I am thinking of going to University of Bath for my PhD. A group there does some very interesting stuff and the professor seems to be a good supervisor.
Problem is, as soon as I mentioned this to my friends (mostly Oxbridge people) they were kind of sneering at it. Should I rethink and go for some Oxbridge group that does something almost as interesting, or should I stick to my original plan?
Any thoughts? Is anyone at Bath? What is it like? What do you think about the university's reputation?

Well I don't want to interfere but... why should you do what your friends want you to do, and not what YOU want to do? If the project is interesting for you (and I don't think Bath is ranked as a "bad" university), why should you go for a project less interesting for you but at Oxbridge? I mean, at this stage I would look for more projects in other universities (including Oxbridge) but if the projects that interest me are in (say) Bath, Sheffield and Manchester rather than Oxbridge, I wouldn't bother applying to the latter. IMHO.

Thanks for your reply Nimrod. To clarify, I don't really care about what my friends think as such, but rather about if this is the reaction I'm going to get whenever I mentioned where I did my PhD.
I was so excited when I found this group, but more or less everyone I've talked to about it has questioned why I would want to go Bath. I thought it seemed to be rather good, but all these negative comments have made me unsure. That's why I would like to hear what people on this forum think.

It has been discussed a number of times here and many people agree that at PhD level (specially if you intend to stay in academia) it's not the prestige of the University which matters the most, but the department. You may check the RAE results (http://www.hero.ac.uk/rae/) to see how is your department classified (with 5* being the best mark and 1 the worst), try to find out wheter the department staff publishes regularly in international journals of your field, etc.

I am at Bath and I have to say that no one has ever commented on the Uni. Actually my dept has great RAE results! As the others have said it is far more important to have a great supervisor in the right field at PhD level than anything else.

Go for it!

Hi Zingo

What subject area are you thinking of doing a PhD in? I did my undergrad at Bath uni in the Biology/Biochem department and while I was there our department was ranked 4th best in the country and the university was ranked 10th overall. But the most important thing is that you do a PhD in an area you find interesting or you probably wont finish it.

I didn't go to the Uni, but lived there for 18 years and I would do anything to move back there - the city is fantastic. I've only heard great things about the Uni, but check out your departments RAE rating

Ironically, Dan B would be the person to speak to as he went to Bath - oh Dan!

Apply to loads of PhDs, even ones you don't think are ideal for you. If you get to go to an interview you can decide what you want on the basis of your own experience. I can tell you for a fact, based on my experience in application, some places I would have jumped straight into without an interview were really not for me when I went and others I just went to see for the hell of it really appealed to me. Apply, apply, apply. If you don't like it and go, you can still decline an offer, at least give yourself the choice.

Thanks everyone for your comments, you've made me feel a lot better.

The position I'm interested in is indeed in Bio/Biochem so happy to hear it ranked so well.

If anyone has any other comments about the uni or Bath in general it would be very interesting to read them.

Bath is pretty, don't know much about the uni though

I did my undergrad degree in the department of bio and biochem at Bath. It's a fantastic uni in a great city, and this department is ranked 5* in the RAE. Bath is def up there with the best of them, despite what your Oxbridge friends may say! Good luck!

I've had first-hand experience of Oxford as an undergrad and, while some of my friends enjoyed it there, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole for a PhD (or DPhil as they like to call it there to show how superior they are).

*sighs and dreams of Bath*