A few months back, I had a series of conversations with my partner and a good friend around the topic of university choice.
The question was: when choosing a university to go to, does it matter to us how famous/renowned it is?
To my partner, it doesn’t. In fact, it doesn’t even enter into his equation. He goes based on what he wants to study and how good the institution is for that particular field. It doesn’t matter if the university itself is well-known.
My friend went to the same university as me for her Bachelor’s degree (UCL), but chose for her Master’s an obscure university which suited her requirements, but which no one would have heard of.
Speaking with both of them made me realise I wouldn’t even consider going to a university that’s not in the Top 10, one that most people wouldn’t have heard of and deemed a top university.
This came as a surprise.
For 32 years, I’d taken pride in the fact that I chose UCL for my undergraduate alma mater over Oxford. Back in 2009, I held offers from the University of Oxford for one of its top degrees (PPE or Philosophy, Politics, and Economics)—i.e. an uber prestigious programme—and UCL for a degree most people wouldn’t have heard of (ESPS or European Social and Political Studies)—i.e. a choice that most people would consider inferior.
And for 32 years, I’d explained that choice to myself as me choosing what I really wanted, not what others wanted for me or what looked good on paper. In other words, I eschewed prestige for essence, chose substance over form.1 I said no to Oxford because that’s not what I wanted. I followed my heart. Pedigree didn’t matter.
But speaking with my partner and my friend, I realised that the reason the choice was so easy and obvious to me was because it was UCL (which ranked 4th in the world when I started my first year). If it were Warwick or Bristol, I would have chosen Oxford in a heartbeat.
Pedigree clearly did matter.
And, scrutinising my choice even more deeply, I realised that a big reason why I chose ESPS at UCL was because it had a year abroad where I could choose to go to Sciences Po, which is a top school in France. It’s where the French political elite are educated, Presidents, Prime Ministers—you name it.
To my mind, Sciences Po was equally prestigious to Oxford, and that made up for the UCL degree’s lack of pomp.
How foolish I’d been for 32 years thinking I’d chosen substance over form. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Recently, I had the idea to study Creative Writing for my Master’s in London. And guess which university my mind immediately went to.
UCL.
I didn’t even entertain the idea to go somewhere else. To my mind, UCL is well-known, I have fond memories of the place, tick tick. It almost didn’t matter how good their Creative Writing department is. The name UCL would make up for it.
But my partner, ever the sensible one, gently suggested I check university rankings for my chosen field of study. This being the clearly sensible thing to do, I obliged. And discovered UCL doesn’t even come into the picture for Creative Writing.2
The top degree appears to be Royal Holloway’s MA Creative Writing. And I’ll probably go for it (if I do decide to do a Master’s). But it’s painful to accept that as a choice. Because I consider Royal Holloway inferior to UCL. It’s not as well-known. It ranks only 32nd in the Complete University Guide. It’s not one of the cool University of London schools like UCL, LSE, or Imperial. It’s just not as good in my mind. Its only redeeming feature is it’s literally located in the same place as UCL, so I’d be walking the same (prestigious) grounds.
Yep, pedigree clearly doesn’t matter to me...3
So I’ve learned something new about myself in 2022: Pedigree matters, a lot. I’m a bona fide university snob. I only follow my heart when my heart points me in a prestigious direction.
It’s a little disappointing to admit. But it’s the truth.
How about you? Do you go by pedigree? Would you consider attending a university no one’s ever heard of? Or are you a bit like me?
Leave a comment, send a reply, give the message to your owl before you set off for Hogwarts. And share this with a friend whose thoughts you’d like to hear.
Until next Friday… Stay cool, stay safe, stay thoughtful,
Val
This isn’t to say that a PPE degree is objectively inferior to an ESPS degree. It’s simply saying that there’s a lot of pomp surrounding PPE which makes it look extremely attractive, as opposed to ESPS which confers no prestige whatsoever. I bet you’ve never even heard of it until now.
Not because it isn’t good. But because it doesn’t even seem to offer the subject. Oops.
… NOT.
I chose to do my undergraduate degree in PPH part-time as a mature student at Birkbeck College, University of London based purely on entry requirements [life experience over school qualifications] and timetable [evenings and one weekend morning leaving me ‘free’ to work a 9-5 job]. Turns out it was a reasonably prestigious university and degree, but obviously not in the same league as Oxford et al.
After a year or two, having chosen subjects we were interested in, my peers and I were much more careful to consider the presentation skills of lecturers on potential future courses as well as the courses themselves. In one 2nd-year philosophy course, the lecturer paced up and down along the front of the class staring at the ceiling while more or less muttering to himself the whole time. He was an amazing philosopher with stacks of published research, but a terrible, terrible lecturer.
Good undergraduate lecturers should have the kind of skills required to present a TV or radio programme on their field of expertise because, let’s be honest, reams of published research is rarely very relevant at this level, but that seems to be what Ivy League universities value most.
Does the school actually matter? Not so much. It is much more a question of what the student has learned from the experience.