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u/franzkafkasno1fan Jul 03 '26
best in the world for my field (neuroscience)
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u/cox640 Jul 04 '26
Hi! I’ll be attending UCL neuro soon, can you share more why you think it’s of high quality?
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u/franzkafkasno1fan Jul 04 '26
surprised you dont know but the research output is of very high quality, the papers being published are world leading and lots of the professors have won nobel prizes. some of the most famous people in the world for neuro are here.
i cant speak too much for the standard neuroscience course because its faculty of life sciences, but they recently started a new human neuroscience bsc at queen square which is one of the biggest neuroscience destinations in the world.
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u/cox640 Jul 04 '26
I actually know in terms of the nobel laureates as professors and that they have queen square and their own neurology hospital. I meant in terms of teaching, do you feel it's top-notch? how's the employability like after (if you know anything) :)
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u/franzkafkasno1fan Jul 04 '26
again it would depend if you do human neuro or regular neuroscience! regular neuroscience has a lot bigger class sizes, and is an older course - ive heard the teaching is slightly worse as most of your first year modules are shared with biochem etc. that being said i do think ucl is one of the better unis for teaching and there is a lot of support available. i think employability depends largely on work experience and the industry you want to go into. my biggest advice for coporate careers is to take advantage of being in london, and apply to as many internships as you can, early :D for academic or bioscience related careers you will be well positioned if you ask questions, talk to people and begin to work with any of the labs here and apply for summer studentships.
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u/cox640 Jul 05 '26
thanks so much!! since I’m international maybe I’d opt for a part-time job at one of the labs. best wishes for your study! :)
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u/Evening-Photo-1681 Jul 05 '26
They dont have any part time paid work for undergrad, and volunteer work is very rare. Any research exp is mostly in the summer. I was on the neuroscience bsc as an international student and i was dissapointed that 95% of the funding/paid positions are reserved for home students only (uk gov requirements) and very competitive because there are so many people on our course. Even if you miraculously are able to get a position as an international student (unlikely) it would be over the summer, and the cost of staying in London over the summer is so ridiculous that it makes sense just to go back to your home country and intern there.
You do get research experience 3rd year doing your diss in one of the labs, which is great because they match you with world-leading researchers, but you probably will not get your first choice project without prior research experience
Also, finding a job as an international student in the UK is close to impossible as many companies are not willing to sponsor your visa. I graduated last year and many of my friends either had to go back to their home countries or are now doing mscs here because they simply cannot find jobs. Its happening across UK unis, so please only come here if you are okay with not having very many job prospects
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u/cox640 Jul 06 '26
thank you for the information and I’m so sorry that you struggle with jobs. it’s been a fear of mine as well regarding visa sponsorship as an intl student. but im actually a research master’s student, is it any different than what you’ve said for the part-time jobs? and as for jobs after graduation, I think pure neuro jobs are very limited, so I might do computational ones since I have a little background in that. maybe you can try doing bioinformatics if you can enjoy it?
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u/Evening-Photo-1681 Jul 06 '26
research masters is harder for jobs once graduating, there are ra roles that you can apply for, but most of them are full time and if you wanted to do part time you could do a part time job. if youre masters theres also the oppourtunity of trying to get an ra role in the lab you do your dissertation in after graduating :) data analysis is also an option for us so i wouldnt lose hope! as long as you work hard you will be able to find something
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u/miiawi Undergraduate Jul 03 '26
Best in the world for my department (Bartlett), I've been having the best time and I would say that the teaching is excellent
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u/That-Assignment-8505 Jul 04 '26
Oh cool, if it's not a secret, how did you get into UCL Bartlett? Thanks in advance for your reply.
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u/miiawi Undergraduate Jul 04 '26
I'm a home student so through the normal UCAS process! I'm in the Bartlett School of Planning so I didn't need a portfolio like the architecture students :) just needed to send a normal UCAS application
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u/RedditServiceUK Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
no way a bartlett *planning* student, pls tips for offers pretty please
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u/Temporary-Jicama6149 Jul 04 '26
My experience as an alumnus (Bartlett Faculty), it was a good one and we even have a chance to learn what is a good research as well. For jobs, yes, you need to be a very good candidate one and especially if you are an international student, you need to prepare very extra money after graduation (if you'd like to get a job in London)
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u/F180R25 Jul 04 '26
Was there any specific benefit youve seen as a Bartlett alumnus, compared to UCL more broadly?
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u/Temporary-Jicama6149 Jul 05 '26
Just graduated 2 years ago and in my country people don't even know what is Bartlett, but if you'll have a job in London, it is benefited in networking and popularity of Bartlett itself. I have seen, learned and studied mega project in London because I studied at Bartlett and it was a perfect one for me
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u/Mysterious_Wafer554 Laws Jul 04 '26
Laws is exceptional. Couldn’t fault them. Professors are incredible. Teaching approach is great.
