What do you think if someone went to Oxford or Cambridge University?

[ephemeris]

I've been genuinely shocked that some people find it hard to believe that you don't have to be posh to go to Oxford or Cambridge. I went to Oxford for my first degree, where I met dh who was doing a masters course. We then both moved to Cambridge when he did his PhD there.

I'm from a low income household in the NE, went to a shockingly bad state comp, and somehow fluked a place at Oxford in the 90s.

Usually people have no idea what university someone went to, but if it ever comes up and we mention we went to Oxbridge, people are a bit 🤔. I even had a colleague at work once, who told me it was my round at the bar because I must be able to afford it if I went to Oxford.

Honestly, I’d be concerned.
they have such low support of mental health issues for students.

three people I know of (2 Oxford, 1 Cambridge) had suicide attempts. 1 successful. Pastoral care didn’t care. Just sent them home.

however, to answer your question.
2 very working class (single parent, council estate)
1 very highly born. Titled.

I do think it's because most people at Oxbridge,even now, are a bit posh. There are more people from state schools there now, but they are a bit posh too mostly.

I completely disagree that they would all tell you. I wouldn't mention it ever except on a thread like this or if someone directly asked me where I went to uni which does happen as I'm an academic.

Otherwise, it doesn't come up. I don't recall anyone else ever telling me, certainly not out of work, anyway.

No-one ever mentions they are vegan either to me. I know if I've eaten at their house or they've bought goodies into work.

Perhaps the people I know aren't similar to other people!

Edited to add:

I have known some oxbridge grads who have done nothing with their lives / really struggled.

They were destined for greatest from age 11 or so and over the years has become apparent that they are actually decidedly average. They were all very early developers physically as well (possibly precocious puberty) and I think they just peaked too soon.

Overall I think it has been to their detriment as they just cannot live up to their early promise.

Having grown up in Oxford, I treat anyone who reveals themselves as Oxbridge grads with initial reservations - there's a definite undercurrent of overprivileged arseholes that come through there, so when befriending or interviewing it definitely raises my red-flag-spotting awareness levels.
If they don't shout it out early and aren't otherwise obviously twatty posh or faux-posh they have a very high chance of being fine. Literally some of my best friends are Cambridge BA/PhDs.

Bright, worked hard, lucky, supportive parent / teacher.

I assume that there is a higher than average chance that the person in question went to a private school, and therefore had parents capable of funding a private school. But I certainly wouldn't find it impossible or even surprising to find they went to state school.

I do find people who bang on about their Oxbridge degrees out of context tedious though. You know, the people who say "When I was at Cambridge...." instead of "when I was at uni..." like regular people do. I guess I would then form some sort of opinion about them, like that they think the fact that they went to this university makes them special. Otherwise no opinion other than they must have been academic and driven between the ages of 14-18.

Was just going to say they're brighter than me, that's for sure. As for being posh - three girls from my inner city London grammar got into Oxbridge in the early 70s and they weren't posh. Father of one was a black cab driver.

The only people I have known that went to Oxbridge were from low to middle income familes. They got there through merit; I am always impressed when I meet people that have been to Oxbridge; though nowadays that is being replaced with a feeling of sadness as Cambridge Uni is seen as being the most likely to apply "cancel culture" to cancel speakers it does not like. Education should be about debate but the best unis are dumbing themselves down badly be stifling debate.

I don't think anything. I went to Oxford myself, and l met lots of people who are still my close friends there, over half a century ago, so it's not alien. It was a taxing, mind-bending but ultimately good experience, and I'd never before lived anywhere where the built environment was so beautiful.

Poshness is relative (I'm working class, and no one in my family had ever stayed at school beyond the age of 13 before I did) -- I interviewed for a lecturing job at St Andrew's years later and their students made my Oxford college population (one of the trad ones, stuffed to the gills with Old Etonians and Harrovians) look positively downmarket.

I don't because I had an uncle from a very poor background go to Oxford on a scholarship in the mid 1940s and several from my state school went.

I went to St Andrews in the late 80s when it wasn't as well known (pre William and Kate effect), and few people knew that I went. About 10 years ago I came across a manager at work, probably 15 or so years younger than me who claimed to have been to St Andrews, but after speaking to him it was crystal clear that he had never even set foot in the place! He realised I'd cottoned on to his deception too, and avoided me like the plague after that. Reminded me of the play Eskimo Day!

