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Learning at Imperial College London
Imperial College London
London

Is Imperial College London prestigious?

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Original post by pateknautilus
Yes but is it better than LSE or UCL?


Everyone so far has tried to answer your question even though it's not a question which can properly be answered. Imperial is a science and engineering school, LSE is economics and politics and UCL is a broad range of mostly everything. It's like trying to compare 3 different parts of a venn diagram, you just can't do it. What we can tell you is which university is known for being more prestigious in a specific subject area (i.e where there would be definite overlap in said venn diagram :P ).
Learning at Imperial College London
Imperial College London
London
Original post by ViralRiver
If it's any help, my professors and peers in Singapore (exchange year) pretty much all knew what Imperial was (they all referred to it as IC or ICL, which was weird...), apart from one professor who is an MIT alumnus - he'd never heard of it.


Being from MIT, I suppose he is professor in a science subject. I therefore cannot believe he does not know Imperial, especially in Singapore where it is very well-known.



Original post by pateknautilus
Yes but is it better than LSE or UCL?


here is the definitive ranking:

Cambridge, Oxford
Imperial, LSE
UCL
Original post by Theophile
Being from MIT, I suppose he is professor in a science subject. I therefore cannot believe he does not know Imperial, especially in Singapore where it is very well-known.

Ironically, he was a professor in the aero eng sub department (specifically in aeroelasticity), the subject for which Imperial is probably most renowned for. But saying that, it was his first year ever working as a professor and also his first year in academia for a few decades :P . Imperial does seem to be quite well known in SEA, but not so much in N. America (from what I gather from my family who live over there).
Original post by pateknautilus
Yes but is it better than LSE or UCL?


Is the colour blue better than spaghetti or flower?
Original post by Theophile
here is the definitive ranking:

Cambridge, Oxford
Imperial, LSE
UCL


More like:
Oxford, Cambridge
LSE
UCL, Imperial

People outside the science and engineering scope don't know Imperial, but everybody knows LSE. Political institutes are always in vogue, you can't compete with that.
Original post by MichelBraga
More like:
Oxford, Cambridge
LSE
UCL, Imperial

People outside the science and engineering scope don't know Imperial, but everybody knows LSE. Political institutes are always in vogue, you can't compete with that.


He's not talking about prestige, though...
Original post by yl95
He's not talking about prestige, though...


Sure, but the OP asked about prestige. Comparing UCL and Imperial in terms of teaching is like someone said, comparing the "blue colour with flowers". In some subjects Imperial is better, others UCL, and in others there's no comparison because Imperial has a limited teaching scope.
Original post by ViralRiver
Ironically, he was a professor in the aero eng sub department (specifically in aeroelasticity), the subject for which Imperial is probably most renowned for. But saying that, it was his first year ever working as a professor and also his first year in academia for a few decades :P . Imperial does seem to be quite well known in SEA, but not so much in N. America (from what I gather from my family who live over there).


What's MIT? While that's obviously not really a serious question you'd find quite a lot of people in this country who have never heard of it and aren't interested in it.

Original post by MichelBraga
Sure, but the OP asked about prestige. Comparing UCL and Imperial in terms of teaching is like someone said, comparing the "blue colour with flowers". In some subjects Imperial is better, others UCL, and in others there's no comparison because Imperial has a limited teaching scope.


Perhaps we should all be asking the OP what they mean by prestige and why this is an issue for them. Do they want to stay in academia, work or just impress their friends and relatives? If they really think marginal differences in "prestige" matter then they need to change their thinking as other things will matter much more in their future life - whatever the reason for asking.
Guys I am ONLY considering prestige and ranking here.
I just want to know how IMPERIAL fares in reputation and prestige amongst British and International People/Companies.
Original post by pateknautilus
I just want to know how IMPERIAL fares in reputation and prestige amongst British and International People/Companies.


Although it is less "popular" than LSE and UCL, it has the highest employer reputation in the UK.
Original post by MichelBraga
Although it is less "popular" than LSE and UCL, it has the highest employer reputation in the UK.


How is it less popular. Unless you do economics at LSE which is obviously very prestigious and arguably better than oxbridge...LSE is not that good a name to have...the rest of their subjects are mainly soft subjects.

