Top 20 UK unis for getting an IB Job

If you had the choice of the following courses/universities, which would you choose on the grounds of university atmosphere, university reputation in IB, course enjoyment factor (!) and course reputation in IB:

Maths & Statistics (Oxford)
Maths & Economics (LSE)
Maths with Statistics for Finance (Imperial)
MMORSE (Warwick)

These are what I am applying for post A-level later this year...if I was offered these I really wouldn't know what to do!

Personally? I'd choose in the exact order you stated above.

Yes, that's probably the order I would choose ultimately, but LSE vs. Oxford is a very tough call.

Yes, that's probably the order I would choose ultimately, but LSE vs. Oxford is a very tough call.

go to oxford of course. you can enjoy london later.

Very true...I suppose it would be a little stupid turning down a place at Oxford unless you had a very, very good reason.

LSE - London as a student - Great reason .

Hmm I'd most definitely have Leicester up there somewhere in the top 20. It is widely regarded as a top 20 university overall now by the papers and the Maths department is particularly good, a good number of friends have made it into banking/finance. With a 1st in Maths I got a few offers and walked into a Mayfair hedge fund and am now raking it in. Never met a single grad from Royal Holloway on the other hand.

For a hedge fund, yes, but it wouldn't get you on most banking programmes as leicester don't ask for high enough A level grades to mean that many of it's students wouldn't meet the 300-340 UCAS points minimum. There's a big difference between making it into banking/finance and making it onto a front office grad programme at a BB. Not necessarily in the quality of grads, but in terms of the A levels and university background needed.

Guys whats better between 1st in chem eng at UCL and 2:2 in comp sci at Imperial?

For a hedge fund, yes, but it wouldn't get you on most banking programmes as leicester don't ask for high enough A level grades to mean that many of it's students wouldn't meet the 300-340 UCAS points minimum. There's a big difference between making it into banking/finance and making it onto a front office grad programme at a BB. Not necessarily in the quality of grads, but in terms of the A levels and university background needed.

It's a strange phenomenon - I bet many LSE/Oxbridge/UCL/Warwick students would have struggled to have done what you did, going straight into a HF. Yet you'd have not been able to do it the other way and go into an FO grad position. HFs and banks look for different things, as banks are far more willing to spend time and effort training a naturally bright person who knows little about finance, whereas a HF cares more about what you already know about finance. Which means banks look for grades, and HFs get far fewer applicants and look for far more market knowledge, but are less centred on university or A level grades.