Advice from an Econ Grad/ Alternative View on League Tables/ Views on Bath
Advice
Alright so I've just graduated from Bath and used to spend a lot time on this forum when deciding on which courses to apply to. Like a lot of people on here, when I was applying I was thinking of Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick, St Andrews, Nottingham, Durham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Bath. Although this forum is great for general advice, it is normally from people who are applying this year rather than someone who has been through the whole process so I thought I would give my opinion (admittedly biased towards Bath and possibly wrong) and advice on things I wish I knew when I was applying for people considering their options this year.
1. Don't look at Research Assessment. This has zero bearing on your undergraduate degree. You don't really encounter any research which is being done in the department, you learn the contents of the modules and perhaps a bit of extra reading if you want to get a first and thats about it. I doubt content in courses are going to be significantly in the universities mentioned above. When applying to for masters courses I seriously doubt that LSE/Oxbridge MSc entrance admissions will look down on upon a graduate from Durham compared than a graduate from Bristol because of the lower Research Assessment.
2. Subject ranking are meaningless. When going into the job market, companies target universities rather than courses. These target universities do not tend to change much so I would completely disregard subject rankings, although overall rankings may give an indication into how well a university is targeted by employers. Also I doubt subject rankings have much bearings on MSc applications.
3. LSE/Oxbridge rule when it comes to financial jobs. Like a lot of Economics graduates I have tried to get a job in an investment bank (interviewed by all but two Bulge Brackets ibanks and have worked for two of them). What I have noticed is people from LSE/Oxbridge (and perhaps to a lower extent UCL) get interviews just because they go to LSE/Oxbridge, rather than the fact that they are good candidates. If you come from other universities you have to have something going for you (i.e a lot of extracurriculars/previous relevant experience) to get interviews. A few interviews I have been to have been >50% LSE candidates. Disclaimer: this is just personal experience.
4. Since going to A*AA non LSE/Oxbridge/UCL/Warwick universities have been easier to get offers from. Having spoken to a university admissions tutor at Bath they said that since going to A*AA there have been much fewer applications (as people can't really use the university as a back up anymore if they miss their offer from Oxbridge/LSE) which have lead to higher offer rates. I'm guessing this is the same for Durham/Bristol/Nottingham.
5. Don't do Economics just to get into financial services. Although most economics graduates go/ want to go into financial services it doesn't necessarily mean financial services firms hire mostly econ graduates. In fact most financial services firms like people from a number of courses and there are roles that are particularly suited to people on other courses (engineering/maths for structuring and history for equity research).
Alternative Look at League Tables
As the vast majority of top Econ graduates go into jobs after graduation (normally in financial services), I have looked at average salaries of graduates 6 months after graduation. Although admittedly this is a flawed metric (sensitive to geographic location of graduates and that pay is not perfectly correlated to quality of job), it does give an idea into the differences in prospects between non-Oxbridge/LSE/UCL universities.
Stats are from UniStats (http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/) and are just for pure Economics (Note that I haven’t looked at any other universities than the ones on the list, so there may be universities with higher salaries not in the list):
1. Cambridge- £40,000
2. UCL- £35,500
3. LSE, Bath (1 Year Placement)- £35,000
5. Oxford- £33,500
6. Bath (No Placement)- £30,000
7. Warwick- £29,000
8. Nottingham- £28,000
9. Bristol- £27,500
10. Durham- £27,000
11. Edinburgh- £25,000
12. St Andrews- £24,000
I’m guessing the salaries for Scottish Universities are so low as a lot of their graduates probably stay in Scotland rather than go to London where salaries are higher.
My Opinion on Bath
With a note to why Bath is so high up the salary list is most people who do placements either do their placements in investment banks/asset managers or government employers like the Bank of England or the Treasury. Whilst the majority of placements are not front office (although there are a quite a few front office roles in places like HSBC, UBS, asset managers and one or two at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) a lot of people secure front office summer internships/graduate positions after their placement due to their experience. Plus getting a good placement isn't that difficult because Bath is the only Top 10 university which offers a placement so you are at the top of the pile.
I have personally found that my placement has got me a lot of interviews and a graduate job that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Also at Bath you are effectively forced to look for jobs in your second year, as you don’t want to be one of the few people who don’t do a placement whereas in other universities you don’t really that pressure. I have found that a lot of my friends who have studied economics at Warwick, Nottingham and even LSE didn’t get work experience during their university degrees and haven’t got great jobs afterward as a result.
This is not to say your career prospects are the same at a place like LSE/Oxbridge and Bath. There will be jobs advertised on the career services at LSE/Oxbridge that will never be advertised at a university like Bath (normally at small but prestigious hedge funds/consultancies/investment banks). However the placement year does give you a good chance in most large and competitive firms for front office roles not least because it gives you a lot of things to talk about at interview.
In my opinion whilst I would not recommend picking Bath over LSE/Oxbridge/UCL, for places like Durham, Nottingham, Bristol and even Warwick you can make a strong case for going to Bath although this is just based on opinion. If you have any questions on my experience either PM me or ask on the thread.
