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Which is more prestigeous Bristol or Exeter?

I have heard exeter ranks higher on average and some say its better but was surprised at this, I always personally thought Bristol is the more prestigious uni and if you look at the stats that matter, its harder to get into bristol and it requires higher grades, so i was wondering what was the cause of the disparity?

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Original post by powertraits123
I have heard exeter ranks higher on average and some say its better but was surprised at this, I always personally thought Bristol is the more prestigious uni and if you look at the stats that matter, its harder to get into bristol and it requires higher grades, so i was wondering what was the cause of the disparity?


Why didn’t you ask the people who said Exeter was better directly why they think that?

rankings don’t measure prestige. And even those that include surveys of opinions (THE and WS) don’t ask applicants. It’s popularity with 17 and 18 year olds that drives demand for places and demand for places that drives entry requirements and offer rates. I wouldn’t trust popularity with 17/18 year olds as a particularly reliable metric
Original post by PQ
Why didn’t you ask the people who said Exeter was better directly why they think that?

rankings don’t measure prestige. And even those that include surveys of opinions (THE and WS) don’t ask applicants. It’s popularity with 17 and 18 year olds that drives demand for places and demand for places that drives entry requirements and offer rates. I wouldn’t trust popularity with 17/18 year olds as a particularly reliable metric

I think they view Bristol as too druggy/party like, But for top courses/careers from my research bristol is the better option like law and high finance and engineering
Original post by powertraits123
I think they view Bristol as too druggy/party like, But for top courses/careers from my research bristol is the better option like law and high finance and engineering


I wouldn’t rate either as particularly prestigious for engineering.

Law recruitment was moving towards university blind selection last time I looked.

Finance is a bit broad - most finance jobs won’t give a **** where you went to university. They have their own selection tests.
bristol is known at top 5 for mech eng and aeronautical engineering in the uk. Law i think bristol has always been a top 10. finance think both exeter and bristol are semi target for IB
Original post by powertraits123
bristol is known at top 5 for mech eng and aeronautical engineering in the uk. Law i think bristol has always been a top 10. finance think both exeter and bristol are semi target for IB

known by who as top 5 for mech and aero?
Original post by PQ
known by who as top 5 for mech and aero?

virtually everyone, look up the CUG for those subjects, its always been a top 5. Look at its entry requirements, I thought this was a pretty standard thing, Bristol has always been known for its engineering, many people rejected by imperial end up at bristol.
Reply 7
Original post by powertraits123
I think they view Bristol as too druggy/party like, But for top courses/careers from my research bristol is the better option like law and high finance and engineering

Engineering?! Go to Bath not Bristol.

Law?! Exeter is far better.

I would avoid Bristol unless you want to risk your accommodation being in Wales!
Original post by Muttley79
Engineering?! Go to Bath not Bristol.

Law?! Exeter is far better.

I would avoid Bristol unless you want to risk your accommodation being in Wales!


Law at Exeter being better than Bristol is a joke and youve just shown yourself to be uninformed, if you said something like history maybe. Every metric bristol is better than exeter at law. Entry standards, competitiion, they require the LNAT, Students placed at top firms, rankings as well, there is not a single argument to say exeter is better than bristol for law.

Im pretty sure ive seen you recommend exeter over warwick for economics, just shows how biased you can be.

Bath and bristol are close for engineering so Ill let that slide, you just seem to hate bristol, regardless of student support issues its objectively a good university
(edited 3 months ago)
Original post by powertraits123
I think they view Bristol as too druggy/party like, But for top courses/careers from my research bristol is the better option like law and high finance and engineering

lol. Bristol is more prestigious. it is known as the place where privately educated poshos go to get high.
Original post by A Rolling Stone
lol. Bristol is more prestigious. it is known as the place where privately educated poshos go to get high.

Thats what i thought, exeter has a 90% offer rate, and lower entry standards, they just seem better at doing the ranking because of satisfaction, same reason loughborough is somehow a top 10 when in reality its barely a top 20.
Original post by powertraits123
Thats what i thought, exeter has a 90% offer rate, and lower entry standards, they just seem better at doing the ranking because of satisfaction, same reason loughborough is somehow a top 10 when in reality its barely a top 20.

oughborough is not prestigious because it's easy to get in, but has extremely successful graduates so deserves it somewhat
Original post by powertraits123
virtually everyone, look up the CUG for those subjects, its always been a top 5. Look at its entry requirements, I thought this was a pretty standard thing, Bristol has always been known for its engineering, many people rejected by imperial end up at bristol.

