Oxford Said or Cambridge Judge? [MOOT: 2 data points Oxford and Judge]

Question

I've already made my decision, but a friend of mine is deciding as well. I'd love to hear what you all have to say!

The post-MBA pursuit would be i-banking.

beefphoforthewin · Answer

Judge > Said

DanielO · Answer

Had to make the same decision and think that they have a lot in common. I eventually decided to go to Judge, for the following reasons:

1) I received scholarship in Cambridge - that left Oxford with higher costs and a lower FT rank.
2) In Cambridge, you have a higher influence on college selection; Oxford only allows you to pick one preferred college and randomly allocates you in case you don't get your preferred college. Unfortunately, they tell you this quite late in the process and only when you ask specifically. Cambridge lets you choose on a one-by-one basis until you get accepted by a college that you like.

But: Facilities are way nicer in Oxford.

ChrisKoko · Answer

I recently finished in-person interviews at both schools. Cambridge to me appeared much more organized and better assembled, but it's tough to tell from only a day or two of interactions. I'm curious what others think about this decision....

Rohit6 · Answer

Judge...This is a non-brainer unless you r in social sector. For social and stuff Said is better. Rest everything, Judge is a clear winner.. :-D

redfield · Answer

I'm sorry I may be missing something obvious here but could you explain what you mean by the college selection with regards to these two MBA programs? Are you referring to concentration?

bb · Answer

I like your question - it is a really interesting one as I could not figure out what DanielO was talking about either until I found this page: https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/oxford/learning ... d-colleges
That's a pretty ~~messed up~~ interesting approach, frankly - I have never thought an MBA program could be structured like that. It seems more like a community or a dorm/etc.

redfield · Answer

Great info as always, thanks BB. This is indeed... interesting and certainly will require further research from me to see how big of a deal it is. Oxford is the only non-US program I have been looking at and I'm surprised I missed this component of it.

Rohit6 · Answer

That's an interesting discussion. I myself applied to Judge but never came across this topic. Though I'm still wondering what'll be the tangible benefit to a student who's assigned to a college...Nevertheless, surely there r benefits of going to Oxbridge :-D

DanielO · Answer

I think, most of the questions are answered. Colleges are a somewhat unique construction to Cambridge and Oxford (and some other mostly British universities) and there are quite some articles about the specifics of this system (see Wikipedia, for instance).

How tangible one's college affiliation is is up to debate. Since a college will provide library, housing, dining, sports etc. to its students, it will certainly contribute a good share of social life and the perceived overall experience. Also, the college allows students to meet many non-MBA students which adds another dimension to the MBA experience.

Last: The Business School is not a college, but a department. Every MBA student is part of the Business School, but not a member of the same college; think of it was a matrix of colleges and departments - that makes it easier

akanshaa25 · Answer

Hi All, Am trying to make the same choice 2-3 years down the line - Oxford MBA vs Cambridge MBA...And am very confused

Would love to hear if thoughts have changed or if anybody has more insights...

A) FT rankings are not helping anymore - Cambridge used to be better than Oxford until 2018, but in 2019 Oxford = rank#13 & Cambridge = rank#16. Also, Cambridge's rankings have been following a decreasing trend as opposed to increasing trend for Oxford. However, if I look at avg. rank of last 3 or 5 years, Cambridge ranks better than Oxford. B) Career reports aren't helping much either - both colleges seems to have very similar placement profiles. Although Oxford's data is outdated (2016-17) and Cambridge's is latest (2018-19) C) The limited alumni contacts that I could find seem to love their own colleges and don't know much about the other

To give some background about myself: I am an Assco. Prod. Mgnr. with 8 years of Work-ex building technology solutions for consulting companies. The natural career growth for me post-MBA would be in Technology sector, but I haven't frozen on the industry yet. Am open to exploring my options during MBA. My primary aim is career progression (hopefully into senior mgmt. of organizations) and a Great Global brand on my resume... Any help or suggestions about how to make this choice are much appreciated...plzzz share thoughts

sbhatt · Answer

Hey akanshaa25 ,

From the last couple of months, I had been doing a similar research to be able to decide between SBS and CJBS for the incoming batch of 2019-2020. At the start of this research, I was told that choosing between these two schools is like choosing between a Mercedes and a BMW. You’ll enjoy the ride no matter what you choose. It’s all about choosing the one which resonates with your personality and where your heart tells you to go. However, in my case, surprisingly it wasn’t that difficult for me to decide to go with Judge because of the factors mentioned in the following paragraphs. I would also like you to know that this is an extremely personal opinion derived from my own personal experience and it may not necessarily be the case with everyone so I would say that you’re on the right path. Keep exploring till you get convinced with your choice.