Alright so I've just graduated from Bath and used to spend a lot time on this forum when deciding on which courses to apply to. Like a lot of people on here, when I was applying I was thinking of Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick, St Andrews, Nottingham, Durham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Bath. Although this forum is great for general advice, it is normally from people who are applying this year rather than someone who has been through the whole process so I thought I would give my opinion (admittedly biased towards Bath and possibly wrong) and advice on things I wish I knew when I was applying for people considering their options this year.
1. Don't look at Research Assessment. This has zero bearing on your undergraduate degree. You don't really encounter any research which is being done in the department, you learn the contents of the modules and perhaps a bit of extra reading if you want to get a first and thats about it. I doubt content in courses are going to be significantly in the universities mentioned above. When applying to for masters courses I seriously doubt that LSE/Oxbridge MSc entrance admissions will look down on upon a graduate from Durham compared than a graduate from Bristol because of the lower Research Assessment.
2. Subject ranking are meaningless. When going into the job market, companies target universities rather than courses. These target universities do not tend to change much so I would completely disregard subject rankings, although overall rankings may give an indication into how well a university is targeted by employers. Also I doubt subject rankings have much bearings on MSc applications.
3. LSE/Oxbridge rule when it comes to financial jobs. Like a lot of Economics graduates I have tried to get a job in an investment bank (interviewed by all but two Bulge Brackets ibanks and have worked for two of them). What I have noticed is people from LSE/Oxbridge (and perhaps to a lower extent UCL) get interviews just because they go to LSE/Oxbridge, rather than the fact that they are good candidates. If you come from other universities you have to have something going for you (i.e a lot of extracurriculars/previous relevant experience) to get interviews. A few interviews I have been to have been >50% LSE candidates. Disclaimer: this is just personal experience.
4. Since going to A*AA non LSE/Oxbridge/UCL/Warwick universities have been easier to get offers from. Having spoken to a university admissions tutor at Bath they said that since going to A*AA there have been much fewer applications (as people can't really use the university as a back up anymore if they miss their offer from Oxbridge/LSE) which have lead to higher offer rates. I'm guessing this is the same for Durham/Bristol/Nottingham.
5. Don't do Economics just to get into financial services. Although most economics graduates go/ want to go into financial services it doesn't necessarily mean financial services firms hire mostly econ graduates. In fact most financial services firms like people from a number of courses and there are roles that are particularly suited to people on other courses (engineering/maths for structuring and history for equity research).
Alternative Look at League Tables
As the vast majority of top Econ graduates go into jobs after graduation (normally in financial services), I have looked at average salaries of graduates 6 months after graduation. Although admittedly this is a flawed metric (sensitive to geographic location of graduates and that pay is not perfectly correlated to quality of job), it does give an idea into the differences in prospects between non-Oxbridge/LSE/UCL universities.
Stats are from UniStats (http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/) and are just for pure Economics (Note that I haven’t looked at any other universities than the ones on the list, so there may be universities with higher salaries not in the list):
1. Cambridge- £40,000
2. UCL- £35,500
3. LSE, Bath (1 Year Placement)- £35,000
5. Oxford- £33,500
6. Bath (No Placement)- £30,000
7. Warwick- £29,000
8. Nottingham- £28,000
9. Bristol- £27,500
10. Durham- £27,000
11. Edinburgh- £25,000
12. St Andrews- £24,000
I’m guessing the salaries for Scottish Universities are so low as a lot of their graduates probably stay in Scotland rather than go to London where salaries are higher.
My Opinion on Bath
With a note to why Bath is so high up the salary list is most people who do placements either do their placements in investment banks/asset managers or government employers like the Bank of England or the Treasury. Whilst the majority of placements are not front office (although there are a quite a few front office roles in places like HSBC, UBS, asset managers and one or two at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) a lot of people secure front office summer internships/graduate positions after their placement due to their experience. Plus getting a good placement isn't that difficult because Bath is the only Top 10 university which offers a placement so you are at the top of the pile.
I have personally found that my placement has got me a lot of interviews and a graduate job that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Also at Bath you are effectively forced to look for jobs in your second year, as you don’t want to be one of the few people who don’t do a placement whereas in other universities you don’t really that pressure. I have found that a lot of my friends who have studied economics at Warwick, Nottingham and even LSE didn’t get work experience during their university degrees and haven’t got great jobs afterward as a result.
This is not to say your career prospects are the same at a place like LSE/Oxbridge and Bath. There will be jobs advertised on the career services at LSE/Oxbridge that will never be advertised at a university like Bath (normally at small but prestigious hedge funds/consultancies/investment banks). However the placement year does give you a good chance in most large and competitive firms for front office roles not least because it gives you a lot of things to talk about at interview.
In my opinion whilst I would not recommend picking Bath over LSE/Oxbridge/UCL, for places like Durham, Nottingham, Bristol and even Warwick you can make a strong case for going to Bath although this is just based on opinion. If you have any questions on my experience either PM me or ask on the thread.
