Ridiculous university choices

Not much difference between those universities.
It is not like choosing London Met instead of Oxford.
Now THAT would be rather foolish

ranking for subjects is almost utterly irrelevent
ranking of the uni is, largely, irrelevent. the 6th uni wont be looked apon much differently from the 9th.

BANDING on the other hand, is extremely important. If your university is top band, it makes a HUGE HUGE HUGE amount of difference when trying to find a competative job, and you can use ranks to guess at band.

LSE and Durham are both top flight top band unis, so tbh it makes little difference.

If youd dropped one or other to go to sussex, then you would have a legitimate argument.

What do u mean there's not much difference between them? There's a huge difference between East Anglia and Portsmouth and there's a huge difference between Kingston and Bristol.

They are all equally semi-obscure third tier universities.
On the other hand, the difference between Oxford (famous first tier university ) and London Met ( a notorious sixth tier university ) is VAST.

Has this snobbery not stopped yet?

Where did you get the tier-system from? This isn't America.

Its not snobbery, I live and work in London as do the vast majority of my peers, in a wide cross section of financial services-based careers.

I do despair that on TSR realism is branded snobbery, and I'd love to be able to respond with "ha well you are in for a shock when you try to get a job" but of course the people braying the loudest are all from decent highest tier universities where holding such a perverse opinion can cost them nothing.

Common sense and experience

Jj, rather than argue with us, why not just pick a high-end career, phone the HR department in a london firm in the top 10 for it, and ask them what selection criteria they apply to applicants and whether university is important.

Im telling you right now, that for a lot of jobs, they will simply NOT BOTHER to read applications from people who went to a university below a certain cut-off point (usually first or second tier, sometimes third)

What does where you live or work have to do with anything?

Getting a first from anywhere is a very good thing -- and therefore we can't judge people who may very well do this, just because they went to a university which is ranked 40th or 50th in league tables, for example.

You are assuming now that everyone wants a 'high end' career. Many people, as you would define it, simply do not. I would hate to be an investment banker. However, my personal career goal is quite ambitious: I would like to become either a human rights barrister or a Classics tutor. Many people are happy doing 'lesser' jobs though, and why should we mock them for having such independent aims? Money isn't everything, and nor is university.

Why would anyone ask for career advice when picking a uni unless they want to do something mildly competative.

This does NOT simply apply to investment bankers, it applies to more or less any decently paid (25k+ starting) white collar job that I've come across.

Also you would have pretty much 0 chance of becoming a HR barrister with a degree from anywhere outside the top tier of universities, which luckily you appear to have.

This advice given on TSR on this subject is so often deeply flawed and unhelpful. Most people are at least a little ambitious. If they want a job where their university is not important as a selection criteria, one must question why they went to uni in the first place, is the fun/experience really worth the debt if the qualification means little to your career?


Face it. Most people who post on here want to do something which is reasonably competative. The very USE of this forum generally implies aspiration.

They are all equally semi-obscure third tier universities.

Bristol is not a semi-obscure third tier inversity.

Nobody outside the UK has heard of Bristol University.
It is as obscure as Tokei University.

Few people outside the UK have heard of the LSE (unless they happen to be interested in economics-y subjects, obviously). Does that make it an obscure and/or bad university?

Most non-UK academics have heard of LSE. Most non-UK academics have not heard of Bristol University. Virtually every issue of the major international economics journals have an article by a faculty member or an ex-alumnus of LSE. As for Bristol.... perhaps they publish in the bristle magazines ?

Most non-UK academics have heard of LSE. Most non-UK academics have not heard of Bristol University. Virtually every issue of the major international economics journals have an article by a faculty member or an ex-alumnus of LSE. As for Bristol.... perhaps they publish in the bristle magazines ?