Imperial College London vs UCSD

[unichooser]

Accepted into both as an international for an engineering masters. How do the universities compare in terms of employment opportunities beyond graduation and international reputation? Clearly Imperial ranks higher on THES/QS rankings but ARWU places UCSD higher. Are the opportunities offered to top UK engineering grads on par or better than similar universities in the US? So is Imperial College London in general better than the likes of UCSD/ UCLA/USC and is it's reputation/opportunities available to masters students beyond graduation similar to universities such as Georgia tech, UIUC, Carnegie Mellon, University of Michigan or Cornell?

I know more about the US than UK, so forgive my ignorance when it comes to UK/Europe.

How does imperial stack up though would you say MIT>Caltech-Stanford>Berkeley>Imperial=CMU=G eorgiaTech=Cornell>UCSD/UCLA in terms of job prospects/research opportunities and in prestige/reputation for an engineering masters graduate??

Any informed opinions?

Edited March 31, 2011 by unichooser

[kaza]

Imperial has a better reputation internationally AND in the USA . But really you are ignoring an important factor, which is the programs are very very different

Personally, I'd go for Imperial. It will give you the chance to live in Europe for a few years, which is fun. UCSD is a really nice campus though

[ponjavic]

While Imperial does have a good rep UCSD might serve you better in terms of getting an MS/PhD track in the US. Mainly because profs there know the system and you get offered undergrad research opportunities.

But yeah even more you should be looking at the individual courses and see which you think suits you better. Don't worry too much about prestige as it will be your performance that decides where you end up.