(edited 10 years ago)
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Apologies if posted twice, I edited my comments and my post has seemed to disappeared.
Advice
Alright so I've just graduated from Bath and used to spend a lot time on this forum when deciding on which courses to apply to. Like a lot of people on here, when I was applying I was thinking of Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick, St Andrews, Nottingham, Durham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Bath. Although this forum is great for general advice, it is normally from people who are applying this year rather than someone who has been through the whole process so I thought I would give my opinion (admittedly biased towards Bath and possibly wrong) and advice on things I wish I knew when I was applying for people considering their options this year.
1. Don't look at Research Assessment. This has zero bearing on your undergraduate degree. You don't really encounter any research which is being done in the department, you learn the contents of the modules and perhaps a bit of extra reading if you want to get a first and thats about it. I doubt content in courses are going to be significantly in the universities mentioned above. When applying to for masters courses I seriously doubt that LSE/Oxbridge will look down on upon a graduate from Durham compared than a graduate from Bristol because of the lower Research Assessment.
2. Subject ranking are meaningless. When going into the job market, companies target universities rather than courses. These target universities do not tend to change much so I would completely disregard subject rankings, although overall rankings may give an indication into how well a university is targeted by employers. Also I doubt subject rankings have much bearings on MSc applications.
3. LSE/Oxbridge rule when it comes to financial jobs. Like a lot of Economics graduates I have tried to get a job in an investment bank (interviewed by all but two Bulge Brackets ibanks and have worked for two of them). What I have noticed is people from LSE/Oxbridge (and perhaps to a lower extent UCL) get interviews just because they go to LSE/Oxbridge, rather than the fact that they are good candidates. If you come from other universities you have to have something going for you (i.e a lot of extracurriculars/previous relevant experience) to get interviews. A lot of interviews I have been to have been 50% LSE candidates. Disclaimer: this is just personal experience.
4. Since going to A*AA non LSE/Oxbridge/UCL/Warwick universities have been easier to get offers from. Having spoken to a university admissions tutor at Bath they said that since going to A*AA there have been much fewer applications (as people can't really use the university as a back up anymore if they miss their offer from Oxbridge/LSE) which have lead to higher offer rates. I'm guessing this is the same for Durham/Bristol/Nottingham.
5. Don't do Economics just to get into financial services. Although most economics graduates go/ want to go into financial services it doesn't necessarily mean financial services firms hire mostly econ graduates. In fact most financial services firms like people from a number of courses and there are roles that are particularly suited to people on other courses (engineering/maths for structuring and history for equity research).
Alternative Look at League Tables
As the vast majority of top Econ graduates go into jobs after graduation (normally in financial services), I have looked at average salaries of graduates 6 months after graduation. Although admittedly this is flawed metric (sensitive to geographic location of graduates and that pay is not perfectly correlated to quality of job), it does give an idea into the differences in prospects between non-Oxbridge/LSE/UCL universities.
Stats are from UniStats (http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/) and are just for pure Economics (Note that I haven’t looked at any other universities than the ones on the list, so there may be universities with higher salaries not in the list):
1. Cambridge- £40,000
2. UCL- £35,500
3. LSE, Bath (1 Year Placement)- £35,000
5. Oxford- £33,500
6. Bath (No Placement)- £30,000
7. Warwick- £29,000
8. Nottingham- £28,000
9. Bristol- £27,500
10. Durham- £27,000
11. Edinburgh- £25,000
12. St Andrews- £24,000
I’m guessing the salaries for Scottish Universities are so low as a lot of their graduates probably stay in Scotland rather than go to London where salaries are higher.
My Opinion on Bath
With a note to why Bath is so high up the salary list is most people who do placements either do their placements in investment banks/asset managers or government employers like the Bank of England or the Treasury. Whilst the majority of placements are not front office (although there are a quite a few front office roles in places like HSBC, UBS, asset managers and one or two in Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) a lot of people secure front office summer internships/graduate positions after their placement due to their experience. Plus getting a placement isn’t that difficult as Bath is the only top 10 uni which does placements so you are at the top of the pile.
I have personally found that my placement has got me a lot of interviews and a graduate job that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Also at Bath you are effectively forced to look for jobs in your second year, as you don’t want to be one of the few people who don’t do a placement whereas in other universities you don’t really that pressure. I have found that a lot of my friends who have studied economics at Warwick, Nottingham and even LSE didn’t get work experience during their university degrees and haven’t got great jobs afterward as a result.
This is not to say your career prospects are the same at a place like LSE/Oxbridge and Bath. There will be jobs advertised on the career services at LSE/Oxbridge that will never be advertised at a university like Bath (normally at small but prestigious hedge funds/consultancies/investment banks). However the placement year does give you a good chance in most large and competitive firms for front office roles not least because it gives you a lot of things to talk about at interview.
