Cambridge overrated?

As a place, is it really a theatre of dreams? I've lived here ages and it can feel pretty dull and insular. It doesn't seem to be like I've met the most inspiring people here, or at least that the uni people may be great in their subjects, but not interesting otherwise.

Any views from students?

Of course it is overreated if you see it as a theatre of dreams? I don't know anyone who thinks it is...

I think you have to remember that a lot of people are here by the luck of the draw. I don't think the interviewing process is as systematic or discriminating as is made out. Take a friend of mine, rejected first time around, second time around now at the top of the year... Or another friend pooled from the most popular college for his course, his first and second year results better than all but one of that college.
The fact is the majority of students are no better in terms of drive, intelligence, intellect etc (however you want to measure it) than the best students at bristol, durham, york, lse, imperial etc

the difference between oxbridge and the rest is
a) the best are really the best, the extremely bright intellectually get in, the cleverest in each year get in.
b) the worst students at oxbridge are a lot better than the worse students anywhere else (ok with the obvious exception)


Because of this, combined with the better teaching regime than other universties (obviously on the whole, with exceptions) and the higher average of intelligence means that the academic atmosphere here means peole work harder. Plus they are at oxbridge, so they better work, I mean why else do you come here, and its a higher workload.

For the most part, a lot of students at the next tier of universities could quite easily cope at oxbridge.

Parallels to Giddens double hermeneutic

Genrally Oxbridge is better, but a part from Oxbridge, every other UK university is sound.

A student at Bolton university could cope at Oxford. Likewise, there may be a student at Oxford who finds the methods applied or teaching regimes at Bolton challenging, for example.

Genrally Oxbridge is better, but a part from Oxbridge, every other UK university is sound.

As a place, is it really a theatre of dreams? I've lived here ages and it can feel pretty dull and insular. It doesn't seem to be like I've met the most inspiring people here, or at least that the uni people may be great in their subjects, but not interesting otherwise.

Any views from students?

I think the comments here border on vulgarity, especially the way things seem to be taken for granted. If you come from a third-world country, where institutions barely have libraries or laboratories, you'd realise that Cambridge is a dream come true for anyone who's remotely passionate about the subject they wish to study.

I've been to Cambridge and Oxford, met professors, been inside labs, and of course, have been interviewed by Cambridge - and the inspiration they provide is unquantifiable. In my opinion, anyone who studies at Oxbridge must consider him/herself privileged. I've been to most universities in the UK as part of my job, and Cambridge is second to none in terms of its intellectual atmosphere. I, for one, will be happy there.

Hardly different from most other universities in the country, almost all of which (even the worst ones) have resources that far outstrip most of the universities in developing nations.



There are around 200 universities in this country, so I doubt you have been to the majority of them in a way that allows you to grasp of the intellectual atmosphere of them. In my gap year I used to go LSE once a week for meeting and I didn't really sample anything of the intellectual atmosphere, or when I've visited friends at universities. No one is saying that cambridge doesnt have a fantatic atmosphere. Whilst the professors can often be incredibly inspiring a lot of them aren't, although they do a good job. But equally you may get that inspiration anywhere

I'm not slating the university here, if I had to go through this all again then I wouldn't think twice about not coming here. But to argue that it is a quantum leap up from any other university is ridiculous. Plenty of people doing my course for instance would definitely go elsewhere for postgrad. Again this isn't becuase cambridge is bad or poor but simply beucase other departments in my subject often excel in many areas where cambridge simply doesn't. Thats the nature of it, the university cannot pretend, and indeed, does not pretend to be the best at everything.

I hardly see how anyhting anyone has said is vulgar. No one is being unappreciative of being here or that they aren't priviliged to be able to attend. All we're saying is it isn't a land of milk and honey, where someone studies biology in the morning, debates the merits of globalisation over lunch and reads plato with a glass of port in the evening though this is the way in which some people seem to imagine. There are plenty of people here who are more intersted in sport, drama getting drunk (sometimes all three) than their degree. Nor is it constant intellectual stimulation. How on earth is it vulgar to say any of this?

For one, as the editor of a publication, I've been to about three dozen universities across the UK - and spent time conducting conferences, talking to students, professors and even some Deans. In my opinion, Cambridge and Oxford still far outstrip other universities. In my experience, Oxbridge professors seem to treat the students - undergrad or postgrad - as peers, not as subordinate students. The supervisions/tutorials in Oxbridge is its best feature...

Second, I've done some research projects in more than five universities across the UK, in three different disciplines, and still Cambridge outstrips other universities in terms of environment, in terms of passion towards individual subjects, and the resources available to exploit. Sure, some universities did have more resources than Cambridge, but Cam channeled me to the correct sources more efficiently than did any other.

Sure, most students may not want to discuss the benefits of free-market capitalism and the power of hedge funds in the morning, and debate the existence of dark matter over the pub - but, in Cambridge, there is every opportunity for a person to do so. You're not prevented from attending lectures in other subjects, even talking to professors in other subjects, if it interests you. What's even better, at Cambridge, you can switch tripos if you feel confident that you want to change your academic course. For every student aspiring to be a polymath, Cambridge provides opportunities far better than any other in the UK. The flexibility is its charm and its best asset.

I'm not saying that the Cambridge is best at everything. But, it certainly affords every student the opportunity to explore his or her talents to the fullest. To deny that, in my opinion, is vulgarity.

Then, it is not Cambridge that is overrated, but the student population in it. I am still of the opinion, having looked at course structures across several universities in the UK, Europe and the US, that Cambridge is one of THE best, and is certainly not over-rated.

I'm still at a loss as to which of the statements made in this argument are vulgar

Can't we just go back to saying that Cambridge is the best in the world?