I envy Oxford students so much!

Sorry, but I do. Maybe I wasn't clever enough to get in. Or maybe I just didn't work hard enough. However I would love to have gone to Oxford rather than to some mediocre institution. Yes, I know by mediocre I'm referring to a university that 80-90% of people aren't able to go to, but so what? It isn't the best. Oxford is for the elite and I wasn't there.

It's hard-wired into British culture - particularly amongst the middle classes - that only Oxbridge matters - other Universities are nothing special. That's not really an intellectual point (the British aren't that keen on brains) it's more about the beauty, history and cultivation that Oxford is supposed to possess. It's also about our perfectionism, we are quite hard on ourselves. Anything less than the best(?) is a bit pointless.

I reckon I would have been happy at Oxford, although the workload and some intimidatingly bright peers might have tested me to the limit. I'm easily infuriated by the very cerebral. Still at the time I wanted to go to some big city and have a crazy party for three years. A bit embarrassing now I think about it and a waste of three years. But you live and learn I guess.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1

Gallabay

12

Theres something on your shoulder. I think its a chip?

Reply 2

*pitseleh*

20

Hard-wired into the what, now? Speak for yourself - I know heaps of middle-class people who didn't give a **** about Oxford or Cambridge, who were very happy going to other universities (top-notch or otherwise) and lots of whom have been very successful as a result.

As for "intimidatingly bright peers"... the only people I've met in my three years here who were "intimidatingly" bright have been some (not all) of my tutors. Most of the students are intellectually sharp, sure, but not "intimidatingly" so. And most tend to find the whole "oh my God you must be so clever to go to Oxford" thing a little bit weird, in my experience.

You should be happy that you got to go to what sounds like it was a very good university, judging by your "80-90%" statistic, and forget about Oxford.

Reply 3

kerily

15

Do a master's there then? :dontknow:

Reply 4

AnJuM218

9

Oxbridge can be overrated at times, they don't always produce the best students. There are other universities which have certain faculties that are much better.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

reptileface

6

Oh bloody hell, get a grip!

Reply 6

SteveCrain

I hadn't heard of Cambridge till last year and only knew Oxford from Brideshead Revisited

Reply 7

im so academic

15

Original post by Mick Travis

Sorry, but I do. Maybe I wasn't clever enough to get in. Or maybe I just didn't work hard enough. However I would love to have gone to Oxford rather than to some mediocre institution. Yes, I know by mediocre I'm referring to a university that 80-90% of people aren't able to go to, but so what? It isn't the best. Oxford is for the elite and I wasn't there.

It's hard-wired into British culture - particularly amongst the middle classes - that only Oxbridge matters - other Universities are nothing special. That's not really an intellectual point (the British aren't that keen on brains) it's more about the beauty, history and cultivation that Oxford is supposed to possess. It's also about our perfectionism, we are quite hard on ourselves. Anything less than the best(?) is a bit pointless.

I reckon I would have been happy at Oxford, although the workload and some intimidatingly bright peers might have tested me to the limit. I'm easily infuriated by the very cerebral. Still at the time I wanted to go to some big city and have a crazy party for three years. A bit embarrassing now I think about it and a waste of three years. But you live and learn I guess.

Evidently, one goes to university to study, not to party.

(Of course the social life is important, but what ****er applies only so he or she can just party all through 3 years without doing any work?)

Postgraduate I guess, OP?

Reply 8

- Major -

8

Imsoacademic is on the way to this thread right now....

EDIT : How correct i was, just posted before me :smile:

Reply 9

ilickbatteries

15

Original post by Mick Travis

Sorry, but I do. Maybe I wasn't clever enough to get in. Or maybe I just didn't work hard enough. However I would love to have gone to Oxford rather than to some mediocre institution. Yes, I know by mediocre I'm referring to a university that 80-90% of people aren't able to go to, but so what? It isn't the best. Oxford is for the elite and I wasn't there.

It's hard-wired into British culture - particularly amongst the middle classes - that only Oxbridge matters - other Universities are nothing special. That's not really an intellectual point (the British aren't that keen on brains) it's more about the beauty, history and cultivation that Oxford is supposed to possess. It's also about our perfectionism, we are quite hard on ourselves. Anything less than the best(?) is a bit pointless.

I reckon I would have been happy at Oxford, although the workload and some intimidatingly bright peers might have tested me to the limit. I'm easily infuriated by the very cerebral. Still at the time I wanted to go to some big city and have a crazy party for three years. A bit embarrassing now I think about it and a waste of three years. But you live and learn I guess.

No it's not.

Reply 10

Victor-PP

15

OP, you're gonna get along so well with imsoacademic.

Reply 11

Pharm Boy

11

Original post by - Major -

Imsoacademic is on the way to this thread right now....

EDIT : How correct i was, just posted before me :smile:

Reply 12

01010000 01001010

11

I always thought Cambridge was 'better' than Oxford...

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 13

Orwell

3

are you at your university already, because if not, you could just reapply, so even if you get rejected, you have some 'closure' (christ that word makes me feel horrible.) But I agree with the above posters, the idea that oxbridge is hardwired into the middle-classes certainly isn't my experience.

Reply 14

kerily

15

Original post by SteveCrain

I hadn't heard of Cambridge till last year and only knew Oxford from Brideshead Revisited

Really?

I hadn't heard of UCL until about a year ago and I didn't know that ICL was really good until about a year ago. But it's kind of hard to read a paper/turn on the news on results day/etc without hearing that Oxford and Cambridge are 'good'. Out of interest, how did you manage not to have heard of Cambridge?