MSc Economic History (LSE) GPA Requirement

I will be graduating in hopefully a year or maybe a little more than that and I'm doing some preliminary research on graduate schools, particularly the MSc Economic History at LSE and the MSc Economic and Social History at Oxford. I currently go to school in the US, UC Davis to be specific, but I have a feeling that nobody really knows what UC Davis is and it's probably not important anyway.

I have been told that economic history courses are not particularly popular amongst people seeking a graduate level education because they do not necessarily provide a hard and fast pathway towards a PhD in Economics. However I may be very wrong about this. I've majored in economics because I found out I was really interested in the subject but I later realised that I'm more fond of economic history rather than straight up economics because I find theoretical concepts too abstract without studying them in appropriate contexts.

It was only recently that I found out about these two programmes at Oxford and LSE and I am really looking forward to studying there. Economic history is not available anywhere in the US and most schools do not offer terminal master's programmes anymore, and I don't like the idea of doing a PhD because spending money to write a dissertation seems very pointless to me as I would rather spend money learning in taught programmes.

So I had a glimpse at the respective course pages for both of the courses and realised Oxford required a 3.7 GPA and LSE requires a 3.5. I go to a UC and people don't normally have very high GPAs here because of the competition, so I find myself with a lowly 3.3 GPA dreaming about entering these two programmes. If I manage to push it up a little higher, nearer to 3.5, would I stand a realistic chance even if I fall short by the time I graduate? What other factors play a part in admissions in UK universities? I will not be requiring financial aid/funding.

I will be graduating in hopefully a year or maybe a little more than that and I'm doing some preliminary research on graduate schools, particularly the MSc Economic History at LSE and the MSc Economic and Social History at Oxford. I currently go to school in the US, UC Davis to be specific, but I have a feeling that nobody really knows what UC Davis is and it's probably not important anyway.

I have been told that economic history courses are not particularly popular amongst people seeking a graduate level education because they do not necessarily provide a hard and fast pathway towards a PhD in Economics. However I may be very wrong about this. I've majored in economics because I found out I was really interested in the subject but I later realised that I'm more fond of economic history rather than straight up economics because I find theoretical concepts too abstract without studying them in appropriate contexts.

It was only recently that I found out about these two programmes at Oxford and LSE and I am really looking forward to studying there. Economic history is not available anywhere in the US and most schools do not offer terminal master's programmes anymore, and I don't like the idea of doing a PhD because spending money to write a dissertation seems very pointless to me as I would rather spend money learning in taught programmes.

So I had a glimpse at the respective course pages for both of the courses and realised Oxford required a 3.7 GPA and LSE requires a 3.5. I go to a UC and people don't normally have very high GPAs here because of the competition, so I find myself with a lowly 3.3 GPA dreaming about entering these two programmes. If I manage to push it up a little higher, nearer to 3.5, would I stand a realistic chance even if I fall short by the time I graduate? What other factors play a part in admissions in UK universities? I will not be requiring financial aid/funding.