As explained above - entry standards are an indication of prestige among 17/18 year old applicants....not the opinion of anyone informed
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7182020#post96825631

Lowest % of entrants from state schools (2020 entry only universities with >100 entrants)
1 Durham 61.6%
2 St Andrews 63.1%
3 Edinburgh 64.5%
4 Exeter 65.5%
5 Imperial 65.8%
6 Royal Agricultural University 67.2%
7 UCL 67.6%
8 Oxford 68.7%
9 LSE 69.6%
10 Cambridge 70.0%
11 Oxford Brookes 71.1%
12 Bath 72.8%
13 Bristol 73.0%
14 Newcastle 76.6%
15 Nottingham 80.2%
16= Loughborough 80.7%
16= Warwick 80.7%
18 Leeds 82.3%
RADA (yes THAT RADA) sits here
19 KCL 82.9%
20 Manchester 83.8%

UK average 90.2%

source https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/widening-participation
Original post by PQ
As explained above - entry standards are an indication of prestige among 17/18 year old applicants....not the opinion of anyone informed

Interesting, i just though Bristol was very well renowned for engineering, on par with imperial, how come its not?
Original post by PQ
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7182020#post96825631

Lowest % of entrants from state schools (2020 entry only universities with >100 entrants)
1 Durham 61.6%
2 St Andrews 63.1%
3 Edinburgh 64.5%
4 Exeter 65.5%
5 Imperial 65.8%
6 Royal Agricultural University 67.2%
7 UCL 67.6%
8 Oxford 68.7%
9 LSE 69.6%
10 Cambridge 70.0%
11 Oxford Brookes 71.1%
12 Bath 72.8%
13 Bristol 73.0%
14 Newcastle 76.6%
15 Nottingham 80.2%
16= Loughborough 80.7%
16= Warwick 80.7%
18 Leeds 82.3%
RADA (yes THAT RADA) sits here
19 KCL 82.9%
20 Manchester 83.8%

UK average 90.2%

source https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/widening-participation

Private school does not mean prestige, most would say wariwck or even kcl are better than exeter, also pretty sure bristol actively discriminates against private schools, with contextual offers
(edited 3 months ago)
Original post by powertraits123
Interesting, i just though Bristol was very well renowned for engineering, on par with imperial, how come its not?

Industry cares much more about experience (and, of course, the usual stuff such as the right technical and soft skills, and fit) than where you get your degree from. In reality all engineering graduates need training and experience to be contributing team members, with the vast majority of your learning coming after graduation. So really no universities are "renowned" for engineering. But I agree that Bristol is probably more prestigious overall than Exeter.
Original post by powertraits123
Private school does not mean prestige, most would say wariwck or even kcl are better than exeter, also pretty sure bristol actively discriminates against private schools, with contextual offers


The stats on private school entrants was in response to “Bristol is more prestigious. it is known as the place where privately educated poshos go to get high.”

Exeter also make contextual offers. Bristol stopped making differential offers based on school funding over a decade ago
(edited 3 months ago)
Reply 18
Original post by powertraits123
I have heard exeter ranks higher on average and some say its better but was surprised at this, I always personally thought Bristol is the more prestigious uni and if you look at the stats that matter, its harder to get into bristol and it requires higher grades, so i was wondering what was the cause of the disparity?

That answer is very simple. Whichever university is more likely to give you the skills and knowledge likely to get you the job you seek.

No one cares where you went to university. They only care about what you can do and what you know. Prestige is something that only exists in the minds of university marketing departments and undergrads desperate to make the right choice.

Good luck!
Reply 19
Bristol University is like the Durham University of the south is my impression.
Exeter University's roots actually go back to the 1800s and it became a university in the 1950s so it doesn't fit in a particular box. Similar kind of story for Leicester University.
To the layperson, Bristol would be more prestigious than Exeter, perhaps largely because Bristol has more dramatic architecture, higher entry grades, and is regarded as a more studenty city than Exeter, but it also happens to have a slightly better research rating than Exeter.
Exeter has some old buildings amongst its modern buildings but it seems to generally model itself around a modern campus university feel.

Personally, I'd consider Kings College London or Nottingham too, for similar grades, because those universities look beautiful too.
(edited 2 months ago)

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