King's College London
London
Why is King's College ignored on TSR?
It seems to me that when people speak about the London universities, Imperial, UCL and LSE come up very often, but I hardly ever see people raving about KCL in the same way. An interesting note to this is that I only ever seem to observe this phenomenon on TSR.
KCL competes with these universities pretty well on the international stage (more so than many of the universities in the usual top ten) , and is arguable the most centrally located London university (near to loads of interesting, and a lot of the time, expensive places).
I often see people raving about how Nottingham and Exeter are in these 'rah' top tens, while they almost completely ignore King's College, which, from what I've heard and seen, attracts large numbers of those from priveleged, well educated backgrounds.
Basically, on TSR, KCL seems to be extremely underrated in many senses.
Care to give reasons as to why this is?
*I'm not a KCL student, nor am I set on applying......although I may. For the pedants, I'm speaking in a general sense, the title isn't complete gospel....duh.*
KCL competes with these universities pretty well on the international stage (more so than many of the universities in the usual top ten) , and is arguable the most centrally located London university (near to loads of interesting, and a lot of the time, expensive places).
I often see people raving about how Nottingham and Exeter are in these 'rah' top tens, while they almost completely ignore King's College, which, from what I've heard and seen, attracts large numbers of those from priveleged, well educated backgrounds.
Basically, on TSR, KCL seems to be extremely underrated in many senses.
Care to give reasons as to why this is?
*I'm not a KCL student, nor am I set on applying......although I may. For the pedants, I'm speaking in a general sense, the title isn't complete gospel....duh.*
(edited 13 years ago)
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Original post by SuperGuy
It seems to me that when people speak about the London universities, Imperial, UCL and LSE come up very often, but I hardly ever see people raving about KCL in the same way. An interesting note to this is that I only ever seem to observe this phenomenon on TSR.
KCL competes with these universities pretty well on the international stage (more so than many of the universities in the usual top ten) , and is arguable the most centrally located London university (near to loads of interesting, and a lot of the time, expensive places).
I often see people raving about how Nottingham and Exeter are in these 'rah' top tens, while they almost completely ignore King's College, which, from what I've heard and seen, attracts large numbers of those from priveleged, well educated backgrounds.
Basically, on TSR, KCL seems to be extremely underrated in many senses.
Care to give reasons as to why this is?
*I'm not a KCL student, nor am I set on applying.....although I may. For the pedants, I'm speaking in a general sense, the title isn't complete gospel....duh.*
KCL competes with these universities pretty well on the international stage (more so than many of the universities in the usual top ten) , and is arguable the most centrally located London university (near to loads of interesting, and a lot of the time, expensive places).
I often see people raving about how Nottingham and Exeter are in these 'rah' top tens, while they almost completely ignore King's College, which, from what I've heard and seen, attracts large numbers of those from priveleged, well educated backgrounds.
Basically, on TSR, KCL seems to be extremely underrated in many senses.
Care to give reasons as to why this is?
*I'm not a KCL student, nor am I set on applying.....although I may. For the pedants, I'm speaking in a general sense, the title isn't complete gospel....duh.*
Because Imperial, UCL and LSE are better.
Why don't you see Kingston and UEL coming up all of the time?
Plus KCL gets its fair share on the forums. I'd disagree with you on that.
King's College London
London
I'm also not saying that the 'rah' population of a university signals any particularly negative or positive ideas about the quality of the education one would receive there.
I'm just noting that in the many debates that rage on this site, KCL seems very underrated/under-represented.
I'm just noting that in the many debates that rage on this site, KCL seems very underrated/under-represented.
Original post by adam0311
Because Imperial, UCL and LSE are better.
Why don't you see Kingston and UEL coming up all of the time?
Plus KCL gets its fair share on the forums. I'd disagree with you on that.
Why don't you see Kingston and UEL coming up all of the time?
Plus KCL gets its fair share on the forums. I'd disagree with you on that.
To be fair KCL>UEL + Kingston by a lot
Original post by adam0311
Because Imperial, UCL and LSE are better.
Why don't you see Kingston and UEL coming up all of the time?
Plus KCL gets its fair share on the forums. I'd disagree with you on that.
Why don't you see Kingston and UEL coming up all of the time?
Plus KCL gets its fair share on the forums. I'd disagree with you on that.
I didn't deny that the were better, I just put forward the idea that they receive a disproportionately large amount of attention when compared to how far ahead of King's College they are, in terms of quality.
Original post by Wookie42
If you don't think its being talked about enough, maybe you should make some threads about it. Did you expect everyone on here to suddenly start discussing the KCL because you made the demands? 
