LSE Economics Student AMA

can I read your personal statement? and can I get into lse for economics with average/bad GCSE grades but good a-level grades and a good personal statement?

Hi, thanks for doing this. I’m applying to the part time distance learning BSc in Economics with the Uni of London, but the course is accredited and written by LSE, do you know anything about the differences between your course and this one at all?Also I’d really love to get your opinion on what I could read or study to prepare myself for economics with LSE Many thanks!

Really sorry, I cannot share my personal statement, but I am sure you can find plenty of LSE personal statements out there, which I personally found very useful when writing my own. Note down the things they have in common and try to understand what makes them prefer one over another. The key to writing a personal statement is to avoid being vague, and instead, show that you've done research and put in effort when deciding that you wanted to study economics. By that I mean, it's always a good thing to, for example, speak about a certain economic concept or theory that has sparked YOUR interest or impacted YOU as a person. Do not talk about how you want to end poverty and that's why you want to study economics because you wouldn't really be convincing anyone here. Instead, talk about a certain economists' view on how we achieve economic growth, talk about why that view was so interesting to you, contradict it, relate it to an experience of yours, etc. You need to tell a story and make everything as personal as possible.

Taken from LSE's website:
'A strong set of GCSE grades including the majority at A (or 7) and A* (or 8-9)
Your GCSE (or equivalent) English Language and Mathematics grades should be no lower than B (or 6).
We also consider your overall GCSE subject profile'
So you can see they do not need to be perfect by any means, just decent grades. I would say that if your GCSE grades are a little lower than that, then that's obviously not so great, but it definitely does not rule you out. The key here is having strong and solid A-level grades.

Hope this helps

Hey, thanks for doing this AMA. How easy do you think it is to manage a good social life with the academic rigour? I have also heard that international students tend to be quite cliquey and stay amongst themselves. What's your opinion on this?

Hi, thanks for doing this. I’m applying to the part time distance learning BSc in Economics with the Uni of London, but the course is accredited and written by LSE, do you know anything about the differences between your course and this one at all?Also I’d really love to get your opinion on what I could read or study to prepare myself for economics with LSE Many thanks!

Just want to clarify that this degree only takes direction from LSE, but is not awarded or accredited by LSE.

Any mention of LSE on your cv or socials would be deceit. This degree is awarded by UoL only.

The content is basically old module syllabuses recycled. It’s also more accessible to a wider range of students as the exams are easier so you don’t need to “prepare yourself for LSE”.

Wow thanks for pointing that out, I wasn’t aware of this so it may change things for me, I’ve been speaking to an admissions councillor this week and I’ve not asked the question as my assumption was wrong.

May I ask if you have any thoughts on UoL as an institution and do you know if future employers would find this course worthwhile? I know a financial advisor who has told me that in finance employers only really want graduates from a Russell group university...

You're welcome! I don't know anyone who's graduated with a UoL degree, as it's aimed at international students who can't or don't want to leave their country. I am UK based and not many people do UoL degrees here (especially for their first degree).

There are some colleges in countries like Pakistan who are accredited to teach these courses, though none of them are actual lecturers (meaning no PhDs graduates), nor do any of these colleges have links to specific universities like LSE, only UoL. I assume they have to give UoL a share of their fees for teaching UoL courses.

UoL degree are not as respected as an on-campus degree, though, for a distance learning degree, it is very popular. Probably top with Open University, which you should also consider. You can also look into Uni of the People and Arden University, though I don't know much about these.

UoL is a group of universities, which only some members are Russel Group members. The UoL itself is not a member of the RG. You may fool an employer to thinking that you studied at LSE, but again this is dishonest and would likely lead to immediate dismissal once you were found out. Your best for a finance job is to study in the UK anywhere, get good grades, then do a master's at a RG uni if possible.

For more information on the UoL's structure, search up the Wikipedia page for it. There is good detail there.

This has clarified a lot so thank you, I really appreciate the in depth response. I’m currently part way through an access course with the open uni so I was going with their economics course until I saw UoL’s course and wanted to take that because of the world standing of LSE in economics, but from what you’ve said it unfortunately doesn’t hold the weight I had thought.

It seems unless I am willing to change my working hours I have the three choices of OU, UoL and Arden - would you hazard any advice as to which would be better for future employers?

I ask this because I’m a mature student at 33 and potentially not quite as sought after because I come into education rather late, I feel like I need the best start possible.

Currently, a second-year economics student at LSE and would love to help and answer some questions that people out here may have. So ask anything related to economics, LSE, London or anything really

I’m a BSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (EME) graduate!


Everything that the poster stated is true. But I’ll add some more comments.

You more or less need to be getting all first class marks. You should also be doing EC202 and EC221 instead of the less technical versions, though I actually was the only person who didn’t do either course. I think the course codes are changing. Most people also will have done optional modules in maths/stats in the first and second year.

Also, it’s not as easy as having good grades. You need to submit a detailed research proposal over the summer for the EC331 dissertation. Every year about 10 or less people are admitted to transfer.

Also the main difference is in final year you have to take the EC331 dissertation as mentioned, but also you must take one extra econometrics modules. The programme description says you can take Games and Economic Behaviour instead though no one has ever been approved to not take an extra econometrics module. I don’t know why the programme description says you can...

Also for your remaining modules, you can do maths and stats with permission but most people limit this to just one unit or none, otherwise they’d be doing no field courses in economics.

If you get into LSE BSc Economics, pm me and I can guide you on the optimal path to transferring to BSc EME