<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I've been accepted to Penn (Wharton), and I'm currently holding an offer to the London School of Economics. Assuming I make my LSE offer, where do you think I should go?</p>
<p>Thank you for helping me choose.</p>
<p>isn’t it kind of late to choose? I mean, the deadline for replying was May 1st …</p>
<p>UK placement: LSE>>Wharton
US placement: Wharton>>LSE
Asia placement: LSE>>>>>>Wharton
Overall placement: LSE>Wharton</p>
<p>Business school placement of each school should be about equal, with LSE giving you an admissions edge for top US MBA programs because of lesser competition for spots from the UK.</p>
<p>I personally think LSE is the better choice because of how easy it is for graduates from there to find employment in Investment Banking in the UK and Asia. Wharton is just as superb at placement as LSE, but the competition for the top jobs is higher.</p>
<p>Going to Asia is much easier even if you only speak English than working in NY or London, so I wouldn’t factor that into your decision too heavily.</p>
<p>If you speak a major Asian language (Mandarin, Korean, or Japanese) then I wouldn’t concern myself at all on that front. Recruiting for hong kong positions is almost a joke in that situation in terms of how hard it is with the above-mentioned schools.</p>
<p>The MBA prospects are something which you shouldn’t be thinking about currently. You should be working for at least 2 years in the workforce after you graduate, and that will have a significantly larger impact on how your MBA prospects. </p>
<p>Wharton does offer a program which gives you your MBA as well in 5 years which you can apply for starting in sophomore year I believe, but it’s rare for it to actually be of value in your career bc of the decreased flexibility in positions you can enter.</p>
<p>Go to LSE!!!</p>
<p>Depends where you want to end up working, if you want to work in Europe go to LSE, if you want to work in North America got to Wharton. If you want to go somewhere else it is virtually the same, both will give you the resources to get the job you want, it all depends on what you do with them. Nevertheless, I feel that Wharton gives you a much more fulfilling and balanced university experience, there are many, many concentration that you can choose to guide your career path. Also, if you want to go into finance, Wharton simply has the world’s best professors. LSE is obviously stronger in pure economics, but for everything else Wharton has the upper hand, the opportunities are endless. I feel that LSE is too focused on econ. My 2 cents</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your contribution. </p>
<p>Concerning employment prospects, I am not planning on working in Asia, and I’m still quite hesitant between EU and US. From what I’ve gathered it would be more of a challenge to get into a good US MBA program from Wharton seeing as there is more competition than there would be coming from LSE.</p>
<p>hmm I get a feel that you actually have not looked into Wharton well enough. If you graduate out of Wharton with a decent GPA (top 50%) you will most likely get such a good job that going for an MBA will be redundant, a waste of time and money. The benefits of an MBA are comparable to Wharton undergrad. You dont need an MBA coming out of Wharton if you do decently well, doing an MBA will actually slow your career path. Only 30% of Wharton grads do an MBA (I am confident that most of these are in the lower 50%).</p>
<p>^Tell that to the Zynga CEO. He has Wharton degree and MBA from Harvard.</p>
<p>you are talking about an exception, not the norm.</p>
<p>EDIT:Nevermind</p>
<p>poste3 is right…only ~30% of Wharton undergrads go on to get an MBA…from my experience those that go do it for a few reasons (and not because they are in the lower 50% of the class)…1) in order to switch careers, 2) take a 2 year “vacation” from work life, or 3) just purely want the master’s level title.</p>
<p>FYI—I checked with a friend who had a son graduate from LSE, and he was able to name his price and his field of interest after completing his education at LSE. He was so qualified post LSE that he felt that a Masters was over kill in the job market.</p>
<p>@whartongrad08: More LSE students land HF and PE out of undergrad than Whartonites do (look it up if you want). Barely anyone needs an MBA out of LSE Econ either. It’s actually pretty ridiculous how easy they have it during recruiting, compared to students at HYPS and W. </p>
<p>Seriously, this is an extremely easy decision. Where do you want to work straight out of undergrad? If it’s the UK or Asia, LSE hands down. If it’s the US, then Wharton. Both are awesome. Although, if you want to transition into the prestigious post-IB jobs faster, LSE is better (more getting HF and PE straight out).</p>
<p>@princetondreams can you post a link to that info please? Dont get me wrong, you might be right, but I believe that the difference is negligible at best. I get a feeling you are just assuming. Lets not give prospects wrong info.</p>
<p>@princetondreams - like poste3 said could you post a link. I’ve looked it up on LSE’s website and they don’t have a detailed career placement survey. The most detail I’ve been able to gather is for their finance/accouting department graduates ([Accounting</a> undergraduate careers - Accounting and Finance - Graduate destinations by Department & Institute (A-Z) - Graduate destinations - Careers and vacancies - Staff and students - Home](<a href=“http://www2.lse.ac.uk/intranet/CareersAndVacancies/graduateDestinations/graduateDestinationsA-Z/accountingAndFinance/undergraduatecareers.aspx]Accounting”>http://www2.lse.ac.uk/intranet/CareersAndVacancies/graduateDestinations/graduateDestinationsA-Z/accountingAndFinance/undergraduatecareers.aspx)) and for their econ grads ([Economics</a> undergraduate careers - Economics - Graduate destinations by Department & Institute (A-Z) - Graduate destinations - Careers and vacancies - Staff and students - Home](<a href=“http://www2.lse.ac.uk/intranet/CareersAndVacancies/graduateDestinations/graduateDestinationsA-Z/economics/undergraduatecareers.aspx]Economics”>http://www2.lse.ac.uk/intranet/CareersAndVacancies/graduateDestinations/graduateDestinationsA-Z/economics/undergraduatecareers.aspx)). Compared to the wharton UG surveys ([Career</a> Services, University of Pennsylvania](<a href=“http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/reports.html]Career”>http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/reports.html)) their placement is pretty weak; particularly for top HF and PE. Additionally, based on personal experience in the field working both in the UK and US in IBD/PE I would say that anecdotally both Harvard and Wharton place better into HF and PE directly from undergrad than LSE - with Wharton having an advantage over Harvard. The only place where LSE has an advantage in is the UK. So if you want to work in the UK then go to LSE…otherwise Wharton, Harvard, etc. will open up more doors. </p>
<p>Princeton - Let’s face it…1. you’ve been known for being a Penn ■■■■■ for a while on this site (just search for your posts in the Penn forum) and 2. you’re still in h.s. and likely don’t really know anything about the finance world other than what you have read on CC and other forums like M&I and WSO.</p>
<p>All depends where you work after.</p>
<p>If you work in US, go Wharton first. If you work in UK and Asia, go LSE first.</p>
<p>You may swap them in Graduate School.</p>
<p>Either way, both are very good. Congraduations if you can get both. Turn the coin then go will do.</p>