Oxbridge 2009 applicants

Very thorough debrief, Buffdaddy! Kudos!

I would like to share some of my impressions as well, as I had the opportunity to visit events at both Oxford and Cambridge (and was lucky to meet with Buffdaddy and Pathfinder, who both are great people! ).

I liked both schools - though difference in energetics was definitely perceivable. I would advise the applicants to visit both places, if possible, and spend several days exploring the cities - the experience is definitely worth it. It is hard to say which school they will like better, but I think that those with more rational mind and no-nonsense approach to life would find Said more to their liking, while the people who are not strange to somewhat crazy-artistic and chaotic would prefer Judge.

But, to my opinion, it would be wrong to say that one of the programmes is objectively 'better' than the other. The curriculum at Oxford is definitely more focused on finance and social entrepreneurship - but I'd say that this is an advantage mainly to those who are interested in these areas.

The quality of the applicants is comparable. As for the students - it is hard to say. At Cambridge, they didn't have the panel discussion with students, similar to the one at Oxford, but instructed students to engage into communication with the applicants - and the time allocated for these freeform discussions was considerably greater than in Oxford. I think that this is a better practice, as it allows to talk with a greater number of students. All those with whom I talked were very nice - and again, the quality of the students seemed comparable. But I think that they specially select the participants for this type of events, so I would not have judged the quality of the entire student body at both programmes basing on my impressions from the events.

The estimated selectivity percentage at Oxford - 60% selected for the interview and 60% receiving offers after - seems to me too high for this year situation. I guess smth in lines of 50%-55% would be more realistic. As for Cambridge, they are definitely more selective - the adcom presentation gave the figure of 16%, which make this programme comparable to some of the most selective American schools. I don't know what will be the case this year, as I heard the rumours from some students that they plan to increase the number of places from 150 to 180.

Regarding the (in)famous 'fit-factor' - I somehow had the impression that Cambridge is after something 'exotic' in the profiles (and it seems very similar in that regard to Stanford). How they reach the final decision though, evaluating this 'exoticism' in the context of suitability for the programme, is really beyond my understanding. I would say that in the end, it all comes to standartized evaluation of the candidates on a list of several separate factors; but who knows.

And in any case, it seems hardly probable in current job market situation that either programme will make some careless admission decisions that would have spoiled their ‘employed 3 months after graduation’ – statistics, which, as Buffdaddy noted, will be very disappointing this year. Unfortunately, it means rather sad prospects for ‘risky’ candidates like me…

So, I think that's it. I would like to thank Buffdaddy and Pathfinder once again for their kind words of support: they were definitely what I needed that day!

Oh, and if any of the gmatclubbers have some more questions about my experience in Oxford and Cambridge, I will be glad to answer.