<p>So got into both JHU and the London School of Economics (conditional offer) and I really cannot decide between the two.</p>
<p>I'm an American and I've been living in England for the past 5 years so I was really looking forward to going back to the States for college as I'm getting kinda sick of it here (I already live in London, too).</p>
<p>My parents really want me to go to LSE but then again I'm not the kind to really follow instructions from my parents. I just think that there might be better graduate school/job opportunities for an LSE graduate over that from JHU, though I may be mistaken.</p>
<p>Any opinions? Considering also other aspects of the schools (social life, etc).</p>
<p>First things first, what do you plan to study? LSE is fairly specialized…</p>
<p>Hi I’m an JHU alumni currently at LSE for my masters. Let me just say that the LSE academics are completely INFERIOR compared to what I had at JHU. Honestly I regret my choice coming here, I’m in one of their famous masters International Relations and the quality of education is honestly disappointing. I learned soo much more at Hopkins and had much better access to faculty at JHU. Unless you want to go into finance LSE and JHU are the same for job stuff. To be honest when I go on interviews here in London the thing that raises eyebrows isn’t LSE but my JHU degree. I know a few undergrads that are transferring to US schools because they can’t stand the quality of education and the fact LSE is merely resting on its laurels. Do yourself a favor, go to JHU.
Social life wise, JHU has a campus, LSE doesn’t. While LSE brings in a lot of interesting speakers, its in the capital of UK DUH, there is much more to do as a student at JHU, the student groups are more active, so much better food options. I’m sorry but food in London is disappointing. Go to Jong Gok in Korea town in bmore and you will NEVER want to leave the place. Also only a certain “personality” of student fits well at LSE. Go to JHU, an LSE degree isn’t worth as much as it used to. Even my friends in the vaunted Finance degree at LSE aren’t getting jobs while my friends back in the states are doing much better. The british education system is far inferior to the American one. Trust me. Do yourself a favor and don’t burn away 3 years of your life.</p>
<p>Whilst I have not studied in the USA I understand that the university systems are more about serving up information in bite sized chunks.</p>
<p>The UK system, especially at elite universities such as LSE is more about independent learning, so you will get a reading list, maybe 6 to 8 contact hours a week, and the rest of the time you’re on your own. It’s a culture shock for people from Russia, America and loads of other places.</p>
<p>To say that you are disappointed with the experience is a fair comment, but that’s the way the British system works and I don’t see it changing.</p>
<p>At LSE it’s about what you put in and get out, no hand holding I’m afraid. I learnt loads from the huge number of international students, that in itself made it worthwhile for me.</p>
<p>mgarthwaite its also about the academic culture. At JHU I was taught to openly think and question. Professors didn’t mind being questioned in seminars and actively encouraged it to create interesting discussion. And one can say the same thing for elite american schools that its about independent learning because besides the contact time you have long reading lists. But from someone that graduated from an elite american university ie Johns Hopkins and is at the “premiere” institute for social sciences in Europe I can 100% say that the academic environment and chance for growth is JHU is far superior. I find that most of my british classmates that graduated from “elite” universities of the UK such as Oxbridge LSE etc tend to be excellent essay writers and regurgitate what their tutors stated but when it comes to seminars the students from Canadian, American, and Australian universities in general add more to the conversation. Also the funny thing is the commentator’s statement on American’s not being used to long reading lists is completely absurd. A good school has an equal balance of self study and guidance. At JHU what I learned in class and seminars was supplemented by academics that were pleased to see eager students wanting to learn and rewarded them by spending time and having great discussions. At LSE its more like a punch clock. Even my thesis advisor who happens to teach my classes at LSE says that if he had the opportunity he would like to teach at an American university because the students want to interact with faculty and want to learn more. And its true, a lot of academics at LSE treat interacting as a necessary chore and pain in the butt. Saying go read it in the library and shooing someone off doesn’t help them when they want to really understand something from an expert. For some people reading in the library is enough and a British university is good for that. But at Johns Hopkins, there really is this sense of growth. Especially now that JHU is focusing soo much more on undergrad. Also remember there is a reason why America universities are considered the top in the world, they most of the time do a great job at having students really reach in deep and explore.</p>
<p>I would agree that one of the issues at Masters level is that you are not expected to have a massively divergent opinion to the core literature. It is also my experience that American’s are far better at verbalising their ideas, but this is a cultural thing; Asian students are not used to questioning their professors.</p>
