Reviews on Cambridge / Oxford compared to US b-schools?

Question

How are Cambridge Judge and Oxford Said MBA programs ranked compared to top b-schools in US in terms of

1. Ranking
2. Placement opportunities
3. Quality of Education
4. Exposure and opportunities while pursuing an MBA

Thanks 
Himanshu

Ivan91 · Answer

I believe Oxbridge are excellent schools which offer a lot of opportunities in Europe and Asia. Frankly, the brand names of the universities are stronger than the business schools themselves, in my opinion. It is difficukt thugh ti compare both schools wirh US ones because Oxbridge offers a one year program. 
However, in terms of rankings I would compare them to Cornell, Stern, UCLA, Berkley.

daedalus1989 · Answer

Hi! I've been researching that very question for a while, and have come up with a few conclusions. Of course, nothing is absolute, and everything is subject to change! 1. Ranking It's difficult to compare because of the relative youth of Oxford and Cambridge on the MBA scene. That being said, I agree with Ivan - they're about equivalent to US schools ranked 10-15, maybe 15-20 if you're a Europhobe

On the other hand, Oxford went up 3 places in BusinessWeek's ranking over the last year, and I expect that Said and Judge will join the ranks of LBS and INSEAD as the elite European schools within the next decade. Of course, I could be totally wrong, but I know that Said poached HBS's Dean and have been quietly fortifying their program for the last couple of years. 2. Placement Opportunities Both Said and Judge do reasonably well on this front because of their proximity to London and their stronger-than-expected networks in the US and Asia. Granted, it's no H/S/W but I think it compares favorably to Stern, Darden, or Johnson. On the other hand, the European economy isn't all that great, and if your future is in North America, you might want to go to a US top-10 instead and save yourself the bother of moving! 3. Quality of Education Oxbridge is synonymous with quality education. This will be true until 2+2 = 3. It's right up there with Harvard. Going to Said or Judge will give you access to a plethora of resources, as the undergrad and graduate disciplines are closely intertwined (more so than at US schools, by and large). Oxford, in particular, has a very strong finance department, and both Said and Judge place a special emphasis on entrepreneurship. On the other hand, if Marketing is your cup of tea, you may be better served at Kellogg. Similarly, if analytics is your field, you will love Booth/Sloan more. It all depends on what you want to get out of your MBA and where you want to go from there. 4. Exposure & Opportunities Look - if you go to Said or Judge or a top-15 US b-school, you're gonna get more exposure and opportunity that you can handle. All of these schools have influential guest speakers and lecturers and academics and whatnot. All of them have a powerful alumni network (US b-schools because of strong MBA traditions, Oxbridge because ... well, because it's Oxbridge and one of their graduates is never too far away). If you look at the list of employers, you'll find eerie similarities between most top-notch b-schools. It's possible that US schools have more developed Career Services depts, but I don't know if that's always going to be the case. In conclusion - this is not a Harvard vs. Kentucky Mountain State kinda argument (no offense to any Kentucky institution that goes by that name, if any). Oxbridge vs US is a difficult comparison, whose outcome depends entirely on the individual. Your career may be better served in one place or the other. Having said that, I highly doubt that going to one and not the other will lead to substantial missed opportunities. If you gain acceptance to one or more of these schools, you're doing very well for yourself and can expect to continue the upward trend. Cheers!

Ivan91 · Answer

Great analysis, thank you very much. I see that you applied to LBS and Said. May I ask you, why didn't you apply to Judge and are you European ?

I believe that, in the end, whether you apply to top US school or LBS, INSEAD, Oxbridge, should largely depend on where you want to work post-graduation.

daedalus1989 · Answer

I totally agree with your conclusion!

I am European by birth, but I've been globetrotting for most of my life, and have spent the last 8 years in the USA, so I'm fairly Americanized at this point. 
I'm going to apply to LBS and Oxford R1 this year. Reason I chose Said over Judge is because I had a much easier time setting up an appointment with the school during a recent trip to the UK. Judge's link was down for a while and I found their website a tad less user-friendly. Said, on the other hand, was straightforward and responded very quickly.

I've always tried to follow my heart when choosing between similar quantities, and in the end, the accessibility that Said exhibited won out. Also, I'm not sure about applying to more than 2-3 schools in one round. I think any more than 3 would dilute the quality of my applications, and chances are if you get accepted to either one of the Oxbridge schools, you'll get accepted to the other. Once I decided Said was a great fit, there was no point in considering Judge any further (which is not to say it's not a fantastic school).

mbach63 · Answer

I did Cambridge MBA degree. What I could say based on my experience, there are two things that I liked - people and project nature of the program (CVP, GCP, Summer project). Despite smaller classes, Cambridge people are very well diversified in terms of experience and nationalities. (1) Cambridge is doing better and better in terms of rankings (e.g 13th FT 2015). (2) job placement provided by the University is focused on the UK but Cambridge brand helps alumni to find jobs worldwide. (3) Quality of Education is high but in my view, the University nature provides certain problems for the school. I personally faced mistakes in marking and a lot of bureaucracy due to the University itself. The school did serious mistake in my mark for the final project that was found only after the University deadlines. As a result, the mark was not corrected. I even wrote a post about this issue to draw attention of the school - https://goo.gl/XIHR0w yet no one cares. While the case with the mark makes me very angry, I still recommend Cambridge, especially for the experienced people who want to do a career in EU.

Grad · Answer

I would put them in the league of Anderson, Darden, Johnson.

The fact that Oxbridge schools are not generally considered by business community as equal to top 10 US schools, is due to their age. Said and Judge are relatively very young b-schools. Even with good management it will take quite a time to build a reputation comparable to US M7.

When it comes to recognition of mother universities by general public, though, there are hardly any universities comparable to Oxbridge. IMO, most recognizable university brands in the world are Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard.

samusa · Answer

Two lines close the whole argument.

Thanks for the comparison.

Reviews on Cambridge / Oxford compared to US b-schools?

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