5 best things and 5 worst things about LSE...

For all current LSE students and alumni.

In your opinion, what are the 5 best things and the 5 worst things about LSE?

Feel free to be as elaborate or as concise as possible...Academics and/or non-academic stuff is fine as long as there is some relation to LSE.

Reply 1

MuvverRussia

7

Best

1. Reputation
2. Being in Central London
3. AIESEC LSE
4. Accounting and Finance dept
5. The 3 Tuns

Worst

1. Being in Central London
2. Teaching quality
3. Work ethic of some students compared to other Unis (basically people at LSE come across as being quite work orientated and it pisses me off at times)
4. AIESEC LSE (see above)

That's about it, I can't really think of a 5th....

Reply 2

jenny123

What? Isn't LSE famous for its teaching quality???

Reply 3

J.S.

7

ckwan16

For all current LSE students and alumni.

In your opinion, what are the 5 best things and the 5 worst things about LSE?

Feel free to be as elaborate or as concise as possible...Academics and/or non-academic stuff is fine as long as there is some relation to LSE.

I'm listing in no particular order.

Best:

-Being in Central London - an especially great place if you have lots of money to spend:P There's just so much to do, whatever your interests may be.

-Very focused students - whether it's academically or even regarding their future prospects upon leaving. The students tend to be exceptionally hard working, and there aren't too many exceptions to this. This can rub off on you.

-A higher proportion of international students than any other UK university - and these students are usually competent too, unlike many other universities. Also, due to the sheer scale of nationalities represented, discussion - whether in a seminar room, or even the (terribly small) students union is highly fascinating due to this diversity in perspectives.

-Mutual respect between the students on an intellectual level - as the LSE doesn't have any obviously weak departments consisting primarily of average/poor students.

-The intellecual history of the university - although of course so many students get carried away with this. As long as you remember that you're just a student number to the LSE and not a major part of its rich intellectual history whilst you're hammering out atrocious undergraduate essays. Oh and relating to 'intellectual history', due to this the LSE attracts so many high profile speakers from Politics, Business, Law and in almost anything else you could imagine.

Worst:

-Again, living in London - terribly expensive, and not such a great city if you've very little money to blow!

-Large class sizes, lecturers who aren't too bothered about you and that sort of thing. This is a major problem at any research led university though.

-Quite a few distinctly 'average' students who think they're the best thing since sliced bread primarily based on them having gotten into the LSE. Typically they think that the brand name is necessarily, and all by itself, going to mean that they're heading right to the top, as though this is just inevitable. Although, I bet this is far worse at Oxbridge!

-The buildings - they're all so cramped and largely unimpressive. Unless you spend hours reading its propoganda, you in no way 'feel' as though this seemingly random place in central London could quite possibly have so many world leaders and nobel laureates associated with it - a contrast to say, being at Trinity, Cambridge, or Christ Church at Oxford. Although, then again LSE feels far more like the 'real world', as opposed to a traditional Oxbridge college.

-Its single faculty - ok this works both ways, it's an advantage in many ways too. However, would be nice to be socialising amongst people who are studying something entirely different and in no obvious way related to what you're doing. There's always Imperial though, and can also do your shopping in South Kensington whilst you're discussing the wonders of the universe. Also, there's Kings, if you're into discussion of a less serious nature - j/k.

Reply 4

anonymity

5 Best

1. The Professors and public speakers

[Fred Halliday, Greenwood, Chris Hill, Paul Taylor, Peter Wilson, William Wallace, Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan, George Soros... this afternoon, Paul Krugman is coming :smile:

))]

2. Location

Ronnie Scott's, blues bars, borough market, Greenwich.. you could live here for ten years and still not know the whole city.

3. The student body & societies

Very heterogeneous & what JS said

4. Learning

Teaching methods leave something to be desired but you generally come out with a more elaborate way of thinking and acquired knowledge

5. The pianos in the Shaw library

There's a small music room at the back and the pianos are absolutely out of tune and heinous but I was happy to find some on which I could practise.

Worst

1. Teaching Assistants

When they don't speak English properly. Once I got an essay back with the comment "Ecellent". yeah, makes you wonder..

2. Accommodation

Personal experience, of course. Not impossible to find something nice and cheap but pretty difficult.

3. Pollution

4. Exams/Assessment

100% of your mark depends on how well you do in 3 hours long exams at the end of the year. It can either turn out great or tragically. My flatmate last year stressed herself out so much that she had a breakdown.

5. No exchange programs

With 3450987 general course students a year, hardly anywhere for LSE students to go if they wish to study abroad for a year. The law department is making some changes and introducing an LLB/JD degree but still..

Reply 5

W.A.S Hewins

JS gets it mostly right on this topic. To add to it:

Best:

1/genuine atmosphere of debate and intellectual excitement;

2/constant, high level, involvement with the outside world;

3/hard-nosed, bracing approach;

4/cosmopolitan students and faculty;

5/energy.

