<p>How's the accounting & finance course in LSE like? Is it entitled to the same recognition as compared to say, its Economics course?
I am actually trying to decide between Cornell Economics & LSE accounting & finance, and the cost discrepency between both places is about $35K USD (LSE is the cheaper school), and I wonder whether its worthed going Cornell when it is going to be soooo much more expensive..</p>
<p>Unclebob,</p>
<p>I had about a 1st, and I had no problem getting in. It was just funding (they offered me no aid) that kept me from going. I don't really think that LSE is that much more difficult to get into than any premier American institution. </p>
<p>I should know, I couldn't get into Harvard, JHU, or Columbia's program in the same field.</p>
<p>It depends very much on the course to which you are applying. Economics courses are some of the most competitive in the world at the LSE. Courses in the Organisational Behaviour barely attract enough applicants to fill the course.</p>
<p>Acceptance to the MSc Economics at the LSE is very tough, and requires excellent grades in a respected economics degree with very high quant scores on he GRE test. You can get into Organisational Behaviour with a low 2:1.</p>
<p>I believe the top US universities are generally more consistent at the masters level with acceptance lying between 20-40%, mainly because masters courses are slightly atypical - with more people directly pursuing doctorates.</p>
<p>However, if we consider overall graduate admissions, I would agree that in the US, courses are much more widely competitive across the top Universities, with applicant success ranging from about 5% on popular doctoral programs to about 50% on unpopular masters programs.</p>
<p>Accounting and Finance is a fantastic department at the LSE - receiving a 5* A rating in the previous research assessment. You really can't study this subject anywhere better in the UK or Europe.</p>
<p>Comparing it with US courses however takes me out of my area....</p>
<p>From what I have understood about the field, it is also important to look at the career that follows. I believe accounting in particular varies massively from country to country, and in the UK a degree in accounting is just the first step, with various professional qualifications required afterwards to actually give accountancy advice.</p>
<p>Bottom line, great degree, great department, best in Europe. But I can't compare it, or for that matter tell you what options you may or may not be restricted to afterwards.</p>
<p>Best of luck</p>
<p>Unclebob,</p>
<p>Hi, I've been accepted to LSE's LLB Law. Since I'm unsure about pursuing a legal career straight after college, I'm wondering if I would be at any disadvantage in applying to U.S. graduate schools with a LLB degree compared to having a degree in the states, or compared to an LSE degree in Economics or Finance. </p>
<p>Also, how well would I be able to find a job outside Law in UK, e.g. in finance?</p>
<p>Trust me life gets a lot harder once your outside the US, it is not owrth going to an international school at the undergrad level. You still have a lot to learn, and the natives from there probably won't respect you as much in the law field.</p>
<p>But, I haven't lived in the US for my whole life (lived in UK till I was 8). Plus, I have spent two years abroad in Spain, speaking the language.</p>
<p>Than maybe, but honestly my cousin got accepted at Cornell , Uchicago and georgetown here and LSE and really wanted to do economics and chose to go to Georgetown Business because he said it simply wasn't worth the "hardships" money, foreign place and people and distance from family.</p>
<p>Oh, BTW, I live in Hong Kong, which runs a British based law system. If I go to LSE or Hong Kong University I will need 4-6 years and be able to practice law, whereas if I study law in USA, I'll need 4 years undergrad + 3 years Law School + 1-2 years for the conversion test to Hong Kong law + some years for pupillage...i.e. 10-12 years (2x of the time I'd need to go to UK) You have no idea how many LSE law grads are being recruited by major London law firms. </p>
<p>Yet, I'm still considering how LSE's degree will help in getting into Grad School in US or jobs in the financial sector.</p>
<p>The LSE LLB is one of the best in the UK, second only to those offered by Oxbridge (which runs a virtual monopoly in the UK barrister's profession)</p>
<p>I can't tell you what the LSE LLB will do for you in Hong Kong, but I can in the UK and US.</p>
<p>With the LLB (3 years) - if you graduate with a 1st, and complete the BVC (Barrister's Vocational Course) you can get a place in Chambers as a junior barrister (first as a pupil for a year, and then as a fully fledged barrister)</p>
<p>The starting salary in this field will about about £45,000, or roughly converted, $70,000. </p>
