Imperial College London

London

Edinburgh as good as Imperial.

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league-table wise, no question imperial is a top uni, and in the top 5 (depending on which league table you read). edinburgh is in the top 20? used to be in the top 10.

anyway, Edinburgh's Informatics department is very well regarded.
and arguably, it's got one of the nicest and prettiest city centers.

it's a happening place alright - what with the MTV Europe Music Awards, Royal Variety Performance (first time outside of London), International Festival, etc.

btw, I'm an Edinburgh alumni, who did a research placement at Imperial, and going to Cambridge.

Imperial College London

London

Reply 21

Wal

What did you study? I've also got both unis to chose from...

Reply 22

koalapiyo

medical microbiology

u mean u are choosing between imperial and edinburgh?

Reply 23

Kiril

no, what I mean is that I got an offer from Edinburgh where they just want me to get BBBa (A in AS Maths) and do not require physics which is remarkably good for me. Also yesterday I attended the visit day and I was very nicely surprised by how nice is to be a member of this community.

Reply 24

W.A.S Hewins

Leekey

Im in a similar position to many of you, i.e. predicted straight A's, applied for comp sci, addicted to UKL so here's my take...

Firstly, higher enterance requirements does not mean a better course. Also it is fairly hard to define "better course" because what I consider to be the great comp sci courses (anything with reduced amounts of maths :wink:

) will be different to yours!!!

As for the best departments in the country I think they group something like this:

Cam & Imperial
-----------------
Edinburgh, York, Manchester, Warwick, Bath, Oxford
-----------------
St. Andrews, Southampton, Bristol, Notts, UCL
-----------------
Cardiff, Brum, Glasgow, L'borough, Reading

I probably disagree entirely with your opinions but...when does any one ever agree on anything?!? :biggrin:

Few places in the UK can match Imperial for science and probably none for applied sciences, but Edinburgh is not far off. A Level entry offers are only a partial guide (ie LSE, despite hittingabout 29 points average for its acceptances, makes typical offers well below that). Edinburgh of course has a tremendous history of achievement, in most fields (which does matter)-and when assessing alternatives to Imperial that counts more than being popular with the writers of short-term league tables (a la Warwick, Notts etc)..

Feminism: by hypocrites for hypocrites

Reply 25

koalapiyo

Kiril

it is nice! i spent 6 years as an Edinburgh student, and enjoyed it immensely. glad you got a good vibe. it's a dynamic city too.

yep, imperial is very good - certainly more prestigious than edinburgh.
and for engineering, biological science, medicine, few can touch it.
i read a few years back that in terms of attracting research funds, it can compete with the likes of oxford. and thats saying something.
not sure what the situation is now, but i'm sure it still attracts a lot of research money.

good luck with whatever you choose!

Reply 26

AuraGirl_2002

Edinburgh is a good uni but the main important thing is that Edinburgh beats Imperial for a greater student life even though Imperial ask for higher grades doesn't neccesarily make it better in terms of standards. U hav 2 look at the uni as a whole not only the grade requirements.

Reply 27

BossLady

AuraGirl_2002

I guess this begs the question of why you are going to uni though. For example QM might beat York for student life, as QM is in the city, whereas York isn't supposed to have great nightlife etc, but I know which one I'd choose out of them. Seriously though, we do all have different conditions, i know for me personally student life ie organized nightlife for students wasn't a major priority because I know how to make my own fun, plus being in London well you have access to alot of bars/clubs/everything really then don't you :smile:

By the way what is your definition of student life? I assumed it was organized nightlife for students at the SU, because I can't see what other aspects of student life Edin would beat Imp at.

Reply 28

Mysticmin

fishpaste

Rubbish. Don't LSE make ABB-AAB offers? Clearly they could be making AAAA offers and still getting the same students.

Yes they do, but i think in the case of LSE they want the students they pick to not miss their offers. And in certain cases the demand for some degrees is not that high.

Reply 29

CFAI

Any thoughts on the Informatics programs at Edinburgh and Sussex? I am from the US and have been given offers at both for MSc. degrees. I have never been to Brighton or Edinburgh so I would appreciate any comments on the schools and cities.

Reply 30

Emaah

I am going in september to study law.

Reply 31

Soulfish

I have edinburugh as my insurance choice for comp sci.
The reason they give BBB offers for most courses is due to the extra year compared with english unis. You can gain admission to the second year, but you need to have AAA to do this.

Reply 32

jiefei_ma

BossLady

The students applying to edin tend to have ABB or BBB etc prediction, or they will be using edin as more of a back up if they have higher.
LSE has lower offers (not for econ but for stuff like management) probs for all those international students(wants their ££££ lol) and it is a totally different ball game anyway. It can still command the best students with an offer like that, but most of them applicants will have straight As. The LSE is the LSE, as simple as that.
Much easier to get into Edinburgh for comp sci, than LSE for say Management (ABB).

