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Good idea for a thread 2late, it will be interesting to read when the posts start coming in!! 
My first term view is fairly mixed. The LSE is a great place to study, don't get me wrong, its great to go to a uni that has a massive influence on things going on all over the world - the number of world leaders who go there to speak is just an example of this. It is world famous and has an amazing reputation, and you are going to be carrying that reputation with you all your life if you get a degree , and that's the main thing that keeps me working.
However, I personally am thinking that a campus uni would probably suit me better: everything just seems more made for students and more fun when I go to my girlfriend's uni, and everything is closer together. To be honest I hate the 25 minute walk to uni every day, which usually ends up as a 15 minute run. Additionally, why do LSE never get anyone decent ever or remotely famous for crush or something? DJ dom rockbox is so annoying, but he comes back every week! All my friend's unis have had loads of really famous Djs, like pendulum or random bands, but we have had absolutely nothing. It doesn't make sense, you can fit maybe 500 in the main crush bit, and I'm sure major acts have performed to smaller crowds. The student union needs to stop worrying about paper throwing or random awareness weeks...
As for the work, well in my opinion there is so much - if you want a first that is. I get the impression that everyone who does l101 economics (which i do) is a super genius, and I'm really working a lot to try and keep up with these guys. Admittedly, I do my work at a pretty slow leisurely pace, talking to people at the same time or whatever, so it takes quite a while, but yeah from my experience if you want to stay completely on top of your course you have to work really hard (though you could probably lay back quite a lot and get a 2:1 - though obviously i don't mean do no work, you just don't have to kill yourself)
I'm doing AC100, EC102, MA100, ST102. AC100 I'm finding really easy and fun, I don't see how people struggle with it. Economics has some difficult theories to grasp and the questions they can ask are hard, but I find it really enjoyable so far (microeconomics is all we have done). MA100 is tough, a big step up on A-level maths, but I don't think you really have to understand everything, just apply the formulas. And ST102 was tough but Balmer is a gay (completely terrible lecturer, he just needs to get to the damn point) and now I bought a book finally I'm actually finding it pretty reasonable (though the questions are tough, I think they are all the same, so once you've done a few, you can do all).
As for the social side of things, I don't have anything personally against foreign students, but they really screw up my floor. There are tonnes of chinese people, a load of americans (who keep to themselves - they are all in their third year - as most american students are, they do general course which means they come over for just one year, their third one), and some other random social groups who stick to themselves. Then you have the total weirdos who can't grasp human communication techniques. This means that on my entire floor there is two people I talk to properly and would consider friends, out of about 20. Yes, my floor is more "diverse" than most, but in fact its not really culturally diverse because the chinese stick to eachother and do their big meals together and the same is the case for the other groups.
Also there is a slight asian rudeboy situation in the lse generally, i don't really find this a problem (though some people might), except when they all sit at the back of the lecture hall and try to impress eachother by laughing really loudly, which is ****ing annoying and makes me want to run over and attack them.
Another problem is the sporting facilities. Let's just say they suck. I like to go to the gym and play tennis every now and then, along with a bit of boxing or kickboxing. The LSE has no tennis courts (they pay to use the ones in a local park), everyone complains about the gym which is meant to toally suck, and the martial arts is okay. However, my laziness means i can't be bothered to spend 25 minutes walking to the lse and 25 minutes walking back, so I end up not going. Compare this with the possible situation of a campus uni (i'm talking about the large well known ones like warwick or lougborough for instance): they are certain to have tennis courts which you can use whenever, they are likely to have nice gyms and they will probably only be a ten minute walk from you live if you are unlucky! Maybe I am wrong here, and maybe at campus unis this isn't the case, please correct me if I'm wrong or agree if I am right
.
Therefore, in summary, I go to the LSE to use its reputation to make me lots of money, but I don't enjoy the bare amounts of work, the segregation in my halls, the distance from the uni, the sporting facilities, and the general lack of campus like fun.
Thanks for reading if you did, hope this helps any prospective students.