In my opinion whilst I would not recommend picking Bath over LSE/Oxbridge/UCL, for places like Durham, Nottingham, Bristol and even Warwick you can make a strong case for going to Bath although this is just based on opinion. If you have any questions on my experience either PM me or ask on the thread.
Advice
Alright so I've just graduated from Bath and used to spend a lot time on this forum when deciding on which courses to apply to. Like a lot of people on here, when I was applying I was thinking of Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick, St Andrews, Nottingham, Durham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Bath. Although this forum is great for general advice, it is normally from people who are applying this year rather than someone who has been through the whole process so I thought I would give my opinion (admittedly biased towards Bath and possibly wrong) and advice on things I wish I knew when I was applying for people considering their options this year.
1. Don't look at Research Assessment. This has zero bearing on your undergraduate degree. You don't really encounter any research which is being done in the department, you learn the contents of the modules and perhaps a bit of extra reading if you want to get a first and thats about it. I doubt content in courses are going to be significantly in the universities mentioned above. When applying to for masters courses I seriously doubt that LSE/Oxbridge will look down on upon a graduate from Durham compared than a graduate from Bristol because of the lower Research Assessment.
2. Subject ranking are meaningless. When going into the job market, companies target universities rather than courses. These target universities do not tend to change much so I would completely disregard subject rankings, although overall rankings may give an indication into how well a university is targeted by employers. Also I doubt subject rankings have much bearings on MSc applications.
3. LSE/Oxbridge rule when it comes to financial jobs. Like a lot of Economics graduates I have tried to get a job in an investment bank (interviewed by all but two Bulge Brackets ibanks and have worked for two of them). What I have noticed is people from LSE/Oxbridge (and perhaps to a lower extent UCL) get interviews just because they go to LSE/Oxbridge, rather than the fact that they are good candidates. If you come from other universities you have to have something going for you (i.e a lot of extracurriculars/previous relevant experience) to get interviews. A lot of interviews I have been to have been 50% LSE candidates. Disclaimer: this is just personal experience.
4. Since going to A*AA non LSE/Oxbridge/UCL/Warwick universities have been easier to get offers from. Having spoken to a university admissions tutor at Bath they said that since going to A*AA there have been much fewer applications (as people can't really use the university as a back up anymore if they miss their offer from Oxbridge/LSE) which have lead to higher offer rates. I'm guessing this is the same for Durham/Bristol/Nottingham.
5. Don't do Economics just to get into financial services. Although most economics graduates go/ want to go into financial services it doesn't necessarily mean financial services firms hire mostly econ graduates. In fact most financial services firms like people from a number of courses and there are roles that are particularly suited to people on other courses (engineering/maths for structuring and history for equity research).
Alternative Look at League Tables
As the vast majority of top Econ graduates go into jobs after graduation (normally in financial services), I have looked at average salaries of graduates 6 months after graduation. Although admittedly this is flawed metric (sensitive to geographic location of graduates and that pay is not perfectly correlated to quality of job), it does give an idea into the differences in prospects between non-Oxbridge/LSE/UCL universities.
Stats are from UniStats (http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/) and are just for pure Economics (Note that I haven’t looked at any other universities than the ones on the list, so there may be universities with higher salaries not in the list):
1. Cambridge- £40,000
2. UCL- £35,500
3. LSE, Bath (1 Year Placement)- £35,000
5. Oxford- £33,500
6. Bath (No Placement)- £30,000
7. Warwick- £29,000
8. Nottingham- £28,000
9. Bristol- £27,500
10. Durham- £27,000
11. Edinburgh- £25,000
12. St Andrews- £24,000
I’m guessing the salaries for Scottish Universities are so low as a lot of their graduates probably stay in Scotland rather than go to London where salaries are higher.
My Opinion on Bath
With a note to why Bath is so high up the salary list is most people who do placements either do their placements in investment banks/asset managers or government employers like the Bank of England or the Treasury. Whilst the majority of placements are not front office (although there are a quite a few front office roles in places like HSBC, UBS, asset managers and one or two in Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) a lot of people secure front office summer internships/graduate positions after their placement due to their experience. Plus getting a placement isn’t that difficult as Bath is the only top 10 uni which does placements so you are at the top of the pile.
I have personally found that my placement has got me a lot of interviews and a graduate job that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Also at Bath you are effectively forced to look for jobs in your second year, as you don’t want to be one of the few people who don’t do a placement whereas in other universities you don’t really that pressure. I have found that a lot of my friends who have studied economics at Warwick, Nottingham and even LSE didn’t get work experience during their university degrees and haven’t got great jobs afterward as a result.
This is not to say your career prospects are the same at a place like LSE/Oxbridge and Bath. There will be jobs advertised on the career services at LSE/Oxbridge that will never be advertised at a university like Bath (normally at small but prestigious hedge funds/consultancies/investment banks). However the placement year does give you a good chance in most large and competitive firms for front office roles not least because it gives you a lot of things to talk about at interview.
