The Student Room Group

How is it people really choose between Oxford and Cambridge?

Both are world class universities. There may be a rumour/idea/feeling that Cambridge is better for some courses and vice versa but ultimately no employer will really think much of the difference.

They offer different courses which is relevant HSPS only at Cam, PPE only at Oxford. Natural Sciences vs individual science degrees. If that's the case of course the decision may be easier, but I will be applying for law. The courses are very similar, though Oxford has more of a focus on jurisprudence and Cambridge has more optional modules. But I can't really say that is too important to me right now.

As cities they're honestly very similar for me, obviously Oxford is slightly bigger and more lively, in my opinion Cambridge is slightly prettier, but they are all negligible differences. I enjoyed both visits immensely.

My parents would quite honestly kill for me to go Oxford, it's literally the whole reason they immigrated to this country. But they've since suggested they would also accept Cambridge. Oxford is more well known in our home country, but internationally Cambridge is viewed just as well if not better. So that parental pressure for specifically Oxford is off now.

I have medium GCSEs, but I don't want that to be a reason to apply for Oxford over Cambridge, my predictions are good, my personal statement and reference should be good. There's the matter of the LNAT vs CLT, but I haven't sat either so I can't say which I'd rather do.

At this point is it not just a coin flip really? How do you make the decision, and how would you justify choosing that one to very strict parents? They want to know exactly why I'm choosing whatever I choose.
Reply 1
Original post by Anonymous

I have medium GCSEs, but I don't want that to be a reason to apply for Oxford over Cambridge,

Oxford puts far more focus on GCSEs than Cambridge does. Go for Cambridge
yeah you shouldn't try to game which one is less competitive as both are really competitive; that being said if you know one university places more weight on a weaker aspect of your app than the other then its p obvious what you should do. Cambridge will be more competitive statistically post interview.
+ not to be rude but you don't really have to justify this to your parents. You will need to live with the outcome of your choice everyday, they will not.
Don't mean to be rude, but are you South Asian by any chance? This sounds like such a South Asian dilemma in many ways...

To echo what has been said above, don't let your parents' wishes dictate your choice. It's YOU that has to live there and study there for 3 years, so YOU are the one that needs to be happy with it. Plus, as you say, there's hardly a prestige difference, so it shouldn't really bother your parents anyway...

Reading your post, you seem to be leaning a little more towards Cambridge, and that's fine: nothing wrong with that at all! As others have said, you may well stand a better chance at getting an offer from Cambridge with regards to your GCSEs. It's OK to be strategic about these things, you know! :yep: I studied music at Oxford from 2007-2010 and I chose to apply to Oxford over Cambridge partly because I preferred Oxford's course, but mainly because there was no way I'd even get an interview invite to Cambridge due to my "dodgy" academic profile! :getmecoat: Whereas I was confident I could get an Oxford interview, so then it would just be about getting through the interview as best as I could :colone:

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