UK-US university equivalencies

NYU℠

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dogmatichurricane

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(Original post by NYU2012)
I'm curious as to what the perceived reputations of schools in the UK are, namely schools such as University College London, London School of Economics, King's College London, University of Nottingham and Durham University.

My question is this though, in terms of academic reputation what would you compare them with in terms of US equivalencies? For example, Oxford and Cambridge are comparable for HYPSM. What are UCL, KCL, LSE Nottingham and Durham comparable in terms of academics and reputation alone?

Depends on what subjects you're looking at. This is a start: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.u...2/top-400.html

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dogmatichurricane

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(Original post by NYU2012)
I saw those rankings and brought them up, along with QS on an American version of TSR.
Americans apparently have issues accepting THE or QS as they are "biased towards the Americans system". So I was curious to see if those of you on the other side of the pond disagreed or agreed with such rankings. I.e. UCL being equivalent to the ivies? KCL coming somewhere just below the ivies, etc.

Hmm I would put UCL in line with the lower Ivies/other top-tier US unis. So maybe Dartmouth, Georgetown, NYU, UChicago that region if you can follow me. Quite arbitrary really and like I said depends on concerned subject. For example, Georgetown would trump UCL with regards to international relations/politics whilst UCL would definitely pip it in terms of life sciences.

KCL I would put a far bit below the Ivies really....as for LSE since it's so specialised it's hard to fix it a rank. I would put it with HYPSM and Oxbridge whilst looking at economics/social sciences.

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Bustenhalter

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University College London - Dartmouth
London School of Economics - Columbia

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shirley0y

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In general (not referring to any particular subjects),
Oxbridge ~ Harvard, Yale
LSE ~ UChicago, Stanford, Cornell (Actually, Cornell<UChicago and Standford)
UCL ~ Cornell, Northwestern
KCL ~ Georgetown, NYU, USC, UCLA

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FDR

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It's difficult because universities in the US are much better funded than those in the UK, and therefore can spend a lot more on both academics and marketing, which is probably why a lot more are very well known worldwide.

I'll have a go trying to compare them though, just for fun!

Oxbridge - The very best the UK has to offer, probably comparable with Harvard, Princeton and Yale in the US in terms of both academic and longstanding tradition.

Imperial - ICL is not far behind Oxbridge at all, and i'd say that it is comparable with MIT as they both specialize in sciences (although I am aware that MIT offers other degrees whereas ICL is solely science)

LSE - LSE isn't far behind Oxbridge either regarding social sciences, and is probably considered better than Oxford for undergrad economics. It's hard to compare LSE to another US institution because of it's specialised nature, however I'd say that for what it offers, it's considered amongst the very best, so I'd say its comparable to UPenn and Stanford.

UCL - unlike LSE and ICL, UCL is a multifaculty University, and has a very strong reputation both here and worldwide, and I'd say that it's quite similar to Columbia.

Durham - Durham is the third oldest University in the UK after oxbridge, and also has a collegiate system (although Durham's is a tad different). Along with UCL, it's considered one of the UK's best multifaculty universities outside of Oxbridge. I'd say that it is comparable to Dartmouth and Brown in the US

Nottingham - has very strong Law and Economics departments, having produced an economics nobel winner recently, has quite a significant international intake, as well as campuses in China and Malaysia, I'd say it is comparable to Berkeley in the US.

KCL - still has a good reputation, although in the past it was held in a lot higher regard, yet has slipped a bit in UK league tables here - still has an outstanding medical school and Law school though, probably comparable to NYU and Boston College.

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jameskok

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Oxbridge is comparable to Cornell.... HYPSM are a league way above Oxbridge.

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ifstatement

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Cambridge - Harvard

Oxford - Yale

Imperial - MIT

UCL - Stanford

Nottingham - UCLA

KCL - UC Berkeley

Durham - Brown maybe

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Jackso

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In my opinion it would roughly be...

