Does Uni matter if you go to a top 20 uni?

That’s false in most cases as there a plenty of good universities that aren’t RG or high ranking (as in mid tier universities).

Read this...https://medium.com/@laurayoungson/is-experience-of-life-more-important-than-a-degree-in-a-successful-career-667b32256db9

University, no matter what the rank, it is what you do while you are there, and less where you go.

The only universities worth going to are Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Edinburgh, KCL, LSE, Durham, and Imperial. Plan B - Bristol, Warwick, Bath, St Andrews, and Manchester

It is all about how competitive it is to get into a university like UCL, as Bath and Nottingham are considered 'easier' to get into for undergraduate degrees. For most graduates at UCL, Nottingham, Bath, etc it won't impact their career paths, but it will if targeting Investment Banking, Management Consulting, Legal (Barrister pathway), and Engineering (some Formula 1 teams not all as Bath is a target uni for most of them) graduate careers. The perception is that the students who go to Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, UCL, Durham, LSE, Imperial, St Andrews, Bristol, Warwick (for Maths), and KCL have a stronger work ethic, are more passionate about their subject - "nerdy", and are far more focused on their future career at undergraduate level than those who don't go to those universities.

There is also the further divide Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, UCL, Durham, LSE, Imperial, St Andrews, Bristol, Warwick (for Maths), and KCL - those who obtained a full or half colour, such as Oxbridge Blue or Durham Palatinate representing their university in sport.

I have heard that some employers that recruit from Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham even target those universities' colleges that are at the top of the Norrington, Tompkins, and Evans college rankings.

It is why you get anomalies such as a Oxbridge Theology graduate trumping a 'lesser' university's graduate in Accounting for a Finance role. In many cases graduates in similar subjects after their initial graduate job will have a similar career trajectory.

You’re massively over-complicating things. Any “good” university in a certain subject will provide you with the right education for that field and allow you to progress in your career. The only real difference nowadays between a “good uni” like Nottingham, Edinburgh, Bath, etc and an “elite uni” such as Oxbridge and Imperial is the networking you get. Elite universities have some very “important people” going there where getting the right contacts could massively help you in your career. Otherwise the education is not too dissimilar and the qualification you get at the end is the exact same.

I highly doubt most employers even know which universities are in the Russel Group list, all they care about is the degree, experience, and skills you have. I would even go further and say that sometimes the degree doesn’t even matter as long as you’ve shown you are willing to learn new things and show good self study skills. For example you can get a good position in an engineering firm even without an engineering degree in some cases, then you can work your way up the company and eventually after a certain number of years of good work you can easily become one of the highest earners in that firm without even going through the long brutal years of engineering academia which can probably take 10 years off your lifespan.

From my experience of interviewing, once you get to KCL (5th downward) your employability will be the same... Nobody is going to discriminate against Southampton V Liverpool.

What I found out in work is most people are genuinely impressed if you did STEM at Oxbridge (a small 10% of usually the far-left activists type will be hostile to you because you are part of the 'privileged establishment'), their facial expressions don't lie. I've tried to say I've an MSc from UCL a few times, and the reactions are significantly bland.

I've been on this forum for a decade or so, every year there are sour grapes on TSR who say university doesn't matter, from my observation those tend to be high-frequency posters or forum admins still studying at some third-rate uni. I believed this BS when I was naive: You can still see my comment from 2016 that said "If I had a second chance, I'm would not go Cambridge."

But when I got to the job market, I cannot tell you how much this has helped my career. Cambridge has been my golden ticket for life, especially applying to junior roles where competition in the job market is so fierce today. I know for a fact my first two jobs I wouldn't had the offer had I not had Cambridge on my CV. Yes it's not the be-all-end-all, and how far you get in life is still up to you, but it's a pretty darn good 30m head start in a 100m race. I do not envy my friend from UCL who did 300 job applications, I did like 30 and did not put that much effort into CV and techniques.

In general Oxbridge will give you a halo, LSE for the financial sector (though not as prominent today) and Imperial for academia research. Sure it won't matter as much 3-5 years down the line, but being Oxbridge will help you get on a big org for your first job and generally get promoted faster. The only true place that doesn't judge your degree is the civil service, and you better apply to a role that doesn't require a CV, then good luck standing out amongst 250 applicants for the same job.

I expect certain individuals to rebut my opinion, but 1.They never been to Oxbridge and 2.They are just saying this to make themselves feel better. Believe whatever you want to believe, I've told you my life story and this is the story repeated generations after generations with people paying £100k a year for private schools just to give their children an edge into Oxbridge.

Tbh, unless you go to Oxbridge, once you get experience on your CV, where you get your degree is very much the deciding factor ONLY if you are neck and neck in the interview and even then, they’re pulling at straws.

Once you have your degree, experience is your advantage and so, I would say once you are 5 years out of uni and with enough experience under your belt, that’s all that matters.

That’s why if your course offers you a placement, your university suggests you take it as you have experience and a degree at the same time, as well as making a good impression on a potential future employer.