OXFORD (russian & eastern european studies) vs LSE (international political economy)

as the title suggests, i have two programs to choose from and just wanted some input regarding which one to choose. any advice? here are my thoughts:

CONS area studies: a) more than half of the course is on history and culture. it's all interesting, but i'm already relatively familiar with both plus its the kind of stuff you can catch up on in your spare time reading biographies, etc. b) i only care about russia and not the rest of eastern europe. c) there are parts of russian politics i'm not interested in, such as the politics of caucasus. d) A LOT of work. the reading list for one of the classes includes more books than i have read in my entire life.
PROS area studies: oxford.

CONS IPE: a) london b) i'm an international student and oxford would impress people more than lse c) i hate the theoretical aspect of IPE/IR, liberalism, realism, etc.; i'm more interested in learning facts, ie how things work.
PROS IPE: a) i can focus on my area of interest, ie political economy. i will be able to incorporate russia by doing a thesis on its economy. i may even be able to do some of the other papers about the country. b) i will learn more, IPE-books isn't something you read in your spare time, so when else am i going to learn it other than if i take this degree?

Reply 1

iwryw

Original post by dimaemelianov

as the title suggests, i have two programs to choose from and just wanted some input regarding which one to choose. any advice? here are my thoughts:

... d) A LOT of work. the reading list for one of the classes includes more books than i have read in my entire life.
PROS area studies: oxford.

Hi there,

I hope that you have made that difficult decision by now. I've actually faced the exact same dilemma, but because the MPhil REES encompassed everything that I was looking for, it was my first choice. I was wondering where did you find that reading list that you've mentioned? I'll be starting the program in October, and would like to have a better sense of what to prepare myself for (and whether I should really be complaining about my current course workload). Thanks!

University of Oxford

Oxford

Reply 2

dimaemelianov

hey! would be happy to, but i would need your email to do this. got it as a word file from the course coordinator a couple months before the start of the course. there is now way i can post it here, would be way too long.

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