Reply to I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have had occasion to work with Canadian and Oxbridge educated Brits.  My Canadian and US colleagues often remark on how different the Brits are from us in the way they think.

They are very good in coming up with elegant concepts, [b]but as soon as one scratches below the surface it becomes pretty obvious to the North Americans they are simply not operational. [/b] For us, having something that is operational is critical; not so much to the Brits.

Perhaps the way they are educated?[/quote]

A person I know works for a big 3 in international tax accounting.  This friend said the same thing about Americans, that their knowledge was less deep than their internationally educated counterparts.  I really think it has to do with specific people, possibly the major and what school you went to both in the US and UK.

We are making quite a sweeping generalization here.  There are smart/talented people from both sides, notwithstanding what university they went to.  [/quote]

Actually, this is not about depth of knowledge in the field. [b] It is more about whether one takes a more theoretical or a more practical approach to problems.  [/b]US and Canadian colleagues tend to be more practical and less infatuated with theoretical approaches.

Interesting you should mention accounting.  The area I work in is not accounting, but accounting bears on it. And often the theoretical approach is tripped up in part because of accounting, which our British colleagues know next to nothing about and even more important don't know what they don't know.

This is not a one time experience; it has happened over and over again with a different succession of British colleagues.  I don't know if this is an education thing or more of a cultural thing of where they work.

HYP grad but not in a major that has anything to do, even remotely, with what I do now. [/quote]

This is interesting because the UC schools in CA are known for their theoretical teaching/learning, and CSU schools are known for their practical teaching, yet, it is the UC schools that are considered "higher" quality.[/quote]

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