In my opinion whilst I would not recommend picking Bath over LSE/Oxbridge/UCL, for places like Durham, Nottingham, Bristol and even Warwick you can make a strong case for going to Bath although this is just based on opinion. If you have any questions on my experience either PM me or ask on the thread.
So you’re basically saying that the year of placement at Bath beats going to a slightly higher ranked uni like Bristol or Durham. What about Warwick though? I heard that’s number one on the list of universities being targeted by employers in 2013.
Thanks a lot for posting this. Cleared up a lot of confusion!
Thanks a lot for posting this. Cleared up a lot of confusion!
Original post by lynnny8
So you’re basically saying that the year of placement at Bath beats going to a slightly higher ranked uni like Bristol or Durham. What about Warwick though? I heard that’s number one on the list of universities being targeted by employers in 2013.
Thanks a lot for posting this. Cleared up a lot of confusion!
Thanks a lot for posting this. Cleared up a lot of confusion!
Hi,
I'm guessing you are referring to this study:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/9796679/Warwick-University-top-target-for-graduate-employers.html
I haven't looked into the methodology of it that much but just looking at the rankings it seems to be quite clear that the study is biased against smaller universities which offer fewer courses. I'm guessing it heavily weights the number of employers rather than how strongly they are targeted by these employers.
Universities that offer a large amount of courses in different fields of study are naturally going to get more employers going to their career events because they have the most diverse student base. All of the top universities in the list pretty much offer every course from humanities, social sciences, maths, sciences, law, languages and engineering.
Specialist universities such as Bath (9th), Imperial (12th) and LSE (15th) suffer in this list because they only are really only targeted by companies from certain sectors. Therefore I would completely disregard the survey as Imperial and LSE are normally the most heavily targeted universities for the courses that they cover. Not saying that Warwick isn't heavily targeted, it is, but what I'm saying is that this particularly study seems a bit useless.
That actually makes a lottt of sense. Thank you for clearing it up.
Although I'm wondering whether it is worth it to go to Warwick and struggle hard to get a 1st or 2:1 and having little to no social life than going to Bath or Bristol and getting a 1st with a social life. Would it make a big difference for employers?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Although I'm wondering whether it is worth it to go to Warwick and struggle hard to get a 1st or 2:1 and having little to no social life than going to Bath or Bristol and getting a 1st with a social life. Would it make a big difference for employers?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by lynnny8
That actually makes a lottt of sense. Thank you for clearing it up.
Although I'm wondering whether it is worth it to go to Warwick and struggle hard to get a 1st or 2:1 and having little to no social life than going to Bath or Bristol and getting a 1st with a social life. Would it make a big difference for employers?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Although I'm wondering whether it is worth it to go to Warwick and struggle hard to get a 1st or 2:1 and having little to no social life than going to Bath or Bristol and getting a 1st with a social life. Would it make a big difference for employers?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Look I'll be perfectly honest, believing that it would be much easier to get a 1st from Bath/Bristol than Warwick is probably over thinking it. I'm guessing the core course isn't going to vary significantly and considering all three are A*AA and if people from these courses are going to masters at places such as Oxbridge/LSE the course has to be of a certain quality. If you study consistently throughout you will get a first (you can easily do this and have a social life btw), if you study but study hard by the time exams come along you will get a 2:1 and if you just don't study or only realise you need to put some work in too late you will get a 2:2. This will be the same for any university.
Also at Warwick 26% of people get firsts for econ (Unistats), this is higher than the combined stats for people at Bath (when combining 3 and 4 year courses, I have the stats). At Bath this year overall 21% of people got firsts although this jumps to 26% if you only take into account people who have done a placement. So in general I wouldn't recommend the thinking of going to Bath/Bristol just because it would be easier to get a first, it won't.
When it comes employability degree class and institution does matter (Warwick will be looked on as marginally better than Bath/Bristol), but your previous experience and extracurriculars are much more important. The best way to get into competitive jobs is not by getting a first it is by being proactive outside of your degree. For example I only have a low-mid 2.1 but because of my placement I was able to get interviews from all but one (never applied to the one I didn't get an interview from) of the major U.S. Investment Banks (Including J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs) and three of the big European ones for a mix of front/middle office roles. Plus the reason why I got my placement was because of my previous summer job/ extracurricular actives such as doing Young Enterprise/work experience in some financial firms. The single most important thing is to make sure you are a well rounded person with a lot of experiences to draw on, otherwise a 1st class degree may get you an interview but at that interview you will have nothing to say when you get there. Sorry for focusing on investment banking but it is the most competitive field in terms of jobs for economics graduates normally along with strategy consultancies.
Original post by econgrad123
Look I'll be perfectly honest, believing that it would be much easier to get a 1st from Bath/Bristol than Warwick is probably over thinking it. I'm guessing the core course isn't going to vary significantly and considering all three are A*AA and if people from these courses are going to masters at places such as Oxbridge/LSE the course has to be of a certain quality. If you study consistently throughout you will get a first (you can easily do this and have a social life btw), if you study but study hard by the time exams come along you will get a 2:1 and if you just don't study or only realise you need to put some work in too late you will get a 2:2. This will be the same for any university.
