<p>@flutterfly_28
OK, thanks for the info. That’s put my mind at rest :D</p>
<p>Your accent will get you attention from lots of girls and you’ll make friends easily, if that’s any concern. Just a random addition :P.</p>
<p>I agree with ravikrishnagood.</p>
<p>You want to get a degree in Economics? The best school in the world for that is LSE.</p>
<p>And this coming from a person that has been educated in the UK and the US.</p>
<p>Also, if you want to study in the US, be honest about it. From what I’ve seen a lot of people that did their A-levels etc…, in the UK (I did the IB in the UK) just want to get out of the UK as fast as humanly possible. This seems to be your attitude tbh.</p>
<p>Regarding the core curriculum in the US (Something we don’t have in the UK), it may give you a more well-rounded education, but trust me, it will begin to get annoying when you have to take classes you really don’t like (But still have to take to fulfill your core curriculum requirements).</p>
<p>
Thanks for your views. I would be grateful though if you could substantiate your view regarding LSE being the best school in the world for Economics. LSE’s research is certainly cutting edge - but several other schools are usually placed before it in most research rankings (including Cal, on occasion). I understand that their Econ course is considered particularly good - but is it really so much better than those offered at other universities? For example, the University of Warwick (whose Econ program is top-notch, third best in the UK depending on who you ask) usually requires an A in Further Maths A-Level. I have never heard of an LSE offer specifying this, suggesting that the course at Warwick might be more mathematically rigourous than that at LSE. As for faculty, Cal certainly pulls its weight; Eichengreen and DeLong are definitely well-known names, to name a few.
To be honest, I don’t mind living in Berkeley or London. But I will admit that the idea of living in a new country is appealing, although there are many more factors in my decision beyond this.
Core curriculum definitely does seem to be a pain, but given that only 2 units are required for each of the 7 courses, it doesn’t seem so bad. Based on what I was planning to study anyway, I’ll have fulfilled around 3-4 of them, so I’ll only be taking a maximum of 6-8 units out of 120 in courses I wasn’t planning on. That doesn’t seem so annoying.
Please don’t be put off replying my my long response - you seem to be quite knowledgeable, with experience of both systems, so I’d be grateful to hear more from you! :)</p>
<p>There are only 2 UK universities that are generally slightly better regarded than Berkeley and they are Cambridge and Oxford. LSE is a great institution specially for economics. But LSE is not superior to Berkeley in general or for economics. I would wager that the vast majority of LSE economics students would rather attend Berkeley economics if they can afford it.</p>
<p>Quite a few UK universities are ranked higher than Berkeley (Other than Oxford and Cambridge)</p>
<p>World Rankings 2010/11</p>
<p>Imperial College (#7)
King’s College London (#21)
University of Edinburgh(#22)
University of Bristol (#27)</p>
<p>Berkeley(#28)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings[/URL]”>http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings</a></p>
<p>Regarding study in the US, there are many advantages to doing your undergrad here. But IMHO, if you want to go onto graduate school here in the US after your undergrad degree, I would definitely go to Berkeley. The application process is much easier if you have gone to a US based University as an undergrad. That’s the one advantage going to Berkeley gives you. If that is your LT goal, then I would probably take that route.</p>
<p>Regarding LSE’s subject based ranking (Economics), there doesn’t seem to be one. You can check out the site I linked for further info if you want. Speaking from experience, it seems that LSE is regarded much more highly in Europe than it is in the US.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I’m not really interested in seeing general university rankings though - I’ve seen them all, and I’d have to say that QS in particular is a waste of time (UCL is a strong university, but nobody can possibly argue that it is the 4th best in the world). The ranking I was talking about is based on RePEc ([Economic</a> Institution Rankings at IDEAS](<a href=“http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.inst.all.html]Economic”>Economic Institution Rankings | IDEAS/RePEc)) which computes research output, citations, and other related variables to produce a ranking for worldwide institutions producing research in Economics (including universities). This definitely can’t be used as a conclusive indicator for the quality of undergraduate programs though.
I’m not so interested in the rankings of the departments at the respective universities. I’m more interested in the strength and quality of the undergraduate programs. But I understand that this is a very difficult question to answer, unless one has experience of the two programs. Based on my own research I’d say that the two are similar, particularly if the graduate courses at Cal are factored in. I guess the most ideal situation would be to speak to the faculty at each university, but I don’t really know how I might pursue this.</p>
<p>@jsanche32
At the moment I’m sure I want to study Economics, but am not sure I want to go to graduate school yet. But I guess leaving that option open might be advantageous.</p>
<p>@jsanche32
Imperial and KCL are good schools but I doubt you sincerely believe that Edinburgh and Bristol are better institutions than Berkeley. Here are some other world University rankings for the sake of comparison since subjective rankings are imperfect:</p>
<p>[Top</a> Universities by Reputation 2011](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/reputation-rankings.html]Top”>http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/reputation-rankings.html)
1 Harvard University United States<br>
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States<br>
3 University of Cambridge United Kingdom<br>
4 University of California Berkeley United States</p>
<p>[ARWU</a> 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp]ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp)
1 Harvard University
2 University of California, Berkeley
3 Stanford University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)</p>
<p>[ARWU</a> in Economics / Business - 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/SubjectEcoBus2010.jsp]ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/SubjectEcoBus2010.jsp)
According to ARWU rankings for Econ/Business, Cal is ranked #5 and LSE is ranked #18.</p>
<p>[Rankings</a> at IDEAS: Best top level institutions](<a href=“http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.toplevel.html]Rankings”>Rankings of best top level economics institutions | IDEAS/RePEc)
Looking at the RePEc rankings of the top level institutions, Cal is ranked #3 and LSE is ranked #12. (You can further customize rankings by Authors/Institutions etc [url=<a href=“http://ideas.repec.org/cgi-bin/newrank.cgi]here[/url”>Customized IDEAS/RePEc rankings]here[/url</a>], but in general you’ll find Cal ranked ahead of LSE)</p>
<p>That said, I don’t think there is much difference in the quality of education (for Economics) between Cal and LSE at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>EDIT: @tensaiboke, You can email profs whose areas of research interests you. You can find a list of faculty along with some details about their research interests [url=<a href=“http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/econ/faculty/facmaster_a.shtml]here[/url”>Faculty profiles | Department of Economics]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>@copperback
Thanks. But do lecturers usually respond to emails? I’ve been sending emails to a couple of lecturers over the past few days, but they are yet to reply. Have you had any success in getting responses to emails?</p>
<p>I was surprised when Bristol popped up. Can’t say I have ever heard of the Uni in the UK being good. Edinburgh is actually a very underrated University. It is pretty much on par with St. Andrew’s IMHO. But these are just overall rankings. It’s kind of meaningless when you’re applying for something very specific like Economics.</p>
<p>Professors may take one or two weeks to reply. Personal experience.</p>
<p>Thanks. I guess I’ll wait then, haha.</p>