UK degree vs US degree
Scroll to see replies
OP, if you really want to work in Canada, go to a Canadian Uni or ask prospective employers there about their thoughts on UK degrees.
Even ignoring the difficulty, as well as large degree of inaccuracy, when comparing UK universities to fellow UK universities (let alone to the US), you're ignoring the fact that the US has a much larger population, hence a much larger number of top-rate unis, good unis, OK unis, crap unis, etc. So certainly the US has a larger number of top-class unis, but does it have a higher ratio of good unis per unit population?
As long as you don't fail the year, it's always 3 years (unless you opt for a Masters/year in industry, in which case another year is obviously added).
Now can we all stop derailing the OP's thread please with all this US vs UK rubbish?
Original post by Ruvermillion
United States have better universities. End of. Apart from Oxbridge, name me some other UK unis that can stand a chance in competing academically and in terms of reputation and prestige to the likes of HYP, MIT, Caltech, UPenn, Columbia etc.
Even ignoring the difficulty, as well as large degree of inaccuracy, when comparing UK universities to fellow UK universities (let alone to the US), you're ignoring the fact that the US has a much larger population, hence a much larger number of top-rate unis, good unis, OK unis, crap unis, etc. So certainly the US has a larger number of top-class unis, but does it have a higher ratio of good unis per unit population?
Original post by chancellen
In the UK, when they say "3 year degree" is it usually really 3 years? I've tried looking for stats and info on this but haven't come up with anything.
In the UK, when they say "3 year degree" is it usually really 3 years? I've tried looking for stats and info on this but haven't come up with anything.
As long as you don't fail the year, it's always 3 years (unless you opt for a Masters/year in industry, in which case another year is obviously added).
Now can we all stop derailing the OP's thread please with all this US vs UK rubbish?
Original post by star999
Depends how you define mid tier. 25 th ranked in US: UCLA or USC; in UK Nottingham, manchester. Pretty sure USC and UCLA have more name recognition. Add to that liberal arts colleges, Macalester and Holy Cross (24/25) have pretty good international draws. One of the reasons US dominates world rankings is the depth. Not that UK doesnt have great Unis but it cant field 50 of them.
When i meant mid tier i was talking about University of Iowa, University of Ohio etc. Many of these states most people don't know about or have never heard of. Very few if any people have heard of any of the liberal arts colleges in the US. Even I (being someone who knows a decent amount about universities) have never heard of Macalester, and i've heard of Holy Cross but don't know its reputation.
How could u even think to compare the 25th in the US and 25th in the UK. US has 5-6x the population of the UK.
(edited 10 years ago)
They have five times the population and cost 4-5 times as much to attend. Of course there are going to be more (and better) universities to choose from.
Original post by ukmed108
When i meant mid tier i was talking about University of Iowa, University of Ohio etc. Many of these states most people don't know about or have never heard of. Very few if any people have heard of any of the liberal arts colleges in the US. Even I (being someone who knows a decent amount about universities) have never heard of Macalester, and i've heard of Holy Cross but don't know its reputation.
How could u even think to compare the 25th in the US and 25th in the UK. US has 5-6x the population of the UK.
How could u even think to compare the 25th in the US and 25th in the UK. US has 5-6x the population of the UK.
Do you mean Ohio State University? That has a lot of international name recognition, as much if not more than the UC campuses, barring Berkeley.
Original post by TurboCretin
They have five times the population and cost 4-5 times as much to attend. Of course there are going to be more (and better) universities to choose from.
More, but not better.
Original post by God_X
UK universities are **** compared to their Ivy League counterparts. Harvard, Yale and MIT are in a different world compared to the likes of Oxbridge... Therefore, a degree from the USA is worth much more.
Where did you draw that conclusion? Was it the films you've seen or your intuition? I'm just curious...
Original post by Fisichella
Do you mean Ohio State University? That has a lot of international name recognition, as much if not more than the UC campuses, barring Berkeley.
More, but not better.
More, but not better.
Sorry, my phrasing was confusing. What I meant was that the only UK universities which can rival the Ivies (in my opinion) are Oxford and Cambridge. The US has more universities of that calibre, if you see what I mean.
