<p>Does anyone know the difficulty of getting into the summer sessions at LSE?</p>
<p>I'm looking to apply for next summer, and am wondering if the summer sessions are as rigorously selective as the normal admissions process?</p>
<p>Anyone with some insight on this?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’d be amazed if they were!</p>
<p>I am generalising here because I don’t know anything about LSE summer programs specifically. You might need to do some more specific research on that.</p>
<p>In general, UK students don’t do summer schools. They don’t even know what they are. They only get 5-6 weeks off (high) school anyway. If already enrolled at a university, if they fail there are re-sit exams (or re-sit the whole year).</p>
<p>Outside of term time, there are few academics around. They either get on with their own research while there are no undergrads to teach, or go on vacation. To make money the universities hire out their halls of residences (dorms) and facilities to educational companies. These companies charge foreign students a huge amount of money to have a UK summer school experience. Usually the admission criteria is you can pay. If the summer school is offering things like trips to Stonehenge and the like, it’s not run by LSE. UK schools are not travel agents and don’t run tours (for field trips and study abroad, UK students usually have to make their own travel arrangements. There is just a very different attitude towards students in the UK compared to the US, mainly consisting of, you’re an adult, deal with it.). You might have an amazing time on such a program, but it is very unlikely to be academically rigorous. They might pay some retired faculty or PhD students to teach you if you are lucky, and that will be closest you get to being a directly enrolled student.</p>