Not much, if I had to guess about them I'd guess they probably had a stable home life and obviously academically clever.
If they make it their whole personality, I'd think they're a bit of a tosser though.

The people I knew who went to St Andrews in the late eighties and very early 90s were very definitely posh! Primarily from private schools with upper middle class upbringings. It was a bit of an enclave, even then.

I couldn’t tell where any of the parents in my DDs class went to university, or even if they did, except for one dad. Who went to Oxford. And everyone knows.

any number of the others may also have been to Oxford. Or gone to Cambridge. Or st Andrew’s. Or Durham. But they don’t feel they need to tell us. I don’t think any of them know where I went either.

I think they're clever and probably worked hard. Not all will be from privileged backgrounds.

Nothing really, I work in a profession (law) which is very Oxbridge-heavy, but also has a huge amount of people from other 'top'/Russell Group universities (LSE, UCL, Edinburgh, Bristol, Durham, Warwick, Notts etc etc) - many of them also rejected Oxbridge applicants - and can't say that there's any notable difference between them in terms of intelligence/ability.

Most of the people I work with are relatively 'posh' and tend to be privately educated but I don't know if that's more a law thing than a university thing.

There can be a tendency amongst Oxbridge students/grads to repeatedly mention the fact that they attended Oxbridge which can get annoying. I still recall with mild annoyance going to a group assessment day for a law training contract and one of the other students, upon being asked what university she attended, brayed 'OHHHH I read law at OXFORD, yes I'm afraid I'm one of THOSE, hahaaa!! But don't be toooooo intimidated, we're not ALL total brainboxes, HAHAHA!'. The petty satisfaction when she didn't get an offer was immense 😅

I'm always surprised by the amount of poshness etc discussions on here when Oxbridge has such large percentage of international students.
Also I'm sure people are talking about undergraduates but the bigger proportion is graduate students of which the majority are international.

Maybe it's because I was an international students myself and now work in a similar environment but it's not as 'posh UK' elite as it used to be.

AvanGelist · Today 14:13
I'm always surprised by the amount of poshness etc discussions on here when Oxbridge has such large percentage of international students.

I would be surprised if there has ever been a thread on here about any aspect of education in which ‘poshness’ doesn’t feature in the majority of posts.
Maybe it’s because posh people are one of the few minorities who can still be insulted, stereotyped etc with impunity.

My thoughts are simply “that’s interesting”
could be McGill or MIT.
Every cat and dog goes to university.

To be fair when I was there the vast majority of international students were also very posh/wealthy- partly I assume because international fees are so high! Plus the costs of flying back and forth. But broadly they had well off parents and had been to expensive international schools.

Don't know how you define 'posh' but many of the international students/grads I know who went to Oxbridge were from mind-blowingly rich backgrounds. Sports cars for their 18th, being bought a flat to live in while at uni and then another in central London for their City grad job, dripping in bling and designer gear, popping over to Paris/Milan etc for shopping trips at the weekend. Some of them made their 'old money' upper class British counterparts look positively impoverished!

Well for a start posh does not equal money, and vice versa.

Oxbridge has (now) and in most recent years, about 30% private school pupils, so the majority are state, and that % will undoubtedly increase over time.

Additionally, what about Durham, St Andrews, Exeter, Edinburgh, Imperial, UCL, LSE, Brookes..... all who also still have 30%+ private school pupils. Why do they not attract the same stereotype illusion.

I think the only people who care are those that went and their parents.

I’d think they are good at exams.

I know two people who went to Oxford. One has a perfectly ordinary job, the other lives a very frugal life not working, as he hates working. He seems happy though. Extremely non-materialistic.

So I don’t make assumptions about people who went to those unis other than they are good at exams. Neither of the two people I know are more clever than my other friends in our social conversations.

This reminds me of a guy that worked in an Indian takeaway years ago. He used to always tell me he was just working there to support himself through his PhD. One evening I went in and got chatting to the others who worked there, possibly his brothers. I mentioned the other guy's PhD and they all rolled around laughing. It had been a total lie! It's sad that he needed to make that up.