Did newspaper league tables influence your UCAS choices?

This poll is closed

Did newspaper subject tables influence your short list on UCAS (for maths)?

Yes they influenced my short list considerably35%

Yes they had some influence on which I included/exluded45%

No, they didnt influence me at all20%

Total votes: 82

BillLionheart

7

We regularly discuss the flaws of comparing university maths courses using newspaper subject league tables (and indeed my own table!) on this forum.

So I was wondering when you chose which maths courses to put on your UCAS form to what extent did these tables influence you in making a short list?

And if they did, did you look at specific columns in the tables like "graduate prospects" or "student satisfaction", or were you more influenced by the overall score (ie the weighted sum)?

Reply 1

Superman_Jr

13

Yeah it did, I looked at the 'Good honours' and 'Graduate prospects' section to make sure they were relatively high but it was all down to their overall position in the rankings.

Reply 2

username319902

I basically only chose from the gaurdian table... looked at student satisfaction and teaching :smile:

Reply 3

Smeh

14

The league tables showed me where to look and where to get prospectuses from in early early year 12...
I do know someone who went on the times league table and picked the top 5 for his subject and applied there though lol.

Reply 4

You!Me!Dancing!

13

It was one of the many things I took into account but league tables are so skewed these days, I used the RAE and "reputation" as more of a deciding factor in the end.

Reply 5

jakash

12

As much as I am against people making choices on league tables, they did help my make an initial shortlist - of say 20 universities, which I then looked at in more detail in their prospectuses and whatever.
There were a few I was still undecided about, and so in the league tables I did look at things such as student satisfaction, student breakdown (i.e. apparent average UCAS achieved) and graduate prospects (I didn't really pay any attention to RAE and research quality ratings and staff and all the rest of that), but I would say at least 75% of the determining factor of my choices was down to my personal judgement/feelings/experiences about the universities, especially after visiting them.

Reply 6

username345307

14

I used both, and Push I think. I compared the subject league tables and the overall ones, and looked at employment, teaching standards and satisfaction, and they were all relatively high. I then narrowed it down by looking at what offers they gave and matched it to mine exactly or were lower :smile:

Since not many great places do pharmacology, it wasn't that hard.

Reply 7

around

13

I knew I wanted to apply to 3 of my 5 unis already; league tables basically helped me decide my fillers.

Reply 8

Fuzzpig

16

Yes, though the area swayed me too.

I looked mainly at the Psychology rankings at graduate prospects.

Reply 9

milliondollarcorpse

16

TSR was a much bigger influence and in fact was probably the biggest influence of them all. However I did consider the rankings of universities on league tables and mostly judged it by the overall score, but was also interested in research quality and graduate prospects.

Reply 10

qgujxj39

17

I made three of my choices (Cam, Warwick, Manchester) instinctively and the other (Imperial) for the lulz (I hate London).

Reply 11

katierattray

14

League tables had no influence on my choices because I picked unis that I liked and the ones offered good courses.

Reply 12

mxcs

It was rather difficult to find unis that did the kind of course I was interested in, hence my additions of AIU and London Met even though I had neither heard much about them nor visited before.

Many of the 'top uni' books and league tables only recognise the more academic subjects, so if you're looking for anything vocational it's a bit more difficult to choose. After passing the deadline for changing my choices on UCAS, I actually found out there are general courses that feature specialist pathways in my chosen type of course, which I was rather annoyed about.

Reply 13

Hattie1992

13

yep, they were handy for filtering out the rubbish ones from the good ones, especially in terms of choosing my insurance option, but i already had an idea of the main ones i wanted to apply for.

Reply 14

i_bring_you_fire

9

league tables helped me decide what 2 London unis to apply for, as well as making my final 2 choices, which I knew wanted to be big city places. I now kinda wish I'd applied to Bristol and St Andrews instead of Glasgow and Newcastle..

Reply 15

username219321

14

They helped me with my original "short" list of about 10, but not with getting it down to the final 5 (although Lancaster was basically an "ultra-safe" option and York just to fill the last slot)

Reply 16

Jooeee

2

Like others have said, helped me to decide where I might want to apply - but my final decision was based a lot more on prospectuses, visits etc.

Reply 17

Echolife

15

Yes, coming from a poor comprehensive where not many students go to university let alone high ranking ones, I had no idea where to start on finding out which were any good. So one of my first ports of call was to 'goggle' 'top universities'.
This led me to The Times rankings, I looked at both the maths rankings and overall rankings and made a shortlist of those that appeared in the top twenty in both. I then ruled out the London ones on cost. Then I looked at location. Then came things like the size of the uni/maths dept. I did look at the graduate prospects column but not at student satisfaction as I didn't think that would be very reliable. I also found TSR quite helpful :wink:

Once I was down to about ten, it was thorough reading of the prospectus, web sites. I then went on 8 open days before getting down to my final 5.

Reply 18

ste0731

12

More about reputation which I guess is heavily linked to league table. However my case is a rare one where I can't move away from home, so I had options of manc/man met/salford, which the order of preference is obvious for doing a Maths degree. So I guess yeh to some small extent the league tables did influence my decision, as say if man met was above manchester then it'd be better reputable and therefore higher in the leagues (presumably).