Turning down a prestigious uni for a lower-ranking one?

They were both considered good universities. Not prestigious though. If umist was prestigious then Manchester wouldn’t have distanced itself so much from the brand after the takeover. And wouldn’t have tumbled down the league tables by 10-20 places immediately after.

Hi TSR,

I have an offer from a very prestigious RG uni, top 10 in the UK. Obviously I should be happy about having the opportunity to go to such a great uni, but I'm seriously considering turning it down in favour of a much less prestigious university (about 30 places lower in the league tables).

I've visited both unis and preferred the less prestigious one, because it's more of a campus uni, all a bit more small-scale, and the staff were much more friendly. It seemed to be a place that suits me better, and I also prefer the course content. It's also quite highly regarded for my course, hmore so than the RG uni. However, I do think that the people at the RG uni will be more academically inclined and since I'm quite academical myself, maybe it'll be easier for me to make friends there. And I've just read so much about attending a good uni really helping in further study/employment, so maybe it'd just be plain stupid to turn the RG uni down.

I'm really unsure of what to do, advice would be more than welcome

UMIST most certainly was considered a prestigious university in its field.

So you're honestly telling me that if there were two candidates for a job, one from a top RG university and one from an ex-poly, both with the same grades and with very similar CVs; that the RG candidate wouldn't be preferred over the ex-poly candidate? Despite the fact that it was harder for the RG candidate to achieve the grades they got. You're deluded mate.

And considering one of the guys on here was a blatant troll, I wouldn't put too much faith into the fact that a couple of people agreed with you.

From what I know (and have seen from having a quick look on Google)

You’re confusing ‘good at what it does’ (the reason why you had to add “in its field”) with ‘prestigious’. Ford make great transit vans but they're not a prestigious brand.

As someone who has hired engineering staff, nope. The uni name makes FA difference. There’s always some better differentiator. Accredited MEng degrees are broadly comparable from a quality perspective.

I really don’t care whether people on here agree with me or not, but it’s interesting their experience matches mine, don’t you think, ‘mate’?

I bow to your superior knowledge

Prestigious/better in its field, same difference. Point is that all degrees are not equal.

"Broadly comparable" ie not really comparable at all. Degrees are harder to obtain from better universities so if you're not considering the university at all then that's stupid.

A couple of people agree with you, doesn't mean much. And I've noticed that people who go to ex-polys try to convince themselves that the uni doesn't matter because they don't want to admit that their degree is worth less.

Where do you feel like you would be most happy? Xxx

You got me. Of my 3 degrees only one was from a RG uni so I obviously don’t know what I’m talking about.

So I was interested to see if what you were saying about accreditation is true so I downloaded the IET's list of accredited courses from their website. I noticed that the majority of unis with better reputations have BEng degrees with partial CEng accreditation and MEng degrees with full CEng accreditation. The universities with lower reputations tend to offer BSc degrees rather than BEng degrees, and their bachelors degrees tend to be partially or fully IEng accredited and their masters degrees partially CEng accredited. I'm sure it's just a coincidence though.

https://www.theiet.org/academics/accreditation/downloads/accreditedprogs.cfm

So I was interested to see if what you were saying about accreditation is true so I downloaded the IET's list of accredited courses from their website. I noticed that the majority of unis with better reputations have BEng degrees with partial CEng accreditation and MEng degrees with full CEng accreditation. The universities with lower reputations tend to offer BSc degrees rather than BEng degrees, and their bachelors degrees tend to be partially or fully IEng accredited and their masters degrees partially CEng accredited. I'm sure it's just a coincidence though.

https://www.theiet.org/academics/accreditation/downloads/accreditedprogs.cfm

Student satisfaction in generally higher in lower ranked universities. But I was thinking since you are research oriented, perhaps you could dig up some statistics about your specific subject regarding research quality and research intensity. Have checked "the complete university guide"? There you can compare courses

Edinburgh and Aberdeen, for Neuroscience.



Thanks for the advice! I think you're right, I'm just worried about further study/employment mostly haha.

Both are really posh areas in Scotland and you get free education so I wouldn't even be complaining (my old GCSE chemistry teacher came from Aberdeen & he was/is super smart. This was prolly like 70 years ago)

Why were you taught chemistry by a 90-year-old?

You’re not comparing like with like. The point is that one CEng-accredited MEng is broadly similar to another.

And don’t forget the IET is just one of the engineering institutions.

That's why everyone is telling you, so long as your degree is appropriately accredited it is absolutely fine, no matter the "name" of the university.

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