An Oxbridge Overview

“Who here wants to apply to Cambridge?” Ambitious hands shot up.

“Oxford?” This time, a change of hands.

“Both Oxford and Cambridge?” The ‘kiasu-est’ (most competitive) of the bunch finally raised their hands, but instead of thunderous applause, they received peals of laughter.

“You can’t apply to both Oxford and Cambridge! Those are the rules,” Ms. Irma explained that due to high application to both universities, a rule was set stipulating that no one, no matter how legendary he or she is could apply to both universities in order to cut down the volume of applicants. I was lucky that day; I haven’t got the guts to say that I want to apply to Oxford and Cambridge (collectively known as Oxbridge) or either one yet. However that little incident piqued my interest – just how quaint these universities are? and also marked the inception of my journey to 'try to get into Cambridge'.

And quaint they are indeed. Oxbridge are the two oldest universities in the world, but there is no one single building that we can call the Oxford University or the Cambridge University. Instead, they both run a collegiate system, meaning that under the big umbrella of Cambridge University (I will hitherto use Cambridge for all my Oxbridge examples) there are actually 31 different colleges which are part of the University of Cambridge. So Cambridge University is more like the ‘University town of Cambridge’ with all the Cambridge Colleges dotting the landscape.

Under the collegiate system, the universities will provide the lectures to the students en masse while the colleges will provide for the students’ welfare and supervisions. Four colleges will accept only mature students, i.e. those aged 21 or over (St Edmund’s, Lucy Cavendish, Wolfson and Hughes Hall) while another three only accept female students (Murray Edwards, Newnham and Lucy Cavendish). Girton and Homerton are located quite far from the town of Cambridge. Trinity College is the most well-known as well as the hardest to get into whereas Peterhouse is the nearest to the engineering department. Hence, there are a few considerations in choosing a college to apply which I will detail in my next post.

The supervision system is something only specific to Oxbridge colleges (In Oxford they are called tutorials). A student at Cambridge has a tutor who will guide the students in learning, usually on a one-to-one basis or sometimes a few students to a tutor. This sort of tutelage guarantees that the students who are frequent askers of questions will wring the most out of this system. Don’t be surprised if your tutors happen to be famous researchers or even Nobel laureates because the whole purpose of having the supervision system is to have the best brains passing on their knowledge to the students. Personally, I find this system to be a good one as we have the chance to learn from the top of the field in a face-to-face interaction. Although the facing the tutor, mano-el-mano, might freak some of us, but in the end of the day, it is indeed a rewarding experience.

In Xu Zhimo’s poem - “再别康桥” or “On Leaving Cambridge”, Cambridge is described as a heart-stopping, breathtaking beautiful place, so much so that he said he would rather live as a reed in the river Cam. Anyways, Cambridge is a marvelous place with rustic scenery and majestic buildings due to its location in the outskirts. It is the place that will give you goosebumps all over your skin just by being so beautiful.

For example:

Girton - my friend maintained that this is the most beautiful college of all

Punting in the river Cam - Ze Kai said it is a must

Caius library - the largest and the oldest
and one of the reasons why I selected  Gonville and Caius as my college of choice

Besides being picturesque, Cambridge is also much steeped in tradition. Some of the colleges provide dinner at halls, meaning that you have to wear the full academic regalia while having dinner with fellow coursemates and tutors at the college, just like something out of a Harry Potter movie.

but Hogwarts is modeled after Oxford

Hoped my explanation opened the doors for you to dream to go to Oxbridge :)

TIPS:

1. Malaysia has a very strong presence at Cambridge under the Cambridge University Malaysian Society (CUMaS). Be sure to check their website for tips on entering Cambridge, their experiences in Cambridge and their next Outreach sessions.

Do you think Oxbridge is the place to be? What are your first opinions of these two giants? Do share your thoughts and opinions.