Do you fit the UCL stereotype?

AILBHE NÍ EARRÁIN INVESTIGATES THE LATEST FINDINGS THAT DEFINE THE TYPICAL STUDENT AT UCL

So YouGov have released a ‘profile’ of those who like various brands, including UCL. According to the data collected from those of us who could be bothered* to take the survey, we’re all right-wing, focused on our studies and can’t stop ourselves from buying essential Waitrose baby avocados.

YouGov is an internet-based market research firm who obtain their information from an invited group of internet users and then weight their responses in line with demographic information using standardised z-scores (translation: how many standard deviations an individual response is above or below the mean of the entire data set). The stats show how those who ‘like’ University College London differ in terms of personality, interests and lifestyle compared to the average person.

SO, YOUGOV NOW THINK WE’RE ALL UKIP SUPPORTERS.

THE PROFILER DOESN’T JUST LOOK AT DEMOGRAPHICS.

Our choice of food is quite exotic, apparently. Compared to the rest of the UK population, UCL students tend to prefer Asian delicacies, with the following dishes ranked more frequently as favourites:

Other fun facts include that we’re more likely to have a bird as a pet than any other animal and we really, really, really like science, politics, and diving into a good book. We would definitely describe ourselves as “well-educated”, but not really all that charitable, which is ironic considering our top niche interest is Human Rights Charities.

WE’RE REALLY QUITE MODEST, AREN’T WE?

Our top crisps are Walkers, our favourite toothpaste is Macleans, our favourite biscuits/cakes [editorial note: they’re cakes] are Jaffa Cakes and you’ll catch us doing our weekly shop at Waitrose (Lol).

FUNNY HOW 99% OF MY FOOD CUPBOARD IS FROM LIDL OR THE SAINSBURY’S BASICS RANGE.

When it comes to technology, our favourite apps include The Guardian Mobile, Pacman, Twitter, Dropbox and The Night Sky (an app which, as you probably guessed, analyses the night sky through your phone camera, pointing out constellations, light rays and the best stargazing conditions). We like the internet a lot, spending over 50 hours online per week (50+ hours was the highest option on the survey). We’re not really fans of television though, only spending about 18 hours a week watching it.

Meanwhile, not enough people like King’s College London for there to be a profile available, and LSE’s profile (at time of writing) will not load – although they were even more right wing than UCL (and with a smaller sample size).

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON ARE FUN TO LOOK AT, SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY’RE APPARENTLY OVER 60 AND INCREDIBLY LEFT WING.

YOU PROBABLY DISAGREE WITH THE FINDINGS, BUT I THINK IT WOULD BE SAFE TO SAY THAT WE CAN AGREE WE ALL HATE ONE THING:

*Okay, okay, the ‘sample size’ was 31 – but if you could have been bothered to do it, we could have produced something serious.

To see the report in full or to take part yourself, go to yougov.co.uk