Studying at Oxbridge

[Hawkins0001]

After reading about the levels of study needed and the effort needed to achieve a 1st, etc on different forums about how difficult the degrees are.

Are the degree's at Oxbridge more difficult or is it more that people think they can easily achieve the 1st but instead are more likely to achieve a 2,1 or 2,2 etc?

I have 2 DC. 1 at Oxford (History) and another at a top 4 University (History - Scotland) and it is very different. Oxford is 3 x 8 week terms with 12 essays per term. Other University is 2 x 15 week terms and DC does 6 essays per term with each term self contained so courses end at the end of each semester.

DC at Oxford has found it academically fine but the workload a massive challenge. Also DC had 3 years of work for finals there where other University has the final grade split over 8 courses and 4 semesters.

Oxford DC has huge regrets. Amazing experience but not really 'worth' it.

Much appreciated for your perspective

I went to Oxbridge about 100 years ago! As a previous poster has said there were a lot of essays! I had weekly tutorials in each subject (usually two) that I was studying that term, and there were never more than three of us in a tutorial. Many were one-to-one. There were about 6 optional one hour lectures per week. From a four-page case list (I studied law) it would be perfectly reasonable to be asked my opinion on the dissenting judgement in a case partway down the last page.

After law mods, at the end of my second term of first year, there were no more formal assessments that counted towards my degree until my Finals. I didn’t have to do a dissertation. A couple of the good tutors offered the art revision class before Finals, but generally there was nothing, other than self-guided study, in between studying subjects – possibly as early as a third term of first year – and Finals.

Although the classifications – 1st to 3rd – are the same as other universities, we don’t get an honours degree. Instead, the BA(Oxon) can be converted to MA (Oxon) seven years after matriculation.

Have 3DC, all got A*s at A level and all did NatSci degrees - two at Cambridge, one at another Russell group uni. The Cambridge degree was definitely much more work and far harder to get 1st in. No comparison at all.

So Cambridge it really is the A game if you want the 1st ?

They gave Boris Johnson a degree so it's obviously not that hard. (Probably depends on the subject tbf). A always wondered how a BA in Classics remotely qualified him to run a county but that's by the by.

DD (engineering) gave a lot of thought to whether to go to Cambridge after she got an offer, or her other favourite. She knew it would be hard work; she also was fairly sure she'd probably get a first from the other one but a 2:1 from Cambridge... the department resists grade inflation and caps firsts at 30% which is a smaller proportion than at the others she'd applied to. Afaik that's a peculiarity of the engineering department.

Had a family member just finish Cambridge. She would say that the colleges are so different that you should treat them as a different applications and you don't really apply to Cambridge University but a college that can be completely different from another one. Some very relaxed and no more acedemic or pressurised than any good university and some extreme intense with extreme acedemic challenges. So it seems it is very dependent on which college she is interested in.

To be fair, Boris is highly intelligent, in the academic sense. He just has (to be polite) a warped sense of morality and an apparent inability to differentiate between right and wrong! You can be an absolute arse and intelligent

This is true but teaching and examination and grading is provided by the faculty so doesn't vary by college.

Hmm. True to some extent that all of the colleges are different but the exams are the same for everyone. And it is the exams that determine your degree classification, not the college.

In my experience your degree mark has zero impact on your career. More importantly to get work experience and develop skills. I would have hated Oxbridge, so exclusive and narrow
minded

X post.

Actually, most of my teaching was delivered by the college until I was in my last year. Lectures were at faculty level but supervisions (i.e. 1:1 tutorials) and classes were college led. This may depend a bit on the college and the subject but it was certainly true for most subjects at my college.

Agree that exams are all run by the faculty though, and that is what matters for your final degree.

The workload is more, and the individual tuition makes it more difficult to get away without doing it. If you love the subject, though, you will enjoy really getting to grips with it and going more widely and deeply into it. Plus you are much more likely to meet other people who share your passion and enthusiasm .

This is rubbish. DS graduated with a First from Oxford and very quickly got a well paid job. He's only 24 and is now on more money than I could have ever dreamed of. He also received an excellent education which inspired him to keep on learning.

The workload is more, and the individual tuition makes it more difficult to get away without doing it.

So true. There is nowhere to hide when you're the only student in the room.

Excruciating when you're being grilled about the essay that you can't really remember because you wrote it when you were blind drunk!

My brother is just finishing up at oxbridge, his workload has been insane. I'm amazingly proud of him, he has had to work so so hard. Must be 5x what I did a uni (10 years ago) and we both did reading heavy subjects

I have a dd at Oxford. 14 A stars at GCSE. All A stars at A level. ( normal comprehensive school) . The essay load is very heavy compared to other universities, the terms short but extraordinarily intense. She is constantly exhausted and stressed. However she does love the college system, and the fact that she can live in college for her whole degree.
There are pros and cons to be honest. It feels a more protected environment than many universities, but the workload is brutal and the skim reading for every essay doesn’t suit her style of working very well.

My DD is loving her experience at Cambridge 3 rd year medicine). She’s had a terrific time in all aspects. She worked out pretty quickly she couldn’t keep up with absolutely everything, so learned to prioritise her workload. She was told a first in other universities is the same as a 2:1 in Cambridge (no idea whether this is correct). She’s not hell bent on going for a first (although that would be nice if it happens) as she doesn’t want to sacrifice her social and sporting life to such an extent she’s spending all her time in her room studying (her words). That’s her outlook and I can’t argue with that. She attends lectures with all the other medical students from other colleges and they share the same curriculum. She’s keeping up well with course work, getting great results and good feedback from tutors, plus she’s meeting fascinating people from all backgrounds. Not sure however it would suit my other DD, who copes less well with pressure and has applied elsewhere but the Oxbridge system has certainly suited my DD1 so far. I’m not sure about ‘exclusive and narrow minded’ as mentioned in a post above. I think you really have to experience it for your self to judge whether that is true or not.

I have a ds at Oxford, currently 3rd year. He has not found it exclusive or narrow! He is studying a STEM subject has a huge range of courses to choose between so much so that he is only taking 1 paper in common with another friend studying the same degree.
He has not found it exclusive either - he has a range of friends from state, private and international students.
It's a shame Oxbridge is often portrayed as narrow and exclusive and 'not for the likes of us'
Sorry, was off topic, but yes the workload is intense but ds found it manageable

This is your third thread about the same thing. What is your skin in the game here? Are your DC applying?

This. Plus, he went to Oxford, not Cambridge 🤓

/keeping very quiet about Nick Griffin

Yes, what is it you want from these threads, OP?

IOW you know nothing about it. I had a fabulous time and it was anything but either of those things. And no, I came from State education.

In reply to the question, this is 20 years ago but I was torn between Oxford/Durham for languages. After a 2-day open day I decided not to apply to Oxford. At the time the French dept at Durham was top in the country (so I would say I did a "difficult" degree) but honestly I was put off by so much 1 to 1 attention. The college I looked at was mostly 1 to 1 or 2 to 1 tutorials and I was much more suited as an introvert to 6-person seminars and 30-person lectures.