Oxford - Harvard
Cambridge - Yale
St Andrews - Princeton
LSE - MIT
UCL - Stanford
Imperial College - Columbia
Durham - Dartmouth College

And then the other good universities but lower ranked...

Nottingham - UCLA
Exeter - Michigan
Glasgow - University of Texas at Austin
Manchester - NYU

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Alleykat606

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As of December 2011:

1. Caltech - Cambridge
2. Harvard - Oxford
3. Stanford - St. Andrews
4. Princeton - LSE
5. MIT - UCL
6. Chicago - Warwick
7. UC Berkeley - Lancaster
8. Yale - Durham
9. Columbia - Imperial
10. UCLA - Loughborough

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Alleykat606

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(Original post by FDR)
It's difficult because universities in the US are much better funded than those in the UK, and therefore can spend a lot more on both academics and marketing, which is probably why a lot more are very well known worldwide.

I'll have a go trying to compare them though, just for fun!

Oxbridge - The very best the UK has to offer, probably comparable with Harvard, Princeton and Yale in the US in terms of both academic and longstanding tradition.

Imperial - ICL is not far behind Oxbridge at all, and i'd say that it is comparable with MIT as they both specialize in sciences (although I am aware that MIT offers other degrees whereas ICL is solely science)

LSE - LSE isn't far behind Oxbridge either regarding social sciences, and is probably considered better than Oxford for undergrad economics. It's hard to compare LSE to another US institution because of it's specialised nature, however I'd say that for what it offers, it's considered amongst the very best, so I'd say its comparable to UPenn and Stanford.

UCL - unlike LSE and ICL, UCL is a multifaculty University, and has a very strong reputation both here and worldwide, and I'd say that it's quite similar to Columbia.

Durham - Durham is the third oldest University in the UK after oxbridge, and also has a collegiate system (although Durham's is a tad different). Along with UCL, it's considered one of the UK's best multifaculty universities outside of Oxbridge. I'd say that it is comparable to Dartmouth and Brown in the US

Nottingham - has very strong Law and Economics departments, having produced an economics nobel winner recently, has quite a significant international intake, as well as campuses in China and Malaysia, I'd say it is comparable to Berkeley in the US.

KCL - still has a good reputation, although in the past it was held in a lot higher regard, yet has slipped a bit in UK league tables here - still has an outstanding medical school and Law school though, probably comparable to NYU and Boston College.

Where's Caltech??? :confused:

Chicago??? :confused:

UCLA???

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FDR

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(Original post by Alleykat606)
Where's Caltech??? :confused:

Chicago??? :confused:

UCLA???

All top universities in the US, however we have less top universities in the UK (what with the UK being five times less populous), and I was only having fun with my rankings - if I were to do it for real, I would have to equate a lot more us universities to UK unis because there are obviously more.

For what it's worth, I'd say Caltech would be comparable to Imperial, in the same way MIT is, Chicago I'd say maybe with Nottingham in the sense that they are both large multi-faculties, but both have very strong Economics departments, and UCLA probably with King's in London (i.e KCL is considered the second best multi-fac in UoL, UCLA the same in UC, but both are held in high regard)

I'm really not an expert when it comes to US unis, so definitely take with a pinch of salt!

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FDR

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(Original post by jameskok)
Oxbridge is comparable to Cornell.... HYPSM are a league way above Oxbridge.

What exactly are you basing this on? Have you seen world rankings recently? Have you not seen how much Oxbridge (and other UK institutions) have achieved with much lower funding than US universities?

Cambridge and Oxford are without a doubt held in the same regard as Harvard, Yale and MIT, and probably held in higher regard than Penn and Stanford.

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hoonosewot

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(Original post by jameskok)
Oxbridge is comparable to Cornell.... HYPSM are a league way above Oxbridge.

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jameskok

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What I said was simply the hard truth: HYPSM are way way more selective than Oxbridge. Oxbridge is roughly as selective as Cornell.

