Is there anything good in LSE?

No you could not.

It is very common knowledge that the economics entries on Wikipedia are crap.

It's not like the maths entries. I guess it's because economists understand opportunity cost and mathematicians don't. (or they are just a nicer breed of people...)

Ha, I think you're missing my point though. Okay, any of the probably millions of good websites out there? The resources on moodle aren't even that great (especially for economics in my brief experience!). So how the hell somebody can use "independent learning opportunities" as some kind of twisted advantage to LSE I don't know. Yeah, I love having the opportunity to search online or go to a library. THANK YOU LSE for providing me with that option.

Even if my argument is invalid for some reason, which it isn’t, for God sake, go to the open university if all you want to learn independently The teaching at LSE isn’t good. Many universities are better. The opportunities there for “independent learning” are the same.

I’m not saying LSE is bad. But I am saying “abundant independent learning opportunities” is the most ridiculous pro for LSE I’ve ever heard.

Hey, I just made a joke about wikipedia and economists.

I didn't agree or disagree with your post.

I know. Sorry, I wasn't raging out

Is this a fair representation of LSE do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovmHfMKHuY8

I know. Sorry, I wasn't raging out

Is this a fair representation of LSE do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovmHfMKHuY8

Yes, teaching is often poor. Last year, out of 4 teachers, only 1 of mine was good. This year this figure is 2 for me. You have to do a lot of independent study, I essentially taught myself a couple of modules last year. The online resources tend to be of high quality and of course so is the library, so if you are motivated you will have no issue.

Although I haven't read most of the thread, I'm really surprised people seem to be having trouble socially and otherwise at LSE. I utterly love studying there.

LSE is what you make of it IMO. There are some genuinely amazing people here. Granted its not your typical Uni experience, but its a very intense environment where everyone works, studies, laughs and parties.

congragulations, glad you like it. i love studying here as well, but it's the non-studying part of my day that i find unpleasant, and i believe LSE is largely responsible, given that i've met a much higher proportion of 'fun and interesting' people socializing with SOAS and UCL kids. if that hurts your ego i guess that's unfortunate.

LSE offers one of the most stimulating - possibly, superlative is justified here, THE most stimulating - intellectual environments on the planet. if that's your thing, you will probably not find a better place outside oxbridge or havard/yale, possibly not even there.

LSE's student body, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. i'm a transfer student from the states, so i have a basis for comparison. i can tell you unequivocally that compared to where i went before, LSE's social life blows. socializing when it takes place at all tends to be formal and superficial. people tend to stick with their cliques, formed either in freshers' week or through friendships dating back to high school/british equivalent. the place is boring. lest you potential students get the wrong idea that i'm some kind of marginalized nutcase, i hate to inform you but that's the general stereotype - even on campus, that "LSE is boring" - and speaking for myself i've found it to be true.

congragulations, glad you like it. i love studying here as well, but it's the non-studying part of my day that i find unpleasant, and i believe LSE is largely responsible, given that i've met a much higher proportion of 'fun and interesting' people socializing with SOAS and UCL kids. if that hurts your ego i guess that's unfortunate.

LSE offers one of the most stimulating - possibly, superlative is justified here, THE most stimulating - intellectual environments on the planet. if that's your thing, you will probably not find a better place outside oxbridge or havard/yale, possibly not even there.

LSE's student body, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. i'm a transfer student from the states, so i have a basis for comparison. i can tell you unequivocally that compared to where i went before, LSE's social life blows. socializing when it takes place at all tends to be formal and superficial. people tend to stick with their cliques, formed either in freshers' week or through friendships dating back to high school/british equivalent. the place is boring. lest you potential students get the wrong idea that i'm some kind of marginalized nutcase, i hate to inform you but that's the general stereotype - even on campus, that "LSE is boring" - and speaking for myself i've found it to be true.

Well, sorry to hear that mate. I do see where you're coming from though. My brief visit to Yale and Stanford last summer showed me a sample of what American Uni life seems like and LSE is very different from that. *shrugs* It is as it is and what you make of it. The Uni does very less to promote socialising, that is sad but true. I know that had I not gone out of my way to meet people and be generally intrusive until I found my 'place' as it were, I would potentially have had the same complaints as generally expressed here.

C'est la vie I guess.

don't get me wrong, LSE is one of the best centers for intellectual life on the planet.

socializing when it takes place at all tends to be formal and superficial.

congragulations, glad you like it. i love studying here as well, but it's the non-studying part of my day that i find unpleasant, and i believe LSE is largely responsible, given that i've met a much higher proportion of 'fun and interesting' people socializing with SOAS and UCL kids. if that hurts your ego i guess that's unfortunate.