Also at Warwick 26% of people get firsts for econ (Unistats), this is higher than the combined stats for people at Bath (when combining 3 and 4 year courses, I have the stats). At Bath this year overall 21% of people got firsts although this jumps to 26% if you only take into account people who have done a placement. So in general I wouldn't recommend the thinking of going to Bath/Bristol just because it would be easier to get a first, it won't.
When it comes employability degree class and institution does matter (Warwick will be looked on as marginally better than Bath/Bristol), but your previous experience and extracurriculars are much more important. The best way to get into competitive jobs is not by getting a first it is by being proactive outside of your degree. For example I only have a low-mid 2.1 but because of my placement I was able to get interviews from all but one (never applied to the one I didn't get an interview from) of the major U.S. Investment Banks (Including J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs) and three of the big European ones for a mix of front/middle office roles. Plus the reason why I got my placement was because of my previous summer job/ extracurricular actives such as doing Young Enterprise/work experience in some financial firms. The single most important thing is to make sure you are a well rounded person with a lot of experiences to draw on, otherwise a 1st class degree may get you an interview but at that interview you will have nothing to say when you get there. Sorry for focusing on investment banking but it is the most competitive field in terms of jobs for economics graduates normally along with strategy consultancies.
Also at Warwick 26% of people get firsts for econ (Unistats), this is higher than the combined stats for people at Bath (when combining 3 and 4 year courses, I have the stats). At Bath this year overall 21% of people got firsts although this jumps to 26% if you only take into account people who have done a placement. So in general I wouldn't recommend the thinking of going to Bath/Bristol just because it would be easier to get a first, it won't.
When it comes employability degree class and institution does matter (Warwick will be looked on as marginally better than Bath/Bristol), but your previous experience and extracurriculars are much more important. The best way to get into competitive jobs is not by getting a first it is by being proactive outside of your degree. For example I only have a low-mid 2.1 but because of my placement I was able to get interviews from all but one (never applied to the one I didn't get an interview from) of the major U.S. Investment Banks (Including J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs) and three of the big European ones for a mix of front/middle office roles. Plus the reason why I got my placement was because of my previous summer job/ extracurricular actives such as doing Young Enterprise/work experience in some financial firms. The single most important thing is to make sure you are a well rounded person with a lot of experiences to draw on, otherwise a 1st class degree may get you an interview but at that interview you will have nothing to say when you get there. Sorry for focusing on investment banking but it is the most competitive field in terms of jobs for economics graduates normally along with strategy consultancies.
How difficult is it to acquire work experience whilst in your first year of Uni ? because at that point , many candidates won't have much work experience in financial firms before actually going to University , so just wondering is it particularly difficult to get in your first year ?
Original post by Fas
How difficult is it to acquire work experience whilst in your first year of Uni ? because at that point , many candidates won't have much work experience in financial firms before actually going to University , so just wondering is it particularly difficult to get in your first year ?
Really depends on how much effort you are willing to put in. Investment Banks and Consultancies run spring weeks for first year students that are used as a fast track for summer internships in the second year. Although these are difficult to get into especially if you are not from one of their primary target schools (LSE/Oxbridge/Imperial/UCL/Warwick probably in that order as well) there are a number of things you can do to help. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs do spring weeks in their Operations department which will be less competitive than front office spring weeks but good nevertheless and very attainable if you are not from those universities stated above. But don't place too much importance on spring weeks, most people I know who are at investment banks now didn't get spring weeks. These spring weeks are mainly just glorified sales pitches to students, there isn't really anything tangible you can learn in 5 days of shadowing across different departments.
Some IBs also do insight days and even internships for pre-university students so it is worth to look into these. At my placement there was an intern who was there for the summer and had just completed his A-Levels but I don't know whether this internship was open to everyone or people from disadvantaged/underrepresented backgrounds. Also if you know any family/friends in financial services try to get them to allow you to shadow them for a bit.
If you can't get these experiences, in the first year and earlier what I would recommend doing is getting some good work experience (doesn't necessarily have to be finance related)that shows good problems solving skills and responsibly. I personally spent my summer first year doing non-financial work at a very small firm but it gave me good experiences and skills that I could put down on my CV. You also have to signal that you are interested in finance, good ways include being very involved in the finance/investment society at university, attending financial conferences (UCL and LSE put on particularly good ones you can attend), some banks run trading games/networking dinners as well so try to attend them, Young Enterprise is always good, Bank of England Target 2.0 etc. Apart from general things that show responsibly, teamwork and leadership are always good such as Model U.N, being an academic representative, mentor, being involved in societies/sport, just the regular stuff.
Hey, I intend to study economics at uni and am looking at top unis like LSE, UCL, Warwick, etc.
Just wanted some advice regarding choosing my A2's - is doing economics and business as two separate A levels highly jeapordising my chances at such unis? as i have noticed some mentions stating that such a combination is looked down at by unis due to some overlapping circular?
