believe me, internship is very different from actually getting a job....

having said that, the piece of paper gets you past the front door.....subsequently, it depends mostly of your performance....

the big difference between the pecking order of unis is....which door it opens for you......and there no doubt that a good pedigree piece of paper opens more and better doors........

like all things, there are exceptions, but exceptions cannot be extrapolated to the general.....

Yes, ultimately what you achieve is what matters - if you graduate from UCL but cannot find a job/something to do/make a living, and someone from City can, then you've really blown it. So what you gain from (and are able to demonstrate) societies/sports/academics matters (not simply joining them and excelling in them).

But the point is, university prestige matters enough for it to not be discounted that quickly. With the current economic climate and job markets, everything is very competitive. A great university still draws attention, and offers more opporunity. People should aim higher, with the knowledge that at the better firms, Oxbridge, UCL, LSE, Imperial, Warwick (and in America the likes of UPenn, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Cornell, Chicago, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, NYU, University of California; in Australia ANU, Melbourne, UNSW, Sydney, Queensland, Monash; in Canada McGill) etc go into one pile, while those from Oxford Brookes, Nottingham Trent, East Anglia, Aberyswyth, Leicester etc get sorted into another. At the very least, holding all other factors constant, those candidates from better (more well known) schools have the advantage.

Like limeuu said an internship is not actual work, even if it is at a large firm. The responsibilities and expectations are different.

My cousin who has 3A*1Ain 4 hard subjects were turned down by LSE and Cambridge for Economics. She cried for weeks.

Economics is very, very competitive in the UK. Especially in Cambridge and LSE, where both prefer Further Mathematics (though it's not compulsory for entrance requirement). You have to demonstrate a certain extent of mathematical ability in both your grades and personal statement.... and of course a good understanding of the economical world

Tough... Economics has/had around 200 spots at LSE... what were these hard subjects (most A Level subjects are hard)?

LSE does prefer A Level Further Mathematics for its BSc Economics but admits a considerable number of students without Further Mathematics (which is significantly more important for Maths and/with Econ and Actuarial Science), and plenty without A Level Economics... 200 spots is a lot, but it's like the top undergrad subject over there... in general LSE is very competitive for Economics, Mathematics and/with Economics (more competitive than straight Economics, but same requirements as Econ and Law), Law (popular subject, decent requirements), Actuarial Science (moderate amount of spots despite low requirements, so highly selective), and to an extent Accounting and Finance (because it has many applicants). With the exception of Law and Accounting and Finance, these subjects only require A* in Mathematics.

What all this implies is straight A* grades (even in strong subjects) don't really impress them... a good subject combination and a strong profile does... LSE rarely gives out offers higher than the standard minimum requirement, and also does not "over-offer" like Warwick... so it is extra selective when giving out offers (one of the slowest to make decisions on applications).

Economics is also rather competitive at Warwick (and perhaps UCL). It is odd that Oxford has PPE and EM but no straight Econ - although candidates can only choose one of the two top schools anyway.

I'm going to London to do my masters in a fortnight. I know only about 5 people there currently, so if anyone would like to be my friend, please PM me!

Hi guys,
I'm going to Bristol to complete my bachelor degree final year in mid-September. So I would like to ask a few questions:
For the UK border landing card, what should I fill in for the length of stay in UK? 9 months? 1 year? My visa is from September to August next year.
Another question is, have anyone of you got held by customs before? for things like luggage check, and even for checking the contents in your laptop? Just to know what I should be expecting when I'm going through the customs.

Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by chungdavi: Sep 5 2011, 11:28 AM

Hi. I've applied for my VISA in August. However whenever i went to the VFS website for the online tracking. It always gives me "Invalid search" it would be impossible for me to type wrongly because i have tried countless times!!! Im from Sarawak and i have courierd my receipt to my friend who is in KL. She also had the same "invalid search" when she key'd in my ref no.

Is there anybody out there who have the same probblem as i have?? How did you guys solve them ? I always couldn't get through the VFS phone line. it's busy as hell. but im trying. Im flying on the 16th Sept. And i worry a lot ><

1) Just put one year. Not really important.

