King's vs Bath vs Nottingham
Hi all,
Unfortunately, I have only received an offer from King's (1/5 choices), however I have noticed that Bath and Nottingham have vacancies.
Ideally, I would prefer to stay in London (able to commute +prefer location), however I wouldn't mind living in the mentioned cities if it helped boost career prospects. My understanding is that all of these universities would be considered as 'semi-targets', though I would really appreciate if someone could provide better insight.
Would it be worth rejecting an offer from KCL to study at Bath/Notts (some of the courses with vacancies also have placement years) ?
Thank you
Bath is a much stronger choice than KCL. Bath has exclusive placement year positions that are only offered to them by large investment banks, whilst KCL is your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, semi-target (and not the best, either, they have an inflated sense of value from prospects because they're in London).
Kcl is good enough, as long as you put the work in during applications - it's stronger than bath and notts imo, not to mention the benefit of being in London. Just have a look on LinkedIn at how many from kcl get into IB. It's ultimately down to you, but the brand name certainly won't hold you down. It’s pretty sad to see people worrying about a slight increment of prestige, when you join the industry, you’ll realise that it doesn’t really matter.
It's not about prestige, it's about recruitment. KCL is not a stronger university than Bath and Nottingham. KCL has a stronger investment banking culture than Bath, so more people apply, hence a perceived greater amount of people working in finance, but the yield and opportunities are not the same.
There are some key things that I want to point out:
There is no benefit to being in London. By that logic, someone can choose QMUL or Brunel and be better of than someone going to Manchester or York. That's a pretty laughable prospect.
You're right that KCL certainly doesn't help, but it sure as hell is not stronger than either Bath or Nottingham, and the only place I have ever seen people claiming so has been on this site.
Take your A levels again and reapply to better unis.
Any of these will be fine. There's loads of bath/kcl/notts people in banking.
As someone who went to bath, everyone who actually put the work in, did what they needed to do early, got good grades etc, made it to roughly where they wanted.
All the people who realised in final year what they wanted, didn't quite get there. Same goes for placements. You can practically walk into MS/GS/HSBC/UBS/BofA (banks who offer placements) if you just know what you're doing early. A lot of people just don't haha.
I second this, you could argue to the end of days which out of the three is best - but at the end of the day they are pretty much on the same level footing.
It’s not like we are debating Oxford Vs Kings.
As long as you start planning for spring weeks from day one you can snowball that into a SA or placement.
Thank you for the feedback.
This might sound silly, but do you know if placements are guaranteed (if your degree includes a placement year). What happens if you can't land anything on the placement year?
Thanks
No they aren't guaranteed. If you don't get one you just continue onto third year.
On my course and I think most others you are required to do a placement if it’s included in your degree. No one on my course has failed to secure a placement in all the years that they have been running.
I would say ‘compulsory’ not ‘guaranteed’.
My uni had this policy, and they seemed to have a list of contacts for shitty placements they could give to you if you weren’t able to find anything which everybody avoided.
Hi there, do you have any tips for a current bath econ student to land a summer analyst/industrial placement role?
I know the question is quite vague, but I will take any and all insight you have :)
At the end of the day, the biggest factor affecting your chances here (given that all 3 unis are pretty similar) is going to be how strong your application is (applying early, acing the tests, having strong experience/extracurriculars and making sure you don't bottle any first rounds). Having said that, I go to King's myself, and it generally does not place well, especially the Econ/finance department (compared to its law, medicine etc.). Bath and Nottingham have been huuuuge at early careers level, with Bath dominating Industrial Placement years (which lots of banks like Lazard and UBS offer off the top of my head), whilst Notts dominates the spring week stage out of all the semi-targets. So there are a few things to consider for OP, I genuinely think Notts is a good middle ground and their finance society has been incredible lately. Decision is yours at the end of the day, and if you are really good, you won't struggle at any of these places. Good luck!
Thanks for the advice,
Do you think it would be worth applying next year to transfer to UCL, if it means that i'll have to start from year 1 again? (Bear in mind that I've already taking a gap year).
I think I would definitely accept a transfer from LSE (if I got in) but i'm not sure how much of a difference studying at UCL would make in comparison to KCL.
I don’t know your exact situ and how exactly you wanna optimise tbh, I’d say it’s defo not impossible from KCL (know numerous people with springs and summers at BBs and EBs). If you can afford to take a year out and believe that you can get LSE/UCL then yeah, you will be in a better position. The finance societies are also great and honestly seen so many pdfs and guides from LSE kids who’ve just shared stuff around, they’ll help each other on tests etc etc if you can get into those crowds then it will help for sure.
Equally, know numerous people at LSE/UCL who haven’t got any springs so if ur application isn’t good enough it doesn’t matter where you go. Try get some finance experience on your CV, flesh out some diverse extra curriculars, PRACTICE FOR THE TESTS, and nail your interviewing skills.
Bath is very much overhyped however people are correct on the placement opportunities; they have some very good unique relationships with certain Banks for years in industry. Notts is very strong too, places a lot of people into IB plus their societies are serious and have good sponsor links. KCL imo isn't as strong as the likes of Durham, Bath, Notts, Bristol and Edinburgh given it's below the likes of Imperial, LSE and UCL in London.
Already mentioned but placements at Bath are insanely cracked. KKR, Citi, Lazard, Oliver Wyman, etc. Because they're often exclusive, you end competing against a handful of people from your course and they are a basically guaranteed way to land a FT offer.
This might sound silly, but do you know if placements are guaranteed (if your degree includes a placement year). What happens if you can't land anything on the placement year?
Thanks
Speaking for Bath of course but as far I know, there has not been a single person who has failed to land a placement.
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