The Student Room Group

KCL vs UCL vs Imperial vs Queens Mary

Rank them and mentions each uni's pros + cons
Reply 1
Imperial, KCL, UCL, QMUL
In terms of academic reputation, in general it goes:
Imperial, UCL, KCL, Queen Mary
Original post by Aradini
Rank them and mentions each uni's pros + cons


Rank them according to what exactly?

We're in the medicine forum so I'll assume we're talking about their medical schools - all four of which are very old, very prestigious, and produced lots of important alumni. They're also all accredited by the GMC and will allow you to qualify as a doctor and enter FY1. That final point is the only thing that really makes a difference, but the first three might impress your distant relatives for about ten minutes at family events. No one in medicine will be interested (not when you're a student and certainly not when you're a doctor - it literally doesn't come up, ever).

All four of them produce lots of internationally significant research and have done for a long time. But that won't make a huge amount of difference to you as an undergraduate medical student when you're trying to learn about the bog-standard ways which patients get sick in bog-standard district general hospitals in and around London.

In terms of course structure, intercalation options, location and so on, that's something which depends on you and your preferences - you can find out more on each med school's website and this is something important to think about. If you really don't want to intercalate and you don't like the idea of living in west London, it doesn't matter how prestigious you think Imperial is, it's probably not the right place for you. If you have a very strong UCAS tariff, you'd be a bit silly if you didn't apply to BL because someone on TSR told you it's "below" GKT. A large part of getting an offer is applying strategically - which means that to an extent, you have to balance your preferences against a degree of realism about about your application's strengths and weaknesses and where you're actually likely to get an offer from.

Location is something worth thinking about but London is smaller than you think - whether you're in the north, east , south or west you're still well connected and there will still be lots to do in your free time. If possible, I think it's definitely a good idea to visit the campuses and surrounding areas and see what you think about the general atmosphere - I think that is probably a better way to get a feel for each uni rather than asking for arbitrary rankings on TSR.
Reply 4
I live in London and yeah I was just curious
I agree with you that in the end what uni you came from doesn't matter, it is important what you get out of it and what you learn. GKT?

Original post by Democracy
Rank them according to what exactly?

We're in the medicine forum so I'll assume we're talking about their medical schools - all four of which are very old, very prestigious, and produced lots of important alumni. They're also all accredited by the GMC and will allow you to qualify as a doctor and enter FY1. That final point is the only thing that really makes a difference, but the first three might impress your distant relatives for about ten minutes at family events. No one in medicine will be interested (not when you're a student and certainly not when you're a doctor - it literally doesn't come up, ever).

All four of them produce lots of internationally significant research and have done for a long time. But that won't make a huge amount of difference to you as an undergraduate medical student when you're trying to learn about the bog-standard ways which patients get sick in bog-standard district general hospitals in and around London.

In terms of course structure, intercalation options, location and so on, that's something which depends on you and your preferences - you can find out more on each med school's website and this is something important to think about. If you really don't want to intercalate and you don't like the idea of living in west London, it doesn't matter how prestigious you think Imperial is, it's probably not the right place for you. If you have a very strong UCAS tariff, you'd be a bit silly if you didn't apply to BL because someone on TSR told you it's "below" GKT. A large part of getting an offer is applying strategically - which means that to an extent, you have to balance your preferences against a degree of realism about about your application's strengths and weaknesses and where you're actually likely to get an offer from.

Location is something worth thinking about but London is smaller than you think - whether you're in the north, east , south or west you're still well connected and there will still be lots to do in your free time. If possible, I think it's definitely a good idea to visit the campuses and surrounding areas and see what you think about the general atmosphere - I think that is probably a better way to get a feel for each uni rather than asking for arbitrary rankings on TSR.
Original post by Aradini
I live in London and yeah I was just curious
I agree with you that in the end what uni you came from doesn't matter, it is important what you get out of it and what you learn. GKT?


Sorry, the post was aimed as general advice for other users too - I didn't mean "you" personally :smile:

Guy's, King's and St Thomas' medical school.

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