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Degree: Imperial vs U of London

The Imperial School of Economics and Sciences? It would be the best university in the world (let's pretend humanities don't exist hehe)

Reply 21

Ourkid

12

ashy

link me.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=177291

shady lane

Well that's fine, but my point was that in my country, Imperial doesn't "stand on its own" as a name separate from the University of London, while LSE does. It's probably because bankers and politicians are more visible in society than scientists, and also that there is a long tradition of Americans going to LSE for study. It's just very interesting to be at LSE, where the director has told us we are absolutely not leaving UoL, and at the same time Imperial students are saying "we are better than UoL, we must go, IC stands alone" when it doesn't actually seem to, outside of the scientific world.

You do realise that IC standing on it's own in America is going to be more or less irrelevent to many people?

Not everyone cares about a) what American students think about IC, b) what anyone in America thinks about IC at all, assuming they don't want to go to America, which *could* count for a lot of individuals.

Those that do want to go to America I'm sure have no doubt researched properly; the same way American students must have when thinking about Stanford or whatever compared to all the UK universities.

The bolded point above seems to suggest that LSE is above UoL yet IC is not. Albeit a comment perhaps valid for americans; I refer you to my first two paragraphs.

Ourkid

Reply 22

~style

It doesn't need to have such a long name does it? How about we think outside the box and go metric.

Also a lecturer tried to convince us that IC isn't full of geeks by talking about the humanities module in one of the engineering courses. :rolleyes:

Reply 23

shady lane

16

Well that's a shame, ourkid, given how many top scientists and cutting edge scientific research comes from the US, which is also one of the biggest and wealthiest countries in the world, with the majority of the world's top universities. Silly me for thinking that America matters.

Reply 24

~style

Ourkid

...

Ourkid

You seem to be very passionate for someone who doesn't attend either, yet or not. :p:

Reply 25

Ourkid

12

I find it odd as 90% of the people I saw on my two interviews weren't (or at least didn't seem like) geeks or dull individuals at all.

You seem to be very passionate for someone who doesn't attend either, yet or not.

I'm almost there... Practically fulfilled my offers. I've already said that for the initial given topic, IF I was given a choice I'd take an IC degree; on the whole I don't really care as long as I'm at IC, but if I'm going to get myself into debates I tend to follow through to the bitter end. Plus I'm a passionate individual :p:

Well that's a shame, ourkid, given how many top scientists and cutting edge scientific research comes from the US, which is also one of the biggest and wealthiest countries in the world, with the majority of the world's top universities. Silly me for thinking that America matters.

I'm not saying that America as a whole on the scientific stage doesn't matter. I'm saying that to many people who aren't really thinking of employment either academic or otherwise in America wouldn't and shouldn't care what the average American student cares about IC degrees.

Ourkid

Reply 26

tuppatopbrer

The Average American = The Average Brit. If they dont know about IC then I'm not interested.

Besides, I know quite a few international students from international schools who applied to both top US colleges as well as IC. I know this is not concrete evidence but still. In addition to that, I dont know if you know but there are a load of Americans who arrived at the beginning of this term on an exchange program for 4 months, and they know about the quality of IC.

Reply 27

winnie the poo

8

At the end of the day, who cares if your average joe doesn't know of the institution you went to. It's the employer that matters. I'm sure any reputable employer will know too well of the name Imperial has for itself. You're assuming that employers have the same knowlege of university reputations as you do. If this is so, God help us all.

Reply 28

aqfrenzy

2

shady lane

Well that's fine, but my point was that in my country, Imperial doesn't "stand on its own" as a name separate from the University of London

Is it me or do quite a few Brits also not know about Imperial? :wink:

It doesn't really matter what the general population think or know. Worthy employers will recognize that Imperial is a high quality Uni without needing to hear about UoL.

Reply 29

cjsk

I really think that one of the reasons that some people claim UoL has more of a reputation than Imperial is simply because of the way the name sounds. When people hear it, it sounds like THE university of the CAPITAL of the UK, so they assume it's good. However, I bet that if you compare opinions based on the actual reputation of the teaching/research going on at IC compared to UoL in general, people are going to say they see IC as a better uni.

Reply 30

shady lane

16

love2learn7

All you ever do is try to slag off Imperial, ive been reading your posts. Atleast when i slag off other uni's in favour of Imperial they are easilly not-as-good uni's!

You seem to think LSE is better than Imperial.......... the only way you can back that up is pulling out the ever-so crap Guardian table and (ONLY for this year)- the Sunday Times.