Original post by Fisichella
Do you mean Ohio State University? That has a lot of international name recognition, as much if not more than the UC campuses, barring Berkeley.
More, but not better.
More, but not better.
I meant Ohio University actually, not Ohio State. The reputation of Ohio State is more than UCs like Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis, Merced but less than UCSD and UCLA and of course Berkeley.
Original post by ukmed108
I meant Ohio University actually, not Ohio State. The reputation of Ohio State is more than UCs like Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis, Merced but less than UCSD and UCLA and of course Berkeley.
Reputation perhaps, name recognition I'd disagree with (UCSD at least, UCLA could be argued either way).
Just wasn't sure about your example of Ohio University, most people in Ohio barely seem to know about it let alone elsewhere, so in that regard you are right. But OSU on the other hand does have a reasonable intl. draw and recognition, so can't extend that to the state as a whole.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by God_X
UK universities are **** compared to their Ivy League counterparts. Harvard, Yale and MIT are in a different world compared to the likes of Oxbridge... Therefore, a degree from the USA is worth much more.
I agree to a certain extent but they are also a lot more expensive especially for non USA citizens.
Original post by Fisichella
Reputation perhaps, name recognition I'd disagree with (UCSD at least, UCLA could be argued either way).
Just wasn't sure about your example of Ohio University, most people in Ohio barely seem to know about it let alone elsewhere, so in that regard you are right. But OSU on the other hand does have a reasonable intl. draw and recognition, so can't extend that to the state as a whole.
Just wasn't sure about your example of Ohio University, most people in Ohio barely seem to know about it let alone elsewhere, so in that regard you are right. But OSU on the other hand does have a reasonable intl. draw and recognition, so can't extend that to the state as a whole.
To be perfectly honest OSU is nowhere near UCLA. UCLA is a really prestigious university with around a 20% acceptance rate while OSU is 63%. Not only that, but UCLA is usually ranked in the top 20 in all the world rankings whereas OSU is no where to be found. OSU is only known for its football team, thats it. OSU is just another state school whereas UCLA is a well known state school. I know you will disagree strongly but this is just my opinion. Are you from Ohio? Maybe thats why, because I don't know anyone who thinks OSU is near UCLA
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by ukmed108
To be perfectly honest OSU is nowhere near UCLA. UCLA is a really prestigious university with around a 20% acceptance rate while OSU is 63%. Not only that, but UCLA is usually ranked in the top 20 in all the world rankings whereas OSU is no where to be found. OSU is only known for its football team, thats it. OSU is just another state school whereas UCLA is a well known state school. I know you will disagree strongly but this is just my opinion. Are you from Ohio? Maybe thats why, because I don't know anyone who thinks OSU is near UCLA
You are kind of preaching to the choir here with regards OSU and the UC system given that I studied at both UC Berkeley and OSU.
All along I was responding to your apparent claim:
'Many of these states most people don't know about or have never heard of'
Ohio wasn't a great example for you to cite, and I countered with my own very well informed personal opinion that the name recognition of OSU (which, after all, is in the state of Ohio) is actually quite good internationally, and yes probably in large part because of the football team (Michigan vs OSU rivalry is one of the biggest in global sport) and other sports programs. Sometimes these things don't get reflected fairly by rankings.
I studied at undergraduate level in both the US (an ivy) and the UK (non Oxbridge). I prefer the UK. You have to take into account that some universities are extremely good in some specific areas. For example, Carnegie Mellon University. Heard of it? Maybe not, but it's absolutely amazing for Computer Science. It's up there with Stanford, MIT.
When you're at a good university in either country, you're only going to find better if you can switch into a better department for your field, it really doesn't become about overall university once you're talking at such a high level.
When you're at a good university in either country, you're only going to find better if you can switch into a better department for your field, it really doesn't become about overall university once you're talking at such a high level.
Original post by MartinMorrison
I studied at undergraduate level in both the US (an ivy) and the UK (non Oxbridge). I prefer the UK. You have to take into account that some universities are extremely good in some specific areas. For example, Carnegie Mellon University. Heard of it? Maybe not, but it's absolutely amazing for Computer Science. It's up there with Stanford, MIT.
