Ranking Scottish unis from best to worst (to prove a point)

So before anyone says anything, let me explain. Often on this site, i see (mainly English uni students) talk about how "X is better than Y", "Z is overrated and W is underrated" and "X, Y and Z are better than U, V and W" etc etc.

So really, i wanted to do this to see if there is any truth/point in uni rankings, by asking, in your own opinions and experiences, how you rank Scottish unis. Again this isn't about criticizing other unis, this is about how much point there is in things like national and world rankings. So here are mine:

Tier one: St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen
Tier 1.5: Dundee (still really good but maybe not in the same vein as the others)
Tier two: Heriot-Watt, Strathclyde and Stirling
Tier three: RGU, Caledonian and Napier
Tier four: Queen Margaret, Abertay, West of Scotland and Highlands & Islands

This is for overall, and you can mention things like what you consider the most important aspect (prospects, teaching etc) and whether you look at rankings.

Again, just an experiment, thank you!

I'll be honest, i think this is important because i used to be one of those people who was a ranking watcher. This was because when i was first applying, there were and are a significant group of people that essentially worshiped uni rankings, demeaning those who went to one lower than themselves. So, as someone new to the uni process, this scared me into thinking I had to apply somewhere that was highly ranked to be successful. After I told myself however that this is silly, I started thinking about how many people took rankings seriously when choosing a uni and potentially making a huge mistake of applying somewhere more 'respected' and regretting it as opposed to applying somewhere 'lower down the table' and going to a uni more suited to them.

So overall, this is about how people use rankings to judge how good universities are and whether they are used too much, or rather how accurate these rankings may be by seeing how others judge unis in their own opinion.

(edited 10 years ago)

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Reply 60

3Engineer141592

Original post by L1ly_pt

For 2024 I’d definitely have it as
Tier1:
Edinburgh and St Andrews
Tier2:
Glasgow and Strathclyde
Tier3:
Dundee, Aberdeen, Stirling, Herriot watt
Tier4:
Napier, Glasgow cali, RGU
Tier5:
QMU, Abertay, UHI, UWS

Don’t know how Stirling is that high and Aberdeen is that low