The Great Debate

Which university combination carries the most pure pedigree, prestige, aura, and overall recognition:

1. Harvard BA + Oxford DPhil  
2. Harvard BA + Oxford BA

This is regardless of the field of study, although the Oxford BA would likely be in Law (Jurisprudence) or PPE.

29 Comments
 

Can you explain your comment on old money power fantasies? It’s out of curiosity mainly.

Yes I’m a second-year pursuing a bachelor’s degree at HYPSMW now.

 
Most Helpful

In terms of pure pedigree?

The answer is Harvard AB and Oxford BA without a doubt. Everybody knows that the real prestige within Oxford comes from its undergraduate degrees and the tutorial system. As for Harvard, the graduate schools will carry their own weight but Harvard College is still the crown jewel of the university.

A Harvard AB combined with an Oxford BA is an unmatchable pedigree. Adding another university to this combination in the next tier down of globally elite universities (Stanford/Cambridge/Imperial/LSE) would dilute the pure pedigree of the combination.

 

Ehh that would be too much school.

Having two top degrees (Harvard AB and Oxford BA—later MA) from the two greatest universities in all of world history is the perfect sweet spot.

 

Harvard AB and Oxford MA is the most prestigious university combination of all-time, and this is coming from a Cambridge student.

 

I’m not the person who initially commented but an Oxbridge MA is the same as a BA. The BA gets automatically upgraded to an MA a few years after graduation. It’s a medieval tradition.

 

Harvard BA, Oxford BA

An Oxford DPhil graduate will only have direct access to their program’s alumni network generally. If you get a Maths DPhil, then your network will generally be composed of Oxford Maths postgraduate alumni. The only way you gain the university-wide network is by attending it for undergraduate. Sorry, but as an Oxford undergraduate student, Oxbridge undergraduate alumni don’t view postgraduate alumni as real Oxbridge graduates. The same probably applies to Harvard unless the postgraduate programme is from HMS/HLS/HBS and maybe a select few PhD programmes (Economics comes to mind).

 

After your first few years in the workforce nobody cares which unis you went to. If you want to impress a random villager in sub-Saharan Africa, then I suppose Harvard and Oxford are at the top for name recognition, and then maybe Yale and Cambridge lag not too far behind those two.

I graduated from a non-RG uni and have done well for myself. Career results matters far more than the unis on your CV.

 

Having a Harvard AB and an Oxford MA makes you a god amongst men. 

Having a PhD/DPhil makes you a nerd who sits in your ivory tower whilst making less than £50K annually.

Also most Oxford DPhil programmes have acceptance rates of 30% or higher. What a joke! If you want a prestigious and well-respected postgraduate degree then you have to go to the US.

 

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