"I...I don't even know where to start with this. UCL is a top university, but please get it out of your head that it's even close to being on par with Oxbridge"
Is that some kind of joke? UCL has beaten Oxford in the QS ranking. It lingers around Columbia and Yale in the Times ranking. For those who contend that rankings are none-sense and money does the talking, then the UK government has clearly decided UCL to be a more worthwhile investment than Cambridge, considering the last REF. Oh but wait, the UK government with its highly specialized advisors, and the various global rankings for whom certitude regarding university quality is literally the only reason they could be economically viable, all these organizations pale in comparison to your educated opinion.
I could see a case for UCL being decidedly lower than Oxbridge in terms of reputation among non-academics, but in terms of research and teaching. You know, what Universities do, "not even close" is not even close to being the correct relative measure of quality between Oxbridge and UCL. Did UCL reject you or something? SiminaM, by all means keep the notion in your head that UCL is on par with Oxbridge, assuming you are interested in what the available evidence would suggest.