Help Me Choose: King's or LSE

I applied for an MA in International Conflict Studies at King's in the War Studies department (I would've applied for a security studies course that had an intersection with gender if such a course was offered at King's), and an MSc in Gender, Peace and Security at LSE in the Gender Studies department. I've received offers from both institutions.

I am really confused, someone please help. And take into account all aspects, from academics and reputation, to social life.

Reply 1

josephdroberts98

7

Original post by lilmissconfused

I applied for an MA in International Conflict Studies at King's in the War Studies department (I would've applied for a security studies course that had an intersection with gender if such a course was offered at King's), and an MSc in Gender, Peace and Security at LSE in the Gender Studies department. I've received offers from both institutions.

I am really confused, someone please help. And take into account all aspects, from academics and reputation, to social life.

Hi there! In general, for political/social science subjects, LSE is ranked higher than Kings (LSE was fourth in the world for polsci last I checked). For you, it sounds as if gender and security is your subject of interest so if King’s can’t offer that I’d go with LSE, no use going somewhere if they don’t do what you want to do! Do note with LSE though, apparently at postgraduate it can become a bit of a “degree factory” as my advisor put it, meaning there’s more students so potentially less 1 to 1. This may be the case for King’s too but I’m not sure! Hope this helps, and congratulations on both your offers to fantastic institutions!

I'd pick kings, any course in a gender studies department can be a bit of a joke with bad connotations

Reply 3

dunxsj

2

Original post by lilmissconfused

I applied for an MA in International Conflict Studies at King's in the War Studies department (I would've applied for a security studies course that had an intersection with gender if such a course was offered at King's), and an MSc in Gender, Peace and Security at LSE in the Gender Studies department. I've received offers from both institutions.

I am really confused, someone please help. And take into account all aspects, from academics and reputation, to social life.

Honestly, I am in the same boat! Although I applied to International Peace and Security at King's. I noted that some of the lecturers at KCL also specialise in gender-related issues where it comes to conflict and post-conflict settings, so you might find your gender niche that way? But I am still torn myself!

This is some guidance I received from my current lecturer who is a Visiting Research Fellow at the War Studies Department:

"I think your choice should be guided by thinking about what you want to do next. That is probably a hard choice, but try to think - what do you want to do until you're 30? These days no one plans careers for the rest of their lives. We live in a dynamic world and technologies open up jobs which 10 years ago didn't even exist. There's opportunity in that." (as a side note I genuinely believe gender is becoming an increasingly important object of study within conflict studies - the naysayers are in denial. The Gender Peace and Security course integrates Gender theory with practical elements of law, IR and politics so it's not just "gender")

I found this insight from my lecturer particularly helpful:

"In the next few years, what do you want to do? Government? NGO? Private sector? International organizations? Which themes are you passionate about? Which skills do you bring to the world to work on "your theme"? For me, it's war crimes. That is my theme. Most of what I do in life professionally is about that. For you, it will be something else. An overarching theme.

Then see which program is closer to your theme - seek out info on their teaching staff and who could supervise a good thesis for you. See if you can find alumni experiences online. Some supervisors are fancy senior professors who are actually terrible supervisors because they don't have time for students. Don't fall into that trap."

I know this isn't quite what you asked for but I thought it might help.

Good luck and well done for getting offers from both universities!

Help Me Choose: King's or LSE

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you