<p>Hi, I'm a Chinese international high school student currently in the UK. I have been accepted to Imperial College London (maths and computer science) and London School of Economics (maths with economics). I current hold an American green card (but don't have a UK permenant residency).</p>
<p>I was wondering, considering I would like to work in the States after graduation, which university would be best for me?</p>
<p>Which UK university is better/more prestigious in the US? LSE or Imperial? </p>
<p>Thanks, any suggestion would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>PS. I'm currenting leaning towards going to Imperial College and then apply for graduate study in the US.</p>
<p>Imperial for maths. LSE for economics.
Imperial is more prestigious-I think</p>
<p>In the UK, Imperial is probably more prestigious.</p>
<p>In the US, LSE is <em>way</em> more prestigious. People here consider it on a par with Oxford and Cambridge. On the other hand, nobody has heard of Imperial.</p>
<p>For US grad school, definitely go LSE.</p>
<p>Which is more prestige in the US? LSE or Emory university? And which one is easier to get in employment in general?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>LSE probably. It’s hard to overstate the prestige of the LSE in the USA.</p>
<p>For example: in the West Wing, ‘genius’ president Bartlett is supposed to have got his doctorate at the LSE.</p>
<p>Haha, thanks, although I don’t watch the West Wing. I think I was recommended by people in general that LSE is more prestigious than Emory, but just isn’t as “safe” (in the US). As LSE in an UK uni and Emory is in the US.</p>
<p>I must admit that I was a bit surprised by the high regard that Americans hold the LSE in. They seem to think it goes:</p>
<ol>
<li>Oxford, Cambridge</li>
<li>LSE</li>
<li>St Andrews
(gap)</li>
<li>…</li>
</ol>
<p>Whereas in the UK I’d say more like…</p>
<ol>
<li>Oxford and Cambridge
(gap)</li>
<li>SOAS</li>
<li>Imperial and Edinburgh etc</li>
<li>LSE
5…</li>
</ol>
<p>Ahh… I see. Well thats more or less the impression I got. Except SOAS is nowhere near the likes of imperial and LSE.</p>
<p>What would LSE equate to in America? Columbia? Chicago? NU? NYU?</p>
<p>SOAS is <em>huge</em> in the UK if you are interested in those fields.</p>
<p>From an American perspective, LSE might be equivalent to Princeton. The sort of place that makes people go ‘oh, wow’.</p>
<p>Whereas when you tell people about Chicago, etc they say “oh, that’s a good school”</p>
<p>And if you tell them about Imperial they’ll say “never heard of it”</p>
<p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Is this your general idea of rankings or are you talking about a particular subject, regardless you’re completely wrong.</p>
<p>I’m talking about my impression of the general levels of prestige of those universities in the UK.</p>
<p>Maybe I should take out SOAS because it’s a bit too specialised and shouldn’t be in a general rank.</p>
<p>But do you think I’m wrong that Ox/Cam are way more prestigious than any other UK unis? They get a ‘wow’ response in a way no other places do.</p>
<p>Then in the second tier … Imperial, Edinburgh?
Third tier … UCL, KCL, LSE, Manchester, Bristol
And so on…</p>
<p>How am I completely wrong?</p>
<p>I feel it’s quite impossible to give a credible general ranking according to prestige because so much depends on individual departments. No i dont think you’re wrong to say Oxbridge has a bigger wow factor, but many departments in other universities are just as good, if not better (especially at UCL, LSE and Imperial).</p>
<p>My very general idea however;</p>
<p>Oxbridge
LSE/Imperial/UCL
Durham/St Andrews/Warwick
Edinburgh/various red-bricks/KCL</p>
<p>Granted, but people (especially in the US, where major is less important) don’t care so much about individual departments.</p>
<p>I think you aren’t giving Edinburgh enough credit – lots of people in Scotland go there over Oxbridge.</p>
<p>Do they? Well i think that is more due to Scottish students paying no university fees if they study in Scotland. Edinburgh has nowhere near the same prestigious rep in the UK as it appears to have in the US, its seen as pretty darn good but not the best by any means.</p>
<p>I think you’re wrong about that – bright Scots have been going to Edinburgh for centuries. Many of them don’t even apply to Oxbridge. Man, look at Gordon Brown. In Scotland and the N of England, Edinburgh is way more prestigious than somewhere like Imperial.</p>
<p>Well clearly we’re going have to agree to disagree. Your Gordon Brown analogy did make me chuckle though, he is quite possibly the most hated man in the country right now.</p>
<p>No, I don’t agree to disagree. I think you are wrong – something tells me you have no idea whatsoever what Scottish people think, for example.</p>
<p>And I don’t think you know what ‘analogy’ means.</p>
<p>Well i am not wrong, and you certainly haven’t offered any proof to the contrary. Tell me, what makes you think i dont know what Scottish people think and you do?</p>
<p>Your comment about my not knowing the meaning of analogy sounds a little desperate, what do you think it means?</p>
<p>Well for a start, you seemed to think that the only reason a Scot would go to Edinburgh over Oxbridge was the fees. That is just horribly ignorant.</p>
<p>An analogy is where you say one thing is like another thing.</p>
<p>My pointing to Gordon Brown was an example. </p>
<p>An analogy would be like saying that Imperial is to Oxford like Man City is to Man Utd – preferred by some locals, but globally United is the only team worth mentioning.</p>
<p>I did not say a Scot would only choose Edinburgh over Oxbridge because of the difference in fees, i said that is a probable likelihood in response to your assertion that “lots of people in Scotland go there over Oxbridge”, which i gather you have no proof for either?</p>
<p>An analogy is a comparison of certain similarities between things which are otherwise unalike. You made the comparison that Gordon Brown attended Edinburgh and that because of this it is a prestigious university. That to me is an analogy; and if you happen to disagree, well thats your business but its neither here not there.</p>