Imperial Vs. Southampton for Aeronautical Engineering

Any ideas about what you want to do after uni?

I really really cannot trust The Guardian league tables - I don't know how they rank them but they can be very odd. I have no specific knowledge of the subject, buy I know that Imperial do have a very good reputation when it comes to engineering, and I high employment rate (being in London obviously helps). That's not to say Southampton are bad by any means, I believe they have a really highly ranked engineering department, but purely on the factors you have listed I would say imperial. Don't trust league tables (especially The Guardian)

Guys, I forgot one more thing. I am an international student, so the fees that will apply vary greatly.
Imperial's tuition fee is 24,000 pounds, and Im considering the living expenses to be roughly 10,000 pounds.
As for southampton, the fees are 14,500 pounds, and the living expenses roughly 8,000 pounds im guessing.
Any insight on that?
Do you think that the higher fees of imperial are justified, or am i going to be paying simply fir the name and not education?
Please help.
Thanks

Hi guys. I needed some advice regarding university choices. I applied for Aeronautical Engineering and got offers from both, Imperial College and the University of Southampton and I am confused on what university to select. Going by rankings, according to the Guardian Southampton stands on 1st, while imperial is lower down on about 4th or so, while other rankings, such as QS and the Times rank Imperial much higher.
I am however not very concerned about the rankings and just want to make an informed decision on which uni will be the best in terms of quality of education and research and job opportunities.
Any advice would be appreciated greatly, especially if you have studied in any of the universities.
Thanks.

Guys, I forgot one more thing. I am an international student, so the fees that will apply vary greatly.
Imperial's tuition fee is 24,000 pounds, and Im considering the living expenses to be roughly 10,000 pounds.
As for southampton, the fees are 14,500 pounds, and the living expenses roughly 8,000 pounds im guessing.
Any insight on that?
Do you think that the higher fees of imperial are justified, or am i going to be paying simply fir the name and not education?
Please help.
Thanks

Thanks for the advic. ive been told the same a couple of times, so im not going by the league tables as such. just thought of mentioning it though.

Anyway, looking at the 2 unis, which would u say have an advantage in say job recruitment ?

Southampton offer numerous scholarships upon entry for international students. It may be worth e-mailing them and asking about specific details. It should be worth asking Imperial as well.

I'm doing engineering at Southampton so there's a couple of things you should note. Most likely Southampton will be going down the league tables for engineering a bit. This year (2011-2012 intake) they took on three times as many students for engineering than previous years. They employed not many more new staff so student to teacher ratio does decrease drastically. This, as I understand it, does affect league table standings. Also next year they plan to merge modules together and offer them as more credits. As a result, you won't learn as much as they contact hours would be equivalent to one subject compared to two separate subjects, if that makes sense. If not I shall give an example - The uni plans to merge Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics together into one subject worth 20 credits instead of 10 credits each. This will take place over one semester and you'll have two hours of lectures a week and one hours supervision/examples class. Naturally this means half the contact hours that we get (as we learn this over two semesters).

In the UK, the job opportunities in the engineering field would be the same. Well, that's what i'm expecting. As I understand it Imperial would have a significant advantage if you choose to go to the financial sector or into investment banking, but then again the top paid jobs in those sectors are more on who you know rather than what you can do.

As an international student, i'd suspect Imperial would hold a massive advantage over Southampton in getting jobs as Imperial does have a very strong reputation abroad.

I can't offer any better advice than Like_A_G6 did, I was merely commenting on the league tables. You seem to be in a very difficult situation, undoubtedly complicated by the fees, I don't think anyone on the internet can make this decision for you, only provide you with the relevant information.

How do you afford such fees? Honestly, our idiot students were complaining about £3,000 fees.

Yeah well, the fees are extremely high for international students. However, i dont have an option, as where i come from, theres no unis offering aeronautical engineering, so i have to study abroad.

Do you need to ask such a simple question? Imperial for the rep all the way. I didn't even know there was such as thing as Southampton uni.

Do you need to ask such a simple question? Imperial for the rep all the way. I didn't even know there was such as thing as Southampton uni.

No I meant where is your funding coming from, parents, loan, personal savings?

Hi guys. I needed some advice regarding university choices. I applied for Aeronautical Engineering and got offers from both, Imperial College and the University of Southampton and I am confused on what university to select. Going by rankings, according to the Guardian Southampton stands on 1st, while imperial is lower down on about 4th or so, while other rankings, such as QS and the Times rank Imperial much higher.
I am however not very concerned about the rankings and just want to make an informed decision on which uni will be the best in terms of quality of education and research and job opportunities.
Any advice would be appreciated greatly, especially if you have studied in any of the universities.
Thanks.