Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicholls  to be honest if I did not go to Cambridge or Oxford I doubt I would consider it a worthwhile endeavour. |
I think you should do more research into University. The above quote irritated me slightly, as I went to another top British university that wasn't Oxford or Cambridge. Although I am slightly biased, I would like to point out that believing Oxford and Cambridge to be the only worthwhile universities is foolish.
1) Oxford and Cambridge are not necessarily the best for a given subject. For example, engineering at Oxford, whilst it is a good course, is certainly not widely regarded as the best engineering degree course available. Don't sacrfice what is best for you, your education and your qualifications in order to say "I went to Oxbridge". (Oxbridge = a collective term for oxford and cambridge).
2) One of the main reasons why I intended to recommend university to you is for the non-academic aspects. You will learn a lot about life, develop a lot as a person, have a chance to live away from home in a new town with new friends...you mentioned this enjoyment of the experience of university as the reason why you are going...well, how well do Oxford and Cambridge fit in with this plan?
They are not large cities, they demand an extremely high level of work from their students (of course uni always involves work, but I've heard that Oxbridge is particularly demanding), they are arranged as colleges where you live and study throughout your course (I think) which I'm neither pointing out as a good thing or a bad thing, just an unusual aspect of those universities compared to most where you stay in halls for the first year then get to live in a student house with friends.
My point is that University is a great experience and I do recommend it to you. My university years were the best of my life (though they're only just finishing so I'm not that old!) even though I *hated* my course. Everything else made it worthwhile. However, if you do decide to go to univeristy make sure you consider all of your options carefully and find the place that is right for you, not the place that makes people say "oooh" when you tell them where you studied!
