Cambridge University leapfrogged Stanford into the No. 2 spot (behind Harvard) on the influential annual rankings of the world’s top universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong’s Institute of Higher Education. The rankings put Stanford at No. 3, followed by UC-Berkeley, MIT, Caltech, Columbia, Princeton, Chicago and Oxford. This got us thinking about what Cambridge might have that we don’t, and vice versa.
| STANFORD | CAMBRIDGE | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Founded in 1891 in a former horse pasture | Founded in 1209 at a former Roman trading post |
| Famous partnerships | Hewlett and Packard | Crick and Watson |
| Discoveries that changed the world | Spawned Google | Split the atom |
| Acclaimed faculty requiring only one name | Djerassi | Erasmus |
| Pastoral sporting green | Sunken Diamond | Center for Cricketing Excellence |
| Crucial student accessory | Sunglasses | Umbrella |
