How much has going to Oxbridge affected your life?

[restfultartan]

If you studied at undergraduate level at Oxbridge, how much do you really think it has affected your life for the better?

Is it worth the hype?

I didn't get in any my parents have never forgiven me...

I came from a family where no-one had been to university so the impact whether university or oxbridge was massive

The long holidays meant I could work which was a necessity

I am doing a job I had never heard of or knew existed at a company that only recruited at the time in the UK from Oxbridge

How come?

My brother came out with a big ego and had a big shock finding a job as his expectations, set by those at Cambridge, were way off. He seemed to expect a director salary on day 1 and was pissed off his little sister (me) dropped out of uni after year 1 and worked my way up quickly so earned more.

I think it has helped me to have it on my cv. I am a teacher and both the schools in U.K. and international school I have worked in have considered it an asset to have staff who went to Oxbridge. I don’t think it actually makes me better at my job and I also think it probably wasn’t the best course I could have taken in my subject - but it didn’t do me any harm!

It definitely opened a door into my first job, as a graduate trainee in a big chartered surveyor's firm. The partner who interviewed me had a fairly blatant Oxbridge bias. As it turned out that job didn't suit me at all, but it was a hard time to get a graduate position, so I did benefit from some misplaced cronyism.

In contrast, when I interviewed for my second job (in a local authority), I now know that I very nearly didn't get it because the interviewer assumed I would be over-qualified and wouldn't stick around. I've been working happily for that organisation for 22 years now!

For me, the main real benefit has been that I had an absolutely fabulous three year experience. I loved the intense atmosphere of a Cambridge college and got stuck into some majorly high quality extra curricular experiences. In particular, the music was out of this world and gave me an enormously sound foundation as a choral singer, which I am still benefitting from today. The music I learned then, under the leadership of household name musicians, has stayed with me forever. And I wasn't even studying music!

I also met my husband and we've been married over 20 years, so I guess you could say that's a positive effect .

For me, it showed me that if I really put my mind to something, I could achieve it. First in my family to go to university and discouraged by my vile headmistress. Seeing her shock made my year.
I had a ball in a very different and beautiful city, I came from a working class northern town. I had no chip on my shoulder and it introduced me to a bigger world of interesting people who were my peers.

However, there was no proper careers guidance. I had no clue what to do next with my prestigious degree.

Hugely. It was the first time I'd met people that saw beyond me as just someone clever, and that made a world of difference. I loved the experience of being part of college and all the activities that I could get involved in through the university - music, volunteering, other hobbies. The research I was doing was with first class people, and whilst I didn't go on with it as a career as I'd once thought, and it was overwhelming in many ways while I was there, if I hadn't gone, I'd probably have been at home, on another continent, still living with my parents and a stressed wreck. It really brought me out into the world, but in a fairly safe way. I started to meet people in a way I never had before. I grew up. Some of this would have happened elsewhere, of course, as it was just part of going away, but it's impossible to separate how much was that, and how much was the specific place/university/course/college. None of us can act as a controlled experiment and none of us can know how we'd have ended up if we'd been elsewhere! But I do think there were some very special aspects to it that I would have had elsewhere, and for me, those were very important.

I’m also interested in this as I was being pushed to apply by school and was too lazy to put the extra work in so I didn’t. —was also distracted by very unsuitable boyfriend at the time—

I think I would have loved it and although I went to a very good university and loved my degree I sometimes wonder if my life would have taken a different turn if I’d applied and got in.
No regrets though as I have a great job and loved university but still curious.

Like a lot of previous posters the odds were against me going to Oxbridge (state school kid, first in family to go to uni), but I got in and loved every second of my four- year course. I graduated over 10 years ago now but am so glad to have had such a positive higher education experience, particularly after a shitty time at secondary school! For me, it was totally worth the hype. I had been a big fish in a small pond, used to being the cleverest kid around, and desperately needed to be stretched in every way imaginable! The first two years were very tough - I really didn't have the academic credentials or polished confidence of my peers, and I barely scraped through. Thankfully, the overall grade rested entirely on final year performance (I think this is still the case?), and I did eventually find my feet and passed well. I met people from backgrounds I'd only read about (some great, some diabolical). I had one-on-one supervisions with world-leading experts. I've watched fellow students win accolades and gain fame in every field. I walked into a job at the BBC and enjoyed 10 years of a great career (completely unrelated to my degree!). I'm now a SAHM, married to a lovely man who had a very happy, but totally different education. I may not be moving in influential circles or earning good (any!) money, but I will always be proud I got to Oxbridge, survived it, and loved it.

It was amazing but I didn't make the most of it socially or, probably, academically.
I have two post-grad degrees from a different university but no career and am a sahm. I feel like I have not fulfilled my potential.

My dad went and got a third, back then you could pay fifty quid to get a masters just without doing anything. I’m sure people will tell me I’m wrong but this is what he told me he did and there could well have been more to it. He has done very well for himself in his professional life and I’m sure it opened doors for him that would otherwise have remained open.

