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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The academics are excellent. Certainly less superficial than the US system where you can wander around frome Indian basket-weaving class to Econ 101 to whatever else, and much more rigorous.

The environment is more upper middle class than upper class.  There is some anti-americanism, but less than on the continent, and as with many stereotypes it can be easily deflected once people get to know you, though it can certainly be annoying at times.[/quote]

To be fair, many kids can, and do, take very rigorous courses in the US system. Nobody is forcing your kid to take basket-weaving and, if you don't like it, then tell your kid you won't pay for it. There's no way you can argue that the kids in American engineering, STEM and even the top liberal arts schools are doing "superficial" coursework. And for those with kids who do take 1-2 classes on gender in Hollywood, consider that they are filling up four years of classes, not three years of classes as in Europe.

I also disagree with your comparison re relative rigor. It varies from university to university, just like here in the US. At one well-known European university I attended, footnotes were [i]not [/i]the norm - once the prof actually held up a paper with footnotes and said how wonderful it was to see them. I remember another day when a girl sat in the back of class and used her lighter to melt the ties on her backpack while the prof talked. Then an oral exam at the end of the year, not a big deal, and you're done.

I do agree about the upper classes not thronging to Oxbridge. The upper class in Britain either isn't bothering with college, or they're at schools like St. Andrews with Will and Kate. Oxbridge is for the super-intellectuals, and many of the old elite just haven't developed their identities around this sort of intellectualism.[/quote]

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