The Student Room Group

How important is university prestige?

So we've just had some important rankings released but tbh no one cares. It's all based on crap like library funding.

University prestige:

Oxford
Cambridge
--------------------
Warwick
LSE
UCL
Imperial
Durham
----------------
St Andrews
Edinburgh
----------------
RG
----------------
Others

To me university prestige is everything. It's even more important than course (apart from very vocational subjects like medicine and dentistry)

It defines what kind of job you get, what kind of friends you make and generally how successful you're gonna be in life.
(edited 7 years ago)

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I wish I went to Oxbridge/
:frown:
Are you telling me Liverpool is superior to St Andrews just because it isn't a RG? Lol okay
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'.
(edited 7 years ago)
I don't think that its likely to be university name that defines success, but it may be confounds such as social class which are responsible for such effects.

You can steal names from anywhere; doesn't necessarily have to be from your university course. Still, to those that understand the value of education aren't likely going to put much weight on names, particularly with entry requirements becoming more homogeneous.
Oxbridge students tend to have more skills.
Skills is what employers look for. If you acquire the same skills that a Oxbridge student from an average university then you are good to go

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Original post by Mojo Banjo
So we've just had some important rankings released but tbh no one cares. It's all based on crap like library funding.

University prestige:

Oxford
Cambridge
--------------------
Warwick
LSE
UCL
Imperial
Durham
----------------
St Andrews
Edinburgh
----------------
RG
----------------
Others

To me university prestige is everything. It's even more important than course (apart from very vocational subjects like medicine and dentistry)

It defines what kind of job you get, what kind of friends you make and generally how successful you're gonna be in life.


Its why I want 9A*s. If there was no prestige, no one would work hard at all.
I am interested in this thread. As an individual with offers from Warwick, Exeter, and Bristol, for English Literature, I'd like to see whether or not anyone thinks that there really is anything between all those universities in terms of prestige? And, if there is, is prestige really that important?
Reply 8
what about for medicine for example, like coming from abroad?
Reply 9
Original post by lavaman
what about for medicine for example, like coming from abroad?


It's important for medicine too. A lot of the consultants at London teaching hospitals in competitive specialities are from London/Oxbridge universities.
Bath ought to be moved out of the 'others' section. It's better than some of the RGs.
Reply 11
Original post by Mojo Banjo
It's important for medicine too. A lot of the consultants at London teaching hospitals in competitive specialities are from London/Oxbridge universities.


but alot of them are also from places like pakistan india
We just went ahead of Warwick and UCL :perv: soon you will put us to that list. You're next, St. Andrews.

Spoiler

Kidding, prestige to me is the legacy of that university overall, but also its legacy in the course that I'd choose to study. It doesn't help that the best university for my course would be Oxford.
Original post by Keyhofi
Prestige does not define your future in any way, shape, or form.


Counter example: Investment Banking.
Original post by lavaman
what about for medicine for example, like coming from abroad?

As far as I understand, when you apply towards foundation years, the people reviewing your application are blind of your university but future positions aren't. While it would seem sensible to base your app on clinical experience and research, etc. alone, probably there is still a bias towards one's own alma mata or, indeed, a draw towards prestige for clearly sensible reasons -- if I were to go to any private practice as a patient I'd probably want the one that hires all the Oxbridge and London graduates. It's a smart business decision, the layman knowing no better.

And we can extend this point further. While the studious and well informed might understand that an Oxbridge degree isn't significantly different in any one field to another, to the extent that it should make up for major deficits in character or skill, prestige brands you with rubber stamp that says 'certified' and so it's an intelligent decision, if you can hack it, to follow prestige to an extent. It signals to people that you are well educated which is important.

Idealists would have the world be a meritocracy and you might take a stand. But you'd be doing so at your own peril. If you absolutely hate the idea of going to a top prestigious university then thats fine but we cant pretend there isn't a disadvantage to the boycott, fair or warranted or not.
(edited 7 years ago)
It only matters for a very small subsection of graduate careers and a very small subsection of postgraduate degree programs. Even then, the prestige is merely a door into these places. To do well, you have to have the ability to perform at an exceptionally high level - a trait top university students usually posses.

Now, if you don't come from a top university (again, with reference to these narrowly defined grad destinations) you'll need to impress over and above the average top uni student or find another door in (contacts).

For the VAST majority of career and postgraduate degree destinations, prestige is NOT a factor. All that matters are your grades, experience, skills and personality traits.

The issue is TSR usually amplifies these narrow career destinations to the point where people forget a world outside of: high finance, high end law, politics, top consulting, high end journalism etc, exists.

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LOL at warwick above LSE and Imperial. What a joke.... xD

LSE and Imperial > Warwick anyday for prestige, international rep and prospects. I did a internship recently at an American firm based in London, and no one had even heard of warwick (the uni i'm at right now). But they definitely know the LSE.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Foxab77
LOL at warwick above LSE and Imperial. What a joke..


Don't think the list is in any type of order, it's more the grouping that's important.

Even though they left Bath/Bristol/Notts.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Mathstatician
Counter example: Investment Banking.


very true.
Original post by Foxab77
LOL at warwick above LSE and Imperial. What a joke.... xD

LSE and Imperial > Warwick anyday for prestige, international rep and prospects. I did a internship recently at an American firm based in London, and no one had even heard of warwick (the uni i'm at right now). But they definitely know the LSE.


Mate, the OP is just grouping the universities and not ranking them.

Also anecdotal evidence does not mean much since I can also give you numerous examples where my relatives in Finance in the USA instantly recognised Warwick.

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