<p>I'm interested in your opinions. Which UK universities, from your knowledge, would you say are comparable to Ivy League universities in the US? </p>
<p>The Top Tier of UK universities are often referred to the Russell Group: Russell</a> Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>It depends on what angle you look at it from. </p>
<p>The Russell Group is broadly comparable to the Ivy League in terms of prestige</p>
<p>The criteria for admission to the RG is that they are a ‘large research intensive university’. That is more comparable to the Association of American Universities. </p>
<p>There’s no sporting equivalent of the Ivy League - all UK universities play in the BUCS League, although there are also a few varsity matches (usually between local rival universities), and a few minor inter-university multi-sport competitions like the Christie Cup.</p>
<p>Probably Cambridge as it is ranked 2nd (after Harvard) in the worldwide higher education rankings. But all of the Universities in the Russell Group can be seen as the UK Ivies, prestige isn’t something that we care about over here though, what matters is that you get a degree.</p>
<p>Prepare for the American kids who’ve never even been outside the U.S. (let alone lived or been educated abroad) and have internalized domestic presuppositions to come on and say that (by definition) nothing outside the U.S. compares to the Ivy League. This truism seems to have originated directly from the Oracle at Delphi for most Americans. (I’m an American by the way.)</p>
<p>@Ohitskayleigh - “prestige isn’t something we care about over here”…are you kidding? Every year as the deadline for Oxford and Cambridge applications loom all you read about in the UK press is how “elitist” they are and how underrepresented certain segments of society are at Oxbridge. Then when the winter ball season hits (or spring) you get stories about the “Oxbridge elite” doing dumb drunken things - obviously an attempt to make everyone feel better that they didn’t get in. My point is that discussion of educational prestige and elitism (not to mention class) is a national pastime in Britain.</p>
<p>“prestige isn’t something we care about…”. That must be a joke, or something they put in the prospectus at Teesside or Bedfordshire unis in order to con 17 year olds into applying there. Try applying for a graduate job in the UK (or getting elected to parliament). Then you will find out how much prestige matters in the real world. HUGELY! You would have to be extremely naive not to notice this.</p>
<p>I would personally say Cambridge…</p>
<p>Only cambridge?</p>
<p>Oxbridge (Oxford and Cambridge) -
The rest of the Russell Group are easier to get into than the Ivy League.</p>
<p>In my (American) opinion, obviously Cambridge and Oxford, and LSE</p>
<p>but also UCL, St Andrews, and Edinburgh.</p>
<p>“The rest of the Russell Group are easier to get into than the Ivy League.”</p>
<p>Why do you think so? Are you comparing acceptance rates?</p>
<p>Remember, there are minimum requirements to apply for a course at any UK university. This isn’t the same for US universities.</p>
<p>I agree with Martin. The two systems are different enough to make simple comparisons very difficult.</p>
<p>You have to remember that the Ivy League has a large spread of prestige in its colleges from Harvard through to Brown etc. Harvard, Yale and Princeton, in terms of prestige, are only really comparable to Oxford and Cambridge. For the rest of them, a British comparison lies also in the degree you get, because in England you have to apply to a specific degree, you don’t declare a major like in the States, so for example getting a medicine degree from Kings could be comparable to a Cornell, brown or Dartmouth degree. Generally, other British schools compatible to the lower ivies include LSE, Warwick, St Andrews, Kings, UCL, Imperial etc.</p>
<p>ucl & lse in addition to oxbridge & imperial</p>