How important is university prestige?

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I was using this http://university.which.co.uk/advice/career-prospects/top-universities-graduate-starting-salaries but it's from 2014 so you might be correct about ICL having the highest graduate salary last year.

I'm fairly certain that LSE's lowest A Level requirements are AAB, and even LSE's 'weakest' degrees are competitive in terms of applicant to offer ratio.

Ah sorry, mixed it up with UCL. I got mine from the Sunday Times and for 2013, http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_23-9-2013-16-15-21. Imperial's is AAA for Geology.

Reply 81

Foxab77

Original post by anonwinner

Very true. It's very hard to get an offer from LSE. For example economic history it's only AAA, but the application ratio is insane. Oxford also has AAA offers but again same story there.

I think I also saw on the times/telegraph that out of all UK grads, LSE earn over £100,000 the most after graduating :smile:

Even more than Oxbridge, and ofcourse more than Imperial.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 82

username638250

Original post by Foxab77

Even more than Oxbridge, and ofcourse more than Imperial.

LSE earn that much because of the sheer number of students going into investment banks. Oxbridge have a lot of people going into academia and Imperial to a lesser extent. I would take it with a pinch of salt.

Reply 83

anonwinner

Original post by yl95

Do you have any evidence/statistics for these claims?

Reply 84

username638250

Original post by anonwinner

Do you have any evidence/statistics for these claims?

I can probably dig up some more links later when I have time (I haven't done one for Cam yet):
http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/CareersAndVacancies/graduateDestinations/Overview.aspx
https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/why-oxford/after-oxford/graduate-destinations?wssl=1
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/administration-and-support-services/careers-service/public/resources/dlhe/ug-tables/Overall-tables.pdf
Imperial's has separate tables for Home & EU and International but I think it's self-explanatory that a greater proportion go into further study there. I could only find detailed stats for further study for Oxford for 08/09.

Reply 85

Duke Glacia

Original post by yl95

mind clearing ur inbox ?

Reply 86

Joinedup

Original post by anonwinner

It's about averages... If you don't understand that, then that's probably why you ended up at Birmingham university.

I didn't go to Birmingham.

your unsophisticates thinking has caused you to think that I must do.
your unsophisticated thinking makes you think 'it's about averages'

Reply 87

difeo

Original post by Joinedup

I didn't go to Birmingham.

your unsophisticates thinking has caused you to think that I must do.
your unsophisticated thinking makes you think 'it's about averages'

Well if you're talking about graduate success (which you were), then it is about averages

Reply 88

username2094811

Original post by TheGreatPumpkin

Why is Birmingham University not on here? I'm thinking of studying chemistry there, is it bad?

By most standards it's an excellent university. By the ridiculous, fart sniffing snob standards of TSR, only Oxbridge and a few alternatives, such as the main London ones and Warwick/Durham/St Andrews/Bath (etc.) can qualify as 'prestigious'.

Birmingham is in fact one of the best places to go for graduate prospects (which is the most important thing, I would've thought), beating some of those places mentioned:

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/careers/what-do-graduates-do/graduate-prospects/

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 89

ohgodwhatamidoin

Warwick is definitely a good university for certain subjects (maths, econ, business etc.). I'm hopefully going to Oxford for maths but had I not received that offer I would have rather firmed Warwick than Imperial or UCL (though admittedly Imperial is a bit better, just the social life is dire). In fact Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and Warwick are usually considered the "Big 4" that big firms target,

Original post by MaskOfKeaton

Although I do like Birmingham, graduate prospects isn't the best measure of a uni. It does nothing to show the quality of graduate jobs and there's also other factors to consider (e.g. a uni with a large medicine department will have very high graduate prospects as most medicine graduates become doctors).

Reply 90

Jj15

Original post by ohgodwhatamidoin

In fact Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and Warwick are usually considered the "Big 4" that big firms target.

Are you sure you get the fact right ?? What about UCL & LSE? Also Durham and some other good universities.

Reply 91

username738914

Original post by Jj15

Are you sure you get the fact right ?? What about UCL & LSE? Also Durham and some other good universities.

Think he's referring to the Maths departments not the 'top 6' targets.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 92

Jj15

Original post by Princepieman

Think he's referring to the Maths departments not the 'top 6' targets.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Ok. Fair

Reply 93

tinyflame

Original post by Keyhofi

Prestige does not define your future in any way, shape, or form. The skills you develop do, and you enjoy uni the most by attending one that you'd enjoy rather than by attending one 'just for prestige'.

I am in this situation where I am already comfortable and happy at the uni I'm at (Hull), but I've got an offer from a "prestige", high ranked uni (Nottingham), I am scared I will regret throwing away the offer in the future?

