<p>LSE would be more comparable to Columbia than NYU to be honest...</p>
<p>Maybe knowing that would help give the parents some perspective?</p>
<p>That's what I'd like to hear. haha thank you nauru</p>
<p>yep LSE has a dual degree program with Columbia (LLB/JD)....so they shud be more comparable</p>
<p>yes yes...<em>nods</em></p>
<p>I guess one of the problems of studying in the UK is that British undergraduate curricula tend to be very specialized and narrowly focused on one single subject. That can be either positive or negative in the long run, depending on what your plans for the future are. </p>
<p>For example, if you plan to go to graduate school in the US in areas like, let's say, engineering, economics or hard sciences (physics, chemistry, etc.), a British undergraduate education is probably a plus. I say that because, in engineering for example, courses taken outside your major (i.e. in non-technical areas) have little weight in graduate school applications whereas, if you get a British BSc/MENg degree, your undergraduate curriculum will probably include several advanced classes (graduate-level by U.S. standards) that will look great in any master's or Ph.D application. </p>
<p>If , on other hand, your ultimate goal is to attend Law School in the U.S, I tend to think that a broader U.S liberal arts curriculum would probably look more attractive to adcoms than a very narrowly-focused UK curriculum in a humanities/social sciences subject like anthropology. </p>
<p>In any case, LSE is indeed very prestigious and name recognition alone might override any other concerns such as the ones I've mentioned here.</p>
<p>by rule of thumb: a UK BA is equal to a US MA</p>
<p>I did social anthropology at LSE (20 years ago!) - everyone recognized the degree when I came back, btw. Anthropology is somewhat removed from the rest of the school, but quite close knit too. I loved it. Unlike US schools, I just took anthro classes, no distribution requirements, so I got a lot of depth and breadth in a short time. I had friends at the U of London School of African and Oriental Studies too, which might have more Islamic focussed classes you might be able to take. I loved it and I still think of my time in London with tremendous fondness.</p>
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I did social anthropology at LSE (20 years ago!) - everyone recognized the degree when I came back, btw. Anthropology is somewhat removed from the rest of the school, but quite close knit too. I loved it. Unlike US schools, I just took anthro classes, no distribution requirements, so I got a lot of depth and breadth in a short time
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<p>Just out of curiosity, I looked at the undergraduate social anthropology curriculum at LSE. Apparently, in 3 years, one is required to take something like 10 or so full-year courses in social anthropology properly (roughly equivalent to 20 one-semester courses in the US !) plus only one full-year elective course from another subject chosen freely by the student . By contrast, I am not entirely sure, but I would guess a 4-year B.A. degree in anthropology, for example at Harvard, would require no more than 8 or 10 half-year courses in anthropology per se , plus a bunch of other free electives and compulsory general education courses from different areas other than anthropology itself. </p>
<p>In other words, after graduating from LSE with a BA in social anthropology, one really becomes somewhat of an expert anthropologist with a depth of knowledge in that subject probably comparable to that of an M.A. in the US. The problem however is that you pretty much do not learn anything else besides social anthropology, what, as I said, might be problematic if you want to move to a different field in the future, like a U.S. Law School for example. </p>
<p>In fact, as far as British undergraduate degrees are concerned, I would suspect the best preparation for a future legal education (J.D.) in the US would actually be something like Oxford's PPE course. First, because it is an interdisciplinary degree that allows one to study both philosophy, political science and economics (including math); second, because the entire PPE course is built on the acquisition of analytical skills (for example, in formal logic and reasoning) that are precisely what a student needs to succeed in Law School.</p>