I think he had a good time and met lots of interesting people.

That said it was a long time ago now that he was in university. I imagine that in these more competitive times there will be a very try-hard quality to the demographic who go to oxbridge. I’m not saying it’s bad to be a try hard. Just that some people aren’t and might have enjoyed it then but less so now.

It made me realise that I wasn't the thick one of the family. Especially as my apparently cleverer siblings didn't get in. I realised that although they are more all round than me, I'm actually better in my subject than they are in theirs.
Although if DM ever talks about me going, she always follows it up with saying how much harder it would have been for dbro to get in (statistically it wouldn't have been). No wonder I thought I was the thick one.

Most life changing thing was probably meeting DH there though.

The only people I know who got actual good, 'graduate jobs' (which are much rarer and more competitive than I realised!) when leaving uni are my friends who went to Oxbridge.

Another one who was the first in my family to stay on past 16 & then go to uni, so it's hard to disentangle that from Oxbridge specifically.

I had a related job for a number of years which I got pretty much through the 'old boys' network (I sent in an unsolicited application to a company run by ex-academics, they spoke to my ex-director of studies to see if I was any good) so that definitely improved my life. I suspect though if I'd gone to either of my other two main choices (LSE & Warwick) that the employment options would have been pretty good too.

More generally, the skills I gained through doing my degree and the teaching style at Cambridge (particularly the small group teaching) have definitely helped me later in life as I've moved into self employment / running my own business.

Made me even more chippy and intolerant of poshos. You’d have thought the opposite, ie that I’d have become aspirational to be like them, but no. I met so many people who weren’t that smart, but whose parents had trampled on the chances of poorer kids in order to grab the best for their kids.

It was hands down the best three years of my life. It's like living in a postcard/ storybook and, as pp have said, I got to be a part of something I never would have been able to access in a different life. I'm good at speaking to all kinds of people and people 'from money' don't intimidate me. I actually think it got rid of a huge chip on my shoulder because I realised that those 'private school kids' I'd railed against at 6th form were actually nice and normal and equally as nervous as I was- they hadn't chosen their education.

Work wise I'm in a creative industry where Oxbridge isn't as revered as some. It was my transferable experiences gained from being at Oxbridge ie research skills, the ability to read, digest and understand information quickly that were most helpful.

I still haven't figured out what I'm supposed to say to the 'oh wow you must be really clever' line people come out with when they find out where I went... possible answers that don't make me sounds like a twat gratefully received!

I would be interested to know if students who come from being the cleverest in the class to being pretty average among your peers struggled to start with like Skylucy did.

I was talking to a friend earlier this evening whose son's girlfriend had started off at Oxford, and hated it so much that she dropped out after the first term. She is back on track now at another university.

Lonicera I actually quite liked it. I went to a school where being a 'swot' was a reason to be bullied and I'd had to keep my head down. I liked being at a place full of people who had also been on the edges at school. Being clever/ interested in things became a good thing

Well I met DH there so....

Career wise it opened the door to a top end high paid City job. Which I have now left to be a SAHM, so...mixed results there (ironically maybe I'd still be working if I'd gone into a less high end pressured job)

It did give me a lasting confidence in my intelligence which helps offset my lack of confidence in various other areas.

It was the most amazing 3 years of my life and I feel enormously privileged to have experienced it
Met Dh there
Got a good career via the Milk Round. In subsequent jobs I’ve been interviewed by employers who went there too, which may have helped, although maybe no more than someone from UCL being interviewed by a fellow alumna
I don’t mention it to colleagues or acquaintances unless asked outright as I’m sick of the “oh wow” factor - I clearly don’t come across as a typical ex Oxbridge person!
It does make me cynical when I look at CVs and see MA Oxon though! I never took up my MA and doubt I ever will. Although it would be fun for Dh and me to do it together with our Dc watching

I love seeing 'MA Oxon' on CVs - it always makes me chuckle!

Career-wise, for me it hasn't really made a difference, but that's because the first lot of medicine job applications don't include your university, and after that it doesn't matter anywhere near as much.

But I loved my time there so much! It was the first time I wasn't just "the clever one" and I could meet people and make friends without them thinking I was a boring swot/teacher's pet - because we were pretty much all that kid at school! My uni friends are still my closest friends 10 years on.

I got opportunities to do things I probably would never have tried at other unis, to be taught by some very famous names in their respective fields, and to live in an incredible environment which just becomes so normal it's surreal. I only realised it when my sister came to a formal hall with me and I saw how intimidated she was by the setting, while my friends were just drinking and having a laugh while wearing gowns.

I also indirectly met DH via us both being at Oxbridge, which helps

I have a PGCE and masters from Oxbridge.. Both have undoubtedly opened doors for me. Having said that, I've been a sahm for the past 14 years so I sort of slammed all the doors shut.

It will make a massive difference, unless you are not lazy.

Why do you say oxbridge.
Unless you went to both, why don’t you say oxford or Cambridge.

You wouldn’t say I went to Sheffborough, glaskeele, nottileeds would you?