LSE offers one of the most stimulating - possibly, superlative is justified here, THE most stimulating - intellectual environments on the planet. if that's your thing, you will probably not find a better place outside oxbridge or havard/yale, possibly not even there.

LSE's student body, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. i'm a transfer student from the states, so i have a basis for comparison. i can tell you unequivocally that compared to where i went before, LSE's social life blows. socializing when it takes place at all tends to be formal and superficial. people tend to stick with their cliques, formed either in freshers' week or through friendships dating back to high school/british equivalent. the place is boring. lest you potential students get the wrong idea that i'm some kind of marginalized nutcase, i hate to inform you but that's the general stereotype - even on campus, that "LSE is boring" - and speaking for myself i've found it to be true.

perhaps dry humor? but lse can't possibly be as bad as people on TSR and the various student satisfaction surveys make it out to be. independent study is a good thing no doubt.

I haven't really read most of this thread, but, as far as teaching woes and such go, it's the same at every university. Seriously. (bar Oxbridge who use a different system and so have different woes)

People just seem unhappier at LSE because there's less of a let's get pissed/tie someone to a chair on the roof/leave a sleeping friend on a bus to Manchester/**** a fresher culture. It's more of a let's get an investment banking job sort of culture, but there's plenty of fun stuff AT THE SAME TIME. You need to be an open minded person willing to handle intense careers/academic pressure, as well as being able to go out and have fun. And LSE is filled with people who do both, but also contains a minority of people who only manage one of those two things.

Ditto Vesta on AU culture - if you're into sports, get heavily involved with it.

I'm a first year doing the Actuarial Science Bsc course and I think you have summed up all the cons with LSE. But on the bright side, you have summed up all the cons. And that's not to say that LSE is the only university with these problems.

I might bore you with a few stories of weird **** that has annoyed me at LSE actually.
My first day, we all head downstairs to shake hands, ask generic questions about what course you're doing, how's life, where you are from, etc a million times over. I was talking to one guy and halfway through the conversation he literally said to me, "I need to find some Asians to talk to". Like, what? Weird.

A day later I was playing pool with a friend. My friend is talking to some guy, who literally says, word for word to my friend (who's from pakistan) "Yeah, I don't tend to like English people" and he actually points to me as he says it. What?

After the Actuarial Science induction talk I found myself talking to some girl, and then we head off with her friends to get dinner. And it's all going well, then it suddenly hits me that I have no place here whatsoever because all this group ever talked about, non stop, was who is from where, and how all Indians get on with all philapenies, and what all Chinese people think about it. It was just ridiculous. Like they're obsessed with it, or something. I had nothing to contribute. God, it's just weird. Someone who I was friends with but no longer am, always used to complain to me about "aspirational Indians" or something, as well :\. I look at my friendship groups at LSE now and although I'm usually the only white English guy, my groups are all full of people who grow up in England or who are very English. Not because we're racist at all, because God, we've tried to socialise, but I've come to realise that 's just how LSE and life is, which is awful.

All the teachers I have are awful and classes are pointless. They go through solutions which are posted up on moodle anyway. I could do that for goodness sake. And all classes are so frustrating because for some reason unknown to me, nobody ever volunteers to answers a general question from the teacher to the class. It’s bull**** because they all know the answers anyway. Why wait literally minutes in completely awkward silence when you have the answer? Just share it so we can move on, for God sake. I used to volunteer answers but I got really sick of it after months, so now I just sit back and let us all die together.

Lectures are more helpful than classes. LSE was like 3rd overall best university in the Uk according to league tables until they introduced student satisfaction ratings.

I've only mentioned the bad points though. There are plenty of good points. It's central London so you can live a brilliant life. It not hard to find really good friends to have a great time with. And a degree from LSE does get you places.

congragulations, glad you like it. i love studying here as well, but it's the non-studying part of my day that i find unpleasant, and i believe LSE is largely responsible, given that i've met a much higher proportion of 'fun and interesting' people socializing with SOAS and UCL kids. if that hurts your ego i guess that's unfortunate.

LSE offers one of the most stimulating - possibly, superlative is justified here, THE most stimulating - intellectual environments on the planet. if that's your thing, you will probably not find a better place outside oxbridge or havard/yale, possibly not even there.

LSE's student body, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. i'm a transfer student from the states, so i have a basis for comparison. i can tell you unequivocally that compared to where i went before, LSE's social life blows. socializing when it takes place at all tends to be formal and superficial. people tend to stick with their cliques, formed either in freshers' week or through friendships dating back to high school/british equivalent. the place is boring. lest you potential students get the wrong idea that i'm some kind of marginalized nutcase, i hate to inform you but that's the general stereotype - even on campus, that "LSE is boring" - and speaking for myself i've found it to be true.