How much has going to Oxbridge affected your life?

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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 think its bizarrely made me feel I failed as Ive done the sahm/lost career thing and feel I ought to have been able to achieve more!

I was clueless about careers.

I think it made a massive difference to me. I went to a comprehensive and wanted to be a barrister and the Bar is still so dominated by privately educated Oxbridge graduates that I thought I'd have no chance if I didn't have at least one of the two. I don't know for sure that it made a difference but I really do think it did - from getting a scholarship to pupillage and tenancy. It's not just the fact of having gone there but the way the tutorial system teaches you to think and argue - so many pupillage interviews are set up along similar lines. Socially I struggled a bit at my college but found good friends who I see all the time nearly 20 years later. Oh, and let my husband!

Dowser, because she means people who went to either, not one or the other, clearly

It hasn’t affected my life in the slightest, OP, but I don’t think I really made the most of it.

Met my husband....

That made no sense, bad night with the kids

She means people who went to Oxford or Cambridge, which is known as ‘Oxbridge.’

Bet you rent him out really

I made some fabulous friends who are still part of my life 2 decades on.

Career wise, it’s made no difference at all

idonthaveatattoo not yet but it's an idea!

There is no denying that an Oxbridge degree opens a lot of doors in many cases, but if you replaced Oxford/Cambridge with the name of another university I think you may get a lot of similar answers.

Maybe not the ones relating to one to one tutorials, but lots of people meet their partners at university, and are still friends with people they met there .Plus, their degree gets them into their first job.

For example OH went to Sheffield in 1970. He was the first in his family to go to university, he is still friends with the people he shared a house with, he achieved a first class degree, then went on to do a PhD, then an MBA and has had a stellar career in his field in which he is a world expert.

In the UK we are very lucky to have universities like Oxford and Cambridge. We are also very lucky to have other universities that are a better fit for students who aren't "Oxbridge shaped".

I just wanted to add a bit of balance to this thread, that's all.

One thing it provides is a bit of armour: it may be 25 years ago but a first in maths from Cambridge gives me that objective knowledge that there's something I can do that most can't. To be clear, it's not something I usually tell others about, it's just something internal to hold onto whatever life throws at me.

My DP went to Cambridge and he says that it has definitely skewed people’s perception of him both positively and negatively. He doesn’t tell people that he went to Cambridge because he feels he will be judged harshly - as a bit of a twat. He was very embarrassed telling me he was ex Oxbrdige when we first met.

He has been asked to speak at legal trials (through work) as well because of his education - he is regarded as more trustworthy and reliable. He also thinks his degree helped him get his current post as there are quite a few Oxbridge graduates at his place.

I think going to Cambridge has given DP an advantage in the work place but has also made him self-conscious about his degree which I think is a shame.

I found out recently that the office admin assistant went to Oxford. I was quite surprised because I assumed all Oxbridge types went for high flying professional roles.

Hehe. Im ex oxbridge and now looking at basic "mum jobs". So admin etc. However i think the oxbridge degree is a hindrance as people similarly assume Im high flying and dont want a basic job!!

Xenadog - I'm surprised by what you say about appearing a twat.

Sure, if five minutes into meeting someone, unprompted I say "when I was at Cambridge, blah blah..." then I'm (probably) being a twat.

But if someone asks me and I tell them where I studied, I don't think they are judging me to be a twat, although they may well make assumptions about me that are more to do with a stereotype than reality.

I wouldn't be embarrassed to tell someone, although I do keep it to myself unless asked.

I definitely feel that people look at me differently if I tell them I went to Cambridge (normally because they ask - it's not something I tend to volunteer). Sometimes that is positive, sometimes it's negative. It's disconcerting to realise that someone has switched from idle chit-chat to appraising whether you live up to the stereotype.

That's what is nice about being there now; there's a much higher than usual chance that a random person you come across in whatever circumstances, has been to Cambridge, or has a PhD, or whatever, regardless of what they are doing now.

And I like that. In the same way I liked it when I arrived, that being clever or whatever was no longer your defining characteristic. Beyond saw beyond that. I met so many interesting people, people who had a passion for the most random specific things that they happened to be researching, for example, but also about all kinds of other things. And there was much less of a swot stereotype to being like that. I loved the way colleges mixed people of all different fields, so you could have interesting conversations with people not in your department.

Elsewhere, people find out you have a PhD, and immediately make all kind of assumptions and don't see beyond that to who you might be as a person. I would be embarrassed to tell anyone in those sorts of circumstances, but here if it comes out in passing conversation, it's not so bad.

I definitely avoid mentioning both the fact that I studied at Cambridge and the subject (economics) - I work in a field now where they're irrelevant, and both come with certain expectations/stereotypes.

I think the single biggest advantage of a Cambridge degree for a lot of people has to be the tutorial system & the way it encourages you to think on your feet, formulate your points before speaking etc. I never had one-to-one teaching, mostly groups of between 3-6 students (poorer college!), but I imagine that's still a lot smaller than most other university settings.

It's opened doors for me professionally which I am certain would not otherwise have opened. It has not made me better at my job per se.

Oxford and Cambridge are an internationally recognised badge of quality, like Ivy League universities in America. Saying you've been to one of them generally causes people to think you are very clever (whether or not that is the case). I have mixed feelings about it professionally because many of my university contemporaries are not particularly "successful" professionally, whilst some of the most successful people I know either didn't go to university at all, or didn't get a good degree but have gone on to achieve great things.

I suppose what I can say though is that I can't see that having Oxford or Cambridge on your CV is ever going to be a "bad" thing.

I met my husband and my best friends at uni, so it's had a massive effect on my life.

It hasn't helped me get into my career (most people didn't go to Oxbridge), but when I was studying for professional qualifications I was much better able to cope with balancing work, life and study. At uni I had to work my ass off to be average, many of my colleagues only experienced that once they started work.

"I met my husband and my best friends at uni, so it's had a massive effect on my life."

But that could happen at any university.

DH went as first on family and from a comp. He is v v clever and v v successful but only managed to keep going in the early years at the bar because he met me. I didn't go to uni (or finish at any rate) but I was successful enough for him to keep going and keep us comfortable in the first five years. And confident posh enough to work a room for him at the beginning.

I think it's important but a little extra support helps bolster a massive brain through an embedded class system. But then starting poor makes the person hungrier to make their mark.

He made very lasting friendships there. Overall team effort makes for success. DH has been, DD is going. We will see how it shapes them.

I think it’s given me a leg up in my career. I feel like I was punching above my weight to get there and have been doing that ever since professionally!

I was one of the clever kids at school and the top of the year standout in my subject. All I ever wanted was to go to Oxford.

I fucked up that interview so badly!! I ended up at a very good university, and can’t complain one bit about my career, but not getting into Oxford is the one thing in my life that I still regret and will always regret.

I think about that line in “The History Boys”, where he says, “I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone”, and that probably applies to me, but I can’t help it! 😭

It's been a double edged sword. Constantly feel like I'm not living up to my potential and am wasting my education. Working in a poorly paid voluntary sector job and often compare myself less favourably to my peers, especially financially.

On the other hand, I have a faith in my intellect and it definitely opened doors earlier in my career. Looks good on the CV.

I loved being there. Wouldn't change it. Made life long friends there and I am proud that I got in and stayed the course.

*"I met my husband and my best friends at uni, so it's had a massive effect on my life."

But that could happen at any university.*

Yes it could, but I think the college system and living in college for 2 years makes it easier/more likely to form close relationships (provided you can find like minded people), as you're surrounded by the same few hundred people all the time, not thousands.

Of course there are other places that have colleges but not many.