When you're at a good university in either country, you're only going to find better if you can switch into a better department for your field, it really doesn't become about overall university once you're talking at such a high level.
When you're at a good university in either country, you're only going to find better if you can switch into a better department for your field, it really doesn't become about overall university once you're talking at such a high level.
Did you find the workload at Ivy and UK non oxbridge comparable? Was the non-oxbridge a RG?
I was at the University of Pennsylvania, and my home university is Edinburgh. I study Computer Science & AI.
At Penn, I was basically on holiday. I didn't purposely take easy courses, I just massively overestimated the difficulty of courses. It seemed like a lot of my classmates (even those majoring in CS) had a poor background in their subject, and most courses were setup to cater for this. So I found most of the courses easy, even boring. I spent a lot of time trying to find good courses, I sat through many.
There are more assignments during the term, but they are mostly 'busy work', so assignments just for the sake of assignments. For example , a programming assignment on something not really relevant to the course. Almost every course will have a group work component. It can sometimes be hard depending on your group, and you need to prepare presentations of work (even for CS courses). There are midterms, but the homework counts more, and the 'exams' are open book and mostly not too serious. So a lot of the focus is on homework and group work, which doesn't always require you to know the material too deeply. You also get *a lot* of help (office hours, TAs, lots of Q/A forums).
After returning to Edinburgh, I found the semester far more stressful. While you may only get 1 or 2 courseworks per course here, they are really hard and require you to learn and do a lot of stuff by yourself, with minimal help. The exams here require you to know everything in a course, you can't get past it with good group members in a group project. Because the education is focussed here, they know what students know in most classes and go through way more advanced material.
Overall I learnt tons more at Edinburgh. My time at Penn really surprised me. Though it's probably harder to get a good undergraduate mark in the US if you don't 'know the system'. For example, I didn't realise 'extra credit' actually counted, so if you want to go an A you need to do all of these weird extra credit things. Grading is also curved, so you have to do the homeworks absolutely perfectly. If you lose 5 marks for not naming your files correctly, it can mean no A. This also means having your group for groupwork prepared before the assignment - if you don't know good people in the class, things can be bad. Also, if a professor doesn't like you, he can mark you down. I got marked down to a C for a course because a professor had a *very* big argument with my team member on a course, so we both got marked down heavily. It was absurd. The professor refused to provide our mark sheet for the final assignment, it was blatantly obvious that he marked us down simply to get back at us!
The biggest strength of the US system is the ability to try out lots of different subjects. But you will be at best a jack of trades. If you want to go deep in a subject, the UK is great. The standardisation, anonymity, and external examination in the UK is also something that shouldn't be taken for granted.
At Penn, I was basically on holiday. I didn't purposely take easy courses, I just massively overestimated the difficulty of courses. It seemed like a lot of my classmates (even those majoring in CS) had a poor background in their subject, and most courses were setup to cater for this. So I found most of the courses easy, even boring. I spent a lot of time trying to find good courses, I sat through many.
There are more assignments during the term, but they are mostly 'busy work', so assignments just for the sake of assignments. For example , a programming assignment on something not really relevant to the course. Almost every course will have a group work component. It can sometimes be hard depending on your group, and you need to prepare presentations of work (even for CS courses). There are midterms, but the homework counts more, and the 'exams' are open book and mostly not too serious. So a lot of the focus is on homework and group work, which doesn't always require you to know the material too deeply. You also get *a lot* of help (office hours, TAs, lots of Q/A forums).
After returning to Edinburgh, I found the semester far more stressful. While you may only get 1 or 2 courseworks per course here, they are really hard and require you to learn and do a lot of stuff by yourself, with minimal help. The exams here require you to know everything in a course, you can't get past it with good group members in a group project. Because the education is focussed here, they know what students know in most classes and go through way more advanced material.
