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Imperial College London

London

What is the advantage of Imperial College London as a science focused university?

Compared to any other broad subjects-unis like Oxford, Cambridge, UCL? I create this thread since I read one user’s rep in another thread that,

“It is silly to compare Imperial to institutions like Oxbridge, since Imperial is science-focused. They don’t offer arts/humanities. Therefore, Imperial will never be Oxbridge level.”

Fair point.

Here’s the big question, “Does that mean that the science/engineering courses at Imperial can be (roughly similar or even better than) Oxbridge’s level?” — or are the former still be considered lesser in quality than the latter (even at the slightest level)?

PS. undergrad level - science courses.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1

Wired_1800

Original post by eloquent45

Compared to any other broad subjects-unis like Oxford, Cambridge, UCL? I create this thread since I read one user’s rep in another thread that,

“It is silly to compare Imperial to institutions like Oxbridge, since Imperial is science-focused. They don’t offer arts/humanities. Therefore, Imperial will never be Oxbridge level.”

Fair point (but clearly MIT had proven this wrong).

Here’s the big question, “Does that mean that the science/engineering courses at Imperial can be (roughly similar or even better than) Oxbridge’s level?” — or are the former still be considered lesser in quality than the latter?

PS. undergrad level.

The problem is that Imperial is not as diverse as the unholy trinity: Oxford, Cambridge and UCL. This poses a problem when you compare Imperial to these institutions.

Of course, in the subjects they offer, Imperial is on par or even better than these unis but on an overall level, I would place the Top 3 at a different level.

For example, you wont put LSE, on an overall level, to these unis, so why Imperial?

To me, the overall uni list will be:

1. Cambridge/Oxford
2. UCL
3. Manchester
4. Imperial
5. LSE
6. Kings College London
7. Edinburgh
8. Bristol
9. Warwick
10. Nottingham

Imperial College London

London

Reply 2

eloquent45

Original post by Wired_1800

Manchester? 🤔

Reply 3

eloquent45

Original post by Wired_1800

Of course, in the subjects they offer, Imperial is on par or even better than these unis but on an overall level, I would place the Top 3 at a different level.

Interesting. Which subjects exactly are you referring to? Do they include any sciences/engineering (including bio/chem, for example)?

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 4

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

LSE and Imperial are specialists in their niche areas. They are broadly on par with Oxbridge in terms of relative graduate prospects for their undergraduate courses and for graduate research of comparable academic quality.

Any comparison between Imperial and Oxbridge, LSE and Oxbridge, and at the graduate level, Imperial and LSE, is necessarily going to be in terms of the relevant subjects that both institutions offer.

Unless you're extremely stupid, I suppose, and want to gauge the relative worth of Oxford Lit. Hum vs Cambridge Maths vs Imperial CS vs LSE EME for some bizarre reason. There isn't really any point to doing that other than the circle jerk affair of obsessed prospective applicants and former students, so...

To directly answer the title, the benefit is relative but I think there's certainly something to say for not having to ever hear the question "what is maths even like, useful for?"

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 5

eloquent45

Original post by artful_lounger

Any comparison between Imperial and Oxbridge, LSE and Oxbridge, and at the graduate level, Imperial and LSE, is necessarily going to be in terms of the relevant subjects that both institutions offer.

Of course, I do agree with you.

I think apart from international students nobody really cares about the ‘world university ranking’ as an ‘overall measure’ of the institutions. We only see them as a measure of prestige rather than quality (although prestige may also reflect quality, for sure).

PS. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m interested: science at Imperial vs Oxbridge.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 6

Wired_1800

Original post by eloquent45

Manchester? 🤔

On an overall level, yes, I think Manchester is one of the top unis.

Original post by eloquent45

Interesting. Which subjects exactly are you referring to? Do they include any sciences/engineering (including bio/chem, for example)?

The overall stats means taking the courses they do and rating them according to a prescribed mark, then cumulating the scores.

Imperial and LSE are beasts for the subjects they offer but they are largely vocational schools. For example, the top 3 unis offer more programmes and are more diverse in the student profile and academic profile, but Imperial and LSE do not.

A good comparison should be Imperial/LSE with Warwick/Nottingham. If Warwick/Nottingham close down their “weaker” departments, they would be on par with Imperial and LSE.

Reply 7

username2752874

Original post by Wired_1800

Unlucky m9 you barely crack top 5

Reply 8

username2752874

[QUOTE="eloquent45;76988170"]Compared to any other broad subjects-unis like Oxford, Cambridge, UCL? I create this thread since I read one user’s rep in another thread that,

“It is silly to compare Imperial to institutions like Oxbridge, since Imperial is science-focused. They don’t offer arts/humanities. Therefore, Imperial will never be Oxbridge level.”

Fair point (but clearly MIT had proven this wrong).

Here’s the big question, “Does that mean that the science/engineering courses at Imperial can be (roughly similar or even better than) Oxbridge’s level?” — or are the former still be considered lesser in quality than the latter (even at the slightest level)?

PS. undergrad level - science courses.[/QUOTE

It's great for gay orgies - plenty of **** about ready at your disposal

In all seriousness nobody cares where you go if it's between those 3 - degree classification and psychometric tests, along with interviews will decide who the better applicant is without making an arbitrary judgement from solely the institution

I would've chosen Oxford for Imperial - mostly for the prestige tbh - I didn't really care for tutorials; I have a habit of doing things myself in the first place. I just thought of it as a bonus if anything. I think this is the main factor for a lot of people

But Imperial is prestigious in itself. Top 10 on THE, QS - top 15 on USNews and Top 25 on ARWU IIRC

These are a lot of *******s, but indicates something if a uni is high on all of them

So pretty high globally and domestically - I wouldn't worry

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 9

DeltaEpsilonPhi

Original post by eloquent45

Compared to any other broad subjects-unis like Oxford, Cambridge, UCL? I create this thread since I read one user’s rep in another thread that,

“It is silly to compare Imperial to institutions like Oxbridge, since Imperial is science-focused. They don’t offer arts/humanities. Therefore, Imperial will never be Oxbridge level.”

Fair point (but clearly MIT had proven this wrong).

Here’s the big question, “Does that mean that the science/engineering courses at Imperial can be (roughly similar or even better than) Oxbridge’s level?” — or are the former still be considered lesser in quality than the latter (even at the slightest level)?

PS. undergrad level - science courses.

I think you got sth wrong there. MIT does offer Humanities.

Reply 10

eloquent45

Original post by DeltaEpsilonPhi

I think you got sth wrong there. MIT does offer Humanities.

Edited. Thanks!

Reply 11

lollol039

Cambridge ranks higher than Imperial for engineering. But i think Imperial is better for engineering. Cambridge has a general engineering course with specialisition later on, where as imperials course is specific. In my opinion, i believe that cambridge engineers dont specialize as well as engineeris in imperial. Since i'm interested in EEE/EIE i looked up these 2 unis in discover uni. For those of you'll who aren't familiar with discover uni, It is owned and operated by the UK higher education funding and regulatory bodies.
these are the links for each university,
cambridge- https://discoveruni.gov.uk/course-de..._KIS/FullTime/
Imperial- https://discoveruni.gov.uk/course-de...H56/Full-time/
The data clearly shows that imperial grds earn better than cambridge grads. I have also read that the cambridge course is highly theoretical, whereas the imperial course has quite a lot of practical.