My primary reason of choosing Judge was that I had a more pleasant and positive interaction with its Alumni and current students than the interaction with the SBS folks. I contacted Alumni and current students from both the schools but unfortunately all the SBS people I reached out to, were either extremely busy to respond or very arrogant and boastful in their suggestions about choosing between SBS and CJBS. However, this was not the case with the CJBS alumni. Even though they obviously boasted about their school, they were warm, very cordial about both the options and provided honest views. In a generic sense, I felt more comfortable talking to the Judge students/Alumni than the SBS folks! I felt a little aggression in most people from SBS and thought that it may be a cultural superiority factor which doesn't resonate with my personality.

As an example, when I reached out to a CJBS student, she introduced me to 3-4 more students from my industry and region to help me out. She made sure that I receive the information from people with similar perspective. Because of her willingness, I got introduced to 5-6 more folks from the JBS who further introduced me to many more. I really enjoyed the willingness of their current and past students in helping out people looking for information. In case of SBS, I reached out to at least 8-10 people through various platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Direct references etc, but it was surprising to receive somewhat cold responses from all but one! One of the Alumni told me that he has passed out the college 4-5 years back and hence he cannot give me any valuable feedback or suggestion. A current student replied to me on LinkedIn that she was too busy with the MBAT preparation to be able to help me with those queries. Another student with whom I scheduled a phone call told me that CJBS is nothing compared to SBS and that nobody should choose CJBS over SBS. I was again surprised at the arrogance and lack of humility. May be I was just unlucky to reach out to such people but all this made me think that I'd be in the wrong place because of my low key personality and therefore helped me make a choice.

My secondary reason is a more common one. Because of my background in technology and perhaps future entrepreneurship possibilities in the same field, I also gave slight weightage to the widely talked about “proximity to silicon fen” reason of choosing CJBS over SBS.

Hope this helps and Wish you good luck in your MBA endeavours

akanshaa25

Hi All,

Am trying to make the same choice 2-3 years down the line - Oxford MBA vs Cambridge MBA...And am very confused

Would love to hear if thoughts have changed or if anybody has more insights...

A) FT rankings are not helping anymore - Cambridge used to be better than Oxford until 2018, but in 2019 Oxford = rank#13 & Cambridge = rank#16. Also, Cambridge's rankings have been following a decreasing trend as opposed to increasing trend for Oxford. However, if I look at avg. rank of last 3 or 5 years, Cambridge ranks better than Oxford.

B) Career reports aren't helping much either - both colleges seems to have very similar placement profiles. Although Oxford's data is outdated (2016-17) and Cambridge's is latest (2018-19)

C) The limited alumni contacts that I could find seem to love their own colleges and don't know much about the other

To give some background about myself:
I am an Assco. Prod. Mgnr. with 8 years of Work-ex building technology solutions for consulting companies. The natural career growth for me post-MBA would be in Technology sector, but I haven't frozen on the industry yet. Am open to exploring my options during MBA. My primary aim is career progression (hopefully into senior mgmt. of organizations) and a Great Global brand on my resume...

Any help or suggestions about how to make this choice are much appreciated...plzzz share thoughts

[/quote]

Arro44 · Answer

Even though I am a big Oxford fan, most people agree on Judge being the better business school

Brockley · Answer

I was in the same situation and I read this thread before I made the decision. Now that I have, I want to contribute!

I got accepted to both but chose Oxford over Cambridge. The main reason was that Oxford has better reputation in Finance. The Finance faculty has really reputable professors and Masters of Finance is in fact rated #1 in the world based on a recent QS ranking. Said also has Finance Lab and there are extra-curricular activities (e.g. Oxford Seed Fund where MBA students are given a small capital to invest in a start up). Because of its larger alumni base Oxford also has larger number of alumni in investment / PE / VC that students can connect with. I also thought the student life experience would be better at Oxford (given my interest) because of its established extra-curricular and non-MBA activities. Oxford also seems to offer more scholarships -which MBA schools use to attract high calibre students.

In terms of alumni.... this topic was heavily discussed on this forum and the group seems to favour Cambridge. I really think this depends on the person you reach out to. I got mixed response from alumni from both schools. Some Cambridge alumni were great but so were the Oxford alumni. I initially thought Oxford alumni were less responsive but I realised their response rate changed dramatically once I got an offer from Oxford and told the alumni that I had an offer pending and wanted their advice. So I wouldn't say Oxford alumni network is weaker than Cambridge's.

I agree though that Cambridge admissions team / process is a lot more responsive and better organised. The Judge interview process was more comprehensive and the interview was with a faculty member. As soon as I got an offer the admissions team offered a call to discuss the detail. But at the end of the day I got the information I needed from both admission teams so it didn't matter in the end (for me).

bb · Answer

Thanks so much for the input  Brockley .

I take it you are heading to Oxford then based on the post?

Posted from my mobile device

Brockley · Answer

Yup I am!

Oxford Said or Cambridge Judge? [MOOT: 2 data points Oxford and Judge]

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