Overall id say imperial and lse are roughly equal in prestige but imperial is better to go to as it is very academic and careee focused.

I turned down LSE maths and economics for imperial maths...and i only really went off prestige for the main part
For sciences Cambridge/Oxford
Imperial
UCL (unless for neuroscience, then it is the most prestigious)
Kings

This is London and Oxbridge, haven't taken others into account


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Original post by newblood
How is it less popular. Unless you do economics at LSE which is obviously very prestigious and arguably better than oxbridge...LSE is not that good a name to have...the rest of their subjects are mainly soft subjects.

Overall id say imperial and lse are roughly equal in prestige but imperial is better to go to as it is very academic and careee focused.

I turned down LSE maths and economics for imperial maths...and i only really went off prestige for the main part


Academically speaking yes, but the OP wants to know about "people" reputation. And again, they can't be compared on the academic level, LSE is a social sciences institute, Imperial focus on sciences and engineering.

So my point is that the average person doesn't have any clue about Imperial, but UCL and specially LSE have some fame. LSE is constantly mentioned in the media, which raises its reputation.
Original post by MichelBraga
Academically speaking yes, but the OP wants to know about "people" reputation. And again, they can't be compared on the academic level, LSE is a social sciences institute, Imperial focus on sciences and engineering.

So my point is that the average person doesn't have any clue about Imperial, but UCL and specially LSE have some fame. LSE is constantly mentioned in the media, which raises its reputation.


From my experience the average person in the UK knows oxbridge, imperial, lse, ucl, kings

And from what ive seen, it is the opinion of the average person that LSE/imperial are about equal prestigiously and thrn you have ucl/kings slightly lower down but still well respected...ucl moreso than kings imo. I personally knew i would reject my ucl offer straightaway so had to decide from warwick/lse/imperial.

But the op didnt say people reputation. Why would anyone care about your average joe in the street. I assumed the OP meant prestige that employers are aware of in which case ..generally...LSE and imperial are equally prestigious. In america, LSE is seen as the 3rd oxbridge for some reason but in asia imperial is generally as well known and valued by employers as LSE.

I am talking in terms of employers views in these scenarios of course
Original post by newblood
From my experience the average person in the UK knows oxbridge, imperial, lse, ucl, kings

And from what ive seen, it is the opinion of the average person that LSE/imperial are about equal prestigiously and thrn you have ucl/kings slightly lower down but still well respected...ucl moreso than kings imo. I personally knew i would reject my ucl offer straightaway so had to decide from warwick/lse/imperial.

But the op didnt say people reputation. Why would anyone care about your average joe in the street. I assumed the OP meant prestige that employers are aware of in which case ..generally...LSE and imperial are equally prestigious. In america, LSE is seen as the 3rd oxbridge for some reason but in asia imperial is generally as well known and valued by employers as LSE.

I am talking in terms of employers views in these scenarios of course


I understood your point, but the OP mentioned people's impression about Imperial in one of his recent posts. Some people care about that, there's nothing wrong. In that case, the average joe only knows Oxbridge and LSE, and, in some cases, UCL.

But between employers, considering obviously the subjects covered by Imperial, as far as I'm concerned Imperial is the most prestigious in the UK.
(edited 9 years ago)
Pretty sure for Engineering Imperial is a household name.
Original post by pateknautilus
Yes but is it better than LSE or UCL?


Like people have already said- there's no point comparing Imperial to LSE because they offer different subjects. Imperial is better than UCL for science hands down so assuming you want to do a course in that area, Imperial is probably your best option.
Rankings are pretty pointless for the most part, especially the reputation part.

But if that's what you care about... http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/reputation-ranking
Original post by ihavemooedtoday
Rankings are pretty pointless for the most part, especially the reputation part.

But if that's what you care about... http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/reputation-ranking


The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014 employ the world's largest invitation-only academic opinion survey to provide the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands. A spin-off of the annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the reputation league table is based on nothing more than subjective judgement - but it is the considered expert judgement of senior, published academics - the people best placed to know the most about excellence in our universities.

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