Is Student Room useful/accurate for international applicants seeking information on UK colleges? Of course, there are a few successful US applicants lurking around, but what would be the best way to obtain information other than messaging those individuals? Can any applicants share their experience?
Also, since league tables are quite questionable, who do you think has the best PPE programs. list your top 5 in order, please.
My personal opinion:
Oxford
LSE
Warwick
Durham/UCL/KCL
Student Room is very useful for finding fellow travelers and getting specific info about programs, places, norms, etc. Obviously, UK students will not be well versed in the particularities of the US, or how things happen for international students, but there are occasional threads (such American applicants to Oxford) which are more likely to have other international students on them.
As for rankings, I wouldn’t disagree with @PurpleTitan in principle or in practice, but will also remind you that “best” is a nearly useless qualifier: “best” in what sense: reputation? student experience? content? job placement?
irl, it’s Oxford and then everybody else. The programs vary a fair bit and Oxford may not be the best program for you, unless what you are looking for is prestige- in which case Oxford is the ne plus ultra.
I second PurpleTitan as a UK studen, but any Russell Group or equivilant would be good (although going to Oxford does add something of a ‘sparkle’)
My D did not apply to Oxbridge, so I didn’t really research those two unis. But out of curiosity, it seems Oxford is preferred over Cambridge in the U.K.- why is that?
@KaffeineKitty: I don’t think that’s true.
It depends on subject to a degree too.
In the case of PPE, Oxford is preferred because Cambridge doesn’t offer that.
In the hard sciences Cambridge is generally considered to be better, like physics and chemistry.
@VickiSoCal, the Cambridge for science, Oxford for humanities stereotype hasn’t been true for a good while- it varies by subject. For example, Oxford is currently ahead of Cambridge for biochem, Cambridge ahead of Oxford for biological sciences, and it depends on which rankings you read as to who is ahead in physics and maths. I’m not sold that most of the differences are meaningful- in either direction- as they are often within 2 places of each other.
But PPE is a specifically Oxford thing (they invented it) and Cambridge doesn’t offer it. And one of the main reasons that it has the rep it does is the number of famous people who have done it- how many courses have a [url=<a href=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_Oxford_people_with_PPE_degrees%5DWikipedia%5B/url”>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_Oxford_people_with_PPE_degrees]Wikipedia[/url] page listing people who have taken it?!
The Student Room is far more useful for those who want to apply to a British Uni as it is essentially for and by Brits. There are many knowlegeable people in cc, of course, but cc is by and for Americans and those who want to study in the US. Also, the Student Room does not have the acerbic competitiveness that cc can have at its worst.
As @collegemom3717 mentions, Oxford is the place for PPE. Anything else is an imitation or doesn’t offer it.
Oxf and Cam are similar in method (the tutorial), but very different in character and it really depends on the course and profs as to which is better. My daughter wanted to go to Oxford from the age of 12, but took a visceral dislike to it on a student day, we then went to Cam and she loved it immediately. Many have the opposite reaction.
^ Ouch! Anyway, among the pale imitations, LSE and Warwick would stand out among Brits. Agree that Oxford is in its own league in that course.
Thanks @PurpleTitan @collegemom3717 @alcibiade @greenstudent
@collegemom3717 Good point, by “best” i was referring to job placement and academic content.
However, now that i think about, do you have any thoughts on which programs are most respectable in the eyes of their US peer schools (in case I end up back in the states for graduate school).
Also, is LSE’s three year PE program comparable to three year PPE programs at other schools, or are people exclusively referencing their four year PPE program
What are your goals and where can you work?
Few Americans on the street, honestly, would know of any UK unis beside Oxbridge and probably LSE (possibly some of the Ancient Scottish Unis and Imperial if they are in STEM).
In academia and the global prestige industries (like consulting), it would be more like how the British view it, so what I and others have said above.
PPE is 3 years in the UK (as are most humanities) and 4 years in Scotland.
@collegemom3717: PPE at LSE is 4 years.
…ooops! thanks for the correction @PurpleTitan
NP, @collegemom3717. It’s a fairly new program.
Scotland is in the UK. (For now.)
@chzbrgr, you are right- & that’s a rookie mistake 
Usually I specify England- must have been up past my bedtime…
Cc sleep deprivation… It’s real 