No.
Original post by SuperGuy
I didn't deny that the were better, I just put forward the idea that they receive a disproportionately large amount of attention when compared to how far ahead of King's College they are, in terms of quality.
I think KCL gets the amount of attention it deserves. At least in the parts of the forum that I regularly post on/look at. I mean KCL isn't Oxbridge and it isn't UCL/LSE/Imperial. I would say it gets equal air time to Exeter.
Original post by SuperGuy
No.
Yes.
Original post by GdotL
Nobody cares about KCL. It's only a back up for the clever people and it's too difficult to get into for the idiots. 
So true ^
Everyone I know at KCL are UCL and LSE rejects. It's like the Oxford Brooks of London.
I know what you mean. I would guess it's because there's so many unis with more reputation and which are seen as 'better' in London, it's quite highly concentrated. For sciences there's Imperial, for social sciences there's UCL and LSE. Whilst KCL is very good, it's pipped by these universities which are seen as the top. However, the grade requirements are pretty much the same, so people with the grades are more likely to go to UCL than KCL and thus KCL may be overlooked by the people with the best grades, so to speak.
QMUL is slightly lower than KCL (in terms of reputation anyway), and I believe the grade requirements are (on average) less, so it's more sought after by the more average people (who are the majority) - it's not for the people with the top grades, but it's a good university, and one which people (who maybe aren't the AAAA type, but more the ABB) would be happy to go to, but people aiming to go to UCL/LSE/ICL/KCL might be a bit miffed about.
So to conclude, people with 'good' but not 'amazing' grades will be applying for QMUL.
And people with 'amazing' grades will be applying for LSE/UCL etc..
Doesn't leave a lot of room for KCL.
Just a guess.
QMUL is slightly lower than KCL (in terms of reputation anyway), and I believe the grade requirements are (on average) less, so it's more sought after by the more average people (who are the majority) - it's not for the people with the top grades, but it's a good university, and one which people (who maybe aren't the AAAA type, but more the ABB) would be happy to go to, but people aiming to go to UCL/LSE/ICL/KCL might be a bit miffed about.
So to conclude, people with 'good' but not 'amazing' grades will be applying for QMUL.
And people with 'amazing' grades will be applying for LSE/UCL etc..
Doesn't leave a lot of room for KCL.
Just a guess.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by adam0311
I think KCL gets the amount of attention it deserves. At least in the parts of the forum that I regularly post on/look at. I mean KCL isn't Oxbridge and it isn't UCL/LSE/Imperial. I would say it gets equal air time to Exeter.
Yes.
Yes.
I understand your view, but you've misunderstood why I said "no". The only demand I made was for people (if they agree), to express their opinion as to why this is. If they don't agree, they may express their view. If the put forward the idea that I am making a particular demand, which I am not, then they are wrong and I will tell them they are.
Original post by SuperGuy
It seems to me that when people speak about the London universities, Imperial, UCL and LSE come up very often, but I hardly ever see people raving about KCL in the same way. An interesting note to this is that I only ever seem to observe this phenomenon on TSR.
KCL competes with these universities pretty well on the international stage (more so than many of the universities in the usual top ten) , and is arguable the most centrally located London university (near to loads of interesting, and a lot of the time, expensive places).
I often see people raving about how Nottingham and Exeter are in these 'rah' top tens, while they almost completely ignore King's College, which, from what I've heard and seen, attracts large numbers of those from priveleged, well educated backgrounds.
Basically, on TSR, KCL seems to be extremely underrated in many senses.
Care to give reasons as to why this is?
*I'm not a KCL student, nor am I set on applying.....although I may. For the pedants, I'm speaking in a general sense, the title isn't complete gospel....duh.*
KCL competes with these universities pretty well on the international stage (more so than many of the universities in the usual top ten) , and is arguable the most centrally located London university (near to loads of interesting, and a lot of the time, expensive places).
I often see people raving about how Nottingham and Exeter are in these 'rah' top tens, while they almost completely ignore King's College, which, from what I've heard and seen, attracts large numbers of those from priveleged, well educated backgrounds.
Basically, on TSR, KCL seems to be extremely underrated in many senses.
Care to give reasons as to why this is?
*I'm not a KCL student, nor am I set on applying.....although I may. For the pedants, I'm speaking in a general sense, the title isn't complete gospel....duh.*
1. KCL is lower ranked. UCL pretty much trumps KCL at everything it offers. Of course you have War Studies at KCL and a decent medicine course, but, otherwise, UCL is higher ranked and more respected at practically everything it offers.