What would you recommend in this situation?

The course I'm doing is engineering by the way, so rankings don't really matter, but I'm still paranoid about employers targeting high ranked unis, or that high ranked unis give you an advantage in some form or another, or that I "should" go to the "best" uni possible?

Reply 94

username1862217

Original post by tinyflame

Go for the uni you like the most. In engineering there really is no such thing as prestige - other engineers know that a good engineer can come from any background. When I was applying to unis I got all five offers and some were RG unis, but I turned those down for the uni I enjoyed the most when I went to visit. Best decision of my life, honestly. I've never had a single problem applying for jobs and the such, and I studied physics which is in similar demand to engineering in the real world.

Reply 95

tinyflame

Original post by Keyhofi

Oh my god hank you so much,

I still feel scared about throwing away the offer from Nottingham though so I will make sure I will visit the campus before making any decisions.

How did you have the "courage" to turn down RG unis, I am scared I will regret it for years to come?

The thing is I feel that right now is the perfect opportunity to change unis with as little negative consequence as possible, so after this year there's no going back. I feel that the friends I made at Hull also make me want to stay, but on the other hand I feel like I can't base it on that because I can never know whether people will stay on the course, don't people usually graduate with like 10 -20 people out of a starting class of about 30-40?

Also, I have a quite poor academic history and I am scared that the level of rigour at Nottingham will be very high? I don't know if I will be able to cope?

Is it silly to stay at a lower ranked uni because it's "easier" to get the degree?

Reply 96

username1862217

Original post by tinyflame

It's not that hard to see through the RG unis. First, research into them. They aren't specially selected universities. In fact, they are 100% self-declared. There isn't anything inherently special about them and while in general they are highly ranked overall, there are many non-RG unis that easily compete with them (take places like Bath, Surrey, and St Andrews for instance). There isn't an external organisation who has carefully picked which unis deserve to be RG.

Second, the urban myth that higher ranked unis have harder exams isn't true. If it were true then exam difficulty would fluctuate massively year on year as universities jump around the rankings regularly. The ranking your uni is at when you start your degree will probably be quite different to the ranking it has when you graduate.

Third, since starting a doctorate degree I've been sent to study at several unis who specialise in different areas so I can supposedly receive world class learning from each. I've studied modules at a total of four different unis, of which one was RG, and it is unfortunate to say but the RG uni was the lowest quality out of all of them. Let me show you an exam question from a Master's level exam paper from 2014 aimed at MEng (engineering) and MSc (science) students.

This is from a 100-mark paper (2 hours). Read it carefully. Now, I might be biased as I come from a physics background and so I've encountered many equations in my time, whereas engineers are more used to wordy questions, but this question seems ridiculously easy. You have an equation, and the terms in the equation are explained. It then tells you to calculate the first 4 sub-band energies (i.e. n=1, 2, 3, 4. Anyone who studied this module would know n was the sub-band level). You are given h-bar in a separate handout. So you have every single term needed for the equation and the equation is already arranged into the correct form. All you have to do is put the numbers in for 4 marks.
And then once you've done that you put another number in for another 4 marks.
And then after that you repeat once more for 4 more marks.
You've now gained over an entire grade from something that a 10 year old could do.
Welcome to the way RG unis assess their students.

I'm not going to name unis here, and in the RG's defence this paper was quite difficult to get a high grade on, and yeah it was aimed at Master level engineers who might not be very experienced when it comes to putting numbers in equations. However all others unis I went to and sat exams at the exam papers literally contained zero 'easy' questions. It was all brutal challenges from the very beginning to the very end. This RG uni seemed to not want any students to fail so they put in a few easy questions so everyone could get up to the pass mark. Certainly makes them look better if fewer students fails.

So yeah, the rumours about RG unis having harder exams than non-RG ones... load of crap. At best they are equal, at least when it comes to high grades.

What I have found from my travels to many different unis is that each one has its own feel and personality. The town or city it's in does too. Both these factors need to be taken into account when you are choosing your uni. You aren't missing out if you don't go to an RG uni in the slightest. They are really overdone and good unis need to be chosen by someone external, not by unis self-declaring themselves as special.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 97

Trapz99

Just saw this thread. If anyone is wondering. it isn't as important as you think. Sure, you get bragging rights if you go to a top uni but overall as long as your university isn't complete **** you'll be fine for most jobs.

Reply 98

Kallisto

Entertainment Forum Helper

Original post by Trapz99

Right. The prestigue is not so important as long as the university is fairly, that is to say good rooms where good staff exists to lecture, good libraries to spend time with books and a canteen with good food. If the university has a good look outside and inside and some green parks, so it is all the better.