EDIT:
I would just like to add to my original post the fact that I don't complain about the social scene overall, i never go to crush now, and as I'm at rosebery all i have to do is walk 5 minutes to farringdon and you have two big clubs there: turnmills (house/trance?) and fabric (breaks/drum n bass). If you want dance music, the LSE has the best in the world withing walking distance. And if that's your thing you've just got to find some mates to go with you, which I have achieved pretty well (though this isn't such an easy task in my opinion). In this respect, it is better than a campus uni. In London there is great stuff happening all the time, the problem with this is that most of the people at my halls prefer to go to student nights (with cheap drink and cheesy music), which to be honest, you could do at any uni in the country. Yes the social scene is what you make of it, but I think it is hard to make something of it, especially considering my floor is so bland. But that is just my opinion of fun, everyone is different here, and I have friends who are having a great time going to student nights (and conversely, a couple of friends who aren't).
But this could just be a first term thing, or first year thing, until people start to realise that student nights really suck..
However, I personally am thinking that a campus uni would probably suit me better: everything just seems more made for students and more fun when I go to my girlfriend's uni, and everything is closer together. To be honest I hate the 25 minute walk to uni every day, which usually ends up as a 15 minute run. Additionally, why do LSE never get anyone decent ever or remotely famous for crush or something? DJ dom rockbox is so annoying, but he comes back every week! All my friend's unis have had loads of really famous Djs, like pendulum or random bands, but we have had absolutely nothing. It doesn't make sense, you can fit maybe 500 in the main crush bit, and I'm sure major acts have performed to smaller crowds. The student union needs to stop worrying about paper throwing or random awareness weeks...
As for the work, well in my opinion there is so much - if you want a first that is. I get the impression that everyone who does l101 economics (which i do) is a super genius, and I'm really working a lot to try and keep up with these guys. Admittedly, I do my work at a pretty slow leisurely pace, talking to people at the same time or whatever, so it takes quite a while, but yeah from my experience if you want to stay completely on top of your course you have to work really hard (though you could probably lay back quite a lot and get a 2:1 - though obviously i don't mean do no work, you just don't have to kill yourself)
I'm doing AC100, EC102, MA100, ST102. AC100 I'm finding really easy and fun, I don't see how people struggle with it. Economics has some difficult theories to grasp and the questions they can ask are hard, but I find it really enjoyable so far (microeconomics is all we have done). MA100 is tough, a big step up on A-level maths, but I don't think you really have to understand everything, just apply the formulas. And ST102 was tough but Balmer is a gay (completely terrible lecturer, he just needs to get to the damn point) and now I bought a book finally I'm actually finding it pretty reasonable (though the questions are tough, I think they are all the same, so once you've done a few, you can do all).
As for the social side of things, I don't have anything personally against foreign students, but they really screw up my floor. There are tonnes of chinese people, a load of americans (who keep to themselves - they are all in their third year - as most american students are, they do general course which means they come over for just one year, their third one), and some other random social groups who stick to themselves. Then you have the total weirdos who can't grasp human communication techniques. This means that on my entire floor there is two people I talk to properly and would consider friends, out of about 20. Yes, my floor is more "diverse" than most, but in fact its not really culturally diverse because the chinese stick to eachother and do their big meals together and the same is the case for the other groups.
Also there is a slight asian rudeboy situation in the lse generally, i don't really find this a problem (though some people might), except when they all sit at the back of the lecture hall and try to impress eachother by laughing really loudly, which is ****ing annoying and makes me want to run over and attack them.
Another problem is the sporting facilities. Let's just say they suck. I like to go to the gym and play tennis every now and then, along with a bit of boxing or kickboxing. The LSE has no tennis courts (they pay to use the ones in a local park), everyone complains about the gym which is meant to toally suck, and the martial arts is okay. However, my laziness means i can't be bothered to spend 25 minutes walking to the lse and 25 minutes walking back, so I end up not going. Compare this with the possible situation of a campus uni (i'm talking about the large well known ones like warwick or lougborough for instance): they are certain to have tennis courts which you can use whenever, they are likely to have nice gyms and they will probably only be a ten minute walk from you live if you are unlucky! Maybe I am wrong here, and maybe at campus unis this isn't the case, please correct me if I'm wrong or agree if I am right
.Therefore, in summary, I go to the LSE to use its reputation to make me lots of money, but I don't enjoy the bare amounts of work, the segregation in my halls, the distance from the uni, the sporting facilities, and the general lack of campus like fun.
