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Why did YOU choose Oxford or Cambridge over the other?

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Reply 80

Inspiron

Cambridge and Oxford mathmos at each others throats. You gotta love it :biggrin:

Reply 81

Elles

So, back to the question...

Oxford Medicine = location primarily, it was the one i was more familiar with & completed the compass points of 4 medical schools around my hometown! :p:

With hindsight, the selection criteria/requirements there probably suited me more - at the time Cambridge were even more into their "three science or maths" subjects & I was just doing Biology & Chemistry with 2 more artsy humanities subjects at A2.

When it came to re-deciding for Clinicals I actually momentarily considered Cambridge... :wink:

but this time decided against based on people who'd still be in Oxford for a while longer, I loved the sound of the Oxford course & thought I'd find Cambridge too quiet to live in.

Reply 82

JohnStuartMill

Cambridge for History as the course is a lot more flexible and the faculty has a better reputation. I visited both Oxford and Cambridge but there wasn't as much choice as I'd like at Oxford.

Reply 83

harr

CamSPSer

University College was the college his father had attended, college choice was made before course

Fair enough. Seems a strange way to do it though (I suppose he wasn't very certain about which course he wanted to do then).

Reply 84

CamSPSer

harr

Fair enough. Seems a strange way to do it though (I suppose he wasn't very certain about which course he wanted to do then).

Meh, different times. Public schools used to have links with particular colleges and send kiddies there etc etc. Not as meritocratic and open as it is today

Reply 85

tenjon

PPE is the best degree of its sort in the country.

And I much preferred Oxford as a city, although Cambridge is prettier.

CamSPSer

I guess not everyone can get into the greatest university in the country, and Oxford is a good consolation prize :smile:

yet you're doing SPS? ^o) :p:

note to any zealots: joke!

Reply 86

CamSPSer

tom391

PPE is the best degree of its sort in the country.

And I much preferred Oxford as a city, although Cambridge is prettier.

yet you're doing SPS? ^o) :p:

note to any zealots: joke!

SPS is the subject that all the intelligent people do:
Get a Cambridge degree... for half the work required usually! :wink:

Reply 87

henryt

I think that we should all just agree to disagree about why Cambridge and Oxford are better - I'd imagine different aspects appeal to different people. Having said that, most Oxons would rather be a 'tab than go to St. John's, and I've heard similar sentiments from Cantabs about going to their St. John's... So at least we can agree on something :wink:

Reply 88

$Avatar for sTe\/o$

sTe\/o

henryt

How dare you forsake the name of my alma mater, the great College of St John the Evangelist?!! :eek2:

Reply 89

kizer

henryt

most Oxons would rather be a 'tab than go to St. John's,

What wondeful weasel words! Have you ever heard anyone at Oxford say that?? It's a Cambridge thing.

St John's is fantastic, I visited it today. Actually all the Oxford colleges are great.

Reply 90

henryt

kizer

What wondeful weasel words! Have you ever heard anyone at Oxford say that?? It's a Cambridge thing.

St John's is fantastic, I visited it today. Actually all the Oxford colleges are great.

St. John's were, unfortunately, rather cold with me!! I've heard a few Oxons say that... But I think it's far bigger at Cam than at Ox :biggrin:

. Perhaps it's just the minority of Oxons that actually want to go to Cambridge that say that :wink:

Reply 91

kizer

^^ Really? How? Seeing as I am going there in a month I'd be intereted to know who to avoid... :s-smilie:

Reply 92

henryt

They gave my group of 4 the cold-shoulder. All of the other colleges that we'd visited on the day (that being: Corpus, Christ Church, Trinity, Worcester, Bailiol, Merton, New, Oriel and Magdelen) were at least accomodating enough to let us inside without barking at us - some college porters even offered to show us around! But at St. John's there was an angry porter, and some angry students - looked like medics, but I couldn't be sure!!
Anyhow, I'm sure St. John's is a great place :smile:

I'm just going on personal experiences, but I suppose that's exactly what you do have to go on to choose your college! If you've had a good vibe from them, just ignore me!!
It's a shame really, because I was also under the impression that all Oxford colleges were wonderful too, but St. John's sort of shattered that image for me. Ah well. I guess I'll be happy trying to get in somewhere else :biggrin:

Reply 93

$Avatar for sTe\/o$

sTe\/o

henryt

St. John's were, unfortunately, rather cold with me!! I've heard a few Oxons say that... But I think it's far bigger at Cam than at Ox :biggrin:

That's a shame, because I'd heard that SJC Oxford was one of the best colleges in Oxford, and easily the richest. I don't think it has the bad rep you think it has - this is mainly people getting confused between SJC Cambridge and SJC Oxford, which is easily done. St Johns is the college everyone loves to hate in Cambridge, mainly due to a lot of success in sports since... forever.. and being more loaded than people may think we deserve. St John's Oxford is a completely different beast, mainly known for being an academic powerhouse and exceedingly rich (okay, the rich part is the same).

Anyway, my point is that I don't think SJC Oxford has a bad rep - quite the contrary. You shouldn't dismiss it because of a few grumpy porters and a certain infamy based largely on mistaken identity. As for the angry medical students, why do I find that slightly hard to believe? You don't usually see students walking around college "being angry". Were they having an argument with the porters? I think you really ought to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one! I know you can only go by your own experiences, but I think you would probably have a much more positive experience on another day; it was probably down to bad luck.

Good luck to you, anyway. Where do you think you want to apply at the moment? I promise not to pontificate any more. :smile:

Reply 94

kizer

henryt

Ah well, with so many great colleges you can afford to let one bad experience stop you applying somewhere! It's a shame though because everyone at SJC was incredibly friendly when I was there, and it has a very strong rep. for maths as well. Still, all those other colleges are great too.

Reply 95

henryt

kizer

I think my heart is at Merton anyway!! I was personally breathtaken by the people and the college, and both Mrs Harris and Mr Feltham have advised me to go there :biggrin:

Reply 96

chocolate-haze

Peter_The_Great

Oxford, because it has an x in its name, and the x makes it sound cool.

loooooooooool

Oxford because it accepted students under 18
and I thought Oxford was more friendly

Reply 97

Schmeevey

i went to both open days, cambridge just freaked me out - it was so quiet and i felt the buildings were just closing in on me.

applying for med at oxford

Reply 98

London Prophet

1. Oxford did the course i wanted (PPE)
2. I live in Cambridge, I wanted to get away
3. Cambridge is actually quite a dull city (although beautiful)
4. I wanted a slightly bigger city than Cambridge
5. Oxford is undoubtedly better for social sciences

Reply 99

coldfish

Well, I was about 50/50 on whether I wanted to do single honours philosophy at Cambridge, or PPE at Oxford. I went to the Oxford website and you couldn't just fill in an online form to order a prospectus, you needed to email somebody.

And so my decision was made.

In retrospect I was horrendously fickle in my choices. I only ordered eight prospectuses, and lost one of them within the day, so I only really rejected one university.