I also spoke from personal experience. I was accepted by many top UK unis like Oxford, LSE and UCL but rejected by many US unis like Yale, Duke and UChicago.

Yes, reputation and prestige wise, Oxbridge is on par with the top US unis. But the admission rates tell a different story of the quality of the students.

Anybody else cares to refute?

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Aeneas.kicksbutt

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(Original post by jameskok)
What I said was simply the hard truth: HYPSM are way way more selective than Oxbridge. Oxbridge is roughly as selective as Cornell.

I also spoke from personal experience. I was accepted by many top UK unis like Oxford, LSE and UCL but rejected by many US unis like Yale, Duke and UChicago.

Yes, reputation and prestige wise, Oxbridge is on par with the top US unis. But the admission rates tell a different story of the quality of the students.

Anybody else cares to refute?

I agree with you.
I think that Oxbridge look a lot more at academics whereas the HYPSM look at the whole person (i.e. academics and extra-curricular activities)

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dogmatichurricane

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(Original post by jameskok)
What I said was simply the hard truth: HYPSM are way way more selective than Oxbridge. Oxbridge is roughly as selective as Cornell.

I also spoke from personal experience. I was accepted by many top UK unis like Oxford, LSE and UCL but rejected by many US unis like Yale, Duke and UChicago.

Yes, reputation and prestige wise, Oxbridge is on par with the top US unis. But the admission rates tell a different story of the quality of the students.

Anybody else cares to refute?

Are you American? If you aren't you're spot on about HYPSM being more selective with international applicants. The story is very different when you apply as a local applicant...

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Alleykat606

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(Original post by jameskok)
What I said was simply the hard truth: HYPSM are way way more selective than Oxbridge. Oxbridge is roughly as selective as Cornell.

I also spoke from personal experience. I was accepted by many top UK unis like Oxford, LSE and UCL but rejected by many US unis like Yale, Duke and UChicago.

Yes, reputation and prestige wise, Oxbridge is on par with the top US unis. But the admission rates tell a different story of the quality of the students.

Anybody else cares to refute?

us universities are generally more selective than british uk universities because they can afford to be more selective. Oxbridge's teaching standards and research is way up there with Harvard Yale and Stanford.

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FDR

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(Original post by jameskok)
What I said was simply the hard truth: HYPSM are way way more selective than Oxbridge. Oxbridge is roughly as selective as Cornell.

I also spoke from personal experience. I was accepted by many top UK unis like Oxford, LSE and UCL but rejected by many US unis like Yale, Duke and UChicago.

Yes, reputation and prestige wise, Oxbridge is on par with the top US unis. But the admission rates tell a different story of the quality of the students.

Anybody else cares to refute?

I'll refute what you say - firstly, you said that HYPSM (I presume that stands for Harvard, Yale, Penn, Stanford and MIT?) are better (' a league above Oxbridge' as you put it yourself), then say that this is because HYPSM are more selective, therefore implying that the more selective a university is, the better it is, which is certainly not true. Also, consider the case of Harvard and Oxford - Harvard admits less undergraduates than Oxford does, however as the US is five times bigger than the UK, and I believe you can apply to as many unis you want to, unlike in the UK, then it will receive more applications than Oxford, so will have to be more selective. Also, I think there are a lot of problems regarding university admissions in the states - I read somewhere that at some top universities, even Harvard and Yale, children of former alumni and donors get easier access, which is frankly outrageous and does not happen at Oxbridge or any UK uni.

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paperstars123

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Sorry for hijacking this thread.

I'm wondering how you would compare Durham and Nottingham with University of Michigan in the US, for economics particularly. On international league tables UMichigan is ranked higher, but I suppose it's because of its research output and funding, whereas Nottingham and Durham are both highly regarded in the UK. I'm mainly concerned about the undergraduate teaching at these 3 universities, so any feedback on them will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

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