Oxbridge admissions criteria

Yep. As I have said before, undergrad in England (from an American perspective) is grad-school-lite. You get admitted by the profs in the department(s) that offers your course, you take only classes in that/those department(s), and so at the top UK unis, despite England undergrad being 3 years long instead of 4, you are covering material that would be considered master’s level in the States.

Obviously there are unique aspects like the college system and tutorials that are rare in the US, but those also don’t differentiate England undergrad from England grad programs. The main differentiation is research opportunities (still much less common at the undergrad level in England and the rest of Europe).

Meanwhile, there’s a big split between the undergrad and grad school experience in the US, with the (traditional residential) “American college experience” defining undergrad (though many full-time MBA program experiences are close).