<p>Within 5 years you could expect to be making over £100,000, or about $170,000. Then dependent on progress in the profession, you could reach a point where earning hits the million pound mark and beyond. This is just in the UK.</p>
<p>Becoming a sollicitor is more secure than becoming a barrister (you get a salary rather than working on fees to clients), but the earning potential isn't the same.</p>
<p>IF YOU WANT to work in business, law is a useful short cut. If you take an economics degree or finance or accounting, you will find yourself having to take a "gradute entry" job at about £30,000, and your stuck inside the mad beaurocracy of a 'big company'. You'll have to play the internal politics, fight, decieve, work hard, and if you do well enough you can make it to the top.</p>
<p>Being a lawyer is an OLD profession, it comes with a culture of backscratching, friendship, prejudice and power. If you meet the right people nothing is beyond you as a lawyer.</p>
<p>The LSE LLB will be highly respected in the US in academic and professional circles - though not so much by the man on the street. An high quality LSE LLB degree will be a ticket to the highest realms of both the UK legal profession (not the US - u'll need to pass their exams) which is the most powerful profession in the UK (politics and business is dominated by ex-lawyers). The LSE name is also a ticket to any top US college (HYPSM).</p>
<p>My advice is - business like internationalism. The more languages you speak, the more cultures you've experienced, the more useful you are. </p>
<p>You've got the Asian experience in your back pocket, add Europe through the LSE, plus the US with a postgraduate LLM. Get a job as a CORPORATE barrister in the UK. Build up some capital and experience, join the right clubs, build up a network of people who owe you one. With the experience (when you hit about....27) get an MBA from a top college.</p>
<p>Then the big companies will drool over you to fill their CEO, VP, CFO, CLO positions, with your breadth of knowledge, culture and experience.</p>
<p>Law is the best degree for business, and in a increasingly global marketplace, you need men and women of the broad experience to make things happen. Not some closeted little US kid who went to Harvard, got all his degrees up to Ph.D and never left the state.</p>
<p>Edit: Sorry for the rather "stream of consciousness" style - I've got the same ambition as you to make it in business. I took a BSc Economics course at the LSE (no doubt the best economics course in Europe), and I'm now off to Stanford to read an M.S in Management Science. I'm also learning Mandarin, and when I get back to the UK, I'm converting to LAW. You can take a CPE course which is a complete LLB course in one year. I'm also taking some finance and accounting papers for a Diploma from the SII.</p>
<p>By the end I hope to have a BSc Econ (LSE), M.S Management Science (Stanford), MSI (Member of Securities Institute), GDL (Graduate Diploma in Law) and Barrister VC from the Institute of Law. And most importantly of all, I'll speak English, French, Dutch and (fingers crossed) Chinese, and will have lived and worked and studied in many different countries.</p>
<p>Cover the bases: 1. Finance/Econ/Accounting 2. Law 3. Internationalism 4. Business Practise (MBA or MSc).</p>
<p>2 or 3 of those + 5-7 years experience will get you the BIG jobs.</p>
<p>Drop me an e-mail to <a href="mailto:vansante@stanford.edu">vansante@stanford.edu</a> and if you want I can point you to the best places to find info or talk about it in more detail - I've been researching this stuff for about a year solid lol!</p>
<p>Quoted: "Than maybe, but honestly my cousin got accepted at Cornell , Uchicago and georgetown here and LSE and really wanted to do economics and chose to go to Georgetown Business because he said it simply wasn't worth the "hardships" money, foreign place and people and distance from family."</p>
<p>That is the sort of mistake that will prevent you from being a success in business. On that list, LSE stands out for its pedigree in economics, Cornell stands out for its Ivy league status and general high standards. Chicago in my opinion the best place in the WORLD to study economics! Its steeped in history and academic excellence for politics and economics. In my opinion, Harvard, Chicago and the LSE (and maybe the Stockholm School of Economics) are the institutions that have definied modern economics.</p>
<p>If you want to be King of your street corner, go to your local university. If you want to be a real success, go to the best place.</p>
<p>If you'd said your cousin went for academic reasons - then fine, we could debate that. But to be close to your family, or being scared of foriegn places? Bloody hell, the UK University system is the model for all US colleges. Why are so many US colleges in places called Oxford (e.g. various unis in the South) or Cambridge (e.g. Harvard). Theres nothing to be afraid of, we're nice people lol! We've got the Olympics coming here in 2012 :p</p>
