Is it better to study in Oxbridge/Ivy League for postgraduate instead?

HL1995

If you got into universities like Oxbridge/Ivy League, you will be pushed extremely hard academically. Wouldn't this cause you to miss out on the "traditional" uni experience? By this I mean hanging out with friends, partying, gaming with friends etc.(purely my personal definition, feel free to disagree) Not that universities mentioned above would not provide that experience, but in a slightly different way. For example, I understand in Cambridge there are common rooms for students to interact and such. But in institutions such as these the time for leisure/entertainment will be decreased due to the increased workload and expectations of academic excellence.

Therefore is it better to get into these unis for postgraduate? After you have "enjoyed" university at an undergraduate level and wish to settle down in serious pursuit of your studies. Furthermore for some of the universities mentioned is is their graduate school education that defines them and gives them the revered reputation it holds. *this may only apply to some people, if you think that the university experience you want is different feel free to disagree and contribute to this discussion.

Reply 1

SatanicGecko

From what I have heard, many of the people in top unis also like to party and cause a little trouble but maybe just not as frequently as the students in other unis.

University of Oxford

Oxford

Reply 2

dragonkeeper999

I don't think my social life has been particularly impaired at Cambridge - I manage to do a few extracurricular activities (rowing, orchestra, sailing) as well as maintaining a fair standard in my studies. Having not attended any other universities I cannot be sure how they would compare - although I would agree that I seem to have a lot more work than friends studying elsewhere. That being said, it is still perfectly possible to fit your studies around an active social life - you just need to be prepared to spend all holidays catching up on sleep. There are definitely some students here who go out several times a week and are involved in lots of high-commitment extracurriculars (rowing, drama, journalism, etc.) and seem to be coping fine. Perhaps if you want a first you may need to sacrifice some of your social life for the library, but you still have time for friends if you are organised.

Reply 3

Noble.

It is a complete misconception that Oxbridge are in a 'league of their own' when it comes to postgraduate. More often than not, you're far more interested in a department's performance, what research they're conducting and, even more specifically, what the academic staff all specialise in when deciding where to do any postgraduate study. So largely speaking, doing postgraduate study at Oxbridge is nowhere near as impressive as doing an undergraduate there.

Reply 4

HL1995

Original post by Noble.

Is it easier to get into Oxbridge for postgrad than undergrad? My guess is that it varies from department to department right? For example the Judge Business School for Cambridge is less selective than Cambridge Law School?

Reply 5

Noble.

Original post by HL1995

Oh the whole, yes it is significantly easier getting in for postgrad than undergrad. However, as I hinted in my original post on this thread, it's very difficult to talk about competitiveness on the whole, because it varies massively even from within departments (i.e. it's a lot more difficult getting a PhD place (+ funding) for areas of pure mathematics than it is for applied maths - for some areas of pure getting a first overall is a bare minimum, and in reality you'll need to be getting ~85% in the degree to have a competitive application, whereas this will practically never be an issue for applied maths, where in a lot of cases you can get away with a decent 2:1).