Rating top UK universities vs top US universities

<p>There is one Imperial graduate working in my lab now. He claimed he was one of the top students at Imperial, but his intelligence and academic ability are just junior level IMO. Another one, from Michigan State, can simply beat him, no doubt.</p>

<p>95% of my friends and I do not have good impression about UK UG system, because the bottom 3 students in my high school class went to either Imperial or Cambridge, and became top students very very soon. In China, I can surely say, they would not have a chance getting into any college. Lucky for them, they can still study in UK, just because they are from pretty wealthy family.</p>

<p>One of those 3 students was tutored by my sister when he was preparing for the A-level exams. Its funny, because, at that time, my sister was a very very regular student in grade 9.</p>

<p>Sefago, have you gone that low to resort to the famous strawman’s arguments?</p>

<p>Where did you see me state that Oxbridge is better than all Ivies or MIT? Did I not clearly state that the Cambridge and MIT are on par? Did I not state that LSE/Imperial and Berkeley are on par? And KCL and JHU are on par?</p>

<p>FYI, if you are not the typical average hilly billy ignorant, you would know that KCL does offer only about 2 UG coursed in business, so commercial/finance sectors are not its area. Its main area is Law and Healthcare. Warwick is a university just created in 1966, so it is just up and coming.</p>

<p>Did George Soros, that owns the world’s 5th biggest hedge fund, not attend LSE?</p>

<p>Did Alan Howard, that owns the world’s 4th biggest hedge fund, not an Imperial grad?</p>

<p>Is the CEO of Terra firma (15th biggest private equity firm) not a KCL grad?</p>

<p>Is the founder of Lenovo (4th largest Computer maker) not an Imperial product?</p>

<p>Are the founders of Bentley Motors (don’t you want to drive one) and Eidos (don’t you play computer games) not KCL grads?</p>

<p>Please stop these silly singular arguments.</p>

<p>I don’t expect the Sefago type of American to know Uppsala. It is a top Uni is Sweden and with a lot of their grads in all corners of high level jobs in UK. </p>

<p>It is not as good as LSE or Imperial but yet has exchange programme with Harvard and the former 2 might not have any.</p>

<p>It shows his exchange programme as grounds of comparison is just purely lame.</p>

<p>@ LutherVan,
please stop saying “you type of American”, thats just an insult.</p>

<p>could you name the best universities in Korean, Thailand, or Indonesia? could you tell us something about their education system, famous alumni, and unique courses offered without googling it? Or, do you know Xiaochuan Zhou? where did he graduate from? I think you should know him very well, since he managed a government fund, which worths 1000 billion dollars, in China., which is far more than the combination of the funds you mentioned. So, is it safe to say Beijing University of Chemical Technology, where he graduated from, is far better than the combination of Imperial, UCL and KCL?</p>

<p>People in China or other Asia countries do not expect you type of European to know us well, because such requirement is rude. Everyone on this planet is ignorant about any foreign country, not only American.</p>

<p>There are huge numbers of highly skilled foreign workers in the US, from South Asia, East Asia, and many other countries, so it is not true that only low-skill immigrants are allowed in the country. The U.S. is an incredibly diverse country, not just historically but in terms of new immigrants and workers as well.</p>

<p>“There are huge numbers of highly skilled foreign workers in the US, from South Asia, East Asia, and many other countries, so it is not true that only low-skill immigrants are allowed in the country. The U.S. is an incredibly diverse country, not just historically but in terms of new immigrants and workers as well.” </p>

<p>I agree but after 9/11 things changed a lot. Immigration is a bit tighter.</p>

<p>“I’m not holding that Tech is necessarily a better school than Imperial, but saying that someone from Imperial can waltz on in and be at the top of the class at GTech is an ignorant comment at best and a blatantly insulting one at worst.”</p>

<p>Thats what I think too. Of course Imperial is more prestigious than Georgia Tech in some parts of the world but its a no brainer- </p>

<p>Georgia Tech engineering students=Imperial (This is even a stretch- the Georgia Tech student exposed to research and Internships would mop the Imperial student)</p>

<p>However you cannot say the same thing for other programs at Georgia Tech and I never would make such a claim that the science students are Georgia Tech are as good as the ones at Imperial.</p>

<p>If you ask Luthervan to compare Georgia Tech engineering students (A notch under MIT, Stanford AND Caltech) to Brown he would immediately assume that Brown students are better because they are Ivy. He would also be arrogant enough to claim Warwick students (most who study soft courses like accounting and finance or business) or KCL (another school that has a lot of soft courses- it closed its chemistry department because of lack of funds and no quality students) are as good as Georgia Tech engineers.</p>

