Oxbridge or Ivy League

OP

What about admissions? Are they equally hard or is Oxbridge (in comparison to Ivy League of course) slightly easier in your opinion?

Reply 4

OP

Original post by McKholin

What do you mean by better? Leagues? Academia? Research? Undergraduates?

Ivy League consists of Harvard and Yale which usually trump the leagues above Oxbridge, but also consist of Brown and Cornell etc. which are lower down.

In a very generalised sweeping statement, I'ld say on the whole Ivy League are 'better' for graduate research, while Oxbridge are 'better' at undergraduate studies.

Undergraduate mostly. What makes Oxbridge better?

Reply 5

uxa595

21

Original post by hyn_shayan

Undergraduate mostly. What makes Oxbridge better?

Research is usually what a uni's prestige/ranking is based on. As said, i think oxbridge is better then most of them but stuff like harvard, MIT and Yale are either on par or better then oxbridge.

Reply 6

emmanottinghil

I think this is exceptionally unlikely to be true, given the huge volumes of money the top US universities have. I would suggest that Harvard, Yale, MIT and Stanford are all well ahead of Oxbridge on almost all criteria, eg, research, the kinds of staff they have, output of famous / gifted graduates, facilities, support for students, etc, etc.

Original post by RyanT

Oxbridge is better than the majority of the Ivy League, but the best Ivy League universities are on par with Oxbridge.

Reply 7

dbou

9

I know some people who attend MIT and Harvard, and they say that on the whole Oxbridge is more theory orientated than the Ivy league. I think that Oxbridge is roughly on par with the top Ivy league unis but are better than several of them.

Reply 8

emmanottinghil

The Times Higher Education Top 200 puts almost all of Ivy League above Oxbridge.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html

Original post by dbou

I know some people who attend MIT and Harvard, and they say that on the whole Oxbridge is more theory orientated than the Ivy league. I think that Oxbridge is roughly on par with the top Ivy league unis but are better than several of them.

Reply 9

Ivanka

16

It's hard to compare since these umbrella terms comprise more univesities. While Oxford and Cambridge have similar rankings, Harvard and Dartmouth, for example, are hardly comparable (I saw the latter actually at a worse position than Mount Holyoke or Reed), so I think it only makes sense to compare individual unis.

Reply 10

manchild007

Original post by hyn_shayan

What about admissions? Are they equally hard or is Oxbridge (in comparison to Ivy League of course) slightly easier in your opinion?

There is no competition - the Ivy League is on another level when compared to Oxbridge in terms of competition. You have about 35,000 applicants to each individual Ivy League on average, and an acceptance rate of about 6%; with these acceptance rates even LOWER for international (non-US) students. Hardly 'cheery' numbers.

Reply 11

orca92

13

Sweeping statement; they're pretty much on par.

Reply 12

emmanottinghil

A friend got into Stanford - even with huge SATS, massive exam results, top US private school and power-educated family with large wealth (in a country where those things matter for higher education) and driven lifelong personal goal to get in, she just made it into Stanford and regards herself as less than stellar compared to some of her classmates.

Frankly, if you've ever been to one of the Big Top Universities in the US like Stanford, Harvard or MIT you would marvel that they are thought to exist in the same general universe as our pale imitations. Sad but true.

Reply 13

OP

Original post by manchild007

There is no competition - the Ivy League is on another level when compared to Oxbridge in terms of competition. You have about 35,000 applicants to each individual Ivy League on average, and an acceptance rate of about 6%; with these acceptance rates even LOWER for international (non-US) students. Hardly 'cheery' numbers.

Acceptance rates do not make 'Ivy Leagues' better though. They have more people applying because the American population is about x5 the population of the UK.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 14

MC armani

14

From people I've spoken to who've been to both, in terms of teaching quality, there are more Ivy leaguers comparable with Oxbridge, but the UK top 10 roughly reflects the Ivy League.

Oxbridge = Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia (and Stanford, even though it's not in the Ivy League)

MIT is slightly superior to Imperial, but perhaps only because of greater wealth

UCL, Durham, LSE, Warwick are roughly on a par with UC Berkeley, Penn, Chicago, Johns Hopkins.

Because of the much larger number of applicants, the Ivy League is MUCH more competitive than the Russell Group or indeed Oxbridge.

Reply 15

PrinceyJ

Original post by hyn_shayan

Acceptance rates do not make 'Ivy Leagues' better though. They have more people applying because the American population is about x5 the population of the UK.

*5 times

Reply 16

manchild007

Original post by hyn_shayan

Acceptance rates do not make 'Ivy Leagues' better though. They have more people applying because the American population is about x10 the population of the UK.

This is what you asked - "What about admissions? Are they equally hard or is Oxbridge (in comparison to Ivy League of course) slightly easier in your opinion?". Nowhere in my post did I mention (because I don't think this myself) that the Ivy League is better because it is MUCH harder to get into than Oxbridge - you asked how hard it was to get into the Ivy League, and I thought I'd provide you with some figures :smile:

Ivy League - 35,000 Applicants to each Ivy, about 6% acceptance rate (much lower for international students).

Oxbridge - 3,000/4,000 Applicants each, about 20%-30% acceptance rate (varies depending on course and college etc, but overall much easier to get into by the numbers than the Ivy League).

Reply 17

OP