I am interested in credible comparisons of the economics masters programs at Oxford, Cambridge and LSE. The consensus appears to be that these three universities are the best in Britain for economics (minority dissenting opinions only confirm the general consensus).
These schools have often been compared on The Student Room, but to me the trouble has always been either a.) that the programs were compared along incongruous lines, or b.) that the arguments brought lacked credibility. Hence this new thread.
To address a.) above, I propose the following distinction:
Best master's degree in Economics 1.
according to the program's overall reputation (i.e. amongst students, alums, employers, or, say, your mother)
2.
according to the program's reputation amongst academics (i.e. top 10 us PhD placement)
To address b.) above, I request that contributors
only post credible, verifiable information and include sources. For example, some may find interesting that your favorite professor told you that all of the above programs were crap and that a tier three state school in Kentucky was your best bet. Why don't we care in this thread? For one, you're lying. You never asked your professor. And secondly, your professor doesn't know what he is talking about, because he went to some tier three state school in Kentucky.
So let's stick to the facts. Here's what I have found so far:
Overall (or at least not solely academic) reputationThe Times: Oxford > Cambridge > LSE
(Source)US News: Cambridge > Oxford > LSE
(Source)The Guardian: Cambridge > Oxford > LSE
(Source)Overall reputation of the economics facultyThe Times: Oxford > Cambridge > LSE
(Source)US News: LSE > Oxford > Cambridge
(Source)The Guardian: Oxford > Cambridge > LSE
(Source)Reputation in strictly academic terms (i.e. citations and publications)IDEAS: Oxford > Cambridge > LSE
(Source)Here are some further statistics which might be interesting:
Most recent acceptance rates (intake/applicants, %)LSE M.Sc. in Economics: (135/1594, 8.5%)
(Source)Cambridge MPhil Economics: (37/254, 14.6%)
(Source)Oxford MPhil Economics: (21/163, 12.9%)
(Source)*Note: these statistics are based on intake, not offers (the difference being that not all offers are eventually accepted by the students who received them).
2006 academic paper ranking schools by post-PhD placement record:Oxford > LSE > Cambridge
(Source)Obviously the academic ranking statistics above are a little thin, so if anyone is aware of further statistics I would be very interested! Specifically on the following topics:
1.
Placement statistics for PhD programs (e.g. "x% of the graduating class at M.Sc. in Economics at LSE went on to a top 10 US PhD", or something similar)
2.
Research/Publications/Citations statistics for economics sub disciplines for each university's economics faculty (e.g. "Cambridge is third in the world for time series econometrics")
If anyone has seen
credible statistics along these lines, please post with link to source.
I should also note (full disclosure) that I applied to all three schools this year, with the following results:
Oxford MPhil Economics => Rejection
Cambridge MPhil Econmics => Offer, accepted
LSE M.Sc. Finance and Economics => Offer, turned down