<p>Of course I know Uppsala University and Lund and Helsinki. They are the best three in Sweden. Your example falls short. Uppsala has a rich history- and Harvard would be associating with that. Its was the centre of the enlightenment years ago. </p>

<p>If a Harvard student wants to study in Sweden- he has to go to the best in Sweden. US schools are more open towards creating exchange programs because they believe studying abroad is an essential part of the college experience. LSE and Imperial might be better than Uppsala now, but Uppsala’s history is deep. Its like the Oxford of Sweden.</p>

<p>Seta, no, I do not know the good universities in Thailand or Indonesia but I know that of South Korea, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Russia, India, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Egpyt, China, Nigeria, Ghana, France, Germany, and so on and I respect the best of them. Most US HIGHLY EDUCATED people would not know half of these (mostly those outside Oxbridge and IIT/Ms) and would not care less and also have little regards if a CV of someone from top universities of these nation land on their desk. </p>

<p>That does not make them bad human beings, it is just a bad culture they are famous for. And the more you are made aware of your short-comings, the better you are able to identify and change.</p>

<p>“95% of my friends and I do not have good impression about UK UG system, because the bottom 3 students in my high school class went to either Imperial or Cambridge, and became top students very very soon.”</p>

<p>Thats why I initially started doubting british schools too. I have witnessed a lot of average kids get in and become high fliers at Imperial College especially. Usually these are international students and I suspect that admitting International students is not as stringent in the UK as the US reducing the quality of the student body. Imperial and UCL charge 18,000 pounds for internationals enough incentive to help the cash strapped british schools. Imperial is a good school and so is LSE. I have never said otherwise. But if you think they can compete with students from major research Universities then you have had no experience with the two systems.</p>

<p>JHU is not in the same class as KCL. KCL is an average University with average students like Warwick.</p>

<p>So you could not find any Warwick graduate who has achieved a lot? And automatically while it is up and coming you want to equate it with the Brown student body. Brown students have achieved more than Warwick students can dream off. Is that all you have for KCL and Warwick? Is that all you have for Imperial, the one of the best in the UK? They are supposed to be equivalent to or as good as Brown students. </p>

<p>Do you want to compare a school that has produced the Rockefellers? Founded Mckinsey? The founder of Forbes? CEOs of Bank of America and Citigroup? Founder of CNN and other media outlets. </p>

<p>[List</a> of Brown University people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Brown_University_people]List”>List of Brown University alumni - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Brown does not offer business courses either its a liberal art school- most of the people become CEOs while studying History/archictectural design/English. They are able to steer finance companies despite not studying Business courses. And the best excuse you have is that KCL does not offer Business courses? </p>

<p>Only two ivies offer business courses Cornell and Upenn.</p>

<p>I took a glance at the great Imperial’s alumni list- they have not produced much innovative products for years. When will they start swinging up? Times going mate.</p>

<p>Took a look at Warwick, and none of the students are even noteworthy. My oh My. While you are upcoming, University of Tokyo, NUS and HKU are also upcoming- by the time Warwick can even start producing any quality graduates they would be scuffled by the well funded asian Universities. </p>

<p>So these are the schools superior to Brown? You cannot make an impact on the current affairs on the world but by some warped logic you are better than a school whose students are seen and heard around the world?</p>

<p>Lets be sincere- the age of European education is over- its now the time of American education. I would not be surprised if a similar debate is being done about Asian Universities in the next couple of years.</p>

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<p>LMAO! Clearly my example didn’t fall short, given Helsinki is in Finland and not Sweden. And you say you’re not ignorant?</p>

<p>I dont agree with the US isolationist system and never would. However, I would be foolish to suggest its hasnt worked for them at least for some time now.</p>

<p>"LMAO! Clearly my example didn’t fall short, given Helsinki is in Finland and not Sweden. "</p>

<p>PS: I am not American and Luthervan is very well aware of this. Thats why I can very well comment on the quality of students in the UK and in the US. I have applied to both systems, and have friends who study in both systems from Cambridge all the way to University of Bradford. I would admit the students I have seen who got into Oxbridge and LSE were smart- and even sometimes Imperial and UCL, but immediately you start going down you become less impressed. I dont get that impression when I discuss with a Brown student or a Vanderbilt student for that matter.</p>