<p>I found the seminar component of my MSc very useful, but then again I was on a small programme of 26, but I think that the other programmes split you into small seminar groups.</p>
<p>I supervisor was next to useless so I stopped going to see him.</p>
<p>Not that it’s much comfort but grad students get a lot more FaceTime with academics than undergrads (who are a little miffed about that also).</p>
<p>I have often wondered why universities like LSE say that they have excellence in teaching, I buy into excellence in research, but as not have noticed “teaching” is not really part of the experience (well not as I understand it from the inspired teachers that I have had elsewhere)</p>
<p>LSE changed the way I viewed the world which is something that I did not expect to happen if I’m totally honest.</p>
<p>Its even worse for undergraduate, students are penalized for original thinking from talking to my friends doing undergraduate. I don’t know where you studied undergraduate but Johns Hopkins is far superior in every way and form compared to LSE. What LSE has taught me to appreciate my time at Hopkins. Frozzen you’d make a horrible mistake choosing LSE over JHU. The only people that would tell you not to go are people that have never experienced top american education or people that are pathological liars.</p>
<p>Ah the problem there is quite simple, my “original thinking” is not answering the question asked. This does not help you get a good grade.</p>
<p>I think that we can not really compare the American liberal arts way of teaching to the UK system. You specialise in the subject and it’s very difficult to change, you can be it normally means starting from scratch again.</p>
<p>BlueJayBJ I think you are being a little harsh on LSE, it’s a great university, consistently gets the highest number of applicants per place that Oxbridge (by a large margin) so it’s not all bad. I don’t think any university in the UK can compete with the facilities of elite, Campus based, US Universities, so if that’s important to you then the USA wins hands down.</p>
<p>I’m sure JHU or LSE would be a dream for a lot of people so having offers from both is a real nice place to be I think.</p>
<p>In answer to your question BlueJayBJ, I did my undergrad at <a href=“http://www.ou.ac.uk%5B/url%5D”>www.ou.ac.uk</a>, the Open University. This is a distance learning university set up by the UK government in the 1960s. It’s called Open because for undergrad course there are no formal entry qualifications required (so an anti-elite university). What this means is that the course material has to be of an extremely high quality, the OU teaches across multiple platforms (internet, computer programs, books) and even has a special unit that partners with the BBC to produce TV programmes for the courses.</p>
<p>So I had great course material, a lecturer for the course that I could call or email whenever I liked (within reason), it was a great experience and way to learn.</p>
<p>Then I rock up at LSE and get given a reading list, and have to fight with 150 over people trying to get the set text, which course collect only has 4 copies of (oh and home students pay the same course fees as international students for most MSc). So I do know where you’re coming from on the issues you raise about the LSE experience; but I think you have to look past that.</p>
<p>But I still really enjoyed my time there and have made some wonderful friends from all over the world.</p>
<p>Its not looking past that, I think its unfair for you to try to comment on this when you haven’t experienced half of what this guy is asking for. I have been at JHU AND LSE and I can tell him that my JHU experience and the academic & social experience at JHU is far superior. I know the Open University, before coming to LSE I was debating between going to Oxford and LSE for my masters and chose to go to LSE and I research universities and heard about OU. And believe me JHU is a tad better than LSE when it comes to international students, LSE tends to force students to stick with their own groups in general and at JHU everyone mingles. Frozzen if you would like to meet up with me here in London to discuss JHU I would be more than happy to. Congrats on your admissions and I hope you find your 4 years at homewood to be enjoyable.</p>
<p>It’s hardly unfair. I have stated that I don’t know JHU, hence said nothing. You appear to love the place, fine, but may I suggest you be a little more crtical instead of resorting to crude dichotomies.</p>
<p>If you don’t like LSE go home.</p>
<p>I think a lot of this depends on where you want to work/settle and other factors rather than just on the merits of each school. LSE would have more connections in the UK, while JHU would have more connections in the US (provided you have proper documentation for working in each country). LSE is a city school, JHU has a campus. Do you want to stay near your friends from secondary school? Are there a lot of kids from your school going to America? etc.</p>
<p>I used to work as a tutor for some British kids. Out of curiousity, which secondary school do you attend?</p>
