<p>I am an international student from India and I will be attending Imperial College London for a UG course in Mechanical Engineering shortly. As far as I know, it is ranked really well among world universities (6-10) and is pretty much worshiped in the UK. I wanted to know, in terms of the American mindset, how is it considered in the US and how does it compare to the universities there?</p>
<p>Some people have said that they would only chose mit, stanford, caltech, berkeley, princeton, and oxbridge over it for engineering.. Others say it isnt heard of in the US.</p>
<p>If I were to attend the US for a second degree in a business related field, how would I be viewed by lets say a Harvard or Columbia?</p>
<p>as far as schools being known in the US, there are two categories:</p>
<p>1) the general public</p>
<p>2) scholars/recruiters.</p>
<p>ICL doesn’t fare well in the first category (which is mostly Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.) but it does in the second.</p>
<p>here’s where ICL is ranked relative to similar universities (+2/-2)</p>
<p>6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom score: 91.2
6 University of Oxford United Kingdom score: 91.2
8 University of California Berkeley United States score: 91.1
9 Imperial College London United Kingdom score: 90.6
10 Yale University United States score: 89.5
11 University of California Los Angeles United States score: 87.7</p>
<p>aah okay… i wanted a feedback mainly considering the general public. So what would it match in category one? Cornell and UCLA?</p>
<p>Imperial would be great if I wanted to start my career in the UK but i’m still unsure of that. The UK is small and job opportunities aren’t that great and the pay is a real downer.</p>
<p>If you really want to reach so low as to consider what the “general public” in the USA thinks about Imperial College London, here’s an idea of what they think:</p>
<p>“Imperial College? Never heard of it. Is that where the royal family goes to school?”</p>
<p>I hope that you realize that they “general public” will never be evaluating you for graduate school, an undergraduate transfer, or for job applications . . so, to be blunt, why does it matter what the general public thinks?</p>
<p>Imperial is excellent, but not on par with MIT, Cal, Caltech or Stanford. I would compare it to CMU, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Michigan and UIUC, school it lacks the resources that those universities possess.</p>
<p>this. The schools the general public most likely knows are: harvard, stanford, yale, princeton, MIT and oxford. the next batch are <em>maybes</em> but they also might be regional: duke, UCLA, berkeley, CMU, penn, USC, dartmouth, etc.</p>
<p>notice that i omitted Caltech, which is easily one of the best schools in the world (in the THE rankings, i knew that harvard was above caltech; what i didn’t know was by how MUCH: Harvard: 96.1; Caltech 96.0)</p>
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<p>also this. Just because the general public might be more knowledgeable about USC than Caltech doesn’t mean that one should go to USC over Caltech.</p>
<p>Well lots of UK/Initernational students are ignorant about good schools in the US. Their knowledge is usually gleaned from watching Gossip girls and TV shows/Movies or hearsay or which schools are located in big cities (NYU e.t.c). In general at least 10+ US schools would offer better job prospects than Imperial not including the HYPSM. And err Oxford? Do they even have specialized engineering prorgams there?</p>
<p>Yeah Imperial College is definitely not known in the US. Same case, for Americans dont know any shcool except it has a football/basket ball team or is within their region. Most Americans in the south or midwest (some who can buy both you and I ten times over) have never heard of schools like Princeton or Caltech trust me so how will they know about err Imperial. </p>
<p>Even amongst science and engineering faculty Imperial might not be that well-known. Except maybe by some engineering faculty but hard sciences probably not that well known either. LSE on the otherhand is well-loved by all the overwhelmingly math-hating Americans.</p>
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<p>You mean an MBA? You would be evaluated for an MBA based on your previous work experience and leadership experience. Your main concern now should be trying to get some leadership experience and getting a good job after you finish as well as trying to convince daddy to loan you the $120,000 required for a business school.</p>
<p>If you are really gung ho, also try and get a 65-69, and if you can as high as a 75+ and a first class to be safe. You should be able to get into any grad school you want.</p>
<p>FYI, the PSW (post-study work visa) has been scrapped for international students in the UK. You will need to get a job asap after you graduate. Keep this in mind. Are you an EU citizen? Because if not then even attending Imperial college in the future might not be sufficient to bypass that requirement. You should also start considering Finance/consulting, they tend to be nicer to international students work visa.</p>
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<p>My POV too. Would rank Imp on the same scale as a 2nd/3rd tier engineering school. Job prospects in engineering would be roughly similar.</p>
