any advice for my dilemma? :(

hey everyone that has been kind enough to read this,

my dilemma is...
i have applied for ucas and recived my offers, the ones i am consdering are:

LSE - mathematics and economics
Imperial - mathetmatics

i don't know which to choose...annoyingly, i have already firmed imperial and put LSE as my insurance, as i thought i needed to do this before applying for my student loan! i visited the LSE maths department though for the first time properly the other day and loved it...and am now regretting my decision. i called up ucas, however, and they told me i am able to reverse my decision over the phone with the university's permission.

both of these universities have given the same offer:
and A in physics, and an A in further maths..(obviously imperial have been arsey about the whole no retakes thing, of course)

...so which do i choose?

(extra info: i live in london, but will be moving into halls. i am interesting in studying economics, but have no previous knowledge and will not know whether i'll like it! i enjoy pure maths but have no preference in mechanics/statistics. i enjoy quantitative work, and am not keen on hefty essay writing, verbal presentation.)

i will appreciate any advice..because i am sooo torn right now!

thank you for reading :smile:

Reply 1

Sophia_And_Me

Of course you should go to LSE!!!

Reply 2

lucyxx10

hmm well its totally up to u. u should check out the content of each course and mybe each uni a bit more to see wt would suit u better. also maybe read about economics online if u dnt no much about it.

and think about ur plans after uni and where u would rather work at the end of it all. remember if u choose one then end up nt liking it u can change at the end of 1st year. i know a few ppl hu have done this for different reasons.

good luck

Reply 3

jelly1000

belle_jane

have you visited the maths department at imperial yet? i would do that if you haven't

Reply 4

belle_jane

jelly1000

have you visited the maths department at imperial yet? i would do that if you haven't

yeah, i'm visiting today. but i've done loads of maths classes organised for high school/sixth form students at imperial college before. i have a familiarity with the place...but not as an undergraduate.

my main issue is deciding between the course structures.
obviously imperial has a lot of mechanics in the course, whereas LSE stressed that they do not touch on mechanics and the applied maths is economics. (understandable)
i do physics and enjoy it...but i dont know whether i'm strong enough at it to be confident at degree level...on the other hand, i've never done economics..so i'll never know whether i'm strong enough at it until i get there!

i read on the website there is a first year project on any aspect of maths,
could anyone tell me more about this that has studied there?

thanks
:smile:

Reply 5

oxymoronic

You only have 14 days to make any alterations to your decisions, after then you can not do so.... meaning you need to decide quickly given you made this thread 6 days ago anyway, so at the most you have 8 days remaining.

If you leave it until 14 days has passed you are able to decline your Imperial firm and then LSE would move up to be your firm and you wouldn't have an insurance choice. You would not be able to change and have Imperial as your insurance instead after 14 days, nor could you pick another offer from the ones you had originally.

Reply 6

belle_jane

oxymoronic

i called UCAS and they informed me that because of my circumstances, they would be able to switch round my firm/insurance choices as long as i had permission from both of the universities concerned.

Reply 7

oxymoronic

belle_jane

i called UCAS and they informed me that because of my circumstances, they would be able to switch round my firm/insurance choices as long as i had permission from both of the universities concerned.

What circumstances?

As far as I can tell you don't actually have any beyond you made the decision before you were fully sure - forgive me if I'm wrong there.

http://www.ucas.com/students/offers/faqs/replying/faq8

Can I change my replies?

You can change your replies within 14 days of making them by contacting our Customer Service Unit.

If you wish to change your replies after 14 days, you should contact your chosen universities and colleges direct for advice.

In short, after the 14 days are up its very difficult/impossible for you to properly change your choices around.... as I said, you can reject Imperial as your firm then LSE will move up to be your firm and you'd be without an insurance but I would be very very very surprised if Imperial said that was fine and were more than happy to be your insurance instead of your firm as it just doesn't work like that - if it did, everyone would be doing it if they had a change of heart and there'd be no point in having the 14 day rule. If your firm and insurance were at the same university it might be possible as they could just swap your course codes around but between universities it is different.

Once you select somewhere as your firm/insurance you're committed to that choice. You can always back out and not go by asking them to release you, but you can't alter it or change them around.

For more background:

Spoiler

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1208746

Reply 8

belle_jane

oxymoronic

What circumstances?

As far as I can tell you don't actually have any beyond you made the decision before you were fully sure - forgive me if I'm wrong there.

i'm only telling you what the lady from the UCAS helpline told me.
quote: "as long as we had the permission from both of these universities, it would be simple for us to swap your choices around."

obviously, the issue is whether imperial would actually agree to this...but to be honest, it's not really my main concern. if they, for some reason, did not want to be my insurance...then i could just withdraw and have LSE as the firm (as you said)

as i said, my dilemma is which uni to go for, and if that means rejecting imperial and just having LSE as my firm...that doesn't matter to me?
as long as i have the uni i want to go to as my firm, it doesn't really bother me.

i am most interested in gettin advice about the advantages/disadvantages of studying at Imperial/LSE, as i have already spoken to UCAS about the technicalities.

thanks

Reply 9

F1 fanatic

belle_jane

then you are in the wrong forum and I'll move this to the mathematics uni forum, which is arguably the most relevant to your query.

In short, go for the one that you have your heart on. You usually know deep down and the fact you question it suggests that you prefer LSE. The courses are slightly different so you also need to consider whether you're happy with the added economics bit.