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.

The kids I know at Oxford and Cambridge are super smart, mainly but not exclusively state educated and solidly middle class and from professional families. One is at a college which is mainly public school kids and they’re terribly proud of their state school friend who gets all sorts of grants and bursaries for coming from a state school.

it’s all slightly amusing as they went to a top state school and have had an extremely privilieged upbringing and their family are absolutely loaded just didn’t want to pay fees.

Why though.

My DH is oxbridge, he's a better person than I will ever be. Kind, caring, thoughtful, smart as you like. All of those things make him sexy as hell.

IMO I think it says more about Wenfy than the Oxbridge graduate.

I work in a field that attracts Oxbridge grads like moths to a flame ie they flutter uselessly getting in everyone’s way and then burn out hideously. They are all pricks in different ways and not incredibly resilient / good at being told to improve.

Whatever helps you sleep with him at night lol

You sound very bitter @Wenfy.
Were you rejected from Oxbridge?

I think @Wenfy is a townie who went to an ex-poly. I was interviewed by a few of those back in the day, if you can call a one-sided stream of invective an interview!

(No offence intended to graduates of new universities who reside in Oxford and who live and let live...)

OK, the moths to a flame comment gave me a good laugh.

But if your experience is of Oxford and Cambridge grads who enter your field of work, that's not exactly a representative sample.

A couple of dozen companies, a couple of dozen places?Your experience is out of date.
One accounting big4 firm in London alone has a graduate intake of several hundred across all service lines. That's before you count all the regional offices.
Go onto Target jobs...there are loads of companies. Certainly not just a dozen!

I can't comment on how smaller employers might be biased (or otherwise) towards an Oxbridge degree but there is nothing special about doing some generic humanities or even Music at Oxford, as opposed to any other university. They're certainly not overqualified as they don't have any special skills over others.

HR don't look at university anyways for generic any degree jobs. Your degree classification and extracurriculars matter more.

Finally, despite the tough competition for graduate jobs the secret is rolling basis - apply ASAP the minute they open. Speed through all the tests etc and on the first round of final stage assessment centres you may very well find that everyone who passes gets a job!

Also @Brexile again r.e 'some degrees are.moee favoured' for a generic job any academic essay degree is the same. Theology, modern languages, English, politics.
Oxbridge only does traditional academic subjects anyway. Not business , marketing or circus arts.

My DH went to Cambridge. He actively avoids telling people where he went to Uni cause of the odd reactions sometime E.g. "Haha! Cambridge secretarial school then"

I do get what you mean.

You clearly need to improve your recruitment practices.

@Brexile, I used to get ‘You mean Brookes?’ and ‘You mean Oxford secretarial college?’ from a friend’s parents’ friends when I went to stay with her in the vac.

I'd be suitably impressed. :-)

@Wenfy you sound like a bad manager lol. Maybe you're just not used to training graduates?

To answer the op I would assume clever, pushy parents and family money. Not sure why!

Re: the odds of getting onto different courses - I remember being really baffled when people asked me why I was doing the subject I was: surely you chose the subject because you loved it? It hadn’t even occurred to me that you might pick the subject that gave you the best chance of getting in to Oxbridge.

But then I was also baffled when people asked me which school I went to. Like they’d have heard of the comprehensive at the end of my road…!

Honestly? I would judge someone who went to Oxford or Cambridge and assume their values were a bit skewed. I'm sure they can't be the best for every subject so it would make me question why someone would chose to attend somewhere so closely associated with wealth and privilege. I'm not saying its right, but you did ask.

Your view just comes across as prejudiced with a massive chip on your shoulder.
Why so bitter?

I didn't even go to university and don't share your views because I am a grown up.

And that’s fine - no-one is asking you to share anyone’s views on this thread.

Why would you assume someone went there because they wanted to be associated with wealth and privilege and not because they were academic and geeky?
It’s not like it costs any more to go there than any other university - in terms of rent it costs less, as other posters have mentioned. I think the main draw for most people is the teaching system with tutorials/supervisions (which means you get much more access to academics than other universities), access to the facilities/libraries (Oxbridge make up 2 of the 5 legal deposit libraries in the U.K.) and being surrounded by other very smart people - not rich people.

Honestly?
My immediate thought would be 'white privilege'
Obviously there are exceptions.

Just that they were clever really. The only people that I know who went to Oxford/Cambridge personally came from average (albeit middle class) families and were hardworking at school.

Gosh - do you even know which subjects they were rated best for at each point in time or would you just tar everyone with the same negative brush?

Do you expect prospective students to choose universities based only on the rating of the teaching?

What do you even mean by 'associated with wealth and privilege'. What do you think is the issue with the universities being associated with wealth and privilege and why would it be helpful for e.g.state school applicants to distance themselves from that?

I looked at that - but also nature of the teaching and composition of the syllabus, academic and pastoral support, employment prospects, collegiate system, accessibility, commitment to demigraphic diversity and inclusion, ethos, and specific extra-curricular activities that were important to me.

It was also the first place I set foot in that didn't make me feel like I was socially unacceptable for loving learning and wanting to stretch myself academically.

I'm glad I hadn't been affected by the kind of inverse snobbery you exhibit.

*demographic

It would be unusual for this to be the first thing I learn about someone, so I will already have made some sort of assessment of them.

I don't think I have ever learned this fact about someone who had not already struck me as very clever and bright.