Reply to Consensus world view of TOP 5/6 UK University Rankings (Prestige/Research)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
To be clear, this doesn’t mean that universities outside this top group aren’t excellent. There are fantastic programs at Bath, Warwick, Bristol, St Andrews, etc. However, outside the UK, these six universities tend to be viewed by major employers and top universities as the most impressive and prestigious, with significantly stronger alumni networks:

1.	Oxford/Cambridge
	2.	Imperial
	3.	UCL
	4.	Edinburgh/King’s

[/quote]

Thanks for posting this perspective. I posted about this in a different thread earlier today, and wanted to ask here as well: How much weight should we give to UCAS entry tariffs as an indicator of a UK university's prestige?

Context:

[url]https://thetab.com/2024/09/10/these-are-the-hardest-uk-unis-to-get-into-right-now-based-on-how-many-ucas-points-you-need[/url]

The article states: "Oxbridge students need to deflate their egos and stop bragging about their Oxford and Cambridge being the hardest to get into. Oxford and Cambridge really aren’t the hardest unis to get into, based on UCAS points. Students at Oxford and Cambridge had an average of 203 and 208 UCAS points respectively. That’s below the University of St Andrews (212), the University of Glasgow (211), the University of Strathclyde (210) and Imperial College London (204)."

The author of this article went to Cambridge, and the publication itself was founded by three Cambridge students, so I don't imagine they have a pro St Andrews agenda. As for me, I have a degree from Oxford, but I have a kid with an offer in hand from the Faculty of Science at St Andrews, and am trying my best to help him with his decision. His other top choices are CU Bouilder's College of Engineering and Applied Science and UBC Vancouver's Faculty of Science.

As an American who went to high school in the US, I'm not terribly familiar with UCAS points, but would think it's at least a somewhat important metric?

Input welcome![/quote]

None of these variables should be looked at on its own. Tariff points are interesting if you are trying to assess the strength of the UK student population at these places. At the end of the day, 200 vs 212 is basically irrelevant. Anything above 200 means you will have a very good and smart class of UK students attending. Most of these courses with have AAA minimums to attend and about AAAAB Highers. This means your kid’s classmates will be the top of their respective “high schools”.

Also note in Scotland some schools like Edinburgh and St Andrews have a LOT less spots for Scottish students than Glasgow or Aberdeen as a % of the student body. Both are under 32% and that number is fixed. This means they only take the TOP Scottish students.

While an indication of strength of classmates, I would not rely on Tariff alone to rank anything. There is a lot more there that you need to assess a fit for your kid other than having smart kids around you. 
Look at courses and their curriculum and then look at satisfaction rates and retention rates. Look at graduate prospects. Sure look at rankings, but each ranking focuses on different things. Look at quality of the professors at the program your kid is applying to. Look at number of kids per class is sub honors and honors years. If coming back to the US, look at the US Alumni base. You can check for alumns and where they work by searching LinkedIn in the US markets you are interested in. After all of these, regardless of what ANYBODY says here on DCUM, you will start to get a pretty good picture of where each program and university stands.[/quote]

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