10 Benefits to Studying at Oxford University

1. You’re surrounded by some of the smartest people in the world You might look at Oxford’s roll-call of impressive alumni and think it doesn’t count for much. After all, they are mostly people who achieved success after they left the university, so you would just be surrounded by a group of ordinary students, like at any other university.

2. You get to work with them and socialise with them All the same, it isn’t just the lecturers who are world-class at Oxford University. If you were to study there, your fellow undergraduates would also be likely to be some of the most intelligent people you will ever meet.

3. You will meet a huge variety  of people The University of Oxford has long faced criticism for a lack of diversity among its student body, particularly that it’s too white and too wealthy. That’s a larger debate that there isn’t space for in this article, but what we can say is definitely true is that a wide variety of people study at Oxford. 

4. Top employers will court you Given all of the above, it’s not surprising that top employers want to employ Oxford graduates. 95% of Oxford graduates are employed or in further study within 6 months of graduating – and if you’re wondering why that’s a little lower than some of the competition

5. You can get noticed, even as an undergraduate Because of the prestige of Oxford, what happens there comes to national attention (even if not necessarily for the best of reasons). The election of its student union president can be reported in national newspapers.

6. You can’t rest on your laurel As the above should make clear, Oxford isn’t a university that allows people to coast through doing any less than their best. The workload – an essay a week or more in humanities subjects, and an equivalent amount of study in sciences – means that there’s no chance to rest during term-time. 

7. You’ll never be busier It’s clear that being a student at Oxford entails grappling with a mountain of work. But there are also a huge number of societies to get involved with, plus the usual business of having a social life. 

8. Everyone in the world has heard of your university (even if they think it’s in London) Who hasn’t heard of the University of Oxford? As the oldest university in Britain and tied jointly for being the most prestigious, there’s scarcely anywhere you can go where people won’t recognise the name on your CV.

9. You’ll learn some very specific skill Oxford graduates don’t, in general, do particularly well in jobs that mostly depend on people doing what they’re told and not questioning things that don’t make immediate sense. The training of three years of tutorials encourages students to question and analyse everything they encounter

10. There are few places quite like it It’s fair to say that there is one place quite a lot like Oxford. But even between them, Oxford and Cambridge produce fewer than 8,000 graduates per year. Take out the sizeable percentage who will carry on to do further study, and that’s not a whole lot of people – it’s no wonder that employers court them so enthusiastically.

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