Overall I learnt tons more at Edinburgh. My time at Penn really surprised me. Though it's probably harder to get a good undergraduate mark in the US if you don't 'know the system'. For example, I didn't realise 'extra credit' actually counted, so if you want to go an A you need to do all of these weird extra credit things. Grading is also curved, so you have to do the homeworks absolutely perfectly. If you lose 5 marks for not naming your files correctly, it can mean no A. This also means having your group for groupwork prepared before the assignment - if you don't know good people in the class, things can be bad. Also, if a professor doesn't like you, he can mark you down. I got marked down to a C for a course because a professor had a *very* big argument with my team member on a course, so we both got marked down heavily. It was absurd. The professor refused to provide our mark sheet for the final assignment, it was blatantly obvious that he marked us down simply to get back at us!
The biggest strength of the US system is the ability to try out lots of different subjects. But you will be at best a jack of trades. If you want to go deep in a subject, the UK is great. The standardisation, anonymity, and external examination in the UK is also something that shouldn't be taken for granted.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by TurboCretin
They have five times the population and cost 4-5 times as much to attend. Of course there are going to be more (and better) universities to choose from.
More expensive/prestigious doesn't automatically mean better.
The US has about 5x the population as the UK, so just by that you would expect 2 UK universities in the joint top 10, 4 in the joint top 20, and 20 in the joint top 100.
And that's almost exactly what we have; Oxbridge are definitely in the top 10 (only Harvard/Stanford/MIT are clearly better, and Princeton/Yale/Caltech are around the same level), while Imperial and UCL are definitely in the top 20. And the Russell Group is more or less equivalent to the US R1s, which works out as around 20 universities in the UK vs around 90-100 in the US.
edit: its worth pointing out that UK universities are more skewed towards undergraduate degrees, while US universities are more skewed towards postgraduate/research. Assuming similar ranked universities, the UK is likely to go into a lot more detail at undergrad level, while the US is likely to dominate at PhD and scientific output level, since its institutions are more skewed towards research
And that's almost exactly what we have; Oxbridge are definitely in the top 10 (only Harvard/Stanford/MIT are clearly better, and Princeton/Yale/Caltech are around the same level), while Imperial and UCL are definitely in the top 20. And the Russell Group is more or less equivalent to the US R1s, which works out as around 20 universities in the UK vs around 90-100 in the US.
edit: its worth pointing out that UK universities are more skewed towards undergraduate degrees, while US universities are more skewed towards postgraduate/research. Assuming similar ranked universities, the UK is likely to go into a lot more detail at undergrad level, while the US is likely to dominate at PhD and scientific output level, since its institutions are more skewed towards research
(edited 10 years ago)
I agree with poohat. If you are questioning the quality of their postgraduate courses, you cannot compare the universities in the UK to those in the US. The top institutions in the US simply have massive endowments and as a result they dominate this area. In terms of undergraduate courses, you can compare Oxbridge to HSYP and other top ivies in terms of quality of education and prestige. IMO the rankings would go something like this (for undergraduates): Harvard>MIT>Stanford>Cambridge>Yale>Oxford>Princeton although this ranking is not subject specific.
I only really know about Economics courses but you will find that some universities that are not as prestigious as those that I have previously mentioned are in fact far better and more respected in certain fields. Examples of this (in economics) are LSE in England and UChicago in the US. These two universities are like brands and employers looking for economists will respect these universities as much if not more that the likes of Harvard, Oxbridge etc.
Regarding universities such as UCL and LSE, you will find that these don't not have an international reputation (for employers) like the top ivies or Oxbridge (with a few exceptions eg LSE for Economics) but they are still highly regarded all over the world and this should not be forgotten. Also remember that you could easily do a postgraduate course in the US if you want the brand name but in the UK, attending any universities in the top ten on the league tables should be enough for an excellent job.
If you are looking at Canada, try McGill or Toronto as they have excellent reputations (especially McGill) and are not particularly difficult to get into
I only really know about Economics courses but you will find that some universities that are not as prestigious as those that I have previously mentioned are in fact far better and more respected in certain fields. Examples of this (in economics) are LSE in England and UChicago in the US. These two universities are like brands and employers looking for economists will respect these universities as much if not more that the likes of Harvard, Oxbridge etc.
