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Economics applicant thread UCAS 2014

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Original post by Jizzle88
I will be studying economics as part of my first year. I am not mathematically inclined, however I am very interested in the theories and mechanisms of economics. Having no gcse's or A-levels I'm sure my maths and statistics module results will be quite brutal. Any idea's on what I should specifically study to get up to scratch (as much as I can).


If you course you are studying has maths as a requirement then it will be assumed that you know everything covered in A level maths modules core 1-4. Perhaps try looking at a textbook?
I would seriously advise people choose an AAA uni as an insurance. If you're betting on maths being the subject in which you'll definitely get the A* in, I would recommend that you think otherwise. All it takes is one stupid mistake or even a weird paper (i.e. C3 this year) and you'll have to sit out a year.
Original post by ThatRandomGuy
I would seriously advise people choose an AAA uni as an insurance. If you're betting on maths being the subject in which you'll definitely get the A* in, I would recommend that you think otherwise. All it takes is one stupid mistake or even a weird paper (i.e. C3 this year) and you'll have to sit out a year.


Its alright though since some universities want an A* in any subject eg. Bath bristol and nottingham
Did anyone go LSE today?
Original post by Boy_wonder_95
Did anyone go LSE today?


I did :biggrin:


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Did you go to the one at 12:15 - 1:00? And how did you find it? :smile:
Original post by Boy_wonder_95
Did anyone go LSE today?


I went today as well but I wasn't as blown away as I thought I would be. It might be because I don't like city universities but I preferred Oxford much more. At the same time, the talks weren't great; the info they gave you in the economics talk was all on the website and the applying talk... They just told you about the UCAS process, nothing useful at all.

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Original post by Epic Flawless
I went today as well but I wasn't as blown away as I thought I would be. It might be because I don't like city universities but I preferred Oxford much more. At the same time, the talks weren't great; the info they gave you in the economics talk was all on the website and the applying talk... They just told you about the UCAS process, nothing useful at all.

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I get what you mean, the woman rambled a lot and it was more of her convincing people to take the joint degrees rather than selling the course... I agree the Oxford one was better. What talks did you go to?

The main thing that annoyed me was the woman took too long when answering individual questions at the end, and there's always one guy who asks about the IB or some other repetitive question.
(edited 10 years ago)
I went to the economics talk at 1:30 and the applying talk at 2:30 in addition to the welcome to lse talk at 12:30. Nothing there really struck, except for maybe the alumni but even then I was already aware of that. How about you?

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Original post by Epic Flawless
I went to the economics talk at 1:30 and the applying talk at 2:30 in addition to the welcome to lse talk at 12:30. Nothing there really struck, except for maybe the alumni but even then I was already aware of that. How about you?

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welcome at 9:30, econ history at 11, econ at 12:30 then maths & econ at 2:45... along with stuff inbetween :yawn:. I didn't like the maths talk but the rest were fine. I liked the place though, wasn't as cramped as UCL...
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by Boy_wonder_95
Did you go to the one at 12:15 - 1:00? And how did you find it? :smile:


Yeaa i did. Reg at 10. Econ history at 11.15. Then economics at 12.15. And then applying at 1.30. Tbh i dont like the campus too many people a bit too cramped (even though ive lived in london my whole life). However i am still going to apply cos i love the course and cos its LSE!


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what was LSE like ( people who went ) ? did they speak about entrance requirements / nature of the course etc. and if so what did they say ? plus what's the University actually like , is it campus-based or what ?
Original post by kiirankapoor
Yeaa i did. Reg at 10. Econ history at 11.15. Then economics at 12.15. And then applying at 1.30. Tbh i dont like the campus too many people a bit too cramped (even though ive lived in london my whole life). However i am still going to apply cos i love the course and cos its LSE!


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You went to the same ones I did! So I might've seen you :wink:, I didn't bother checking the campus as I live only half an hour away. The chinese guy at Econ history was jokes :biggrin:, if you mention "I love History..." you immediately stand a good chance :lol:, also applying as I liked the place.

Gonna be a bit cheeky but...

Spoiler

Original post by Boy_wonder_95
You went to the same ones I did! So I might've seen you :wink:, I didn't bother checking the campus as I live only half an hour away. The chinese guy at Econ history was jokes :biggrin:, if you mention "I love History..." you immediately stand a good chance :lol:, also applying as I liked the place.

