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Are Durham and St Andrews prestigious or massively overrated?

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Original post by colourtheory
True, but they perform to that standard in the subjects they do offer.


Not their MBA school.
Original post by King of the Ring
Well, they do take students in at A*AA-A*A*A, so they certainly take the cream of the talent at undergraduate level. That doesn't mean the universities themselves are great. I still feel the likes of Imperial, LSE, UCL, KCL, Edinburgh are miles ahead overall. Even Bristol and Warwick can confidently say they are better than Durham overall. The reality is that Durham and St Andrews are more at the level of Manchester and Nottingham, but their ancient routes seem to draw some of the best students to these much smaller universities in order to compensate for a rejection from the G5 universities.


yep, it's just the fact that people who went to Cambridge or Oxford's parents were worried their child might not fit in there, due to all the Rah/Eton school types and it turns out Oxbridge are pretty nice and welcoming, & no one is particularly stuck up, so people from poorer backgrounds actually become good friends with people from Eton and the like......whereas Durham is apparently the true stereotype of snobby rah types -- which you just would not think -- because it isn't even on the level of Oxbridge that's why it's laughable. If I was an A level student with those top grades I wouldn't bother applying to such a up-itself, pretentious place...there's plenty more choices. And people who actually think it's going to guarantee them some job are quite funny too.
I know of two people who went to Durham neither one is actually using their degree or has some high salary job, in fact they probably earn less than £20,000 a year.... One of them seemed to think he was so ultra intelligent & better than people in school so I guess he fit in there...
Original post by King of the Ring
Not their MBA school.


Okay, that's true. Does the LSE outperform Oxbridge there?
Reply 63
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math42
20
Original post by Dylann
I feel like some of you forget that when you apply to a job (the reason why you go to university is to eventually apply to a job) there are many other factors at play other than what university you went to. Subject choice, degree classification, references, experience, A-levels, personality, work ethic, professionalism, interview skills....so you can't really put a blanket over all the graduates from one university and say under all circumstances they will not be favoured for a job compared to a different university.

The university that you went to is probably not the deciding factor in getting a job.


Pfft, like any of that matters. To be very successful you must go to Oxbridge, to be vaguely successful you must go to an RG uni, and otherwise your degree is worthless. Also it has to be STEM.
(due to Poe's law... :wink:)

As to the OP I second (or third, or fourth; not sure, I think it's quite popular) the opinion that the poll is unfair. Durham and St Andrews are not as good as Oxbridge, they will contain a fair proportion of Oxbridge rejects, but that doesn't mean they can't be very good or that they don't deserve a lot of the praise they get.
Original post by colourtheory
Okay, that's true. Does the LSE outperform Oxbridge there?


LSE don't have an MBA course, I think? London Business School is our best bet.
Original post by Okorange
Well they were mentioned in the Kingsman. Imo they are prestigious schools.

Honestly they are Oxbridge alternatives as in sure they are Oxbridge rejects, but lets be honest, at least these Oxbridge rejects had the balls and the grades to even apply to Oxbridge, something most people from other schools can't even say.


Not really a lot of these people are from top private schools where they will be actively encouraged and coached to apply to Oxbridge, and feel expected to get in....that's why some are probably bitter since their parents paid all that money -- though i've no idea why Oxbridge is the be and end all for them
Original post by King of the Ring
LSE don't have an MBA course, I think? London Business School is our best bet.


I've just googled; they don't have an MBA programme, but they do offer an alternative programme. I think they're missing the opportunity to make big bucks there.

Is the Oxford MBA particularly well regarded do you think?
Original post by Galaxies
Not really a lot of these people are from top private schools where they will be actively encouraged and coached to apply to Oxbridge, and feel expected to get in....that's why some are probably bitter since their parents paid all that money -- though i've no idea why Oxbridge is the be and end all for them


Well Oxbridge do have some seriously hot buildings to play in? Durham and St Andrews don't have anything like that do they? Certainly not on the same scale. Only Edinburgh even comes close.
Original post by colourtheory
I've just googled; they don't have an MBA programme, but they do offer an alternative programme. I think they're missing the opportunity to make big bucks there.

Is the Oxford MBA particularly well regarded do you think?


Yes, SAID and Judge Business Schools are amongst the best in the UK, only bettered by London Business School. However, SAID and Judge aren't anything special compared to the likes of Columbia BS, or Harvard BS though, probably top 20 at best in the World MBA rankings.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by King of the Ring
Yes, SAID and Judge Business Schools are amonst the best in the UK, only bettered by London Business School. However, SAID and Judge aren't anything special compared to the likes of Columbia BS, or Harvard BS though, probably top 20 at best in the World MBA rankings.


You can certainly see where the money goes at Oxford; my E&M friends have state of the art facilities at the SAID while the history faculty has basically shut its main building and shifted all of its books to the RadCam (which is beautiful, but still a glorified library with desks) :/ Guess that means we're not the big earners :rofl:
Original post by Galaxies
Not really a lot of these people are from top private schools where they will be actively encouraged and coached to apply to Oxbridge, and feel expected to get in....that's why some are probably bitter since their parents paid all that money -- though i've no idea why Oxbridge is the be and end all for them


Yeah but they have the grades to get in.

