridge is so wonderful b/c you have an opportunity to have one-on-one sessions with world leading professors - THERE NOT. First, the tutors you are stuck with are not world leading professors, but they have to take part in tutorials to cover there stipends (i.e. expenses to live and work in a certain college). They don’t engage in turly astonishing intellectual debate - none more so than at HYP at least. Given the substantial underfunding problems at Oxbridge also, the tutorial quality is set to get even worse (from an already quite poor standing).</p>
<p>@SHawking, I agree with you.</p>
<p>For ppl in Korean, China, Japan, India, .etc, oxbridge are 2nd tier choice, below HYPSM. Because funding is the most important factor in gaining reputation.</p>
<p>I would definitely pick Brown over Harvard. I honestly, honestly would. Not applying to Harvard, though. Maybe even Dartmouth.</p>
<p>My philosophy: There’s a point where you can’t go wrong, so you must resort to the “fit” factor. Brown is just… me.</p>
<p>After EA decisions, I decided not to submit my app to Harvard. I (obviously) prefer Stanford. I would also pick Yale over Harvard. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be particularly “bummed” to go to Harvard either XD.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think I would (coming from someone who also got into PSM + Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Dartmouth). Harvard is just so irresistible :P, but I’m perfectly happy and can’t complain.</p>
<p>^But you’re going to Princeton?</p>
<p>a friend of mine went to caltech on full ride (caltech gives a couple of those per year) over harvard. Of course, I would too if (big if) I got that offer.</p>
<p>implied in what I wrote: Harvard didn’t accept me</p>
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<p>ummmm… Yeah.</p>
<p>I met a couple people at MIT CPW who chose MIT over Harvard. and most of them chose it b/c of the atmosphere AKA fit factor</p>
<p>Yeahhh. There is no school that would tempt me away from Harvard. But the one school where I would even consider choosing over Harvard is Princeton. It’s undergraduate focus is unrivalled and their final thesis is epic. So for me Harvard undergraduate Harvard graduate school or Princeton undergaruate Harvard graduate would be nirvana. Unfortunatley I’m going to Columbia because my essays for Harvard and Princeton were really bad. (hoping to transfer!!!) As for Yale I don’t think anybody should go there except for humanities and maybe the prestige…</p>
<p>I’m definitely picking based on fit.</p>
<p>I don’t care how “big” Harvard’s name is, and frankly, the argument “It’s Harvard” annoys me more than anything else. (I’m probably contrary like that, no offense meant to those for whom “It’s Harvard” is enough of a draw).</p>
<p>So yes, if I like another school more than I like Harvard (based on intangibles like fit), I will pick it. That’s it really.</p>
<p>^then Princeton ftw!</p>
<p>It’s hilarious how we’re saying “I’m picking based on fit, prestige,” yet we’re picking between the most prestigious schools in America (HYP). pfffft no prestige, yeah right</p>
<p>yepp, got rejected by harverd</p>
<p>^^I totally agree about the “It’s Harvard!” argument! I will admit that I did feel a little like that right after I was accepted, but now I’m really trying to think about fit. So I’m seriously considering Princeton over Harvard… Princeton seems to be academically more rigorous/focused in the area I want, but Princeton’s isolated location bothers me, since I’ve grown up in a similar area and would like to try something different.</p>