2) I had never been held by the custom before. (3 years degree in UK before) Just don't look suspicious or anything lol

3) They may ask you about purpose of visit. Just say you are going to study xx at xx uni. They are more concerned about tourists who might jump plane..

I see...thanks a lot for the reply!

Hi,I don't know whether this is off-topic or not because I'm new here. Can I ask how to apply to UK University?Thanks

UCAS. GOOGLE IT.

Thanks man

Apologies for raising an old discussion, haven't been on here much. Since LightningFist has pulled in quite a few uni names, it further shows the rankings are quite useless. Say we take the top 50 uni's now and each has a graduating class of 200 in a particular field. So every single year, we get 10000 "top" people from "top" universities applying for that dream job. Don't think uni ranks will help that much anymore.

Personally I would stay away from any employer that actually takes these rankings seriously. Like limeuu said, "there are exceptions, but exceptions cannot be extrapolated to the general" . Even with good uni's, people can still fail after graduating from Cambridge. So knowing that, are employers really going to overlook people just because they come from some other university ?

Just my 2cents

1) I usually fill 8 months since I go back for the summer.
2) Stopped by customs because I packed myself a nice box of food. Nothing quarantined, but it's a hassle them checking every item and then repacking it. Never got stopped when using a normal bag

one more tip is to NOT buy winter jackets in Malaysia. Get them in the UK, since they're higher quality and about the same price as M'sia.

Rankings have been debated a lot. Some schools are 50 and higher in one ranking but out of the top 200 in another, others are consistent in both... and they fluctuate a lot, and they are based on biased indicators (some favour English-language publications, sample sizes are small, some factors are based on opinion etc). I find it weird that in some subject-specific rankings, the second best on that list doesn't even have a strong focus in that subject (e.g. QS puts Oxford at #2 for Accounting and Finance, but Said Business School isn't even one of the top Business Schools worldwide - again this is based on various Business School rankings of course).

However prestige holds... rankings are only a small part of this... there are many in the top 50 that are only regionally prestigious (and of course several outside of the top 50 which are highly sought after), and mean little to employers outside of their geographic circles... whereas some, such as the top Ivies, MIT, and Oxbridge (to name a few) are generally very well known worldwide.

A class of 200 each year in a particular field is very big... even LSE only had 177 students for its 2010 BSc Economics intake (a reduction from around 200 the year before), and that is its biggest class.

Wharton has an average of 2400 undergraduate students, and of these 530 are entering freshman. However there are 20 different concentrations in business (from Actuarial Science to Marketing to Health Care Management and Policy) and and over 60 minors from UPenn, so they hardly represent any particular field.

Your numbers aren't all unreasonable, but the top 50 universities is too many, and there's more of that dream job even if the supply of labour is in excess.

*Something interesting to note from Cambridge: "Many Economics graduates go into areas such as Finance and Management Consultancy, where the skills they have learned during their degree course are extremely useful (and the salaries high)."

anyone going to Sunderland this coming September?

Leeds Met anyone this September?

& I would like to know is it okay to bring Milo, Maggie, some biscuits there? Just a decent amount.

Should be okay to bring non meat food products. But to be honest, there are better biscuits here. Instant noodles are widely available from Tesco, Aldi and Lidl at about 20 - 30p a pack. Milo is available from Asian cash and carry outlets. Leeds has a big asian and oriental population so I see no problems there as far as food and spices are concerned.

BTW, I remember my first trip to UK. I manage to bring in belacan, 'loong yuk' and even Kuantan keropok! Just take the green lane and act nonchalant! lol.

Leeds is the city that offer free bus throughout its city centre. If I'm not mistaken, the free bus will go pass Leeds Met Uni too. This will save you a lot of money and effort especially if u want to bulk buy a lot of the oriental products from the Chinese supermarket in Leeds City centre. I've been to Leeds a lot of time now

Yeah, but I'll just bring for now. Definitely will buy the maggie there in the future. Since there's not much difference between the prices. But as for Milo, I heard it's quite pricey isn't it? The last I checked on the website it costs about 10+pounds for 400g?

Haha, yeah. That's what I've heard too. Thanks for the heads up! Will look into those Chinese supermarket.

Anything else that I should look into? I worry too much. >_<