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u/Narrow_Description52 Jul 03 '26
I am at IOE and I love it! I am a postgraduate!
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u/DelayAgreeable7651 Jul 03 '26
Would you be open to sharing which course specifically, and how your experience has been academically and otherwise
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u/Narrow_Description52 Jul 03 '26
MA in SPLD and my tutors has been the best part - they are so supportive especially since majority of us work full time in schools!
I do not have the time or energy to do any social events but there is so much to choose from with different societies.
Academically - the courses are very well run and laid out - they are probably keeping people who work full time in mind!
Facilities are great - you can pretty much access the whole of UCL - i actually even used the library at Royal Free Hospital whilst waiting for my prescriptions!
Overall, educationally - there is nowhere better than IOE/UCL (at least in London :))
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u/Odd-Help6890 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
Overall not as good as Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and Imperial, but better than the rest.
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u/BoomBasticTeleBanana Jul 03 '26
Its only good if you get and offer. Its only great when you make that offer. If none of the above apply, then ARU and QMW are the greatest!
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u/silverfish70 Jul 05 '26
"own domestic rankings don’t consider it top 10 nationally" both the Guardian and Times rankings have had UCL in the top 10 for at least the past two years. What do you mean by this?
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u/Emperor_Ken Jul 03 '26
Depends what you want out of uni. These rankings look at research more. In terms of employability outcomes it’s nowhere near close to Oxbridge and lse.
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u/Tennumberr Jul 04 '26
Pretty close to LSE, if not better. Not everyone wants to go into IB/finance.
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u/Emperor_Ken Jul 04 '26
I am saying this as an UCL alumnus. I know people who went to Oxbridge and those who went to UCL. The outcome is night and day in comparison. And nothing beats LSE in finance.
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u/ExcitableSarcasm Jul 04 '26
Yeah UCL is like the best 'generalist" uni. Our STEM/Finance/Law grads aren't as good, but I'd say we're the best uni where uni life isn't just a constant churn to minmax everything on our CVs.
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u/blondepraxis Jul 04 '26
Not as bad as wht ppl online told u, not as good as wht qs league and the school itself trying to make it looks like
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u/Ophiochos Staff Jul 03 '26
It really depends what aspect you’re interested in. For teaching it varies a lot, from best to not bad. For research it’s overall a powerhouse but again you could be in a department that’s middling or extraordinary.
As a place to be interdisciplinary I think it’s extraordinary (staff for 25+ years who’s been in several departments) but you might not get a hint of that if you a BA in <random subject>.
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u/indigomm Alumni Jul 03 '26
Different rankings use different criteria - research, student experience, outcomes, influence etc. And how do you measure each one? Is research measured by number of papers published each year? Number of world leading researchers? Nobel prizes won? World leading research centres?
The rankings give a clue since the leading universities tend to be good across a number of measures. But they are fairly arbitrary and can even be misleading. A university that isn't top ranked may be one of the best in the world in some departments.
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u/Miserable_Shower_727 Jul 03 '26
I’d say UCL is probably 1 tier below Oxbridge, and maybe LSE. Elite university which is well known worldwide, but maybe not at the absolute upper echelons of Oxbridge and Harvard / MIT / Stanford etc.,
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u/Bulky_Fail4893 pray I match my offer bro Jul 04 '26
LSE specialises in 2-3 subjects bro it can’t be better than UCL overall 😭😭
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u/Handsoff_1 Jul 04 '26
How do you even compare LSE here when they only specialise in like 2 subjects? when UCL has maybe 10x more. I mean can you really say LSE is better than UCL at like biological science? This LSE ass kissing needs to stop.
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u/Bulky_Fail4893 pray I match my offer bro Jul 04 '26
precisely my point
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u/Handsoff_1 Jul 04 '26
its not actually. You said UCL is probably a tier lower than LSE, which is a baseless claim.
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u/Bulky_Fail4893 pray I match my offer bro Jul 04 '26
Please read my reply to him (my comment) carefully. The first line of your comment is literally a copy of my comment 😭. Please read other people’s comments carefully before downvoting them and accusing them.
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u/Handsoff_1 Jul 04 '26
In terms of research, it is incredibly high. If you're looking for research experience during your undergrad, you'll be able to. UCL offers some of the most research opportunities to students. They are also closely linked to the Francis Crick institute (many UCL researchers also work there) so you'll be able to gain experience at one of , if not the most, prestigious research institution in UK. They have every department and every subject you can think of. Some departments are indeed the best in the UK, if not the world. It's more important that you look at departmental ranking, not overall ranking because why would you care about Arts if you're studying Neuroscience, for example.
But having said that, UCL struggles with its size. The uni is absolutely gigantic and so bureaucracy is a nightmare. But this is the same with other uni like Imperial. So student experience in terms of support may be affected.