<p>If I could give any advice....its do exactly the opposite to what this person's cousin did....every choice you have, apply the reasoning the cousin would, and do the opposite.</p>
<p>"With the LLB (3 years) - if you graduate with a 1st, and complete the BVC (Barrister's Vocational Course) you can get a place in Chambers as a junior barrister (first as a pupil for a year, and then as a fully fledged barrister)"</p>
<p>Wow, I've heard its pretty hard to get a 1st in LLB....but thanks for all the info and advice~ really useful!</p>
<p>I'm going to send you an email soon... thanks very much for helping out!</p>
<p>Please do shut up. American schooling is so much more expensive to live in London and go to LSE. Harvard is muchos better than LSE. LSE is v. easy to get into if you are from America because they love International Students because they are the ones who pay out the money.</p>
<p>My cousin went to Georgetown for their business program. He is now working for GS sales and trading. He said in the end busines would pay more and even though Georgetown is not ranked that high it has the best connections.</p>
<p>ElWilson, who's post are you referring to?</p>
<p>the person I was referring to got financial aid. That's what made the difference.</p>
<p>Regarding ElWilson's post, if it was a retort to mine, the issue I was address mainly focused on the comparison of economic departments, mainly on the basis of global impact - i.e. research and consultancy. </p>
<p>I can refer you to the wikipedia article on the LSE which has an entire section devoted to an anylsis of the LSE's impact on economic research. Two major rankings place LSE Economics Ph.D students as the most productive and effective in the world.</p>
<p>All rankings confirm the LSE as the best outside America, and all confirm the LSE in the top 10, often outcompeting the best American colleges.</p>
<p>If you have an offer from Harvard however I would recommend everyone to go there, because life is about building a picture of yourself, not about creating a reality. If you can make people believe you're a genius, its as good as being a genius - Harvard will paint that illusion no matter what. If your willing to take the risk of having to work for recognition, then there's no drawback to going to the LSE.</p>
<p>Also your issue of foriegn vs. domestic students is distinctly misguided. While the LSE takes a much higher proportion than other UK colleges from outside the EU at an undergraduate level, at a postgraduate level the ratio is quite typical, since EU students are guarunteed subsidization only at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>Since it has been mainly European students who have been asking questions, I feel my answers regarding the difficulty of entry stand true. Furthermore, the ratio of 27 applicants to every place on the BSc Economics course still stands as fact, irrespective of whether it may be a little easier or harder depending on where you come from.</p>
<p>With regards to the issue of the cousin who went to Georgetown, the explanations given seem reasonable, and no offence was intended....but my point still stands. </p>
<p>Employers like pro-active, widely experienced students. Given the same education, you'll beat off the other candidates with extra languages and extra experience. If anything, this is one of the great advantages of the LSE in that your experience won't be of living and working in a closeted english university, but more of a large multinational corporation. If you can't hack the LSE, you can't hack the big jobs.</p>
<p>EDIT....: Having read ElWilson's post again (and again having had difficulty understanding what he meant) I would also point out that for families with less that $60,000 in the US, attending either Stanford or Harvard, the undergraduate tuition is free.</p>
<p>In the US, at most big universities, doctoral programs have the tuition funded by the University and an income of over $20,000 provided through a stipend.</p>
<p>In the UK, you can only get a loan to help with tuition costs. The reduced tuition fee level doesn't come free, but is funded by the government (and increased taxation) and funding for doctoral programs is virtual non-existent outside the top institutions.</p>
<p>hey..im in the 11th grade and decided to apply to lse for eco and was just wondering if anyone could tell me what I could do outside school to get an edge over the rest? a guy i spoke to from lse who came down to our school specified that you should show interest in the subject you want to pursue, which for me is economics. any ideas?</p>
<p>Try to get an internship at something related to the subject over summer in some way. At high school I'm sure the oportunities are more limited than college and grad school but I'm sure there is something related to the subject out there you can do. Also read a few articles and some begginer text books.</p>
<p>shouldn't you be in 12th grade?</p>