Gonna be a bit cheeky but...

Spoiler



Aha nopee i was the asian one with glasses and orange dress :P yeaa he was really funny.


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Original post by Fas
what was LSE like ( people who went ) ? did they speak about entrance requirements / nature of the course etc. and if so what did they say ? plus what's the University actually like , is it campus-based or what ?

Maths A2 is essential and FM at AS is also pretty much essential (even though they dont say it in prospectus) so im going to pick up FM AS.


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Original post by Nadine10
Well your volunteer/leadership thing sounds interesting and defo worth a mention in your ps - my advice would be don't just state what you did but draw out the important skills you gained and maybe link it back to your course. For example, if you do MUN or debating, say that it allows you to look at current events from different perspective, and engineer solutions, which is was macro attempts to do with the economy.

And for the interview i got asked about dematerialisation in the first (dont worry! the interviewer knew we would know absolutely nothing about this and wanted to see if we could handle new material when he explained this) and in the second i was asked to sketch a output per worker against quantity of labour and we discussed it a bit.


Thanks again!

I was just wondering if you could suggest some modern colleges close to the economics department? I'm going to the open day tomorrow and have no idea which ones to visit...
Original post by Fas
what was LSE like ( people who went ) ? did they speak about entrance requirements / nature of the course etc. and if so what did they say ? plus what's the University actually like , is it campus-based or what ?


She stressed that is was very maths-heavy. I'd say half of the talk was about that. The requirement is A*AA and the A* has to be in Maths, because they only want people who are really comfortable with it. If you're not so keen on Maths there are so many combination courses with Economics that you can do.

She also seemed to suggest that the Economics department is not very personal, and you have to join societies and things to interact with people.

Also, it was 14 applicants per place last year for BSc Economics.
Original post by ThatRandomGuy
I would seriously advise people choose an AAA uni as an insurance. If you're betting on maths being the subject in which you'll definitely get the A* in, I would recommend that you think otherwise. All it takes is one stupid mistake or even a weird paper (i.e. C3 this year) and you'll have to sit out a year.

Please suggest some AAA ones? As close to London as possible, but also nice places! :P
Original post by Anonymous1717
She stressed that is was very maths-heavy. I'd say half of the talk was about that. The requirement is A*AA and the A* has to be in Maths, because they only want people who are really comfortable with it. If you're not so keen on Maths there are so many combination courses with Economics that you can do.

She also seemed to suggest that the Economics department is not very personal, and you have to join societies and things to interact with people.

Also, it was 14 applicants per place last year for BSc Economics.


wow haha , to be honest a lot of the stuff you've said there has justified my decision not to go for LSE. I'm confident that i can get the A* in Maths , however slip-ups do happen , and 14 applicants per place doesn't sound good at all , especially considering i don't even have 6 A* grades at GCSE. plus the idea that it's not very personal - in this aspect i significantly preferred Universities such as Warwick/Nottingham as they are campus-based and making friends would be fairly easy , but at LSE you would have to join societies and whilst i don't have an issue with that , i would only join societies that interest me , and knowing me i tend to go for choices that are not popular with others :tongue: so i might not end up knowing many people haha
Original post by Fas
wow haha , to be honest a lot of the stuff you've said there has justified my decision not to go for LSE. I'm confident that i can get the A* in Maths , however slip-ups do happen , and 14 applicants per place doesn't sound good at all , especially considering i don't even have 6 A* grades at GCSE. plus the idea that it's not very personal - in this aspect i significantly preferred Universities such as Warwick/Nottingham as they are campus-based and making friends would be fairly easy , but at LSE you would have to join societies and whilst i don't have an issue with that , i would only join societies that interest me , and knowing me i tend to go for choices that are not popular with others :tongue: so i might not end up knowing many people haha

I know I've only focused on the negatives but that's a lot of what was highlighted. At one point I think she even said she's already got so many people applying and the talk was mainly to discourage the wrong people from applying! The 14 applicants really puts me off - it's double Cambridge's applicants per place but I guess a more international students apply too.

There are, however, obviously many positives. It's LSE, one of the top universities in the world, especially for social sciences! And they have some brilliant speakers coming regularly. If I have the right AS UMS points I'll still probably apply...

I really liked Warwick too - it had a nice feel. Did you see Nottingham?

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