St Andrews vs Oxbridge

Original post by LazyWorseThanInfidel

if you go to oxbridge you can rule the country.

if you rule to st andrews, you can run a business, if your lucky.

If you can't differentiate between "you're" and "your", then you shouldn't be casting aspersions on the quality of this university, thank you very much :smile:

Reply 21

Pharm Boy

11

Oxford is better.
But St. Andrews is a babe. :wink:

Reply 22

Mittalmar

10

St Andrews home of Oxbridge rejects... and lots of Americans from Boston!

Reply 23

LazyWorseThanInfidel

14

Original post by madamebovary

If you can't differentiate between "you're" and "your", then you shouldn't be casting aspersions on the quality of this university, thank you very much :smile:

I know that was terrible. That was not the only mistake I made in my comment - why didn't you notice that one too? The other mistake was worse.

Thanks to someone's signature on this forum I now know the difference, but that was not until about a month or two ago.

I deleted the comment.

I am only just waking up to my ignorance. I am currently on a road to improving my grammar. The way I am doing this is by reading the times everyday with a pocket dictionary to hand.

Hopefully by this time next year I will have significantly improved.

Reply 24

LazyWorseThanInfidel

14

Original post by madamebovary

If you can't differentiate between "you're" and "your", then you shouldn't be casting aspersions on the quality of this university, thank you very much :smile:

Your comment is long enough to require a full stop.

If you can't recognise a full sentence when you write one, then you shouldn't be casting criticisms on my grammar, thank you very much.

Reply 25

Law123mus

11

Prince William at st andys:
"Would canada be upset if I sold them to the yanks?"

Reply 26

Mr Inquisitive

16

Everywhere else < Oxbridge.

Reply 27

LGF92

14

Hey, at least our students studying history could probably recognise the Cenotaph if they swung from a flag on it...

Reply 28

bobross641

I was actually curious about this myself.

Here in the US, those who apply to universities in the UK seem to apply chiefly to St Andrews. Is it possible to draw any parallels between Oxbridge and St Andrews and any universities/colleges in the United States, in terms of academic quality, prestige, etc?

St Andrews seems to be ranked pretty highly (usually 3rd to 5th place, if you don't take LSE and Imperial into account) in the league tables, but all the while there are some who say that UCL and Edinburgh are far better than St Andrews.

When I spoke with a representative of St Andrews, he told me that his university is somewhat similar to Brown and Princeton. Are these good comparisons?

I am asking because I got accepted to study German/Russian/IR, and according to RAE St Andrews is on par if not slightly better than Oxbridge for German. (I didn't apply anywhere else in the UK, though.) I wasn't sure what kind of acceptance (University of Chicago, University of California, Amherst, Princeton, Williams, Brown, Dartmouth, etc.) in the United States would trump going to St Andrews.

Thanks! : )

Reply 29

CJ99

9

Depends what your looking for at University. St Andrews is pretty unique in a few aspects. Here's why:

1) Its very good in certain subjects and certain areas of subjects. As has been said its language and International Relations departments are world leading. Another example is physics where its one of the best for astrophysics and possible the world leader in Optics (or so I've been told by multiple physicist friends). So as to whether its better than oxbridge it depends on the subject. In some it undoubtedly is, in lots its close but not quite.

2) The town itself. I don't know anywhere quite like St Andrews. The town exists for two reasons golf and the University. About 1/3 of the term time population are students. This is a university town more than any other place in the world. There aren't many shops - though there is now a very nice H&M and Dundee a short bus trip away - and its very small and rural and has no proper clubs though a few pre-club type bars around. Because of this though the societies are mental!!! If you want a social life you have to get involved in the societies and people really do. I'm into theatre myself and the sheer number of production for a Uni our size is HUGE! I know from other people in other societies that its the same for Sports and Radio and everything else.
This lends itself to quite a different experience. It really is an extreme case of you get what you put in. If you get involved in St Andrews you will be rushed off your feet - NEVER bored as some people seem to think.

3) I had a 3 but forgot it so it'll be up later when I remember!

Reply 30

gangstermidget

6

st andrews is tiny university compared to both oxford and cambridge. therefore the budget is tiny in comparison too.
although the maths department is by far the most hedious I've seen amongst all the universities i've been to. :s-smilie:

Reply 31

angelmxxx

14

Original post by King Newt

I think it's only people from Durham who think Durham's on a par with oxbridge. If you look at league tables, I think St. Andrews is 3rd in the UK. Durham is further down the list. Student stereotype in St. Andrews is either yahs or Americans.