<p>Due to its lack of campus and limited resources, I would not say that RML’s comment was too extreme. I would not go as far as saying the top 50 US universities, but I can easily think of 15 US Engineering programs I would choose over Imperial, not because they are better at Engineering, but because they provide a far better overall undergraduate experience while still offering an equally good Engineering education.</p>
<p>“Most Americans in the south or midwest (some who can buy both you and I ten times over) have never heard of schools like Princeton or Caltech trust me so how will they know about err Imperial.”</p>
<p>Thanks for your ringing endorsement about the intelligence of the people in the so called flyover country between coasts. I can assure you that most middlewestern and southern Americans, particularly those with wealth, are quite aware of a school like Princeton and have “heard” of it. That really was a pompous statement!</p>
<p>No need to get emotional. I know its kind of a generalization, and you can find exceptions to the rule, but the “Ivy” craze or prestige obssession is only limited to a small number of people and they tend to congregate in the NE and West Coast. It has nothing to do with intelligence. Very few people can afford the Ivies, or have any interest in attending such schools and are quite happy with their state schools regardless of the rank/reputation. Remember less than 1% of the US Population would ever have the opportunity to attend these kind of school. </p>
<p>I chose the south and midwest for the simple reason that my examples Pton and Caltech (which are in the NE and West Coast) are located in a different region. Not because they are flyover states or BumbleF, USA.</p>
<p>So people outside their regions might be less familiar with these schools. The same case can be said in the NE where some students are oblivious about Rice, Emory, UChicago e.t.c. Its just that University reputations in the US tend to be very regional or to borrow a word from a poster “Provincial” except for Harvard and Yale.</p>
<p>Been to the south and midwest at a point and most people tend to be less familiar with “ivies” or whatever that schools people are kind of obssessed with in the Northeast. They are not gonna do as many “oohs” or “aahs” over Ivies like is common in the NE. They are just as happy with University of Tennessee and would lead fulfilling lives having attended such. Also outside the realm of CC/student boards most people are in general not really into arguing about reputation/ranking or whateva.</p>
<p>I still dont understand the link between knowing the reputation or being aware of a school and intelligence. Its just that the large majority of people have better things to do.</p>
<p>I agree with Sefago to a degree. Among the masses, most universities are regional. Caltech, which he used as an example, certainly is. Not many people around the US would not know about it. Several Ivies, such as Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn are regional too. Other elites such as Chicago, Emory, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt and WSUTL also have regional reputations. </p>
<p>However, he was wrong to use Princeton as an example. Princeton (along with Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Yale) is a household name among the majority of Americans who belong to the middle classes and above. Those are the only 5 universities in the US that are truly national, although Berkeley also has a pretty strong rep.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins may have a more national reputation thanks to its very highly regarded Medical school. Duke, Michigan, Notre Dame, UNC and a few other excellent universities are known among the masses, but more for their sports than their academics.</p>
<p>“The same case can be said in the NE where some students are oblivious about Rice, Emory, UChicago e.t.c.”</p>
<p>So just SOME northeasterners are oblivious about midwestern and southern schools, but MOST midwesterners and southerners don’t know about Princeton. I stand by my earlier statement.</p>
<p>Hehe seems you are really spoiling for a fight, you are not getting any from me. I apologize if my statement can be misconstrued as a slight on Midwesterners. Intelligence, or the lack of, does not have a geographic bearing.</p>
<p>“However, he was wrong to use Princeton as an example. Princeton (along with Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Yale) is a household name among the majority of Americans who belong to the middle classes and above. Those are the only 5 universities in the US that are truly national, although Berkeley also has a pretty strong rep.”</p>
<p>@Alexandre
Sorry, I only see 4 schools, cuz you type Princeton twice. Whats the 5th one?</p>
<p>I guess you can’t really compare the two because they are very different in nature: Imperial concentrates on medicine, engineering, and natural/physical sciences; LSE is a law, humanities, and social sciences school. Nevertheless, in the grand scheme of things, I think Imperial is a better school than LSE, especially for undergraduates. </p>
<p>BTW Imperial may be seen in the US mostly as an engineering school, but it actually has top-rated physics, chemistry, biology, and math departments, in addition to a top-ranked medical school.</p>