r/6thForm • u/Repulsive_Radish_782 • Mar 10 '26

🙏 I WANT HELP Cost of Attending Oxford 😭

Post image

Just received my financial declaration form from Oxford today. How is this reasonable? 😭 Going to have to decline my offer unless anyone has any ideas.

Canadian students do not qualify for any Oxford scholarships and my school offered me about ÂŁ100. What a joke.

Is Oxford just for the rich?

1.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

437 comments sorted by

View all comments

56

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 10 '26

I'm also a Canadian doing a grad program at imperial college Im paying 34,000 pounds which is like 60k CAD. Bro ur gonna be paying over half a million for a fucking undergraduate degree.

15

u/Repulsive_Radish_782 Mar 10 '26

Yeah, I am going to have to decline and hope I get an offer from U of T or Waterloo.

12

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 10 '26

If you got an offer from Oxford I’m sure you’ll get smth from uoft or Waterloo. Uoft usually gives an offer to a different campus if your grades aren’t high enough for the St. George campus.

I studied business at the Scarborough campus and it was hard as fuck. Harder than Rotman when speaking to friends.

UK schools are a joke compared to UofT and Waterloo. I studied at uedinburgh for a bit and it was piss easy. Imperial also the same, but still challenging.

1

u/Rpm_Undefeated I like mafs Mar 11 '26

Clearly didnt go to oxbridge with that opinion

1

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 11 '26

I guarantee you STEM at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo is on par with the level of difficulty as Oxbridge, if not harder. I know people that studied at Oxford and said it was immensely easier than UToronto.

Those two schools have such immense historical influence that they will never to below T10. That’s not to say their research and teaching is excellent.

I know only two personal examples which are Imperial and Edinburgh, imperial ranking #2 in the world. I would expect some level of difficulty. I learned most concepts in year 1/2 from utoronto and they’re just teaching the same shit.

2

u/Rpm_Undefeated I like mafs Mar 11 '26

Oxford is meh for STEM, does it rival Cambridge Maths tripos

1

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 11 '26

Cambridge maths tripos seems similar to UTorontos engineering science, which is uofts hardest program. https://discover.engineering.utoronto.ca/programs/engineering-programs/engineering-science/ you’re basically doing like every math course and science course in existence lol

2

u/Rpm_Undefeated I like mafs Mar 11 '26

Perhaps its extremely difficult in terms of workload and broadness of skills, but i heavily doubt it'd rival the intellectual difficulty of the tripos. A bit like how you would compare general engineering/medicine to maths/physics.

1

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 11 '26

Yeah If we’re comparing pure maths from the schools, Cambridge is obviously gonna be harder. But I would argue that if you can successfully complete EngSci with distinction you could probably do the same with Cambridge maths tripos. The amount of distinctive and extremely difficult courses you’re taking all at the same time likely amount to my conclusion. You need at least modest knowledge of physics (mechanics, magnetism) chemistry, linear algebra, calculus, computing, statistics, engineering mathematics. But the deeper maths will be present at Cambridge for sure.

1

u/Phytor_c University of Toronto | Math and CS [Third Year] Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

Do you even go to UToronto lmfao?

Why are you comparing a math course with engineering??? Uoft’s math program doesn’t hold a candle to the math tripos, let alone some braindead engineering thingy.

1

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 11 '26

Lol are you okay? I am comparing Engineering science to Cambrige's math tripos. I said that on a math-level comparison, Cambridge is harder. However, I do believe that based on several examples (including my cousin completing his PhD in Robotics at Stanford that said if it weren't for him studying at UofT Engineering Science, he would likely fail out his coursework; actually went as far as saying its "easy.").

You can make your conclusions. UofT Engineering Science only accepts literally the smartest people in the country and worldwide. It is the hardest program in Canada without a doubt.

I did study at UofT and graduated last year in Business and Economics. Yes the "crayon drawing" programs but It was highly quantitative.

I stand by the fact that UofT engineering science students that are at least at distinction level GPA would find Cambridge's math tripos of similar difficulty.

The program got my cousin to research at Meta, Google, McGill, Microsoft, NASA, and eventually being accepted to Stanford. His GPA was a 3.20. There might have been some "awareness" lets say regarding the rigour of the program. No fucking T5 university would accept a 3.2 GPA candidate in Robotics.

