<p>I'm curious as to what the perceived reputations of schools in the UK are, namely schools such as University College London, London School of Economics, King's College London, University of Nottingham and Durham University. Although I'm not expecting too many people to be familiar with Nottingham or Durham. My question is this though, in terms of academic reputation what would you compare them with in terms of US equivalencies? For example, Oxford and Cambridge are comparable for HYPSM. What are UCL, KCL, LSE Nottingham and Durham comparable in terms of academic and reputation alone?</p>
<p>I can think of a few people on this forum who’d dismiss UK universities entirely and say none were comparable to America’s elite. Personally I feel they’re pretty much incomparable, the culture and approaches towards education in the US and UK are just too different.</p>
<p>Speaking very generally I would say the UK has three tiers of elite; Oxbridge at the top, then the London colleges, then places like Edinburgh, St Andrews and Durham. That said however, a lot depends on your specific area of study; for example one might choose to study Russian at UCL over Oxford or geology at Edinburgh over Imperial.</p>
<p>Oxbridge is often compared to HYPSM. However, where would the other tiers fall? I.e. the london colleges and Durham, St. Andrews etc.? Is King’s part of the “london colleges” or are is “london colleges” only inclusive of UCL, Imperial and LSE?</p>
<p>I’m wondering this too as I am applying to some london universities, maybe Durham, and St. Andrews and Edinburgh. Most of these universities are quite highly ranked according to various world university rankings but I’m not sure what that means to employers here in America. In the UK of course, these schools are all fairly well known and respected.</p>
<p>I guess it would be like if someone went to an American university and went on to find work in the UK; they may not know about that particular university…</p>
<p>I think it depends a lot on what subjects you’re applying for. In Hong Kong, London universities are very highly regarded. Personally my knowledge of UK universities is limited to Law, for which Nottingham is pretty highly ranked (I think within the top 10) but still behind the London unis. King’s is, I’m pretty sure, part of the “london colleges” which are just behind Oxbridge (there is a reason why places like Bristol and King’s are said to be filled with Oxbridge rejects), but again it would depend on the subject. It’s very hard to tell you where tiers would fall because everyone has their own perceptions of how good a university is, based on all sorts of reasons that may or may not be valid. All I can say is that you probably won’t go wrong with UCL, KCL, LSE and Imperial because those are all very highly ranked in most subjects.</p>
<p>I guess it also depends on where you end up working/want to work…</p>
<p>Fun cultural fact, the city of Nottingham has or had the highest gun crime, and was appropriately titled “Shottingham”.</p>
<p>I don’t know about US equivalents, but they’re all excellent universities, although I would place Durham slightly above Nottingham.</p>
<p>(By the way, they are pronounced Durrum and Nottingum)</p>
<p>Yeah, I got the pronunciation down. Durham was easy as Duke University is in Durham, North Carolina.</p>
<p>Not sure why Nottingham is in this list, it’s not really in the same league as the others you mention, especially vs UCL LSE Oxbridge etc. Also a lot of people are mentioning Edinburgh and St Andrews, two other overrated uni’s in my view (St Andrews gets notoriety because the Prince went there, and Edinburgh likes to think they are better than they actually are). As for Nottingham and gun crime as mentioned above, it is not generally considered a rough area at all compared to many in the UK so wouldn’t worry about that at all. As others have said it is hard to compare vs the US, however for certain courses UK unis are up there with the best (LSE - Economics, Imperial - Sciences/Engineering). And clearly Oxbridge are among the top two unis in the world for most courses are pure quality of education (the only UK unis where everyone is given private tutoring).</p>
<p>“Is King’s part of the “london colleges” or are is “london colleges” only inclusive of UCL, Imperial and LSE?”</p>
<p>Yes. The “University of London” is the biggest in the UK and encompasses almost every London University (LSE, UCL, Kings, Imperial, East London, Queen Mary and others).</p>
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<p>Yes, when I say London colleges I mean the LSE, UCL, Imperial, SOAS and King’s.</p>
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<p>No, the University of East London is not part of the University of London and Imperial chose to leave the UoL a few years ago.</p>
<p>For future reference the University of London is a federal university made up of 31 affiliate universities and colleges; Birkbeck, the Central School of Speech and Drama, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Goldsmiths College, Heythrop College, the Institute of Education, UCL, KCL, LSE, QMUL, RHUL, SOAS, ULIP, the Royal Academy of Music, St Georges Med school and a few others.</p>
<p>Thankyou Wikipedia.org</p>
<p>I didn’t need to use Wikipedia, what I said is common knowledge to anyone who knows anything about the University of London. Maybe you should spend a little time checking your facts in future.</p>
<p>Or to anyone who googles things to point out tiny (any more or less irrelevant) errors is people’s posts. But thanks anyway.</p>
<p>If I believed your post contained errors there would be no reason for me to google anything, or are you suggesting I research what everyone ever says on this forum hoping they’ve made a mistake? I corrected you precisely because it was not a tiny or irrelevant mistake, you were giving someone false information which might have impacted on where they choose to study. I’m not going to get dragged any farther into this petty argument, accept that you needed correcting with good grace and move on.</p>
<p>Neither the fact that ELU is not part of UoL, nor that Imperial left in '07 have any impact on anything previously discussed. </p>
<p>The question asked was; “Is Kings part of the UoL”… The answer I gave was Yes.</p>
<p>this thread is gone off the mark…let’s return to the question at hand.</p>
<p>the experience in the UK and US as an undergraduate is profoundly different, especially at Oxbridge–many Americans find time management to be difficult as there are many few mandatory things one must do during a term–other than tutor’s hours. In most subjects lectures are not required–although one would be a fool not to attend them. The terms are much shorter with markedly longer holidays --yet, the holidays are viewed for anyone who aspires to a first, as time to do the reading in a locale away from Oxbridge. If one has merely played, then the term tutorials can be quite brutal as it will be merely expected that you will know things from that extra-term reading. There are also far fewer formal ways of knowing where one stands–although if your tutor shines you up continually he or she either fancies you or you are quite clever and conversely if you come out of tutorials weeping, that does not portend well for your prospects. Often one merely has a set of papers at the end of the year (and depending upon the subject maybe not even every year) and the quality of your degree depends almost entirely union one’s performance in the papers at the end of one’s course of study (usually 3 years-- some subjects such as Classics at Oxford is a 4 year course and Trinity’s maths offers a 4th year to selected students who have done quite well at the end of the third year). Consequently you might see some students who seem to spend all of their time at the JCR until the last term before exams when they switch on their working–and then come out with firsts or high seconds whereas others will slave away perpetually–</p>
<p>Cheers.</p>
<p>Oh, yes, one last thing about the internal examinations at the end of the year-- many colleges, Trinity, again being one, assign housing choices by the rank in the last year’s examinations-- highest grade, first choice and so on down the line. As some accommodations are sumptuous and some are not much better than HM’s jails doing well has a tangible effect upon one’s quality of life…</p>
<p>Nottingham and KCL are both a notch below LSE, UCL and Durham, with Durham a notch below the top two.</p>
<p>LSE UCL</p>
<p>Durham</p>
<p>King’s Nottingham.</p>
<p>There are major differences between British and American universities. British universities are highly specialized. Oxbridge is in a class of its own, with its tutorial system. But the big issue really is what do you want to do afterwards? A UK university won’t be able to help you with the job search in the USA, and vice versa. And note that the British Government has changed its immigration rules and it is now exceptionally hard to get permission to remain post-university unless you are an EU citizen. Contact your local British Council or British Consulate for advice.</p>
<p>In general, if you have to ask “whether” to go to a UK university, I’d say you shouldn’t.</p>