> LSE has lower offers (not for econ but for stuff like
> management) probs for all those international students(wants
> their ££££ lol) and it is a totally different ball game anyway.

this argument is invalid.

LSE may offer ABB but she does ask for 7.0+ in IELTS(English Test), which in fact stops lots of overseas students from applying for her.

Reply 33

BossLady

jiefei_ma

isn't that only required for people who don't have english as their first language? So for someone from say the USA it wouldn't really matter? Although then clearly that would generally feature for people from like asia etc. However it is still easier to get into the LSE if you're an international student....I hve heard stories of them giving international students easier offers on the basis that they are paying international fees (although they still get amazing marks, often much higher than the brits). Actually I think there is an american chap on here who got an offer which said something like 'this is conditional on your international status'!

Reply 34

jiefei_ma

Both Imperial and Edinburgh are really good!

It was really hard for me to make a decision between them last year. my predicted grades were AAAA. so the offer(AAA) from Imperial and that(BBB) from Edinburgh made no differences to me.

Edinburgh is really good at Artificial Intelligence, whereas Imperial is good at Computational Logic, Agent Systems & Bioinformatics (all are the main research areas in A.I.)

Edinburgh vs. Imperial?
1. fees: obviously, studying @ Imperial is much more expensive than in Edinburgh(for me, appr. £23000 per year @ Imperial or appr. £15000 in Edinburgh).
2. course duration: 4 yrs in Edinburgh to get a BSci or 4 yrs @ imperial to get a M.Eng (i think the course duration is one of the most important reasons why many students dont want to go to Edinburgh, and hence the Edinburgh requires lower grades)

they are both excellent! but finally i made my decision: Imperial as Firm choice and Edinburgh as insu. choice.

also, i got an offer from York (AAB) and Warwick(ABBe). in my opinion, York is excellent too. but the city of Edinburgh and the culture of Scotland made me prefer Edinburgh to them.

the other two offers i got last year were from UCL and Bath, but clearly they were kind of craps(in CS) comparing to Imperial, Edinburgh and York.

Reply 35

jiefei_ma

BossLady

students from USA dont need to pay that much money and they are not classified to be international students! so "LSE wants $$$$ or ££££ from international students" is false.
also, "it is easier to get into the LSE if you're an international student" is not true in first order logic(it may be, but in modal logic) as it cannot be proved by yet known evidences. :smile:

ps. you like logic stuffs, dont you?

Reply 36

Mysticmin

jiefei_ma

ps. you like logic stuffs, dont you?

It must be easier for international sutdents LSE is like 70% international :mad:

And you need that high english requirement anyway, most of their subjects are essay - based, how are you supposed to do them if your english isn't good?

Reply 37

Leekey

jiefei_ma

the other two offers i got last year were from UCL and Bath, but clearly they were kind of craps(in CS) comparing to Imperial

Compared to Imperial for CS pretty much everyone including Cambridge, York, Mancheser, Warwick, Southampton etc... can be described as a bit crap. This is no insult to the other uni's but Imperial's course really is the best. This is not to say that some uni's do not do somethings better though, for example Edinburgh is a world leader in AI, Manchester has its distributed systems and York is hot for VR. It's not particularly important for undergrads but its nice to go to a CS uni that is known for something such as the ones mentioned. Realistically though if you are getting on to a course that requires in excess of ABB (BBB for Scotland) then you have very little to worry about.

Reply 38

bananaman

BossLady

lol stop trying to convince yourself when you know it's not true. Edinburgh does have a very good department, but certainly not as good as Imperial. Usual grade offer at Imperial for comp sci is AAA, on the other hand normal grade offer at Edinburgh for comp sci is BBB. Says alot really. If they were THAT good, they would have a normal grade offer which was much higher, to try and stop the excess demand for places, which clearly isn't happening.
Nevermind, go there and be happy, for it is still a very reputable uni.

You do know that Edinburgh is just about world leader for things like artificial intelligence?

Reply 39

BossLady

jiefei_ma

ps. you like logic stuffs, dont you?

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/financialSupportOffice/undergraduateApplicants/

Seems to indicate that only people from the EU and UK are classed as home students. Everyone else is overseas, don't see how the USA could not be classed as internat? Unless international status is different from overseas status? I thought they were interchangeable.

I would love to have some figures of how many international students are successful in their applications to LSE, compared to home students applying there (maybe PQ knows where i could find em...she knows everything stats related!!) . And there is other indirect evidence to support the notion that they do accept international students more easily for example having a large international student body...70% somebody quoted. Or maybe that just shows international people are reaaaaally clever lol.

And in answer to your 'ps'..yes, i like logical problems :biggrin: