Student review [#28615] for Economics and Management
at University of Oxford

I’ve just received my rejection email today, and those of you who know the admissions schedule will notice that this is pre-interview.

I disagree with the other answers – a rejection from Oxbridge (Oxford, in my case) is not just like any other rejection. Oxbridge is treated as something exceptional, something wholly other, and the admissions process reflects this. My applications to other universities were all the same, done in one batch. For Oxford, I had to submit work and take an admissions test. The many hours of preparation for these, and the interview I will never do, were draining, but I did them because I was invested in the opportunity. I poured my heart into my application, and in the thirty seconds it took me to read the rejection email, months or even years of hopes were dashed. I don’t want to be melodramatic, but that’d how it is. Perhaps I didn’t work hard enough. Perhaps I just applied at the same time as loads of extremely talented people. It doesn’t really matter.

Today, I received an email that broke my heart a little bit. I had convinced myself that I stood a chance, that I was a strong candidate who was likely to be interviewed. I desperately wanted to get in, to experience tutors and a course that were just what I wanted. But, that will never happen. With one, generic email my dreams crumbled and I had to face the fact that I’m just not that good.

Ah well. If I’m not good enough for Oxford, maybe it’s not good enough for me. Right now, I’m distraught, but it will get better. I will go somewhere else, and have a wonderful time, and do very well – partially, if I’m honest, out of spite. And I’ll move on, and eventually, Oxford University will just be a thing I didn’t do. And that will be just fine with me.

I went to Cambridge, and Oxford students would call me a ‘Tab’, a derogatory term (derived from Cantab., the abbreviated word for ‘Cambridge’ in Latin – that’s a classy way to come up with a rude word). But Cambridge doesn’t have a derogatory word back – read into that what you will…

The most important difference, particularly for what you want to know, is that Oxford is a city with a University in it; Cambridge is a University with a city around it.

I’ve heard this said numerous times, and it’s true – more true in spirit than in population terms (160k vs 125k). Oxford feels like a proper large city with a University in the middle, whereas the city of Cambridge feels like it’s grown up around the University. Oxford has better public transport and more housing as a result; Cambridge also has a fast train to London but the station is way out of town, and the housing stock is cheaper and wages higher. In terms of links to the rest of the country, Oxford is better placed – unless you have a strong fondness for East Anglia and the East Midlands.

The University of Cambridge was set up after a ‘town vs gown’ fight in Oxford forced scholars to flee in 1209 (and in 1355 there was a two day riot in Oxford following a fight between students and a tavern owner: St Scholastica Day riot – Wikipedia). The origins of Cambridge go deep within in its character: Oxford was always the establishment town, and Cambridge the rebel.

Take the English Civil War: Oxford was a Royalist stronghold, which the Parliamentarians subjected to a series of sieges. Cambridge was in the heartland of Parliamentarian power – it was the headquarters of the Eastern Association army and the Parliamentary leader Oliver Cromwell was a former Cambridge student and MP for nearby Huntingdon.