UCL and Durham university: Have you heard of them?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I got into both, but I'm just asking...because my family (Singaporeans) have never heard of them. They instead have heard of 2nd tier US schools like Georgetown, NYU, BU etc. IDK but it seems stupid to me.</p>

<p>As much as I hate to say it, international rep is important to me especially when it comes to careers. So naturally I'm reluctant to attend a place that my family has never even heard of.</p>

<p>For UCL I got into ESPS(Politics, Economics and German) and for Durham its Combined Social Sciences (Politics, Economics, Business).</p>

<p>Can you please tell me what country you're from, and what the kind of reputation from those universities are like? I know in the UK they are well regarded, but I'm looking for other opinions like that of the US, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, India etc etc.</p>

2

<p>UCL? Are you kidding me? It’s more prestigious than BU and is about as popular as NYU in Singapore.</p>

3

<p>Georgetown and NYU are not second tier. UCL is a great school too. You cannot go wrong with any of those three schools.</p>

4

<p>American here…among people in the know, UCL and Durham have a reputation for being the best/most prestigious universities in the UK after Oxford and Cambridge. You could hardly go wrong with either. </p>

<p>Between Durham and UCL, a major difference is UCL’s urban location and Durham’s more quiet location. The two are in proximity to different areas - Scotland for Durham and Europe for London. The apartment/hall living at UCL versus the residential college/house system at Durham is also a fairly distinct difference.</p>

5

<p>UCL is a good school. Georgetown and NYU are not considered second tier.</p>

<p>You may be going by some odd international ranking system. In America we use US News World Report to rank our universities. Below is a link to our ranking system for national universities.</p>

<p>[National</a> University Rankings | Top National Universities | US News Best Colleges](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities)</p>

6

<p>American here. Among these schools, best bets for undergraduate education are Georgetown, UCL, and Durham, in my opinion. Among the schools you listed, UCL has by far the strongest international reputation, consistently ranking among the top universities in the world in the various world rankings:</p>

<p>THES World University Rankings: UCL #17, NYU #41, Boston University #54, Durham #80, Georgetown #174</p>

<p>QS World University Ranking: UCL #4, NYU #43, Boston University #64, Durham #92, Georgetown #183</p>

<p>AWRU Ranking of World Universities: UCL #21, NYU #27, Boston University #71, Durham #201-300, Georgetown # 301-400</p>

<p>But in rankings of British universities, Durham often comes out sightly ahead of UCL, with both appearing near the top of the rankings:</p>

<p>Guardian ranking of British universities: UCL #6, Durham #7 (after Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, St. Andrews, and Warwick)</p>

<p>The Sunday Times university league table: Durham #4, UCL #13</p>

<p>The Times university ranking: Durham #5, UCL #7</p>

<p>And in some of the fields you want to study, Durham might also come out slightly ahead of UCL. Here are the Guardian’s subject-specific rankings of British universities:</p>

<p>Politics: Durham #7, UCL #13
Economics: Durham #3, UCL #9</p>

<p>Obviously, there’s a disparity between the British university rankings and the world university rankings. That’s because they’re measuring different things. The world rankings are based largely on reputational surveys of global employers, research publications and citations, and percentages of international students and faculty. British university rankings are based largely on outcomes for students and student satisfaction surveys. All pretty murky stuff, some of it of questionable value, but I think it’s fair to say UCL has a stellar international reputation while Durham is somewhat less well-known outside the UK, but most observers would rank both among the top British universities after Oxbridge.</p>

<p>Georgetown fares poorly in the international rankings in part because it’s pretty strongly oriented toward undergraduate education and is not a research powerhouse. On the strength of its undergraduate programs, however, I would place it a distinct notch ahead of NYU and BU, and roughly on a par with UCL and Durham for one seeking an undergraduate degree.</p>

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<p>Mmm…I keep asking my American friends whether of not they have heard of UCL, and they either say no or correct me with “UCLA?”…And these are rather educated Americans.</p>

<p>Rankings aren’t of much help to be fair. QS puts UCL at 4th in the world, which clearly isn’t the common perception of the university amongst the people of the world.</p>

<p>Anybody else wanna chip in?</p>

8

<p>^^^ Try asking them if they’ve heard of the University of Lonson instead.</p>

9

<p>There seems to be a vague idea that a University of London exists (as it seems stupid to NOT have a university in such a major city), but still…nada!</p>

<p>I really really love the UCL course, and I love London…but I don’t want to attend a school where my options will be limited due to a bad university reputation. I’m either going into international law firms or investment banking such as Goldman, JP Morgan etc…so reputation matters a lot!</p>

<p>I’m mainly going to be settling in Singapore/HK in the years after graduation, so any Singaporeans or Cantonese want to chip in? How recognised/prestigious is UCL over there?</p>

10

<p>Am pretty familiar with UCL and Durham, but only because I looked into the UCAS application. I feel they are generally considered the next best UK schools after Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial and comparable to Warwick.</p>

