Since they accept by department, would it be easier to get into less marketable fields? My impression is that Oxbridge is way better than US schools in humanities. The more structured programs work better in those fields. For example, in English you would study a lot of medieval literature. In the US, most English majors don’t learn Old English.
Seems like it would put you in good position for a US PhD program in your field of study. Also, with the US system, you could get a graduate degree in law, business, or maybe journalism.
I am just curious. I don’t know anyone who is interested in doing this.
Well, PPE and E&M are two of the most competitive programs at Oxford, for example- and there are plenty of people who want to do English, History, etc. just b/c they want to study it. And Oxford ‘humanities’ degrees are pretty marketable. I know history students who have just accepted positions at major consultancies, law firms (there is a law conversion process in the UK), etc. There are people who apply to (say) Classics thinking that there will be less competition- and then find out that faking a real interest in Latin & Greek is harder than it seems
It’s all about supply and demand: how many people apply for how many places. For recentish stats, dividing applications between those privately educated and those from state funded schools, but not taking account of international status, see here:
Yes, going by those stats some subjects are easier than others to get into - but that’s not the whole picture.
Interestingly, medicine isn’t even the lowest acceptance rate based on these figures: at Cambridge architecture is, and it’s also beaten by veterinary medicine and economics. At Oxford it’s harder to get into history of art than it is medicine - partly because there are a tenth fewer places.
I don’t think you can totally tell how difficult a program is to get into by the percent accepted.
Aside from the difficulty of admissions, I would think humanities in Britain, particularly Oxbridge, would be better and very different than in the US. By contrast, US engineering programs are well regarded and highly structured, similar the the British system in all subjects.
