From Harvard’s ivy-covered quads to Oxford’s candlelit dining halls, film and TV have long been in the business of selling us the university dream. Whether it’s the heady romance of My Oxford Year, the pink-powered grit of Legally Blonde, or the bookish intimacy of Normal People, these depictions don’t just entertain. They shape perceptions, influence applications, and, in some cases, inspire entire career paths.

My Oxford Year is the latest rom-com to hit Netflix this year. framing the University of Oxford as pure romance: cobblestones, dreaming spires, and punting on the river.

Starring Descendants star, Sofia Carson, and Corey Mylchreest, who played the young King George in Bridgerton spin-off Queen Charlotte, the film follows Anna (Carson), an ambitious young American woman studying at the University of Oxford, whose life is changed when she meets local Jamie (Mylchreest). But a 32 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes suggests a failing grade.

University of Oxford student Isobel Wanstall was less than impressed with the portrayal of the school when reviewing the film for the university’s student newspaper.

“Everything about it actively runs contrary to everything our university stands for,” writes Wanstall. “It’s artistically unambitious, every choice a cliché, and refuses to interrogate any of the literary quotes it dredges up from the anthology, let alone explore its own themes or central couple in any depth: like our university city’s streets, it is well-trodden ground.”

She adds it’s designed to “sell Americans a dream of Oxford.”

Universities are portrayed on film and TV as the types of places where dreams can come true, careers can launch, and people find lifelong love and friendships. But does the reality ever live up to the hype?

Though Netflix has gone big on the marketing for My Oxford Year, University of Oxford enthusiasts might instead opt for a higher-rated coming-of-age film, An Education (which comes with an impressive 93 percent Rotten Tomatoes score). 

Set in 60s England, An Education features Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan) who has dreams of attending the University of Oxford. When David (Peter Sarsgaard), a charming but much older suitor, wizzes into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life.

These films, while very different in style and content, capture a dream of the University of Oxford. Anna in My Oxford Year aspires to attending the university from a young age, while 16-year-old Jenny in An Education imagines the sophisticated, intelligent woman she will become while studying at the prestigious university.

But it’s not just Oxford that has been romanticised in film. In fact, given the number of university applications it has inspired over the past decade, Hollywood should be working on commission.

Harvard Law and the Power of Pop-Culture Aspiration

Legally Blonde protagonist Elle Woods (played by Reece Witherspoon) is responsible for countless Harvard applications – and law school applications more generally.

The story centres on Elle as she follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School to try and win him back. “What, like it’s hard?” she famously says, referring to the infamously tough admissions process. Viewers watch as stereotypically ditzy Elle tries to navigate the social and academic difficulties of one of the US’s most prestigious institutions and ultimately succeeds, proving she’s far from dumb. It’s the film of choice for many students who need some motivation to study for exams.

Witherspoon spoke about Legally Blonde’s legacy in a 2018 interview on The Today Show: “I’ve had more young women come up to me and say, ‘I went to law school because of Elle Woods.’ It’s very incredible to see how long movies can last and how important they can be to young people, generation after generation.”

Glamorous and competitive, the Harvard Law School of Legally Blonde depicted the traditional brick buildings, the tiered horseshoe-shaped classrooms and green campus of the famous Ivy League school. Yet many of the ‘on campus’ scenes were actually filmed in California – in UCLA, USC and Rose City High School.

Despite this, Harvard Law School students have suggested it’s pretty close to the reality of studying there – except the court scene. A recent Business Insider article uncovers some of the more interesting things that the film got right: law still tends to be a very male-dominated subject, not everyone comes from a law background, and some people really do carry their pets everywhere. “Someone brought two ferrets once, so seeing a dressed-up chihuahua on campus is a very real possibility,” says one interviewee.

The Trinity College Dublin of Normal People

Trinity College Dublin is the setting for the popular TV series Normal People, based on the novel of the same name by Sally Rooney. It follows four years in the lives of Marianne and Connell, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, respectively.

