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Some of this resonates, but this does not: Oxbridge’s teaching methods reward good talk In my experience, Cambridge University Engineering Department rewards
by tomsaffell 15y ago
Some of this resonates, but this does not:
Oxbridge’s teaching methods reward good talk
In my experience, Cambridge University Engineering Department rewards those who can at age 19 show on paper a sound grasp of all branches of engineering, from vector calculus, to materials science, to the physics of a transistor, to thermo dynamics.
Those who can do both that, and also speak well, are often 'poached' into consulting and banking, whereas those who can only do the former tend to pursue more technical fields. But to blame that on Oxbridge seems unfair.
On an unrelated note: I've worked with many Oxbridge graduates of Humanities, Classics (Greek, Latin) and English Literature - all of whom (by selection of my firm's hiring process) are very numerate. I.e. the two are not mutually exclusive.
- sabraham 15y agoThat said, I'm American, went to Oxford and am now at Cambridge, and I can assure you that most Humanities graduates are shockingly innumerate--I seriously doubt most Arts students given the Math SAT would be able to do more than shake a stick at it. The best evidence is probably in PPE; the only people who stick with E(conomics) did Math/s at A-level. The system doesn't encourage it. You do your 3-5 A-levels, and people tend to focus on the Arts or the Sciences, with little to no overlap. Also, I was never offered sherry at a tutorial, but I did have friends studying English who were offered wine~ On a related note, this is a good summary of the differences between English vs American values/elite educations: http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/apr/23/whats-better-oxfords-depth-or-yales-breadth/ http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/apr/23/whats-better-o...
- matclayton 15y agoAs someone who went through CUED, I confirm that there are an awful lot of my friends in investment banking/consulting, however I know of a fair few (myself included) who now do startup's. For example I do Mixcloud, and I have friends from uni days, who are founders in YC companies such as Heyzap, songkick, rapportive and webmynd. So not all of us turn to the dark side.... infact I would say a surprising number of them are now actively involved in internet startups.