<p>Ahhhh…“the best one around the UK is Nottingham University”…sure… U of N have a decent reputation in the UK, that’s true, but not belongs to the top UK universities. But it depends what you want to study, of course. Still, the two uni’s that bears a fantastic international prestige, and even Average Joe heard about, and respect them, are Oxford and Cambridge. World top 10. </p>
<p>Or, if you want to do business studies, then LSE could be a good choice. But of course Oxbridge is far not for everyone, as HYPSM is also not for everyone, and if you think Nottingham could be your best choice, go for it ;)</p>
<p>Gerald M much as I would like to believe you your general tone suggests you not to be at Oxford: which College were you at in Cam and which in Oxford, which degree did you do in Cam which are you doing in Oxford.</p>
<p>What you said about Nottingham is nonsense it is easily top twenty in the UK. Stop spreading misinformation.</p>
<p>^^^
I’m going to guess its something math or science based. Probably not english. </p>
<p>Gerald M, Nottingham is definitely a “top UK uni.” Are you saying that anything non-Oxbridge is not “top?” Is LSE, UCL, Durham, Warwick, etc. mediocre?</p>
<p>Azarimanka: maybe interested in my id number, or driving license as well?
Regarding Nottingham: I’m saying that there are no other world top 10 UK unis, just Oxbridge. This is a fact, despite the QS and Times rankings are leaning heavily towards UK uni’s. Nottingham is easily in the UK top 20, have to agree. But since I’m not from the UK, I know that apart from Oxbridge there are only a few internationally recognized (but not world top 10) UK uni’s, and Nottingham is definitely not on the list.</p>
<p>Indeed, I’m heavily biased towards Oxbridge, and yes, I’m seeing the university rankings through the lens of HYPSM and Oxbridge. But finding a tenure track position in the academia is damm hard, and if u don’t have a PhD from a top notch institution, it’s even more harder. Like it or not, it’s a fact. Everyone is saying -especially in the UK- that every PhD is equal. But this is bull-**** - then why every faculty in the UK is filled with Oxbridge alumni, and in the US, field with HYPSM, and Columbia, Chicago, Berkeley alumni? The quality of the dissertations not varies that much, but the name if the institution which grants it, is extremely important. </p>
<p>Also, Nottingham is a decent –but not top-notch, like, say, Oxbridge, UCL, Imperial, and LSE- university in the UK, but outside the UK hardly anyone heard about it. Which is not a problem, most people, even in the academia knows only a handful of universities abroad. Still, when it’s comes to job prospects, this could be a problem.</p>
<p>keepittoyourself, I guess I could agree w/ you if we narrowed it down to 5-10. Nottingham is probably T15. So if we were to consider the T15, then Nottingham would be a top uni. If we just consider the T5 and T10 then no. Just a matter of technicality though.</p>
<p>GeraldM, I don’t think many people on these forums are going for academia. Perhaps they’ll end up on that route. But most want to start off in IB, law, consulting, etc. Tenure tracks in the US are going to be credential obsessed at HYPS. Most students at HYPS would expect nothing less. They’d probably be disappointed if they had a professor from london south bank or alabama state. I’m assuming you are doing a math/science track? In which case the competition is even fiercer for foreigners. Anyways my point to you is this–when talking about Nottingham, Warwick, etc. typically one must exclude Oxbridge from the discussion. Obviously it is the best for employment prospects. But the question usually comes down to…what’s the next best option?</p>
<p>You are very right, I’m probably a bit too obsessed with Oxbridge and HYPSM – that’s because I know how fierce the job market is. Anyway, I’m dealing with humanities, not science, and yes I know that for foreigners it’s even more harder, despite Oxbridge papers in hand. </p>
<p>The typical mentality in the US –as far as I see it- that the best minds goes to the best uni’s, so if you went to a lesser uni –the term <em>lesser</em> is not that obvious one like UoAlabama and the like, since in my field, you can hardly find any professors with PhD’s from, say, Duke, Brown, Penn, Vandy, Northwestern, Georgetown, etc, despite these are undoubtedly fine and renowned institutions. Still, when the competition have a doctorate from HYPSM, or Oxbridge, or some other like Chicago or Columbia, that fancy paper becomes a PhD from a lesser university, despite how cruel and unfair it is. Also, I saw many PhD’s from many institutions, and the difference is truly not that big, or sometimes there’s no difference at all – but again, the name differs, and that’s what counts. Not always, of course, but the chances differ.</p>