The book’s author attended Trinity College Dublin, and so did the two main characters. As you may expect, the show made the most of this, featuring several real locations of the university, including Marsh’s Library, the Berkeley Library, Parliament Square, and the Robert Emmet Theatre.

Grand, old, and prestigious, the campus architecture and the famous Long Room library are stars in themselves. The show frames the university as beautiful and exclusive – a place for the elite academics of Ireland.

However, as the university’s student newspaper, Trinity News, points out, Normal People is not a massively favourable depiction of life at Trinity. Connell experiences mental illness and alienation while at university, often feeling like he doesn’t fit in. “Admittedly, Trinity is often a lonely, elitist and alienating place,” writes Trinity News journalist Grace Gageby in a review of the series. “But, like any college, it is also somewhere where, eventually, as indicated in the series, people can find their place and their real friends.”

The writer adds: “If there are any bones to pick over lack of accurate representation of Trinity in this series, it is perhaps the absence of scenes in the Pav [a student bar], and an overestimation of how full an English lit lecture is at any given time.”

The show was praised for depicting a more honest reality of university life. When a show balances aspiration with authenticity, it creates deeper emotional connections and a more credible allure.

The Yale of Gilmore Girls

When it comes to the romanticisation of higher education, no TV show does it better than Gilmore Girls. Early in the series, we are taken on a road trip to Harvard, an institution long idolised by protagonist Rory Gilmore, who dreams of gaining the higher education experience her mother missed out on. “Harvard University,” she breathes  looking up at the entrance arch and the school’s red brick buildings. “It looks just like the pictures.” During the episode, we’re taken into the dormitory rooms and even witness a lecture with lively debate.

Whilst Harvard is reaffirmed as “the dream” over the course of the series, we watch as Rory’s accepted into not just Harvard, but also Yale and Princeton.

Spoiler for anyone who hasn’t finished the series, but Rory Gilmore goes to Yale University, in season four, not Harvard. But much like Harvard, Yale is framed as the perfect fit for Rory: prestigious but not stuffy, very welcoming.

The campus itself is shown as a mix of grand Gothic architecture, cosy libraries, and green quads, equipped with perfect ‘study trees’ (if you know, you know). Rory’s dorm is spacious and well-lit, and Rory faces challenges like competitive classmates and demanding professors, but rarely struggles to keep up academically.

Never was there a better advert for attending Yale University.

Does higher education live up to expectations?

Why do these portrayals matter? Because they do more than boost tourist visits – they influence where people apply, what they expect, and how they imagine their own potential. Universities with a strong pop-culture presence enjoy a reputational halo: Harvard feels more glamorous, Oxford more storied, Yale more welcoming.

There are many reasons why we romanticise higher education in films and TV shows. University campuses often have beautiful, historic architecture, making them perfect settings for coming-of-age and romantic films. Higher education often taps into greater human issues like growth, belonging and success, offering a background that works perfectly for character development and plot lines.

Watching these types of shows when I was younger, I distinctly remember the image I had of what university would be like. I pictured myself strolling around gorgeous, sunny campuses, going to packed lectures where I’d be debating the fine points of niche books with like-minded individuals who would soon become close friends.

The reality, of course, is very different: sometimes (particularly in England) it rains, that ‘lively’ debate in lectures is often very slow to start, and you don’t instantly gain a gang of best friends upon arrival.

These institutions can be huge sources of inspiration and help shape young people into the individuals they want to become, particularly for those who may feel a certain level of study may exist beyond their reach. One Yale Daily News reporter reflects that her mother, inspired by Rory Gilmore, named her for the actress and hoped that Rory’s journey might reflect her daughter’s. The hope became reality, the writer shares, as she managed to ascend from a modest upbringing and attending public high school to strolling beneath Yale’s Gothic archways, just as Rory did.

Those students in particular have an all too rare opportunity to learn about a specialised subject directly from an expert in that field, gain access to huge alumni networks filled with incredible people who have gone on to change the world. And, like their TV heroes, make lifelong friendships.

As with most things on TV, these shows and films often show the best parts of higher education, but they also show how life changing it can be.

In my opinion, we need to romanticise higher education more, not less.

By, Chloë Lane

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