Economics/finance uni choices

As a 1st year undergrad who applied for 3 of the same unis as you, they are risky but not too much so as long as you're absolutely sure you have your personal statement nailed. Personally even though I applied to LSE, UCL and Warwick all for Econ I was rejected from 2 of them and only got a UCL offer (along with my 2 "safer choices") so think hard about it.

I thought so as well, so do you think it would be better if I replace LSE or UCL with a 'safer choice' and therefore apply for
1. LSE/UCL
2. KCL
3. Warwick or Durham? Can you comment on which one would be better?
4. Edinburgh (would this and KCL be considered as a 'safe option')
5. A safe option, maybe warwick as 3 and this would be durham?

Also I have a question regarding employability, which schools are the 'target schools' by the big companies and banks in London? I'm a bit ignorant on this matter as i'm not from the UK.

I think it's fine to apply to both LSE and UCL as well as Warwick and Durham but your final choice has to be somewhere where you're sure you can get the offer, for example I applied to LSE, UCL, Warwick, Bath and Nottingham in that order of preference and I got my Notts offer after like 1 week since applying.

To answer your questions though, I would say Warwick > Durham for reputation definitely, it's up to you to do the research on which uni you prefer though.

KCL I can definitely see as a safe option, their econ course is relatively new and obviously a bit overshadowed with LSE and UCL being right next to it; but it might not be the safest because a lot of applicants to London unis will probably put KCL right after LSE and UCL like yourself so they will get a lot of strong applicants too.

Edinburgh seems prestigious from what I've heard but I'm really not sure about their econ course, sorry.

The important thing when deciding which unis to go for is ensuring you will have at least 1 offer from a uni you like, hence why if there is an "easier to get into" kind of uni that you think you would enjoy attending then that should be your safe choice.

As for target schools, for investment banks and some economic consultancy/professional services kind of firms they're notorious for targeting: Oxford/Cambridge, LSE, UCL, Imperial, Warwick and some lesser targets include Durham, Bath, Bristol, KCL, and the big Scottish unis, although as a whole the importance of going to a "target uni" is declining so don't be deterred if you don't go to one of those and still want to go into that industry.

Hope this helps!