I've never ever heard anyone in Durham say 'Doxbridge', unless they're talking about the sports tournament which is called Doxbridge.

Please don't assume we're all arrogant students!

(Also, league table wise, St Andrews is very very rarely (if ever) 3rd, that's usually Imperial/LSE. But the 3rd - 8th universities all swap round from year to year and newspaper to newspaper anyway so trying to say a university's better than another because one paper ranked it 3rd rather than 4th is a pretty futile).

The Times' 2011 table had St Andrews 4th and Durham 6th, and the Independent's Complete University Guide has Durham 4th and St Andrews 6th.

So pretty much no discernible difference.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 32

Meteorshower

14

Original post by gangstermidget

st andrews is tiny university compared to both oxford and cambridge. therefore the budget is tiny in comparison too.
although the maths department is by far the most hedious I've seen amongst all the universities i've been to. :s-smilie:

It's what's on the inside that counts :p:

Reply 33

angelmxxx

14

Original post by bobross641

I was actually curious about this myself.

Here in the US, those who apply to universities in the UK seem to apply chiefly to St Andrews. Is it possible to draw any parallels between Oxbridge and St Andrews and any universities/colleges in the United States, in terms of academic quality, prestige, etc?

St Andrews seems to be ranked pretty highly (usually 3rd to 5th place, if you don't take LSE and Imperial into account) in the league tables, but all the while there are some who say that UCL and Edinburgh are far better than St Andrews.

When I spoke with a representative of St Andrews, he told me that his university is somewhat similar to Brown and Princeton. Are these good comparisons?

I am asking because I got accepted to study German/Russian/IR, and according to RAE St Andrews is on par if not slightly better than Oxbridge for German. (I didn't apply anywhere else in the UK, though.) I wasn't sure what kind of acceptance (University of Chicago, University of California, Amherst, Princeton, Williams, Brown, Dartmouth, etc.) in the United States would trump going to St Andrews.

Thanks! : )

RAE will barely influence your undergraduate degree, it just ranks the quality of the department's research.

Good researchers don't necessarily equal good teachers/seminar leaders at all (not that the best researchers will be rubbish teachers, but it is by no means whatsoever guaranteed that they will be good ones either!).

Since (apart from your dissertation), you'll be learning and not researching in your degree, teaching quality will have a much bigger impact on your degree experience than the RAE.

Reply 34

The_0001

Employers will always say Oxbridge, so I'ma have to go with that too.

Reply 35

gangstermidget

6

Original post by Meteorshower

It's what's on the inside that counts :p:

the inside's pretty stunning too... :tongue:

my tutor said it smelt like a prison :rofl:

Reply 36

Sambo2

10

Original post by gangstermidget

st andrews is tiny university compared to both oxford and cambridge. therefore the budget is tiny in comparison too.
although the maths department is by far the most hedious I've seen amongst all the universities i've been to. :s-smilie:

quite, but it's all the more inpressive then that in areas like physics, philosophy and IR it is able to compete so strongly with much bigger institutions, it speaks volumes about the atmosphere and commitment and quality of the staff

Reply 37

la_banane_verte

16

Original post by gangstermidget

the inside's pretty stunning too... :tongue:

my tutor said it smelt like a prison :rofl:

Oi! There's nothing wrong with the inside, the lecture theatres are pretty well kitted out. Plus if you're inside the building it means you don't have to look at it....

Reply 38

Amelorn

7

Comparing various departments will yield the best result.

Personally, I rather enjoy the general life/town here. My social scene/activities remind me of a country club back home in the US.

Reply 39

Mr. Roxas

9

here's what I think and I could be wrong:

University Prestige - oxbridge > st Andrews
program strength - depends
Teaching Quality - oxbridge's tutorial system > St Andrews
Location - depends
Employment Prospects - Oxbridge > St Andrews
Quality of graduates - I can't really say

personally, I'd rather be a St Andrews alumnus than a Durham alumnus. And unless I don't set my sight to a thriving career in banking and Finance, I'd rather attend St Andrews than Warwick or UCL.

St Andrews vs Oxbridge

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