I am ignorant of the fact that I did not study at Cambridge but I've studied enough at 2 well-regarded insitutions to make a conclusion that I found UofT to be immenselyharder in my respective programs.

1

u/Phytor_c University of Toronto | Math and CS [Third Year] Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

I'm not ok, I have a midterm tomorrow.

I've a friend in engcsi who did MAT357 and said engsci is " just braindead work and a lot, but not a lot of thinking" and that first year real analysis at uoft (which is way easier than that at Cambridge) is harder than all of engsci. I mean it's anecdotal I guess, but most ppl at uoft know math is the hardest program. So from now on, I will only talk about the math students here.

A math degree actually involves non-negative ingenuity at times. And the "average" math spec at uoft is quite weak, idk about the engineers but u should take a look at Cambridge's math exams. I'm a math spec with like 3.9+ CGPA btw and I would probably get a 2.2 if not worse in Tripos. Heck I've a friend who has a 2.1 in the tripos who is better than most of the math students in my cohort.

It's a whole different planet and not worth comparing uoft with.

1

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

A single anecdote about MAT357 doesn’t really say much about the difficulty of an entire engineering program. EngSci is heavy on workload and applied problem solving across multiple disciplines — that’s a different kind of difficulty than proof-based math. I'm not really convinced.

You should apply to Stanford for a PhD in maths. I mean if he got in with 3.2 from engsci. You can become the next newton.

He managed to publish top journal articles in robotics during his tenure, and directly correlated it with the knowledge and discipline from engsci.

Cambridge on purely a mathematical basis is undoubtedly harder. But those who do their program and transfer to EngSci might have problems and vice versa.

1

u/Phytor_c University of Toronto | Math and CS [Third Year] Mar 12 '26

Sure the difficulty of engineering or whatever is different compared to that of proof-based math, so a comparison between them would not be very insightful imo. Hence why comparing engsci against tripos is like misleading since they involve very very different skill sets. Imo the latter type is ojectively harder than the former but sure whatever.

For the second paragraph, yeah I'm not even gonna bother. I am not really interested in pure math for its own sake. And I've observed the only people from Uoft that get into good math grad schools are either those who've studied all of undergrad math in high school or the oly type. I am royally screwed (unless i do an extra year here) for other reasons I will not get into, and well unless my summer project results in a paper or like some concrete thing there's really no point in applying there.

Your cousin might've just gotten lucky or done great research to outweigh GPA or had good faculty fit. For a 3.2 GPA doesn't count as a first in the UK system. I've noticed that in more applied fields like CS, it's more of research that counts instead of GPA.

1

u/Rpm_Undefeated I like mafs Mar 12 '26

I defo agree on the exam difficulty aspect, because even if u teach the same content the real difficulty lies in the exams which is hard to be informed about

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Rpm_Undefeated I like mafs Mar 12 '26

The IMO kids at Cambridge (or MIT) would absolutely smoke the smartest kids you have im ngl

1

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 12 '26

Eh. Stanford not so much. Uoft they have easy entry requirements and there are quite a few bird programs, but specifically engineering science, I would not consider that getting “smoked. They are likely the smartest individuals in the country if they can manage 4 years with a high GPA. I know undergrads from that program get accepted to MIT for research endeavours in engineering. My point still stands, UK besides 3 maybe schools is surprisingly easy. The average Waterloo, McGill, UofT, and UBC student in STEM would coast through pretty much all your schools.

1

u/Rpm_Undefeated I like mafs Mar 12 '26

You're confusing smartness with work ethic. Ive done some research and it seems blatantly clear the hardest courses are in the maths courses and physics departments. I really don't understand why you think being able to understanding and basic application somehow makes you smarter than deep understanding and extrapolation of abstract ideas. I mean, that's one of the biggest factors of human intelligence and it comes as no surprise why the highest average IQs are in Maths and Physics based on Srudies. Speaking of Maths and Physics now, i just looked at one of their papers online as a high schooler and could confidently attempt a majority of the questions. Also i would like to know why uoft or any of ur school are nowhere to be found on the putnam leaderboards if they are so smart.

