Economics at Bristol and E&M at Durham. I am yet to receive other offers, but I just wanted to see how things fair between these two. I am leaning more towards Bristol because of better ranking and the supposedly racist and classist culture at Durham.
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Based on the most helpful WSO content, both Bristol and Durham are considered strong universities in the UK, but they differ in terms of reputation, placement, and culture:
Placement and Reputation:
Cultural Considerations:
Location and Networking:
Program Focus:
If you value a more inclusive culture and better city life, Bristol might be the better choice for you. However, if the specific E&M program at Durham aligns more with your career goals, it could still be worth considering despite the cultural concerns.
Sources: UK Target Universities Discussion Thread, Top 15 MBA Programs By Culture: 2017 Wrap-Up, Are These Good Schools for NYC Investment Banking?, ESADE vs Durham vs Cass, Why is it all about BB/EB on here
Both are high semi-targets, but Durham has a very slight edge over Bristol (and I say that as a current Bristol student). The whole ‘classism and racism’ thing is often exaggerated, but it is worth noting that Durham has the highest proportion of private school students (about 40%), even more than St Andrews. If you’re not privately educated, you might feel a bit isolated, especially at the better colleges like Hatfield.
That said, Durham is cold and has absolutely dead nightlife, Durham students will swear this isn’t true, but don’t trust them, they’re coping. Bristol rent is a bit steeper, but the city is way more diverse and a lot more fun. Ultimately, the difference between the two unis isn’t big enough for you to pick one over the other if you think you’d enjoy the other more, uni isn’t all about recruitment.
But if you only care about recruitment, then yeah, go Durham, choose Hatfield, and try to get into one of their knock-off Bullingdon clubs like Arcanum Arcanorum (Your average Durham student is still very, very salty they didn’t get into Oxbridge and will do anything to pretend they did). But if you’re more into ket and DnB, Bristol is the way to go.
Well, Bristol seems the way to go. Also do you have any idea how is the average salary in IB out of Bristol? I checked Bristol's website but I couldn't find any data.
This is kind of a weird question, it’s not like BBs pay their grads salary multiples based on university “prestige”.
Average grad salaries for courses that typically feed into IB (eg. BSc Economics) will basically be an average function of people going to work at Big 4 / “normal” grad jobs earning ~£25-30k and then people who got into IB or whatever making >~£65k base.
Typically this average sits around £30-35k (https://discoveruni.gov.uk), and then obviously courses like Oxford E&M are skewed toward the higher end as grads place better.
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