The Prestigious Russell Group

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Reply 20

Tsunami2011

Original post by student1337

What happened to Bristol? Why the decline? I always thought that it was in the same group as KCL, Durham, Notts etc

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1657912&page=155&p=36698525&highlight=#post36698525

Reply 21

silence18

Original post by student1337

What happened to Bristol? Why the decline? I always thought that it was in the same group as KCL, Durham, Notts etc

I really don't know.There was someone who raised this issue, the decline in the number of applicants so I checked it out myself and I found on their website that they receive 1000 applicants for 187 places. (5.5/place) I was also quite surprised to see no rejection from Bristol on the law offers article, since I considered it extremely good and competitive.* I also suppose that some might prefer to apply to QM and not Bristol because it does not require LNAT.*
On the other hand, I'm sure that it is still highly regarded. It's not as if the law firms would care to follow this changes or download the UCAS statistics every year.(which I actually did :smile:

) ) There is a good and prestigious law school there, still. There will be some very good applicants who will choose Bristol this year but there will also be some who are not excellent. Since there are some who are very good and will probably choose to train at the top law firms, I doubt law firms will notice the overall decline in quality.

Reply 22

youngzwavey

Original post by silence18

It doesn't have anything to do with the Russell Group. Durham is excellent even though it is/ was in the 1994 group. I think you'll get ur offer, since QM also accepted you. 17 is not so bad, even though it is below average. I think your LNAT essay will also matter.
Still annoyed with the T&H thing, though. I'm going to Queen Mary, btw. I didn't apply to Bristol.

hopefully *fingers crossed*
lol it could just be them being overfully fussy, there's still a number of good firms out their that prob couldnt care less about the RG tbh i didnt even know about it until QM's email lol, what are you hoping to study?

Reply 23

youngzwavey

Original post by Tsunami2011

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1657912&page=155&p=36698525&highlight=#post36698525

interesting, this would seem to explain why someone got an offer with 14/42 maybe they're dropping standards hmm

Reply 24

silence18

Original post by youngzwavey

English and European Law :smile:

Reply 25

youngzwavey

Original post by silence18

English and European Law :smile:

nice choice

Reply 26

skattynatty

I'm having the same problem for law! Russell Group (Sheffield) vs non (University of East Anglia) have you made a decision yet?

Reply 27

slownsteady

Original post by swbp

QM would definately be a better choice for law, and this is coming from a Sussex student for 2012 (biting my tongue here haha). My dad has done work for Queen Mary and couldn't find any faults with the institution.

However the whole RG situation is beginning to irritate me, and here are several points why:
1) QMUL is only entering the Russell Group this summer, so those claiming they want to chose it for employment prospects are a tad naive. Employers will zone on on applicants from well established members firstly (for example Bristol and Nottingham) in comparison to newer universities.

2)Though QMUL is part of the university of London, Sussex appears to have prestige on its side. This year it made every top 20 in the UK, compared to QMUL which leveled around the 30-40 mark. By no means am I suggesting that one is better, as they are infact quite equal, however i am saying that just because Queen Mary is a RG member does not make it instantly better than all non RG unis.

RANT.OVER

This is so true im about to choose Sussex over Queen Mary for computer science and was searching about the Russell Group and its influence.

However when checking every league table Sussex outranks Queen Mary generally and for computer science. The page below shows the top 30 universities on the four league tables (payed sources aswell e.g. The Times)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankings_of_universities_in_the_United_Kingdom

Although the Russell Group is very prestigious I think the status improvements for Queen Mary are mostly assumptions and Sussex generally ranked higher but like I said im doing computer science, so law may be a very different story.

Reply 28

youngzwavey

Original post by skattynatty

I'm having the same problem for law! Russell Group (Sheffield) vs non (University of East Anglia) have you made a decision yet?

i chose sussex. i feel i'll enjoy it more. i looked at various league tables and different stats. look at positions overall and course specifically. also look at graduate prospects. for me sussex was miles ahead of QM overall + the % of students getting 2:1 or higher in law was a very marginal difference.

League table overall positions give a very poor overview of academic prowess. The positions we see are averages based on the % that got a 2:1 or higher to the teacher student ratio and every other statistic they use. Therefore being number 1 doesnt mean that the school has better students academically that the 20th place school. It just means that overall it is the best.

So as i said look in depth at the info the tables are extremely useful once you analyse it dont rely on the overall ranking :smile:

o and i only just saw your reply hope it still helps

Reply 29

swbp

Original post by slownsteady

I chose Sussex over QMUL too, and there were several really prominent reasons. Sussex ranks better nationally/internationally, and the links with US universities are brilliant (as i want to do a term abroad). I hated Queen Mary's campus - it just feel soulless and empty.

Reply 30

youngzwavey

Oh yea ! finally someone agrees when my sixth form went there I felt like I was in secondary it just doesn't lool inviting, -- I havent seen any international tables care to link the oneu used

Reply 31

stud(ious)

Original post by skattynatty

I'm having the same problem for law! Russell Group (Sheffield) vs non (University of East Anglia) have you made a decision yet?

Choose UEA, that's where I am going and cannot wait. It is also higher ranked for Law than Sheffield. Not really sure what all the fuss of the Russell group is in truth, after all it's named after a hotel in London, and a number of members are not as good as the '94 groups universities (UEA, Sussex and bath included) - don't get hung up on a banner as by the time you graduate most employers won't actually know which universities are in the Russell group AND I would think the membership might have changed by the as well...