Regarding universities such as UCL and LSE, you will find that these don't not have an international reputation (for employers) like the top ivies or Oxbridge (with a few exceptions eg LSE for Economics) but they are still highly regarded all over the world and this should not be forgotten. Also remember that you could easily do a postgraduate course in the US if you want the brand name but in the UK, attending any universities in the top ten on the league tables should be enough for an excellent job.
If you are looking at Canada, try McGill or Toronto as they have excellent reputations (especially McGill) and are not particularly difficult to get into
Original post by Goldfly
I agree with poohat. If you are questioning the quality of their postgraduate courses, you cannot compare the universities in the UK to those in the US. The top institutions in the US simply have massive endowments and as a result they dominate this area. In terms of undergraduate courses, you can compare Oxbridge to HSYP and other top ivies in terms of quality of education and prestige. IMO the rankings would go something like this (for undergraduates): Harvard>MIT>Stanford>Cambridge>Yale>Oxford>Princeton although this ranking is not subject specific.
I only really know about Economics courses but you will find that some universities that are not as prestigious as those that I have previously mentioned are in fact far better and more respected in certain fields. Examples of this (in economics) are LSE in England and UChicago in the US. These two universities are like brands and employers looking for economists will respect these universities as much if not more that the likes of Harvard, Oxbridge etc.
Regarding universities such as UCL and LSE, you will find that these don't not have an international reputation (for employers) like the top ivies or Oxbridge (with a few exceptions eg LSE for Economics) but they are still highly regarded all over the world and this should not be forgotten. Also remember that you could easily do a postgraduate course in the US if you want the brand name but in the UK, attending any universities in the top ten on the league tables should be enough for an excellent job.
If you are looking at Canada, try McGill or Toronto as they have excellent reputations (especially McGill) and are not particularly difficult to get into
I only really know about Economics courses but you will find that some universities that are not as prestigious as those that I have previously mentioned are in fact far better and more respected in certain fields. Examples of this (in economics) are LSE in England and UChicago in the US. These two universities are like brands and employers looking for economists will respect these universities as much if not more that the likes of Harvard, Oxbridge etc.
Regarding universities such as UCL and LSE, you will find that these don't not have an international reputation (for employers) like the top ivies or Oxbridge (with a few exceptions eg LSE for Economics) but they are still highly regarded all over the world and this should not be forgotten. Also remember that you could easily do a postgraduate course in the US if you want the brand name but in the UK, attending any universities in the top ten on the league tables should be enough for an excellent job.
If you are looking at Canada, try McGill or Toronto as they have excellent reputations (especially McGill) and are not particularly difficult to get into
For undergraduate mathematics, the courses at both Oxford and Cambridge (and Warwick and Imperial) are far more in-depth than those at Harvard/MIT/Yale, and MIT's problem sheets, and exams, are pretty straight-forward in comparison (and as far as I know, MIT is supposed to be the 'best place' to study undergrad. mathematics in the USA).
Original post by qwertyking
More expensive/prestigious doesn't automatically mean better.
No, it doesn't automatically. But they are.
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- Engineering career options
- UK vs. US dental degree
- Accounting vs accounting and finance
- KCL vs Edinburgh?
- Uni? Leave of absence? Gap year? (IB??)
- Unis in the UK or another country in the EU
- Institute (Hons) Bachelors VS University (Hons) Bachelors
- British Medical degree vs Irish Medical degree
- Masters conversion vs normal Masters
- What justifies a Politics/Political Science degree being classified as BA vs BSc?
- University of Manchester vs Fordham University
- Electrical Engineering vs Computer engineering
- Bocconi vs Bat
- college vs uni
- Warwick vs UCL vs LSE for a career in private equity/ quant/ acturial science
- British NASA
- Trouble with choosing ucas courses help!!!
- PPE then law conversion??
- Economics at undergraduate level
- Bath vs USYD
Latest
Trending
Last reply 1 week ago
Does anyone know any programmes like Sutton Trust US Programme?Last reply 3 weeks ago
How hard would it be to practice law in the UK if i go to a US uniTrending
Last reply 1 week ago
Does anyone know any programmes like Sutton Trust US Programme?Last reply 3 weeks ago
How hard would it be to practice law in the UK if i go to a US uni