<p>They are not crude dichotomies, part of the university experience is the academic culture. At JHU all my professors were not only accessible, they actually encouraged it because they wanted to be around young curious minds. I’ll never forget a professor I had at JHU that taught middle east politics, not only after graduation did we keep in touch, but during the Iranian election protests the email conversations we had were incredible. Thats the type of place JHU is, while not every professor is like that of course, its a pretty good ratio. At the LSE you have professors that really don’t care/ We even had one dodging his own lectures (the famous arm chair theorist Chris Brown was supposed to lecture for our programs mandatory course yet 2nd term always found an excuse). Unfortunately my view of LSE went from going to a place where I can pursue my academic passions to one where just going to get a degree that can give me an extra push into the door. If this threadstarter wanted to compare two american schools then yes flaws of jhu can be examined. But the American higher education system is far superior to the british one. The “so called” specialization of british education is a crock compared to the American philosophy of specialization and liberal arts. If one or 2 modules is equivalent to specialization then what does 7 - 8 courses mean lol? If the thread starter wants to stay in London then go to LSE, but if the main desire is learning definitely go to JHU.</p>
<p>BlueJay, I think you are seriously underselling the UK education system. I have experienced it on both sides of the table (student and instructor) and while it is different than the undergraduate education I received at JHU, I didn’t find it to be terrible as you are describing. I’m sorry your experience at LSE has been so negative, especially since I know a number of alumni who have had wonderful, life-changing experiences there. Perhaps the problem is with your course rather than the university as a whole? I don’t know firsthand, but I have a hard time believing such an internationally renowned university that has produced a number of people that I know personally to be intelligent, creative, and critical thinkers is in reality so poor.</p>
<p>That being said, there are a number of differences between the UK and the US system that the OP should consider. Firstly, the US system allows for breadth of education. At JHU you can (as I did) take subjects like anthropology, art history, behavioral biology, psychology, environmental sciences, creative writing, and theater in addition to whatever you’re majoring in. In the UK, this would not be the case. As is the case at Oxbridge, LSE, and the University of Lincoln (so all across the spectrum), you would intensely specialize in your subject for all three years. While in some cases this might allow for some overlap (ie a language major might take history and literature) you will generally be focused. Is this something you want?</p>
<p>Another major thing to consider would be social life. Now, for example, social life in a city school like LSE focuses on the city. sure, there might be a few campus pubs (I’m guessing LSE has one) but your life will be focused on the city as a whole. Saturday nights in Shoreditch, etc. JHU has a much more containted social life. Sure, you can (and will, especially after you turn 21) explore the city, but your saturday nights will most likely be spent at a JHU bar like CVP or at a JHU party thrown by a club, friend, or frat.</p>
<p>Unfortunately my opinions on the British education system aren’t just as a student but also as an employer. Before returning to grad school I work abroad at one of the BRICS and looked for my replacement before I was able to leave. The individuals I interviewed that were UK nationals came from the uber prestigious oxbridge, LSE, SOAS etc. Needless to say I was not impressed by either their attitudes, knowledge of the area in which supposedly they “specialized” in while at these schools, or their ability to problem solve. I will never forget having a young arrogant man from Oxford that read oriental studies that brought letters from his tutors praising his language skills and confirming that he scored top marks. When these skills were actually put to test in a case study I administered in the language, this young performed poorly while snobbishly reminding he was top of his class that year. It wasn’t merely his inability to use the language that I had already stated previously needed fluency, this young man’s solution to the problem made absolutely no sense. While none of the other candidates from these universities were that extreme they showed the same sense of unearned entitlement and intellectual superiority that when challenged folded. Ultimately I hired a local that went to an excellent American university. While some of the candidates from HYP I interviewed showed a level of arrogance I saw in the British candidates it was no where near universal and had the decency to show humility when their solutions were picked apart. So as a student and in the working world I don’t understand individuals that laud the british education system.I would encourage individuals that can afford and have the opportunity to study at a top american university to take it.</p>
<p>I really feel that you are underselling UK education in a way that’s borderline offensive. maybe you did not interview the best candidates from oxbridge. Maybe oxbridge isn’t the best place to study Oriental Studies. However, Oxbridge is top not only in the country but in the world for other subjects such as PPE, modern european languages, economics, and english literature. I am saying this as a JHU graduate–I love the education I received at JHU, but that doesn’t mean these other schools don’t have merit as well. Much of the British education system is what you make of it. It requires independent learners to take full advantage of the opportunities given to you. Some people do, some people don’t. </p>
<p>I firmly believe that the OP should consider the style of education s/he will receive at LSE and JHU and which one s/he would personally prefer rather than which is “better.”</p>