On how many occasions has The Times ranked LSE 2nd in the UK? In the last 10 years as far as i am aware only Imperial has entered the top 2 outside of Oxbridge!

WTF??!
Have you read anything that I wrote? I have never doubted the excellent quality of Imperial. I just said it's REPUTATION doesn't seem to stand on its own, particularly compared to the other top specialist college in the University of London.

I only have my MSc from LSE, as I've said a million times, I don't base my intellectual self-esteem on whether or not it was #2 in the Times. I look at international reputation and particularly because I'm a postgrad, the quality of the professors in the department. Given that I almost ended up at SOAS, I don't think you can accuse me of being a prestige whore.

Reply 31

CityMonkey

11

shady lane

I went to a very science-oriented undergrad university. If you did a poll there, you'd find not many people had heard of Imperial. The reverse is not true: I'm sure the majority of Imperial students have heard of Stanford.

You don't have to believe me, but Americans only really know Oxbridge, LSE, and St. Andrews. That's it. And if you say University of London (which I did when I was considering SOAS), people just assume it's good, even if they haven't heard of it.

Anyway, you guys can do what you like. My dad thinks the separation is stupid, but he's just one alum, maybe the majority are for it.

Also: the fact that I get the "same" degree as someone from Queen Mary means absolutely nothing to me. It still says LSE on the diploma. Why would I care? I'm not going to validate my academic ability by knowing that I don't share the same central board as the people at Goldsmiths :rolleyes:

Well having a look at this video, whether Americans know of a university across the pond makes no difference, since they seem not know much else either...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0u0Srn_8HvA

Reply 32

Azimuth

2

shady lane

WTF??!
Have you read anything that I wrote? I have never doubted the excellent quality of Imperial. I just said it's REPUTATION doesn't seem to stand on its own, particularly compared to the other top specialist college in the University of London.

I only have my MSc from LSE, as I've said a million times, I don't base my intellectual self-esteem on whether or not it was #2 in the Times. I look at international reputation and particularly because I'm a postgrad, the quality of the professors in the department. Given that I almost ended up at SOAS, I don't think you can accuse me of being a prestige whore.

Jesus, you are annoying. All you do is troll this forum when you don't go to Imperial, and aren't even applying to Imperial.

The vast majority (>95%) of Imperial graduates are going to end up working in the UK. Therefore, Imperial's reputation is going to come in very handy for those people. Your claim that LSE is more well known in the US than Imperial is relevant for the <2% that end up working over there. The fact that Imperial is more highly regarded in this country than any other college in London is relevant for the >95% that end up working here.

Reply 33

shady lane

16

If you guys are so confident then why does anything I say bother you?

Reply 34

tuppatopbrer

It doesnt "bother" us (well me)... Sorry if posing logical counterarguments baffles you.

Reply 35

Ourkid

12

MonteCristo

Well having a look at this video, whether Americans know of a university across the pond makes no difference, since they seem not know much else either...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0u0Srn_8HvA

'kofi annan is a drink: true or false?'... 'uh coffees a drink... coffee and wut?? :confused:

'

Reply 36

~style

MonteCristo

Well having a look at this video, whether Americans know of a university across the pond makes no difference, since they seem not know much else either...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0u0Srn_8HvA

some americans are, but not everyone is. it's obvious that the people didn't study much in school. so if you europeans believe that ALL americans are stupid, then why do you think americans can get into Harvard University?

And that was the best comment on that video which is also relative to this thread. :rolleyes:

Reply 37

shady lane

16

Azimuth

Jesus, you are annoying. All you do is troll this forum when you don't go to Imperial, and aren't even applying to Imperial.

The vast majority (>95%) of Imperial graduates are going to end up working in the UK. Therefore, Imperial's reputation is going to come in very handy for those people. Your claim that LSE is more well known in the US than Imperial is relevant for the <2% that end up working over there. The fact that Imperial is more highly regarded in this country than any other college in London is relevant for the >95% that end up working here.

Please let me know if 95% of Imperial students are from Britain. I'd guess that the answer is no, and that a significant number return to their countries of origin or stay for a short while in the UK before returning to their countries of origin. But maybe I'm wrong, but I can't be bothered to dig up Imperial student statistics right now.

Reply 38

Alexthepenguin

OP

shady lane

Well that's a shame, ourkid, given how many top scientists and cutting edge scientific research comes from the US, which is also one of the biggest and wealthiest countries in the world, with the majority of the world's top universities. Silly me for thinking that America matters.