2. UCL, LSE and Imperial are all much higher ranked in UK tables, and are higher ranked internationally by far (excluding LSE, which is subject to unfair, biased criteria). UCL, LSE and Imperial also have, on average, better graduate prospects and higher average starting salaries. Moreover, many of the big firms actually state that they look to Oxbridge, then UCL, LSE and Imperial - KCL is thrown into the same circle as Queen Mary etc.
3. Competition is higher at UCL/LSE/ICL.
4. KCL does not compete internationally. Everyone I know abroad has heard of the other three; no one has heard of KCL (or they mistake it for King's College, Cambridge)
You're right SuperGuy. KCL ranks highly on various established subjects such as English, History, Philosophy, Medicine, Music.
People regularly see Imperial in particular (which only offers science subjects), followed by LSE and UCL, towards the top of overall rankings of universities.
They ignore the fact that KCL ranks more highly than these in some subjects.
Even so, the well to do, the upper class, the rahs, do sometimes prefer the place that is not the most highly ranked (anyone who is already intellectually and socially confident and well connected hardly needs to go to some dreary all work and no play university - they may choose a place that is a pretty, lively place, ideally with some age to it as well. It shows that they don't need to compete in a rat race. Somewhere like Kings College London (Glasgow also comes to mind) would seem to fulfil this.
It is so hideously middle class to think that the place that is highest in crude league tables must be the place where all the cleverest, wittiest, most erudite people go. Anyone using their eyes and ears will be able to deduce that many people at the very highest ranked places are drone workhorses.
People regularly see Imperial in particular (which only offers science subjects), followed by LSE and UCL, towards the top of overall rankings of universities.
They ignore the fact that KCL ranks more highly than these in some subjects.
Even so, the well to do, the upper class, the rahs, do sometimes prefer the place that is not the most highly ranked (anyone who is already intellectually and socially confident and well connected hardly needs to go to some dreary all work and no play university - they may choose a place that is a pretty, lively place, ideally with some age to it as well. It shows that they don't need to compete in a rat race. Somewhere like Kings College London (Glasgow also comes to mind) would seem to fulfil this.
It is so hideously middle class to think that the place that is highest in crude league tables must be the place where all the cleverest, wittiest, most erudite people go. Anyone using their eyes and ears will be able to deduce that many people at the very highest ranked places are drone workhorses.
(edited 13 years ago)
KCL is not ignored.. Maybe you haven't come across this thread..
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1417361
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1417361
Picnic 1 reminded me of a good point. People, particularly on here, don't value degrees unless it's business, science, or something 'useful' by which they define something that increases one's lifetime bank balance, rather than nurturing intellect. So places like LSE or Imperial who offer science courses will be deemed 'better' than places that excel in Humanities and Arts.
Original post by INTJ
1. KCL is lower ranked. UCL pretty much trumps KCL at everything it offers. Of course you have War Studies at KCL and a decent medicine course, but, otherwise, UCL is higher ranked and more respected at practically everything it offers.
2. UCL, LSE and Imperial are all much higher ranked in UK tables, and are higher ranked internationally by far (excluding LSE, which is subject to unfair, biased criteria). UCL, LSE and Imperial also have, on average, better graduate prospects and higher average starting salaries. Moreover, many of the big firms actually state that they look to Oxbridge, then UCL, LSE and Imperial - KCL is thrown into the same circle as Queen Mary etc.
3. Competition is higher at UCL/LSE/ICL.
4. KCL does not compete internationally. Everyone I know abroad has heard of the other three; no one has heard of KCL (or they mistake it for King's College, Cambridge)
2. UCL, LSE and Imperial are all much higher ranked in UK tables, and are higher ranked internationally by far (excluding LSE, which is subject to unfair, biased criteria). UCL, LSE and Imperial also have, on average, better graduate prospects and higher average starting salaries. Moreover, many of the big firms actually state that they look to Oxbridge, then UCL, LSE and Imperial - KCL is thrown into the same circle as Queen Mary etc.
3. Competition is higher at UCL/LSE/ICL.
4. KCL does not compete internationally. Everyone I know abroad has heard of the other three; no one has heard of KCL (or they mistake it for King's College, Cambridge)
They are better, but the way they are talked about in comparison with KCL seems disproportionate.
Original post by GdotL
Nobody cares about KCL. It's only a back up for the clever people and it's too difficult to get into for the idiots.
Sorry but I must disagree with you on this. How can you say no one cares about it when they still put it as one of their five choices? If no one did, then they wouldn't even bother putting it as an option..
Alsoo.. KCL is one of the most ''popular'' universities for prospective medics & dentists.. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get ignored.. Just maybe on TSR..
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