Nobody is stupid enough to think they "expect to get in". What they want to do is maximize their chances.
Original post by colourtheory
You can certainly see where the money goes at Oxford; my E&M friends have state of the art facilities at the SAID while the history faculty has basically shut its main building and shifted all of its books to the RadCam (which is beautiful, but still a glorified library with desks) :/ Guess that means we're not the big earners :rofl:


I'd still regard SAID as a very prestigious MBA school, you will still get the same opportunities at director level of IBs having gone there. But SAID and Judge do need to raise their game a bit to catch up with London Business School, our only World top 10 MBA school.
Original post by Okorange
Yeah but they have the grades to get in.

Nobody is stupid enough to think they "expect to get in". What they want to do is maximize their chances.


Knowadays you need to be coached from the day you can talk to get into Oxbridge, rather than in Sixth Form.
Reply 73
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Dylann
21
Original post by King of the Ring
I think there is a lot of snobbery out there regarding this, but can you blame them? Life is about competition, and the more prestige a university has the better your chances generally of getting into a top career, even if other factors also matter.


True, but I don't think the actual university matters that much ESPECIALLY if the applicants went to top 10/russell group unis (i.e. an employer wouldn't automatically choose an Imperial graduate over a UCL graduate, nor an LSE grad over a Durham one). Perhaps if you're comparing Imperial and Southampton Solent then the Imperial applicant would have a big advantage, but still depends on other factors.
Original post by andrew157
Ah, The Student Room, the only place where 17-year-old A level students who've never set foot in a university can assess their teaching and research power.


He's not even at university yet. Looking through his posts is quite funny.

A personal favourite: "What university should I go to if I attended an elite private school? I have attended one of the great independent schools (Harrow, Eton, Sevenoaks, Westminster), and I am interested in going to a prestigious UK university. Other than Oxbridge, where can one go which attracts students from the best schools?"

Posted very recently. Probably doesn't want to specify if he's an Etonian or Harrovian for fear of being found out by his peers.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by PatrickB
He's not even at university yet. Looking through his posts is quite funny.

A personal favourite: "What university should I go to if I attended an elite private school? I have attended one of the great independent schools (Harrow, Eton, Sevenoaks, Westminster), and I am interested in going to a prestigious UK university. Other than Oxbridge, where can one go which attracts students from the best schools?"

Posted very recently. Probably doesn't want to specify if he's an Etonian or Harrovian for fear of being found out by his peers.


Posted from TSR Mobile


Postgraduate or undergraduate? :u:
I get the feeling that Durham sells itself as almost a conciliatory prize for people that couldn't get into Oxbridge. You get a similar pretentious vibe and similar snooty people but not quite the same bragging rights. I'm not sure about the prestige, it never does particularly well on international league tables and for most people it's a bit of an unknown entity. I've only really seen any buzz about it coming from people that went to Durham who feel that the term 'Doxbridge' is about to catch on. If somebody tells me they went to Durham I usually just feel a bit sorry for them, I don't assume they are a real clever clogs like I might if they went to Oxbridge, LSE or the big London universities. .

St. Andrews seems a bit more prestigious to me and feels a lot more like its own thing rather than 'second prize for the delusional'. I think it helps that it's arguably the most prestigious university in Scotland and has quite a strong identity.

I'm sure they are both great universities that do excellent research and you'd have a good experience at either as an undergraduate. Are they overrated? Who can say? I'd be more inclined to say that Oxford and Cambridge are overrated simply because they couldn't live up to the impossible expectations people have for them. I imagine they are rated as well as they deserve to be and whether or not they are prestigious will depend on who you are speaking to. An older person might feel it is more impressive. Younger people might realise most of the universities in the Russel group have similar entry requirements and where you study as an undergraduate is kind of irrelevant.
(edited 8 years ago)
I would say it depends on the course, they are undoubtedly up there with Oxbridge in their specialist fields, but overall they don't have the international brand oxbridge has. Though whoever is going on about UCL being better than them is wrong.. UCL isn't even that good outside of Law.
Original post by AverageExcellence
I would say it depends on the course, they are undoubtedly up there with Oxbridge in their specialist fields, but overall they don't have the international brand oxbridge has. Though whoever is going on about UCL being better than them is wrong.. UCL isn't even that good outside of Law.


Law, Economics, Medicine, Pharmacy?
Original post by King of the Ring
Law, Economics, Medicine, Pharmacy?


I wouldn't say its in the 'top 5' for economics, Warwick trumps it,
History Durham and St Andrews beat it
Law St Andrews doesn't do because its in Scotland
Imperial is far better than it for both Pharmacy and Medicine.

UCL is no better than Warwick IMO, it is just always massively oversubscribed purely for the 'London factor' by foreign students, it is certainly not worth triple the PG rate they charge than Durham, Warwick or STA charge.

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