<p>I know Helsinki is in Finland- it was slip. I was trying to remember the third school in sweden thats really good and its stockholm school of economics. I admit I was lazy in my thinking. I know that there are three good schools in sweden- or schools which top swedish students aspire to attend.</p>

<p>However, its also unwarranted for you to expect me to know sweden when you prolly are ignorant about several parts of the world. As Seta pointed out its unbridled rudeness to expect people to know about every region of the world.</p>

<p>“Seta, no, I do not know the good universities in Thailand or Indonesia but I know that of South Korea, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Russia, India, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Egpyt, China, Nigeria, Ghana, France, Germany, and so on and I respect the best of them.”</p>

<p>Interesting US graduate programs are filled with people form these countries and less Americans are present. The admission officers must be ignorant about educational systems and still admit people form these countries right?</p>

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<p>You confused Helsinki with Stockholm? Lol of course you didn’t, you were just wrong. Apart from the fact they’re in two entirely different countries, the latter is not held in anywhere near the same regard as Uppsala and Lund.</p>

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<p>I may well be ignorant of many places, but i did not expect you to know anything about Sweden or its respective universities. You CLAIMED to and were subsequently proven wrong. Don’t accuse me of being rude.</p>

<p>“You confused Helsinki with Stockholm?”</p>

<p>^ Really? They are all scandinavian countries- I think it looks like a honest mistake to me. Maybe not to a swede or finnish person.</p>

<p>“I may well be ignorant of many places, but i did not expect you to know anything about Sweden or its respective universities. You CLAIMED to and were subsequently proven wrong. Don’t accuse me of being rude.”</p>

<p>is that your idea of proof? Placing a renowned Scandinavian university like Helsinki in the heat of an argument? Hilarious what goes for proof now days. </p>

<p>The large majority of educated people everywhere in the world are totally ignorant of other cultures. As I said its rude to and arrogant to expect people to know everything about a country they have never lived in. Moreover, london is an EU traffic- it gets a lot of Europeans and former members of their colonies- makes sense why they are more knowledgeable about other cultures. However, the british could be accused of being really ignorant about american culture and other non-europeans too. Like comparing Warwick to Brown. Because its in the UK.</p>

<p>i cannot judge the relative strength of swedish schools neither do I care about their relative strengths. I can pull some of them from the top of my head and that was my claim. Asking me to know about their reputations in their country is quite silly. If I see the resume of a swede- I would however first start from my relative knowledge of renowned schools and then begin to judge their strengths form course contents and their esteem in the country.</p>

<p>Interesting Dionysius is probably British/European and likely to be biased about opinions on college. I never by the way listen to Americans when they talk about british Universities because they too are biased. And also they consider LSE/St Andrews better than UCL and Imperial which is not the case. While ignoring good schools like Warwick/Bristol and Durham.</p>

<p>However- case in point, the best people who can judge this systems are those who have studied abroad in both systems (Not those who have friends in both systems) or from anecdotal references.</p>

<p>This has a well balanced conversation and from experience some people are partially correct:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/456091-us-top-unis-vs-uk-top-unis-3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/456091-us-top-unis-vs-uk-top-unis-3.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>i would point out that those arguing about depth of American education are ignorant. They look at mandatory classes forgetting that there go-getters who will be taking graduate level classes as Juniors in University.</p>

<p>Sefago</p>

<p>Here is KCL’s alumni</p>

<p>[List</a> of King’s College London alumni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_King’s_College_London_alumni]List”>List of alumni of King's College London - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Please remind me how many foreign heads of state Brown has produced. I can’t remember.</p>

<p>“PS: I am not American and Luthervan is very well aware of this.”</p>

<p>You are not American?</p>

<p>“Interesting US graduate programs are filled with people form these countries and less Americans are present. The admission officers must be ignorant about educational systems and still admit people form these countries right?”</p>

<p>Obviously the admissions officer would know better than the average American, dimstick. It is their job.</p>

<p>By the time you get to the top ten or so engineering schools, the engineers who come out of the programs are pretty much all the same, so I would actually say that GTech engineers are as good as their Stanford, MIT, and Caltech counterparts. The latter three may have more advantages due to the resources of the school, but the differences are negligible. Which is why I found it ridiculous to claim that Imperial is better than GTech but worse than Stanford, MIT and Caltech. (Did someone says this? I can’t remember.) You can’t have it both ways. Of course, if you’re talking about the English department at GTech, we would be having a very different discussion. :)</p>