Is top 20 uni that good? (obviously we are talking about 16-20, otherwise it would have been top 15 or top 10). How many universities are in the UK that are good?

Isnt that like saying "I went to a top 200 university" in the US?

Alobar, by top 20 he means went to one of these schools http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Group, but yeah, not one of the more prestigious of them obviously. There are only 109 universities in the UK. I think he mentioned in his blog his grades were upper second class, which is like a B average.

I don't want to identify which University I attended, but it is actually in the top 15, albeit not in the top 5.

Grateful for your post though, its nice to be vindicated in my belief that people are mistaken to think that I'm more egotistical than I am.

By the way, its hilarious how people's dislike of me has turned even the most ardent liberal into a ruthless free marketer provided its at my expense!

says the guy who just made sure to make a point of saying it was top 15 and not top 20


and I don't really know that much about you, or have an opinion on you. I just thought it was odd someone used a top 20 UK school as a brag.....so I was curious if that was even really that good.

Can't own a house while in mid twenties, can't use segways. What's even the point of living

Are you seriously accusing me of egotism for pointing out that you're mistaken when you jump to a completely false conclusion about me?

It isn't a brag, and that I've repeatedly said that my intelligence is probably slightly above average, but nothing special. I've even repeatedly told people that my mathematical abilities leave a lot to be desired and that I've struggled with maths tests in applying for jobs (something that took me a fair bit of practice to overcome).

But whatever.

Lets say I went to the 60th best Uni in the UK, achieved something like CCD at A-level and wanted (as I do now) to get a job that paid me enough of a living wage to move out.

What then?

At what level would you be telling me that competition is fierce, I'm not entitled to anything and that therefore, I should give up on independence and suck it up, and ultimately resign myself to living off/with my parents?

I'm either a lazy underachiever or I'm mistaken in thinking I'm qualified for anything better than I'm already doing. Its one or the other chaps.

So British

Oh I will do. I'll own a house and a flat purely on account of the sheer accident of my extremely fortuitous and privileged birth.

However, someone 10 times as intelligent and 10 times as hard-working as me from a genuinely poor background almost certainly cannot, and will never. Not in London at least.

what false conclusion did I jump to? I asked if going to a 16-20 university in the UK was worth anything. There was no statement in that post, it was a question.

And yes, I do find it mildly amusing that someone who thinks others mistakenly think they are egotistical wanted to clarify it wasn't a top 20 school, it was a top 15 school. *Shrug*

as for the rest of your post, Ill assume you are directing that at everyone else, cuz none of any of that applies to anything I've ever commented on

That also depends on the field, more intelligent hard worker will def own it if he's in tech. He'll probably own a segway too, not because he needs one, but because he can.

I'm still howling at your avatar, Absurdas.

Mate, you don't have to bloody live in London (or work there for that matter). There are places within an hour and a half commute that have 1 bed apartments / flats available at £75-80k

...woops.

Sorry for correcting you. Very egotistical of me.

Let me just give you what you want; you tell me which uni you'd like me to have attended, and I'm happy to run with that

Rasta,

Are you going to discuss segways or not? Why do you like them so much? I think they are kind of silly.

Hmm. Potench.

I still think that I'll do better in life than a lot of people far more deserving than me though.

I do honestly feel quite guilty about that to be frank; I have plenty of friends worse off than me (better off too, but several who are worse off (I may have mentioned my ex-Muslim friend who was disowned by his family for coming out as atheist/fraternising with gay people/women and had to quit uni for instance))

But yeah, it ain't fair. And I honestly wouldn't feel happy if my security and well-being was entirely down to my privilege.

Urgh. You basically do bro. All the jobs are here.

Having said that, I'll readily admit that given the offer of a ~£24k job out in the provinces or wherever, I'd rather carry on with this and live at home. My very accessible circle of friends is very important to me. Plus, no rent.

Yeah I can't imagine wanting one. They were never actually advertised in the UK for reasons previously mentioned. Besides, its nice to have a bounce in your step on a nice sunny day no? Just standing there whilst being wheeled around? Lame as hell.

But yeah. London too crowded. Would never work.

jesus you are daft. I put the part in about it being 16-20 not to be some pissy little rasta hater, but to clarify my question as obviously there are very prestigious and excellent UK universities. I wanted to know about the Top 20 portion of the what someone is talking about when they say a top 20 school.

You seem to be working under the assumption that everyone here has some negative opinion about you, and thus everything is some clever little jab at you. I don't read your posts and know **** all about you. All I know is you are some politard no one likes. Hell my question wasnt even directed at you, it was at everyone in general, as it was a general question.

Yes, because no-one really would consider working in 'the provinces'. How gauche.

So all this whining about the lack of a living wage, woes of the poor downtrodden graduate unable to buy property in austerity Britain is basically your being unwilling to fly the nest for fear of adverse effects on your social life and lack of free accommodation? GTFO.

Your sense of entitlement makes me want to puke.

Why should I have to essentially emigrate from my home? Why shouldn't I be able to live and find work in my own home town where I come from?

You can fire precisely the same argument at an African wishing that his country afforded him a better standard of living; that he has a sense of entitlement in being reluctant to emigrate to Europe for better opportunities.

Granted, the two scenarios are different in scale, but logically your complaint could be applied in precisely the same way. Where you draw the line between the two is completely arbitrary.

Besides, I'm not 'entitled' to anything. 'Entitled' and 'deserve' are words that mean absolutely nothing. They're subjective.

I'm simply saying that my life, away from my friends, out in the provinces, in an unfamiliar and lonely place would be worse than it is here, and thus if those are my two options, I choose staying at home with M&D.

No.

You smugly said that my University was 'obviously' in the 16-20 range as I'd have specified 'top 15' if it were higher. You literally said this. Do I really have to re-quote it for you?

This opinion of yours had no relation whatsoever to the topic at hand if all you wanted to do is clarify the quality of education and prestige of the top 20 universities in the UK.

It was, demonstrably, a little dig, which happily enough, was down to you jumping to a false conclusion.

What do you think my response to you should have been?

Alobar: Move all this crap to Rasta's blog thread pls, so we can get back on track discussing segways!

Rasta; what inspired you to want to talk about segways all of a sudden?

Thanks! Wish he'd do the eye conctact wave.
It's fair enough in that you can be better off than where you started if you work hard and then your offsprings can try and build on that further. Sure there's variance involved too, but that's part of existence for every living being.

I think what we should do as a collective of fairly smart people is to design a segway alternative for misfortunate londoners that can't use em due to their poor living conditions.

LOL at 'emigrating' 60 miles within the same country. Your'e not even travelling far enough for the accent to change appreciably, let alone the language. Comparing your 'plight' to that of an émigré from Africa, especially given the current crisis, is risible and unbelievably crass.