Thanks
Just wanted some advice regarding choosing my A2's - is doing economics and business as two separate A levels highly jeapordising my chances at such unis? as i have noticed some mentions stating that such a combination is looked down at by unis due to some overlapping circular?
Thanks
Original post by Ess R Kay
Hey, I intend to study economics at uni and am looking at top unis like LSE, UCL, Warwick, etc.
Just wanted some advice regarding choosing my A2's - is doing economics and business as two separate A levels highly jeapordising my chances at such unis? as i have noticed some mentions stating that such a combination is looked down at by unis due to some overlapping circular?
Thanks
Just wanted some advice regarding choosing my A2's - is doing economics and business as two separate A levels highly jeapordising my chances at such unis? as i have noticed some mentions stating that such a combination is looked down at by unis due to some overlapping circular?
Thanks
Hi,
Looking at your previous posts I see you said your grades are as follows:
"I am doing economics, business, english language and maths
AS results for the above subjects: AABC (in order)"
Was there any particular reason why you got a C in Maths AS-Level? Not to be harsh but if there isn't a good reason why you got C in Maths you shouldn't really be considering it as a degree, especially at those universities. Economics at university is basically applied maths at the top 10-15 universities (very different to A-Level economics) and if you struggle with it at A-level you are most likely going to struggle with it at degree level as well.
When I applied I had AAAB for AS Level (my year was the last year not to have A* grades) with Maths and Economics at 90% or over and unrelated other subjects. I got rejected by LSE, Warwick and UCL. That was almost 5 years ago and to my limited knowledge it has been harder to gain admission to these universities since. There are a few universities which have less technical/more flexible courses (Nottingham and Manchester come to mind) and considering you have an english AS-Level I would suggest perhaps looking at Economic History rather than doing straight economics. Also answering your original question business studies/economics combination is not good. Taken from the Bath Economics website:
"We would be unlikely to make offers to applicants with narrow subject combinations that rely predominantly on the same mental capabilities. Applicants taking Mathematics and a science subject should offer a traditional arts/humanities subject as their third A level.
Candidates offering the following types of narrow subject combinations are less likely to receive an offer:
•
Business Studies and Economics
•
Accounting and Business Studies
•
English Literature and English Language."
Also if anyone has any further questions please ask them within the next few days as I am going to shut this account down very soon.
Original post by econgrad123
Hi,
Looking at your previous posts I see you said your grades are as follows:
"I am doing economics, business, english language and maths
AS results for the above subjects: AABC (in order)"
Was there any particular reason why you got a C in Maths AS-Level? Not to be harsh but if there isn't a good reason why you got C in Maths you shouldn't really be considering it as a degree, especially at those universities. Economics at university is basically applied maths at the top 10-15 universities (very different to A-Level economics) and if you struggle with it at A-level you are most likely going to struggle with it at degree level as well.
When I applied I had AAAB for AS Level (my year was the last year not to have A* grades) with Maths and Economics at 90% or over and unrelated other subjects. I got rejected by LSE, Warwick and UCL. That was almost 5 years ago and to my limited knowledge it has been harder to gain admission to these universities since. There are a few universities which have less technical/more flexible courses (Nottingham and Manchester come to mind) and considering you have an english AS-Level I would suggest perhaps looking at Economic History rather than doing straight economics. Also answering your original question business studies/economics combination is not good. Taken from the Bath Economics website:
"We would be unlikely to make offers to applicants with narrow subject combinations that rely predominantly on the same mental capabilities. Applicants taking Mathematics and a science subject should offer a traditional arts/humanities subject as their third A level.
Candidates offering the following types of narrow subject combinations are less likely to receive an offer:
Looking at your previous posts I see you said your grades are as follows:
"I am doing economics, business, english language and maths
AS results for the above subjects: AABC (in order)"
Was there any particular reason why you got a C in Maths AS-Level? Not to be harsh but if there isn't a good reason why you got C in Maths you shouldn't really be considering it as a degree, especially at those universities. Economics at university is basically applied maths at the top 10-15 universities (very different to A-Level economics) and if you struggle with it at A-level you are most likely going to struggle with it at degree level as well.
When I applied I had AAAB for AS Level (my year was the last year not to have A* grades) with Maths and Economics at 90% or over and unrelated other subjects. I got rejected by LSE, Warwick and UCL. That was almost 5 years ago and to my limited knowledge it has been harder to gain admission to these universities since. There are a few universities which have less technical/more flexible courses (Nottingham and Manchester come to mind) and considering you have an english AS-Level I would suggest perhaps looking at Economic History rather than doing straight economics. Also answering your original question business studies/economics combination is not good. Taken from the Bath Economics website:
"We would be unlikely to make offers to applicants with narrow subject combinations that rely predominantly on the same mental capabilities. Applicants taking Mathematics and a science subject should offer a traditional arts/humanities subject as their third A level.