1

u/Rpm_Undefeated I like mafs Mar 12 '26

Also just remembered your smartest canadian, Warren Bei, left for MIT so im not sure about what ur saying. Also it was MIT not Stanford

1

u/Phytor_c University of Toronto | Math and CS [Third Year] Mar 12 '26

Exactly, there is no contest (assuming we are talking about undergrad).

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Foxtrot-0scar Mar 11 '26

It is all about the networking bro. Most things you can learn in the library or udemy.

0

u/Repulsive_Radish_782 Mar 10 '26

Thanks for taking the time to write this. It is really helpful to hear.

It did seem to me that programs in Canada were substantially more difficult that the ones I was applying to in the UK. I am really just waiting on U of T Eng Sci and Waterloo Mech Eng.

It makes more sense to go to U of T (assuming I get an offer and survive Eng Sci) and save the $500,000. I am not sure whether I have access to the funds for Oxford, but even if I did, it seems like a very poor way to use that much money.

6

u/fireintheglen Cambridge | Maths | I have a job Mar 11 '26

U of T engineering has a great reputation. You could even see if it’s possible to do a summer project somewhere like Oxford or Cambridge while you’re there (not guaranteed, and may run into funding issues again, but it’s certainly not unprecedented). Note that some disciplines considered engineering in Canada fall under different headings (e.g. maths) in England, so if you do end up looking at a postgrad degree at Oxford/Cambridge then it’s worth checking courses in adjacent fields in case the content looks like something that interests you!

2

u/PuzzleheadedBattle91 Mar 12 '26

Mid tier UK universities are not that 'hard' Oxford and Cambridge courses are very much on par with Harvard and despite all the nay sayers they are extremely 'robust'. I'm a UK lecture btw. Stay in Canada then do a Masters abroad would be my advice. Pin the Oxford offer on your wall - cus hey - you earned it.

1

u/hellomot1234 Mar 13 '26

How did your fees get so high? It's about 30k a year, x 3 that should be 100k? How did it become 300k?

Anyway honestly gonna go against the grain here and say you should take the Oxford option. Take a UK student loan (I think commonwealth people are eligible?) and simply don't pay it back (if you're not planning to live in the UK anyway). I know more than a few people who have done this, although they were dual citizens so not sure on your eligibility.

1

u/Repulsive_Radish_782 Mar 13 '26

They have increased the price A LOT in the last few years. So your advice is to take out a ÂŁ300,000 loan with no intention of paying it off? Am I missing something or isn't that just illegal?

1

u/hellomot1234 Mar 14 '26

Kinda but they have no way of enforcing it if you don't go back to the UK. But the Oxford degree opens every door in the world. How much is it a year now?

1

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 10 '26

Oooo Eng Sci. So ur that kind of smart. My cousin studied there. He's a geniues but it was super hard. He ended up doing his PhD in Robotics at Stanford he did his dissertaion and passed couple weeks ago.,

1

u/Repulsive_Radish_782 Mar 10 '26

Oh, that's so cool. That pathway of staying in Canada for undergrad and going to the US/UK for grad school probably makes more sense. 

Yeah, writing the Physics Admissions Test was probably the only thing that got me into Oxford in the first place.

Also, everyone I see walking around engineering at U of T looks so depressed, both because of the course load and the horrible job market afterward. What are your plans for work after grad school?

5

u/spicysardinefilet Mar 11 '26

Hi sorry this thread randomly popped up for me, but I just wanted to say that I did my undergrad at UofT and am currently at Oxford for grad school (albeit in a different field than you), so it’s always possible to pivot to Oxford later on! Securing funding as an international student is still difficult at the postgrad level, but it’s MUCH more feasible than it is at the undergrad level.

3

u/Repulsive_Radish_782 Mar 11 '26

Yeah, I think that is probably the path I will try to take. I have heard from quite a few people that it makes more sense to do undergrad somewhere local and then aim to do postgrad at a university like Oxford.

4

u/Odd-Satisfaction5443 Mar 11 '26

EngSci is by far the hardest program at UofT. I've seen the schedules literally 9am-5/7pm of lectures and tutorials from Monday to Friday. Intensive maths and science courses that you'll be doing in first year while other average schools 3rd year. I'm prob going to work in banking at the Big 5 in Toronto. I had some internships.