Is it ever possible? - international transfer

GeraldM
Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:04:25 +0000

Yeah, it’s merely impossible to transfer. Cambridge have a strong cooperation and exchange programs with MIT, and have strong ties with Harvard, Yale, Penn, but that’s not about transferring, but spending one year abroad.
Anyway, if you prove yourself an extraordinary applicant, you can go to Cambridge as a Gates scholar to work for a masters or a PhD. (Ten years ago Bill gates donated $210 to Cambridge, to establish a scholarship like the Rhodes. )

More prestigious? Well…they’re roughly equal. Oxford slightly have more prestige than Cambridge, at least in the eyes of average Joe, but not in the academia. (Not everywhere of course, in China for example, Cambridge have the edge over Oxford.) Contrary to this, Cambridge is the stronger university (ARWU World: Cambridge 5, Oxford 10, QS World (which is the list used by US News) Cambridge 1, Oxford 6. Recently the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings (what a name…) placed Cambridge 3rd, while Oxford 6th among the most prestigious universities worldwide.
Cambridge is also a powerhouse in hard sciences, just have a look: [List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation - Wikipedia)

People used to say that Oxford for humanities, Cambridge for sciences, but this is merely a might, caused by some article in the Times about 200 years ago. (Also, nowadays sciences rule, and humanities are not that important, so it’s not the best myth for Oxford :)I came to Oxford after having a Cambridge MPhil (Masters) in hand, mainly because of financial reasons, but I like Cambridge more, have to say. Or at least the town. Oxford is very conservative, while Cambridge is more liberal (compared to Oxford, and Oxford only…), but both are excellent, world class universities with fantastic prestige, and 900 and 800 years old history, respectively.