Thanks for reading if you did, hope this helps any prospective students
.EDIT:
I would just like to add to my original post the fact that I don't complain about the social scene overall, i never go to crush now, and as I'm at rosebery all i have to do is walk 5 minutes to farringdon and you have two big clubs there: turnmills (house/trance?) and fabric (breaks/drum n bass). If you want dance music, the LSE has the best in the world withing walking distance. And if that's your thing you've just got to find some mates to go with you, which I have achieved pretty well (though this isn't such an easy task in my opinion). In this respect, it is better than a campus uni. In London there is great stuff happening all the time, the problem with this is that most of the people at my halls prefer to go to student nights (with cheap drink and cheesy music), which to be honest, you could do at any uni in the country. Yes the social scene is what you make of it, but I think it is hard to make something of it, especially considering my floor is so bland. But that is just my opinion of fun, everyone is different here, and I have friends who are having a great time going to student nights (and conversely, a couple of friends who aren't).
But this could just be a first term thing, or first year thing, until people start to realise that student nights really suck..
A bit of advice for 1st years:
AC100, i found, got a fair bit more complicated with the management accounting stuff. i really did not enjoy the lent term stuff. homeworks sometimes very confusing - you have to keep up-to-date with the reading
EC102 - the macro is a lot easier than the micro and the questions in the exam are very similar to ones from homeworks - obviously a little bit different, but you can practice the homework questions and then you should find it quite simple and ok
MA100 - its tough, but it all seems to fall into place a bit now, so you should be ok. i enjoyed MA100 - didn't do much reading, but did make loads of notes in the lectures
ST102 - what a nightmare!!! all i can say is good luck with Balmer - i would just learn it from textbooks, the lectures are not exactly helpful
AC100, i found, got a fair bit more complicated with the management accounting stuff. i really did not enjoy the lent term stuff. homeworks sometimes very confusing - you have to keep up-to-date with the reading
EC102 - the macro is a lot easier than the micro and the questions in the exam are very similar to ones from homeworks - obviously a little bit different, but you can practice the homework questions and then you should find it quite simple and ok
MA100 - its tough, but it all seems to fall into place a bit now, so you should be ok. i enjoyed MA100 - didn't do much reading, but did make loads of notes in the lectures
ST102 - what a nightmare!!! all i can say is good luck with Balmer - i would just learn it from textbooks, the lectures are not exactly helpful
Alisama, what halls are you in?
I am a second year Economic History student (EC100, GV100, GY103, EH101, LN250, EH220, EH240, EH245) but I will give my tuppence worth. I am going to be very honest now.
As an institution LSE does indeed have a very solid reputation, and if you wan't to go into investment banking or elsewhere in the financial services sector, it is a good choice. However, there is so many of these people it is quite sickening. I personally am not one for this and the pressure from both the university and off peers to get internships and securing your 35k starting wage straight after uni is just ridiculous. This is especially prevalent in the Asian student body who it seems have been sent over with this as a primary goal.
Nevertheless, I love the uni very very much. I would describe myself as a typical English, drinking, smoking, drug doing student who, whilst 'foregoing' a traditional social experience, has achieved a good balance between education and pleasure. To be honest, I am the kind of person who will try to do the least possible work and still get by, and I feel that if some of the people at LSE with sticks up their arses could see how little work I do they would feel ill. Last year I got about 75% attendance to classes (yes I skipped a good few to go drinking) and maybe 60% of all lectures. Essays were done in about 3 hours from start to finish, and with help from Sparknotes etc, yet I got solid 2:1's. I was in High Holborn and only 1 other person in my flat was from England, never mind the North. Anyway, you could really see the discipline of their private education coming through around exam time, as one of my good friends from Hong Kong went from being quite sociable to 6 weeks prior to exams revising about 12 hours a day (at least). It was ridiculous but I also put in the work of about 6-7 hours a day for 3 weeks and came out with 64 average which I am satisfied with. It seems that unless you are naturally gifted, which a lot of people are, and put in A LOT of work, getting a first is unlikely and in my opinion undesirable.
LSE is situated in the heart of London. I was at High Holborn and loved the location and proximity to the university. Though living was expensive and going out a constant desire. I would say I went out 5-6 times a week getting really quite drunk. To say LSE has a **** social scene would be to say London does. It is only what you make of it, and if you limit yourself to crush every Friday then you may indeed think it is wack. However, if you branch out and explore London and actually experience one of the coolest cities in the world, it is hard to not have a good time. The tuns are a great place to hand out and Wrights bar is ace.
I will add more info later or if anyone has questions just ask. All in all, LSE is great but I do indeed agree that the music scene could be soooooooo much better, but with such a diverse and cliquey student base it is hard to cater for everyone. Sports as well are a downfall but I suppose you undertake a trade off (see economics!) when going to a university in a city centre. Land is money!
As an institution LSE does indeed have a very solid reputation, and if you wan't to go into investment banking or elsewhere in the financial services sector, it is a good choice. However, there is so many of these people it is quite sickening. I personally am not one for this and the pressure from both the university and off peers to get internships and securing your 35k starting wage straight after uni is just ridiculous. This is especially prevalent in the Asian student body who it seems have been sent over with this as a primary goal.
Nevertheless, I love the uni very very much. I would describe myself as a typical English, drinking, smoking, drug doing student who, whilst 'foregoing' a traditional social experience, has achieved a good balance between education and pleasure. To be honest, I am the kind of person who will try to do the least possible work and still get by, and I feel that if some of the people at LSE with sticks up their arses could see how little work I do they would feel ill. Last year I got about 75% attendance to classes (yes I skipped a good few to go drinking) and maybe 60% of all lectures. Essays were done in about 3 hours from start to finish, and with help from Sparknotes etc, yet I got solid 2:1's. I was in High Holborn and only 1 other person in my flat was from England, never mind the North. Anyway, you could really see the discipline of their private education coming through around exam time, as one of my good friends from Hong Kong went from being quite sociable to 6 weeks prior to exams revising about 12 hours a day (at least). It was ridiculous but I also put in the work of about 6-7 hours a day for 3 weeks and came out with 64 average which I am satisfied with. It seems that unless you are naturally gifted, which a lot of people are, and put in A LOT of work, getting a first is unlikely and in my opinion undesirable.
LSE is situated in the heart of London. I was at High Holborn and loved the location and proximity to the university. Though living was expensive and going out a constant desire. I would say I went out 5-6 times a week getting really quite drunk. To say LSE has a **** social scene would be to say London does. It is only what you make of it, and if you limit yourself to crush every Friday then you may indeed think it is wack. However, if you branch out and explore London and actually experience one of the coolest cities in the world, it is hard to not have a good time. The tuns are a great place to hand out and Wrights bar is ace.
I will add more info later or if anyone has questions just ask. All in all, LSE is great but I do indeed agree that the music scene could be soooooooo much better, but with such a diverse and cliquey student base it is hard to cater for everyone. Sports as well are a downfall but I suppose you undertake a trade off (see economics!) when going to a university in a city centre. Land is money!
I edited my original post slightly!
No problem
1) Like most things at the LSE, the asian rudeboys stick to themselves, going around in groups together. I wouldn't say it is a bad problem in my opinion, there are a lot of asian people there so of course many will be the asian rudeboy type. The thing that annoys me about them is that to get to LSE you have to be clever and do well at school, and most of them come from big private schools like harrow - that kind of diminishes your gangstaness in my opinion. But I don't think you have to get sucked into them, its a matter of being careful on freshers week, go and talk and speak to the people you really want to be friends with. And yes there are lots of well-rounded social people to talk to (just none on my floor
).
2) I would still go to the LSE. My opinion of LSE is MIXED, I don't hate it which some people may have got from my original post. At the end of the day I am one of those soulless investment banker types and no place could possibly suit me better than the LSE. I don't think the LSE completely sucks socially (only in the sports facilities area does LSE truely suck), I just think it could probably be better at a different uni, with less segregation. My opinion is that I could have had more fun at a different uni of slightly lower calibre (i.e. warwick) but the calibre is all important to me.
3) Maybe it depends on the person, some people don't see any problems with the LSE, some do, I can't really tell you why.
Rosebery. It was meant to have an amazing social scene last year but according to the second years who are still staying there the first years this year just aren't as interesting apparently.
wawrwinka
thanks for that alisama, top post.
you seem to know what you're on about so I may aswell ask you just a couple of things if you could be so kind...
1) How bad is this Asian rudeboy thing? Because I'm asian myself and asian rudeboys really piss me off, for the same reasons as you described above. I saw a worrying amount at the LSE open day too. Anyway, I was wandering if you think, as an Asian, am I likely to get sucked into the whole rudeboy thing and end up hanging around with them? and are there enough non-rude asians? in fact, are there on the whole enough well-rounded, socially developed ppl to mix with?
2) If you could go back a year or so and make your uni decision again, where would you go, and why?
3) and finally, why do such a worrying amount of people complain about both the Chinsese ppl and the social side of LSE, yet still so many ppl deny that they are problems. Are these problems really that bad or not?
thanks again
you seem to know what you're on about so I may aswell ask you just a couple of things if you could be so kind...
1) How bad is this Asian rudeboy thing? Because I'm asian myself and asian rudeboys really piss me off, for the same reasons as you described above. I saw a worrying amount at the LSE open day too. Anyway, I was wandering if you think, as an Asian, am I likely to get sucked into the whole rudeboy thing and end up hanging around with them? and are there enough non-rude asians? in fact, are there on the whole enough well-rounded, socially developed ppl to mix with?
2) If you could go back a year or so and make your uni decision again, where would you go, and why?
3) and finally, why do such a worrying amount of people complain about both the Chinsese ppl and the social side of LSE, yet still so many ppl deny that they are problems. Are these problems really that bad or not?
thanks again
No problem
1) Like most things at the LSE, the asian rudeboys stick to themselves, going around in groups together. I wouldn't say it is a bad problem in my opinion, there are a lot of asian people there so of course many will be the asian rudeboy type. The thing that annoys me about them is that to get to LSE you have to be clever and do well at school, and most of them come from big private schools like harrow - that kind of diminishes your gangstaness in my opinion. But I don't think you have to get sucked into them, its a matter of being careful on freshers week, go and talk and speak to the people you really want to be friends with. And yes there are lots of well-rounded social people to talk to (just none on my floor
).2) I would still go to the LSE. My opinion of LSE is MIXED, I don't hate it which some people may have got from my original post. At the end of the day I am one of those soulless investment banker types and no place could possibly suit me better than the LSE. I don't think the LSE completely sucks socially (only in the sports facilities area does LSE truely suck), I just think it could probably be better at a different uni, with less segregation. My opinion is that I could have had more fun at a different uni of slightly lower calibre (i.e. warwick) but the calibre is all important to me.
3) Maybe it depends on the person, some people don't see any problems with the LSE, some do, I can't really tell you why.
mypaperheart
Alisama, what halls are you in?
Rosebery. It was meant to have an amazing social scene last year but according to the second years who are still staying there the first years this year just aren't as interesting apparently
.
I'm expierencing some of the same things as alisama, especially with the nationalities sticking to their own groups thing. Also I never knew clubbing would be for some the only form of entertainment. Coming from southern california, where I never clubbed before, I have tried it out, and don't particularly enjoy it. When it becomes the only form of entertainment things can get repetitive or boring sometimes.
However, I'm just pointing out my complaints, there are still a bunch of positives. Its just that the positives are easier to hear about so I would rather talk about things that are mentioned often.
However, I'm just pointing out my complaints, there are still a bunch of positives. Its just that the positives are easier to hear about so I would rather talk about things that are mentioned often.
hads
Define "Asian Rudeboy"
I don't really like the name but people call them that: asians wearing ghetto clothes who are loud and annoying and generally try to act black and fight eachother shouting "brap brap", even though they seem to come from public schools (obviously not all do, but the ones at the LSE appear to...). i love rap/hiphop.... i don't try to pretend i'm from compton though...
anyway I'd like to reiterate this is not a major problem in my opinion, just something i've noticed from my first term at LSE.
alisama
I don't really like the name but people call them that: asians wearing ghetto clothes who are loud and annoying and generally try to act black and fight eachother shouting "brap brap", even though they seem to come from public schools (obviously not all do, but the ones at the LSE appear to...). i love rap/hiphop.... i don't try to pretend i'm from compton though...
anyway I'd like to reiterate this is not a major problem in my opinion, just something i've noticed from my first term at LSE.
anyway I'd like to reiterate this is not a major problem in my opinion, just something i've noticed from my first term at LSE.
I can imagine exactly what you're describing. The media does a very good job at that these days, heh.
penjy1
can you please explain why people like me make you sick?
Because you are a drug using loser.
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