<p>I lived in Singapore for a couple years and UCL was a pretty big name school, specifically because it was one of the top 3 unis in London.</p>

11

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<p>Maybe if you said “University College London” instead of “UCL” a few more people would recognize it. </p>

<p>This doesn’t surprise me, though. The only British universities any significant number of Americans could name are Oxford and Cambridge. LSE has a bit of a following, albeit a small one, and St. Andrews gets some minor attention because it’s William and Kate’s alma mater, and because it draws a few American students. Beyond that, most Americans are blissfully ignorant about British universities, or foreign universities in general, for that matter. As a nation, we tend to be quite parochial about these things.</p>

<p>Globally, though, I’d guess UCL probably has a stronger brand than any of the U.S. universities on your list, especially in Commonwealth nations (including Singapore, Malaysia, India, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea) and other formerly British-controlled nations and territories (Hong Kong, Burma/Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan). And especially in legal and banking circles, where there are still many British ties.</p>

12

<p>As an American, I learned about UCL and Durham (and Imperial) only after having searched for schools less selective than Oxford and Cambridge, in applying for fellowships to British universities.</p>

<p>If you care about national and international reputation, and your only choices are UCL and Durham, you will choose UCL.</p>

13

<p>UCL is awesome. Great rep here.
Durham, not as much, but still not bad.</p>

<p>I’m from South Asia.</p>

14

<p>I can think of three reasons UCL is nearly invisible to almost all Americans:

  1. The “University College” thing is redundant and confusing to us.
  2. While “The University of London” sounds impressive to Europeans, most universities in the US that are called “University of [CITY name]” are not anything to get excited about (U of Chicago is the main exception).
  3. Probably most Americans who look into the U of London get quickly confused by all of the various colleges and institutions that are part of it…a bunch of autonomous colleges scattered all over London, many with rather odd names, is tough for us to grasp quickly.</p>
15

<p>It seems to me that attending a school/program that best fits your educational requirements is far more important than academic reputation when the school in question is an excellent one like UCL. </p>

<p>I’d say when you meet an American who doesn’t know UCL, instead of being bummed out make them feel out-of-touch (which they are) with world class universities by acting surprised (“wait you’ve never heard of University College London?”) and politely inform them.</p>

<p>I can’t think of many employers who would put your resume in the bin just because you list a British university they hadn’t heard of. If anything, they’ll google it and be even more impressed.</p>

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<p>Well, Americans tend to not know much about international affairs in general, even among English-speaking nations. I’m sure a ton of people on this site have heard of both UCL and Durham as well as several other UK universities, but I doubt beyond Oxford and Cambridge you’d get much response from our public (I probably wouldn’t have heard of either outside the IB program). The same thing goes with political leaders or decisions. Outside BBC fans, virtually everyone focuses on US (sometimes Latin American-- depending on what affects the US) news or events simply because that’s how our media works. We only really get international news if we willingly break outside our overwhelmingly national comfort zone.</p>

17

<p>BUMP!</p>

<p>So…if I plan to work in America in the future, will big firms have heard of my university? I know the field I want (investment banking and consulting) relies on a select number of target schools…so…</p>

18

<p>First of all, UCL is a target uni for banking/finance in the UK. So, if landing a job in that field is your main concern, UCL can address that very well. That said, no university/school outside of the US can be considered target for top banking/finance jobs in WS, not even Oxford or Cambridge, because those banks do not go to UK to tap for such talents. Such talents can be scouted at local schools, e.g. HYPSM, Ivies, Berkeley, Northwestern, Michigan, Duke and the like. Thus it would be very difficult to get recruited coming out of UCL for WS jobs. What most UK grads do is to enroll in a top grad program in the US to give them a really good fighting chance in landing a job in WS. On HBS website, it says UCL sent 1 guy at Harvard Business School this year. I’m sure there are a few other UCL grads at other top business schools in the US.</p>

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<p>BUMP!</p>

<p>Thanks RML: But I’m not convinced of my employment prospects, seeing as I’m likely to immediately go to Singapore/Hong Kong after graduation. I am confident I’ll be able to land internships with firms in London, but how well is a UCL degree received in Singapore/HK? Is it considered “Prestigious”?</p>

<p>Any more takers?</p>

20

<p>

A survey of employers in 20 countries recently ranked UCL as the 16th most desirable university in the world. The survey is not without flaws, but it gives you some idea of UCL’s reputation.</p>

<p><a href=“Global Companies Rank Universities - NYTimes.com”>Global Companies Rank Universities - NYTimes.com;

<p>Virtually everyone in this thread has told you that UCL is highly respected among employers. Among particularly selective employers like banking firms, a few other British universities (e.g. Imperial and Warwick) will also be known. If you are still “not convinced,” then don’t matriculate. I don’t think you’ll get responses that differ from those you’ve already received.</p>