<p>Reading through the lines he did a masters at Camb and is currently doing a PhD at Oxford. His field is definitely humanities. No one mentions oxford outside of the humanities or schools like Brown, Georgetown e.t.c who specialize in soft studies. Northwestern, Penn, and Duke are very good in the sciences and would be better at the graduate level than Oxford or Yale depending on the program.</p>
<p>GeraldM, I agree with most of what you are saying. However in the states, I wouldn’t necessarily say that the best minds go to the best places. For example, it is extremely common for the top kids in a HS class to stay local for uni or go where they may have gotten a scholarship. The valedictorian at my HS went to University of Georgia. The salutorian went to Georgia Tech. One of them got into Stanford, but declined it for financial reasons. This is much more common in the US than the UK because uni is much more expensive in the US vs. a common price across the board in the UK. Plus many of the “lower unis” like Alabama or Georgia have honors programs, attracting many of the top kids. The honors college at Penn State is held to a pretty high standard. But this is probably irrelevant in the bigger picture, just wanted to throw it in there.</p>
<p>I’m fully aware about the honors programs, and the financial difficulties going to out of state schools. And this is undoubtedly true that many very bright kids go to their state schools (which are in case of California, could be brilliant, and there are many excellent flagships like UoT Austin, W-Madison, Virginia and the like, but those from, say, Iowa, Louisiana or Georgina find themselves in not that good state schools) because of money issues. Life is unfair, let’s face it. But I’m not particularly talking about them, but about those who go to…hmm, not that renowned institutions for a PhD, when the job market is brutal enough, even if you have a PhD in hand from Harvard. </p>
<p>There was a recent article in the Economist that discussed many problems about getting a PhD, and then finding a job (and of course, everyone wants a tenure-track position). The author mentioned that a professor from Uo Kentrucky decided not to admit more PhD students, since there are too many already. Which is a wise decision, but there was no mentioning in that article, that PhD’s from Kentucky are considered worthless. Not because the quality of the dissertations, but because the name on the stamp. Of course there are local differences, so you can find Penn, Penn State PhD’s in Pennsylvania uni’s and some UoGeorgia PhD’s in Georgia, but hardly in anywhere else. When they are recruiting, such universities like Uo Florida likely neglect their own PhD’s. </p>
<p>Despite I’m dealing with humanities I just looked through a dozen of departmental homepages in chemistry, checked many profiles, and found that it’s the same: usually always the same institution names appear…</p>
<p>GeraldM I do not think it is wrong to be biased towards OXbridge at all, as a Cam undergrad I feel the same way. I was merely interested as to which college you went to… As for my point about Nottingham - the OP wanted to know about UK universities. Sure: Only Oxbridge and maybe UCL and Imperial are top in terms of the world, but I would imagine he might be interested in the top twenty in the UK ie Nottingham included.</p>
<p>Well, my experiences are that even UCL and Imperial are not widely recognized names abroad. Of course, in case of the US, even the educated people only heard about HYPSM, Berkeley, Columbia, Brown, Georgetown, and probably Chicago. While there are many more great schools indeed. Again, I’m biased towards Oxbridge because –at least on a level- I know how the US job market works for academics…
Anyway, I was in Caius.</p>
<p>GeraldM - your experiences are irrelevant. The OP wanted to know the best UK universities, naturally you know that one can apply for five universities at a time, are you genuinely suggesting he apply to ONE out of Oxford or Cambridge, and LEAVE his other FOUR choices blank? That would be terrible and unhelpful advice.</p>
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