British vs. American elite Universities, where would I prefer to study?
Not everyone has the opportunity to continue their studies in a university, even a lower percentage of people graduates and gets a B. A. title. In Guatemala, to study at a university is a privilege, but being able to study in another country is a luxury. Many people go to study to another country because they have won a scholarship and a few others because they have the economic possibility to sustain their studies. If someday we had the chance to go to study either to a British or to an American university, either through a scholarship or because we have the economic feasibility, we must consider several things, such as the university´s background, academic quality, the country´s culture and personal preferences before making the decision.
It is important to contrast both elite universities in the US and UK to highlight their differences. If I had the chance to study in the US, I would like to study in Harvard because it is the most prestigious University in the World; in England I would like to study in Cambridge because it is the number one university in England, and it is the third most prestigious university in the World. Some days ago I read that United States has seven of the top ten Universities in the world and England has two of them. In order to analyze Harvard and Cambridge University many aspects must be included: ideology, history, and educational method, just to focus on the most important ones.
The ideology of Harvard is to “encourage compliance with the free expression of ideas, foster discovery and critical thinking, promoting the pursuit of excellence in a spirit of productive cooperation, and remain accountable for the consequences of personal actions”[1]. This ideology reflects that this academic systems is focused on students proposals to solve problematic situations based on a critical thinking analysis. In the other hand, Cambridge’s ideology is: “to produce high-calibre graduates who will play leading roles in their chosen careers; in industry, the professions and academia. Also the students will be selected on intellectual merit, regardless of gender, race and physical disabilities”[2]. Based on Cambridge´s ideology it is obvious that they care about students potential regardless their genre, age, race and others, but their intellectual abilities; which is very impressive because in my country, Guatemala, not everyone gets the chance to be supported by a university regardless their situation; unfortunately we live in discriminative culture.
Historically, Harvard was funded in 1636. It is the oldest university in the United States. The development of Harvard is amazing because it began with nine students and today it has eighteen thousand students. Harvard has also eleven separate academic units. Harvard´s prestige has been proved by the brilliant careers of its students, as is the case of: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy (US Presidents). Cambridge is the seventh oldest university in the world. The university was funded in 1209. Cambridge has 31 colleges, and 150 departments. As Harvard, Cambridge has had outstanding students too, such as: Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Jacques Derrida.
The educational method in Harvard is very interesting. It shows their students that they can make several things by themselves, they must learn by themselves and the teachers can help them, but they need to develop their own way to discover, be informed, analyze and learn new things. On the other hand Cambridge has a very particular method that is called “one to one”. It is a mixed method because the students receive classes in their classroom and they are given a designated teacher by the university to guide them in all the things that students need to do.
The culture is a very important factor to decide where a person might prefer to go to study. It is necessary to compare both countries, USA and England, to decide in which country you would prefer to study; not only based on academic information, but also in the country´s culture. In both countries the most important things are: economy, religion, social status, and politics. United States is a well known world power, actually one of top ones, and England is the world power number six in that ranking. Both countries have a solid and well established economy system, both countries are in the top ten of world powers which is shown by people´s living standards.
The religion in the United States is a key factor of their culture because it is well known that most people practice a religion. There are a lot of religions for example: Christian, Protestant, evangelicals, Judaism, and Buddhism. In England the majority of the people practice the Anglicanism. This religion was born in this country but it is not the only religion that is being practiced these days because of the mixed society each county has.
United States has a mixed society because many people migrate to this country, most of these people are from Latin-American, another portion from Africa and the minority from Asia. There are also migrants living in England, but not as the amount of migrants living in the US. This situation must be consider as a key factor when analyzing in which country you would like to study because the more migrants you find in these countries, the more divided society you´ll find, but this might be good for you because you can find people alike yourself.
A very important topic is politics. In the United States we can see that people are governed by a democracy government (people choose the government representatives). England has a different govern system because people are governed by a monarchy; that means that England has a queen, she is the highest authority, and people do not vote in order to choose this person. The monarchy is an inheritor’s position.
Based on my personal preferences and interests, I would like to study in any of these two countries because of the language. I´m still learning how to speak English and in both countries I would have a good opportunity to improve my pronunciation, reading, speaking and listening skills.
Unfortunately, or luckily of others, language is not all, the same thing happens with the academic system of these two universities, they both have an excellent and high quality academic method to instruct their students. The key factor that would determinate in which elite university I´d rather study is the country´s culture.
I think I would prefer to study in Cambridge because I would experience a totally new culture from the social, religious, political, economic and historical point of view. People who live in Europe are completely different from Americans and that is also another way to learn about other cultures that in my country I may never deeply know about.
Even though I am a catholic person, I think It would be a great thing to know about a culture that began their own religion, I guess I would be able to travel around England and visit historical-religious places that would explain their own believes.
Finally, about the other three aspects that culture includes (in my opinion): politics, economy and history, these three become one. England is one of the oldest countries and one of the oldest settings for a civilization that has survived through the years because of the good and bad decisions taken. If could only learn about the things that have helped them to grow as country, the right and wrong political decisions, about the ups and downs in their economy system, and others, I would definitely try to suggest to my country´s authorities the things I consider essential in order to continue building a better Guatemala.
Remember, not everyone has the opportunity to study in a university, even a lower percentage of people can study in another country, but if you are one of the lucky ones….What would you do with the things you learned from this country, its culture, history, mistakes, people?
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