Durham vs Bath

You guys all need to get a life. Prestige really isn't that important and it could all change within the next 10 years anyway. Where you do your undergrad is irrelevant. Just choose one or two from different ranking bands (e.g. 1-5, 6-10, 11-15) based off some rankings such as Complete University Guide (which is roughly accurate), look at modules and check you like them for each university, visit the unis, then decide. Whichever you prefer is substantially more important than the miniscule difference in ranking two universities that Bath and Durham will have - when applying for jobs, experience and how well you interview is a much more deciding factor (though going to Oxford or Cambridge definitely unlocks otherwise-unobtainable opportunities).

Reply 21

Toblerone_bear

12

Original post by Anonymous

You guys all need to get a life. Prestige really isn't that important and it could all change within the next 10 years anyway. Where you do your undergrad is irrelevant. Just choose one or two from different ranking bands (e.g. 1-5, 6-10, 11-15) based off some rankings such as Complete University Guide (which is roughly accurate), look at modules and check you like them for each university, visit the unis, then decide. Whichever you prefer is substantially more important than the miniscule difference in ranking two universities that Bath and Durham will have - when applying for jobs, experience and how well you interview is a much more deciding factor (though going to Oxford or Cambridge definitely unlocks otherwise-unobtainable opportunities).

Utter nonsense. Where one does their undergraduate is very relevant to whether or not they reach interview stage for top law, IB & consulting firms.

(edited 4 months ago)

Reply 22

Anonymous #3

Original post by RoyalBeams

Durham is a Top 11 university in the UK. It can be realistically argued to lie in the 8th to 11th position. I would personally put it at 8th.

Bath is a Top 20 university in the UK. It can be realistically argued to lie in the 13th to 19th position. I would personally put it at 17th.

So definitely Durham > Bath.

Bath is ranked at 5th this year (higher than Durham) and has consistently been ranked top 10 for the past 5 years so your rankings are really off 😂🤦*♂️

Reply 23

RoyalBeams

17

Original post by Anonymous #3

Bath is ranked at 5th this year (higher than Durham) and has consistently been ranked top 10 for the past 5 years so your rankings are really off 😂🤦*♂️

In what "rankings"?

Reply 24

Toblerone_bear

12

Original post by RoyalBeams

In what "rankings"?

Complete University Guide. Your assessment of prestige, a fairly abstract term itself, doesn’t factor in intangibles like culture or even beauty of the city. You also don’t give enough weight to entry standards. For example, last academic year, Bath’s average entry tariff & offer rate were both more competitive than Warwick. CS at Bath now demands A*A*A - higher than Bristol & Durham.

(edited 5 months ago)

Reply 25

RoyalBeams

17

Original post by Toblerone_bear

Complete University Guide. Your assessment of prestige, a fairly abstract term itself, doesn’t factor in intangibles like culture or even beauty of the city. You also don’t give enough weight to entry standards. For example, last academic year, Bath’s average entry tariff & offer rate were both more competitive than Warwick. CS at Bath now demands A*A*A - higher than Bristol & Durham.

All UK local rankings are irrelevant to prestige. They are more a ranking of how likley you would enjoy your time at university.

Prestige is about your historical reputation, standards, capabilities, exclusivity/selectivity, finances and brand power.

This is why Harrods and Ferrari are prestigious, while House of Fraser and Nissan are not.

Reply 26

Toblerone_bear

12

Original post by RoyalBeams

All UK local rankings are irrelevant to prestige. They are more a ranking of how likley you would enjoy your time at university.

Prestige is about your historical reputation, standards, capabilities, exclusivity/selectivity, finances and brand power.

This is why Harrods and Ferrari are prestigious, while House of Fraser and Nissan are not.

To be honest, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Harrods is not prestigious. Selling luxury goods doesn’t make somewhere prestigious lol

Research power and finances are certainly correlated with prestige, but they are not determinants. Prestige is about selectivity, course rigour & culture. To quote one of the TSR volunteers, “And I had less workload at Exeter compared to Bath (even accounting for the fact im doing a Masters degree).”

Durham and Warwick are more prestigious than Bristol largely because of the culture. Bristol students have a reputation for being heavily involved with drugs - totally different to the relatively professional atmosphere in Warwick or the collegiate system in Durham. Also, the number of suicides at Bristol is very concerning..

Having said that, if you want to study engineering, Bristol has stronger departments than them both. However, engineering was never really regarded as a prestigious field in the UK & the industry doesn’t really care where you went as long as it’s somewhere half decent. A Sheffield engineering grad will do just as well as an Oxford grad if he wants to work at Airbus, Rolls Royce, etc.

Just look at an IB FO target list - there’s a reason Manchester is a non-target. The real top ten is Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, LSE, UCL, Durham, Warwick, St Andrews, Edinburgh & Kings. Bath & Bristol fight for runner up.