Material science at oxford or natsci at Cambridge

Hello, I am currently a year 12 student trying to decide between Oxford and Cambridge. I have been to the Oxford open day and am looking forward to go to the Cambridge open next week! One of my deciding factors right now is regarding hands on/ practical work you do in the lab. I understand that for cam first year you will do 4 subjects including math with 4 lectures in each, supervisions and labs. Is the labs like every other week for each subject? Would you get significantly less lab experience (specifically for materials) compared to Oxford material science?

My other question regarding the student: professor ratio for Oxford and Cambridge. Since Oxford has such a small cohort for materials, do you get more contact time with professors or is it similar compared to Cambridge?

Also, how is the quality of teaching for both Oxford and Cambridge, does it vary form college to college a lot?

My final question is: Oxford is a Meng degree and Cambridge is a science degree, does that mean you get a lot less project/ research experience in the natsci course?

Thank you so much for reading all my questions! I genuinely do not know how to choose and do not know anyone who has done material science at either unis to ask these questions.

Thank you!

Reply 1

Stiffy Byng

I cannot comment on the content of the courses, but as to contact time and teaching quality, contact time would probably be similar at both universities. Lots of contact with tutors are amongst the USPs of Oxford and Cambridge. Learning by discussion is the aim. Teaching quality will vary because it's down to individuals. Not every great academic researcher is a good teacher. Some of the teaching is done by early-career academics working on doctorates or post-doctoral research. Chance plays a part in determining whether you are taught by people with whom you form a good tutorial relationship. When it works, it's great. One reason why Oxford and Cambridge interview candidates is that the academics try to choose students whom they think that they and their colleagues can work well with for three or four years. They look for people who are, to use their terminology, "teachable".

My understanding is that Natural Sciences at Cambridge is a degree which to some extent the student shapes by making choices as to the courses taken, but others here or in the Cambridge thread can give you info on that. My friends who did science degrees at Oxford tell me that they did a lot of lab work, and indeed worked very hard in general. I studied History so was either asleep in the library or talking nonsense in the pub.

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