I'm actually quite surprised just how much weight everyone puts on the prestige. It's pretty clear to most people that while the prestige for Oxbridge far exeeds everything else, the teaching quality does not necessarily exceed everything to the same degree. Do any of you actually know anything about the course abs wants to do? He/ She has already told us that other factors such as closeness to home are important, don't just assume everyone has the same criteria whn choosing a university. Also, is the prestige really all that important, when you consider that on average, SOAS alumini have the highest starting salaries of any uni in the UK? it's not like going to SOAS would cripple your career plans
I'll just add that you're really not going to get any help with this sort of thread, did my best but only you know what is best for you and you;d be better off just asking questions about each university so you can consider what are the pros and cons for each - from your own perspective.