Would a good college at Cambridge be better or a bad one at Oxford?

I have the opportunity to take a foundation year (in Law or humanities) at either Uni. However, for Oxford you don't get to choose which college you want to study at from the list. At Cambridge, you do.

I've heard both universities have about the same reputation, but I would like to emigrate in the future. Oxford would have the greater reputation worldwide I think because I would like a masters somewhere international, but I have the likely chance of being cleared to a college that I don't want to study at due to its environment or culture.

Any answers are helpful.

Reply 1

Username123ab

You can choose your college at Oxford, you have the option of either picking a college or doing an open application. There's a chance you might not get your chosen college but you can still put one as a preference

Reply 2

melancollege

Universities Forum Helper

Just to note that for your master's degree, the admissions teams would be familiar with both and likely view them in equal footing. I wouldn't worry about reputational differences and I would recommend comparing them based on course options and the cities, etc.

As a side note, many places view Cambridge more favourably, especially in East Asia notably.

Reply 3

turbidite

Original post by melancollege

Just to note that for your master's degree, the admissions teams would be familiar with both and likely view them in equal footing. I wouldn't worry about reputational differences and I would recommend comparing them based on course options and the cities, etc.
As a side note, many places view Cambridge more favourably, especially in East Asia notably.

Thank you for your insightful reply, especially because often some of the more competitive training contracts for solicitors wishing to pursue international law are in Asia.

Reply 4

43254353gv

Original post by melancollege

Just to note that for your master's degree, the admissions teams would be familiar with both and likely view them in equal footing. I wouldn't worry about reputational differences and I would recommend comparing them based on course options and the cities, etc.
As a side note, many places view Cambridge more favourably, especially in East Asia notably.

why do they favour cam?

Reply 5

melancollege

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by 43254353gv

why do they favour cam?

I've heard people offhandedly comment about some countries like Singapore and never followed them up for a source so that may just be the opinion of an individual person. The only place I have a definite answer for is China: There's a famous Chinese poem about Cambridge that is frequently taught in schools called something like Farewell to Cambridge by Xu Zhimo. My Chinese teacher said that because of this Cambridge has a better reputation than Oxford. I haven't done extensive research on this but my teacher seemed very sure — obviously China is very large and diverse though.

Reply 6

Stiffy Byng

There are no bad colleges at Oxford or at Cambridge and the universities have equal standing internationally.

Reply 7

Picnicl

Original post by 43254353gv

why do they favour cam?

Probably because Asia favours science and historically Cambridge has a larger scientific reputation with the general public, and probably to some extent with the academic community themselves due to Newton, Darwin, etc, Cambridge's famously taxing Mathematics course, and number of Nobel Prize winners (90, of which 34 came from Trinity College Cambridge members. Versus 51-58 at Oxford). But Oxford has had Boyle, Halley, Hubble, Hawking has studied at both (and a professor at Cambridge), and the inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, studied at Oxford (Cambridge had the world's first webcam, on their coffee pot). Einstein was a visiting professor at Oxford (for 3 periods between 1931 and 1933). Schrodinger, who is associated with several universities outside of the UK, was a fellow at Oxford. Perhaps also Cambridge looks a bit more peaceful and pastoral in photos, appealing to the notion of England being a 'green and pleasant land' with time for contemplation.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 8

Soopy

Original post by turbidite

I have the opportunity to take a foundation year (in Law or humanities) at either Uni. However, for Oxford you don't get to choose which college you want to study at from the list. At Cambridge, you do.
I've heard both universities have about the same reputation, but I would like to emigrate in the future. Oxford would have the greater reputation worldwide I think because I would like a masters somewhere international, but I have the likely chance of being cleared to a college that I don't want to study at due to its environment or culture.
Any answers are helpful.

You should probably think about what course you want to progress onto after the foundation year and decide between Oxford and Cambridge based on that.

I don't think you should base your decision on colleges, I'd be surprised if you didn't get to indicate your preferred college when applying to Oxford, but either way you're not guaranteed to get the college you want at Cambridge either.

Reply 9

Stiffy Byng

Modern science was pioneered at Wadham College, Oxford, in the mid to late seventeenth century, but Cambridge devoted more effort to science in the C19 and early C20. Cambridge was also quicker to realise that scientific scholarship could be monetised.

Brand recognition internationally appears to be about equal. Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale are probably the most famous universities in the Anglosphere.