AMA: 1st year LSE student

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay. Hopefully this will answer your questions and be of some use to you!

Social Life: I find that your social life is what you make it. You live in London, one of the busiest cities in the world, and so there’s always a lot to do, and once you crack it you can always find things that are free/relatively affordable. There’s so many clubs and a lot of them offer student discounts. For me I’ve found it okay to fit time off from working around studying, but there’s obviously times when you need to prioritize studies. It’s very different to a typical night at home so we tend to mix between going to the bar/pub for a drink and then once a week we’ll try and have a proper night out. I’ve found that I’m not going on nights out as much as my friends at Leeds etc. but it’s really up to you.

International Students: Certain international students definitely group up and isolate themselves a little. There’s a lot of international students at LSE, as you’d imagine, and in all honesty I do find there to be a divide between home and UK students at times. This of course isn’t the case for all students, and I’ve found lots are willing to mingle and be really social so it varies.

Workload: I study government so my week-to-week work is usually just a load of reading/prep for lectures and classes with essays about every 4 weeks. I have 12 hours of contact time for my subject a week made up of a mix of lectures and classes. I do feel like I have more work than my friends at other unis and I do get stressed sometimes, but I don’t find it unmanageable (though there has been 2/3 all nighters since September which I don’t think is too bad). It's hard and the uni definitely pushes you, but I find that if I dedicate my free time during the day and plan ahead I’m usually okay, if a bit tired. Sometimes you just have to prioritize certain subjects over others and accept that it won’t be done in time (which as a bit of a control freak I found hard to do at first).

Jobs: I have a Saturday job which is only 7 hours a week and I find it okay to balance work around that. Some of my friends here work about 20 hours a week but it’s quite rare to find people who work more than that. I imagine it would be quite hard to balance a lot of shifts and the workload, and the uni definitely discourages you from working more than 18 hours a week (not that they’d know if you did).

Accommodation: TBH I don’t know a lot about the other halls, but the hall I live in (Bankside) is very social (the only LSE hall with a proper bar which is great for socializing and offers cheap drinks). I have a single room with a bathroom that I share with one other person and that’s £205 p.w. including one meal per day and it’s about a 20 minute walk from campus/similar length bus ride. Roseberry hall is also meant to be really social and is a lot more close-knit than Bankside because it’s relatively small (Bankside is 600+). My hall is also in a really good area, by the Tate Modern and Globe so it’s a lovely area to live. In all honesty I’ve not heard great things about the UoL intercollegiate halls, most people who I know that live there say they’re pretty dead and unsociable which isn’t the best considering most people make their friends in halls. The Urbanest buildings are amazing (Westminster’s views are so good) but pretty expensive and not very social too. You can apply for accommodation once you have firmed your offer and you choose five options from the list of halls/room types in preference order, and say what is most important for you to have. LSE then gets back to you within two weeks letting you know what hall and room type you’ll be in for September and you’ll then have to pay a deposit if you get in on results day of £250, if I remember correctly.

Living Costs: Being from the North I definitely found moving to London hard to adjust to; it can be mega expensive and unfortunately things like nights out aren’t always very affordable due to having to pay for entry, drinks etc. (pre drinks are life). However, I’m pretty lucky as due to my family circumstances I get a decent maintenance loan and a bursary from LSE; the uni automatically considers from your student finance information whether you’re deserving of a bursary and there’s also a lot of scholarships you can apply to. Some friends have the minimum loan and it’s definitely tough but they just try to not spend on takeaway food/take public transport as much/try to drink in our cheaper bar as opposed to buying drinks when out. Once you find where the cheap places and best deals are you’ll survive, but it’s obviously harder than it would in a northern uni.

Mature Students: Lots of mature students, especially in my hall!

Freshers: LSE have their RAG events which is basically a week of nights out and daytime activities organised by the SU people. These are cheesy but most of them are decent and they’re a good way of meeting people/making friends/getting drunk and making poor decisions. My hall also put a lot of activities on to help us get to know each other. They also do a good welcome week during W1 where they have lots of stalls/tours/directions on campus to help you settle in and your class teachers and lecturers will introduce you to the course and talk you through the year. I actually found Freshers to be a lot of fun and nowhere as scary as I thought it would be, which was good as I can be pretty shy.

Atmosphere: One thing that absolutely terrified me about LSE was its reputation for being really cold/unfriendly/business-orientated and I was really scared that I’d made the wrong decision before I came. In all honesty I’ll admit that the uni does take itself pretty seriously and most are very focused on getting a job/interning/work BUT I’ve found all of my teachers and lecturers to be really approachable and genuinely interested in how you’re doing and will make time for you to see them if you’ve got any questions. I think it depends who you surround yourself with; me and my friends from halls/my course/AU teams all have the attitude to not be competitive with one another at all, to have a good time and be friendly/positive but get our heads down and work when we need to, and I think that’s the best way to do it- a lot of the uni experience is dependent on you and the people you surround yourself with. I think LSE is trying to respond to that reputation and has launched a lot of pastoral programmes recently (LSE Life, mental health programmes, student panels) which is good. The uni definitely expects a lot of you and everyone is at the top of their game (you’re surrounded by people who are incredibly clever and so they obviously take their work seriously) and at the start I honestly didn’t think I was clever enough; one thing I’ll say about LSE is that it can feel a little competitive and there are some people that are desperate to show how much they know off. However, if you surround yourself with people with a good attitude or the type of outlook that you want to have then you’ll be fine.

All in all I’m pretty happy with my decision and don’t think I’d have gone anywhere else. I’ve made a really lovely group of friends and I think once you crack how to balance the workload and social life (plus not spend too much money) it’s good, but a lot to take on at first. I do miss home at times but living in London and going to LSE especially gives you so many amazing opportunities, particularly if you want to do anything to do within the social sciences, and (most of) the lecturers/teachers you’re taught by are really knowledgeable and know what they’re talking about.

Do you know anybody who stays at urbanet Westminster Bridge? What do they think about living there?

I liked LSE when I visited and I liked the course, but I heard teachers don't care about undergrads is this true??? (I am applying, and the library looked amazing )

Hi there, nice to see this thread being woken up again!Those offers are MORE than competitive enough for LSE, whatever combination you go for. I know people who did a wide mix of subjects at A-Level so study what you enjoy most. Just remember though that loads of people get great grades (and the entry requirements are usually only AAA) and that LSE does let people in with A*AB/AAB, so it's all about having a passionate, unique personal statement. LSE is very specialised so showing that you're into that will be impressive.

Thank you so much, honestly. People on other threads have been so negative and I guess I was reconsidering applying. But thank you so much! I really hope I clear the first round of application process. :P