<p>I've migrated to these forums from your British equivalent, <a href="http://www.thestudentroom.net%5B/url%5D">www.thestudentroom.net</a>. I am wondering if any of you could provide me with an assessment of my university's reputation in the US - purely out of interest. I study at the London School of Economics. If you could offer me suggestions of US colleges that are, in your opinion, of equal prestige then that would be particularly interesting.</p>
<p>Many thanks,</p>
<p>Tom</p>
<p>p.s. Feel free to ask me any questions if you're interested in LSE</p>
<p>LSE is well-regarded in the US, perhaps the third best British college after Oxbridge. It's not as well-known over here as the top tier US schools, but I'm guessing that many of those who do know it might rank it in the same league with say Penn and Dartmouth - Not quite in the HYPSM stratosphere but still an outstanding university where you can get a top-notch education.</p>
<p>I'm an international and generally, after Oxford and Cam, most international students would put London in terms of prestige, and by London i mean the three big University of London colleges: Imperial College, UCL and the LSE. Most of the people from my school who got in to the lower-tier ivies like Cornell or Penn chose the U of London colleges over them..mainly because of the greater international recognition. One guy chose Imperial College over Stanford, though i think that was more to do with fees.</p>
<p>I have a lot of US friends and LSE has a very high rep there. I think it easily ranks with the most prestigious US colleges, and this is reflected in the THES table, based on the views of 1300 academics round the globe -it puts LSE 11th overall and second in the whole world in its key area of social sciences (ie economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, social philosophy, international relations etc), not far behind Harvard.</p>
<p>Not just Mick Jagger: JFK and his older brother (the one killed in the war) and one of RFK's sons, also Paul Volker, David Rockefeller, John Tower, Robert Rubin, George Soros even President Bartlett in the West Wing! There are many more, For example the current Kenyan president, the current prime ministers of Poland and Japan (he also went to UCL) and Jamaica, the current Queen of Denmark, the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne, even Gadaffi's son..</p>
<p>Thomas Hitchings -
Do you know any American exchange students at LSE? I understand they have to do a full year's courseload instead of the half-year that most overseas programs require. How challenging are the academics for American students?</p>
<p>LSE has a global name. Michigan, good as it is, does not. Just Google the two names in turn and you'll get some idea of the difference in name recognition and usage frequency.</p>
<p>Ok, to be honest--I hadn't heard of LSE until the THES rankings of 2005. But it's a really good university now that I know more about Britain.</p>
<p>Prior to it, I had heard of Cambridge, Oxford, and St. Andrews (the latter simply because Prince Andrew went there and it's supposedly extremely "posh")</p>
<p>Though my corner of the Midwest is rather worldly, LSE is basically unknown here. When I mention the schools that I am going to apply to, there is always a pause as someone asks, Wait, the London School of Economics? For those who have heard of it, however, it does rank very highly in terms of prestige, but it has almost no exposure in much of the United States. Oxford and Cambridge have much greater name recognition among "most people. but my impression is that those that you will be expecting to know of LSE, however, do.</p>
<p>Hatingtonyblair, Michigan is as global as LSE. If it weren't, I would have chosen LSE over Michigan. My #1 creiterion while selecting my undergraduate insitution was global prestige, primarily in EU countries and the Middle East. With the exception of England, Michigan was generally as respected as LSE.</p>
<p>Ilovehomework, Michigan's reputation is equal to some of the Ivies, including Penn (but neither has Yale's reputation).</p>
<p>Thomas, if I had to compare LSU to an Amerian university, I would compare it to the University of Chicago or Columbia University.</p>
<p>LSE and Oxford and the two hardest programs to get into for studying abroad at my college from what i understsand. And I went to an international high school with the IB in NYC, and while i don't know that we had anybody apply to LSE,i know we didn't get any offers from oxford in my graduating class for the 10 or so people that tried. Do you know anything about the summer program at LSE, like whether there's a minimum GPA (i know that for their exchange program they require something like a 3.7)? I wanted to do the exchange program, but it's a year-long program and i love my college too much to leave for a whole year, and i don't have the 3.7...So I thought the summer program would be a pretty good second option maybe? Just wondering if you had any thoughts on it.</p>
<p>'Hatingtonyblair, Michigan is as global as LSE. If it weren't, I would have chosen LSE over Michigan. My #1 creiterion while selecting my undergraduate insitution was global prestige, primarily in EU countries and the Middle East. With the exception of England, Michigan was generally as respected as LSE.'</p>
<p>Now, with respect to Alexandre, this really is living in a fantasy world. Michigan's a fine place, but what impact has it had on public life to match LSE's? Rightly or wrongly, from Paris to New Delhi, the name Michigan just does not have the same resonance in discussions of universities: and the key reason is what I've indicated -to be really well known globally a university has to be recognised as an innovator with an impact on public events..this really isn't the case with Michigan. Trust me.</p>