Candidates offering the following types of narrow subject combinations are less likely to receive an offer:
•
Business Studies and Economics
•
Accounting and Business Studies
•
English Literature and English Language."
Hmm.. Okay, well to be honest with you I have great interest in economics and got an A for it in my AS exams, scoring 177/200. So I dont really find Economics hard but as with maths, I am aware that it is essential to study econ at uni and also that econ at uni has a lot of maths in it .. the C in maths was partially due to not putting in the amount of work i could've of and mostly due to my poor grade in stats which dragged my whole grade down. I have been told by my teacher who has been teaching for many years and is the head of maths at my college that I am amongst some of the best at maths in my class and definitely have the ability to achieve an A but couldnt figure out what went wrong with stats .. Therefore im retaking stats in A2 and definitely working harder to achieve that A in maths A-level. I really intend to study economics at uni though and will strive to achieve whatever the course requirements are, however i have also looked at a course known as economics and economic history (joint honours degree) at LSE whose entry requirements are AAB - specifying that the A must be in Maths. Do you have any further advice for me as an individual student and also any other considerable uni options i should look into.. I mean have looked into QMUL who require AAB for pure economics BSc as an option but dont know if its worth going to as a uni with credibilty.. Thanks for your help in advance
Original post by Ess R Kay
Hmm.. Okay, well to be honest with you I have great interest in economics and got an A for it in my AS exams, scoring 177/200. So I dont really find Economics hard but as with maths, I am aware that it is essential to study econ at uni and also that econ at uni has a lot of maths in it .. the C in maths was partially due to not putting in the amount of work i could've of and mostly due to my poor grade in stats which dragged my whole grade down. I have been told by my teacher who has been teaching for many years and is the head of maths at my college that I am amongst some of the best at maths in my class and definitely have the ability to achieve an A but couldnt figure out what went wrong with stats .. Therefore im retaking stats in A2 and definitely working harder to achieve that A in maths A-level. I really intend to study economics at uni though and will strive to achieve whatever the course requirements are, however i have also looked at a course known as economics and economic history (joint honours degree) at LSE whose entry requirements are AAB - specifying that the A must be in Maths. Do you have any further advice for me as an individual student and also any other considerable uni options i should look into.. I mean have looked into QMUL who require AAB for pure economics BSc as an option but dont know if its worth going to as a uni with credibilty.. Thanks for your help in advance
To be honest I think you are in a very difficult situation with the Maths at C, most competitive universities wouldn't consider you with such a low Maths score, even if it was brought down Stats, Stats is still very important when it comes down to econometrics. I don't really want to give you bad advice, if I were you probably focus on doing your best to improve your Maths and English score and re-evaluate once you have your full A-Levels (I'm guessing from you position Economics and Business studies wont take much work to get A/A* in). In the meantime I would apply mainly to courses with AAB-ABB requirements and maybe one or two of the less competitive AAA/A*AA courses and see how things pan out. Looking at BA and economic history course may help. Queen Mary is an OK uni, does have Uni of London accreditation but definitely not on the same page as as the top 10-15 unis on TEALT. But please don't take my word on it and ask around, especially to admissions people to ask about your situation. Sorry I'm going to shut down my account tonight and will be unable to answer any more questions. Good Luck!
Original post by econgrad123
Also if anyone has any further questions please ask them within the next few days as I am going to shut this account down very soon.
i know Bath say you have to declare your AS Module Grades , but if you also provided your AS UMS would Bath take it into consideration despite not asking for it ?
Original post by Fas
i know Bath say you have to declare your AS Module Grades , but if you also provided your AS UMS would Bath take it into consideration despite not asking for it ?
I doubt it because then how do they know if you are higher or lower than someone else?
Original post by Bloxorus
I doubt it because then how do they know if you are higher or lower than someone else?
well that's the fault of the other person for not providing their UMS i should think. i dunno i know that seems unfair , but Warwick say that you do not need to provide UMS however when i asked their rep on here about it he said that more information helps them in their application process suggesting that they DO look at them , so maybe Bath do the same.
not sure though :/ might ring them up and find out !
Original post by Fas
well that's the fault of the other person for not providing their UMS i should think. i dunno i know that seems unfair , but Warwick say that you do not need to provide UMS however when i asked their rep on here about it he said that more information helps them in their application process suggesting that they DO look at them , so maybe Bath do the same.
not sure though :/ might ring them up and find out !
not sure though :/ might ring them up and find out !
Yeah I see your point, however why should they penalize someone for not providing information that they didn't ask for? That seems more unfair than not taking into account the higher UMS of a particular applicant.
Original post by Bloxorus
Yeah I see your point, however why should they penalize someone for not providing information that they didn't ask for? That seems more unfair than not taking into account the higher UMS of a particular applicant.
yeah it does , which confuses me as to why Warwick say they do look at UMS without even asking for it haha. i dunno , obviously Bath's admissions process is different to warwicks , but i think i'll ring em up ( or email ) and find out what their stance is
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