Worst:

1/the School's ambiguous position in the UK: there is a gulf between how LSE, and people across the globe, see the institution and how people in Britain view it. Its position resembles that of Imperial: Oxbridge is pissed off because LSE deflates the view that only Oxbridge matters, the vast majority of other universities are pissed off because they can handle coming second to Oxbridge, because Oxbridge somehow exists in another world, but they don't like the idea that this spikey, arrogant institution in Houghton Street can make such waves;LSE is the whipping boy among elite British universities;

2/the real estate: despite the expenditure of enough money to build several new campuses in greenfields suburbs the LSE 'campus' remains a dismal ragbag of buildings. Things are steadily improving, and the refurbished library is superb, but even yer average ex-poly would look down its nose at what is offered, in architectural terms, just off the Aldwych..the Houghtonophiles among us are secretly entranced by what they see as the post-Dickensian charm of the various alleyways and side turnings, but to everybody else it just looks a mess...an interesting mess... but a mess..

3/it's not friendly: it's no good pretending that people are always willing to pop round for a coffee and a chat about setting up a save - the - badger website....everybody's too damn busy..

4/it's expensive...

5/the social sciences: the downside of this field of studies (which in LSE's case includes subjects like history, law, geography and so on) is there's no escape: it's real world time - whenever you open a newspaper there's something there to remind you of whatever it is you are supposed to be in the library studying...now if only LSE taught Aramaic...

Reply 6

claire1985

Lse has an illustrious history of student activism. I'm quite looking forward to joining in, please tell me people still get passionate about things i.e. top up fees, Iraq etc?

Reply 7

W.A.S Hewins

Gnostic V

Unfortunately Claire is right – there are a number of Bolsheviks at the LSE. I looked around the LSE the other day and the walls were littered with Marxist filth.

When I join in October I intend to just tear those posters off the wall. I intend to clean the LSE of undesirables.

Ironically, LSE's real history and influence is far more right-wing and social democrat than it is left-wing, despite the much hyped student activism and the activities of Attlee and Laski. The economics dept for instance engaged in a famous debate with Cambridge in the 30s, in which Hayek and Robbins took on Keynes. Keynes won in the short term, but as post war history demonstrated, LSE won in the end. Many of Mrs.Thatcher's closest advisers and policy makers were LSE alumni or staff: ie Bauer, Walters, Johnson, Sherman, Griffiths etc. Indeed Anthony Giddens was the first LSE Director to be a Labour Party member.

Reply 8

mobbdeeprob

Is Will "The State We're In" Hutton an LSE graduate?

Reply 9

W.A.S Hewins

Gnostic V

It’s also ironic how quickly the more left-leaning of the LSE students are quick to exchange their hippie ideals for Platinum Visa cards upon graduation.

BTW, what do you think of the new Director? He doesn't seem to have the might of Giddens...

Some people expressed surprise that they followed Giddens by appointing a rather grey managerial figure ( and they turned down Rubin, who was Clinton's equivalent of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and an alumnus, in the process). However this is true to the history of the School: many of the directors have been civil servants and administrators rather than flash academics like Dahrendorf and Giddens, ie: Adams, Caine, Beveridge, Pember Reeves etc. The real reason for appointing Sir Howard D appears to be the desire to start a management school: he has fantastic city connections and a global name amongst financial administrators....and he will be a good administrator..

Reply 10

W.A.S Hewins

mobbdeeprob

Is Will "The State We're In" Hutton an LSE graduate?

No, he is, or was recently, a Governor of the School.

Reply 11

lyd

5 best things:

1- the free lectures. especially the niche and bizarre ones.
2- international student body. frankly, i cant imagine studying in an "english" uni.
3- the "campus". i love houghton st, it's small and intimate. you bump into everyone outside the old building.
4- some of the lecturers/professors.
5- Wright's Bar. there are no cheaper and tastier sammiches in central london.

5 bad things:

1- too many rich young kids.
2- christopher greenwood. (recycles the same jokes. would adopt any legal position that would support the govt- i think someone wants a peerage..)
3- not enough pastoral care.
4- Crush
5- The Beaver's sports pages.

Reply 12

W.A.S Hewins

lyd

5 best things:

1- the free lectures. especially the niche and bizarre ones.
2- international student body. frankly, i cant imagine studying in an "english" uni.
3- the "campus". i love houghton st, it's small and intimate. you bump into everyone outside the old building.
4- some of the lecturers/professors.
5- Wright's Bar. there are no cheaper and tastier sammiches in central london.

5 bad things:

1- too many rich young kids.
2- christopher greenwood. (recycles the same jokes. would adopt any legal position that would support the govt- i think someone wants a peerage..)
3- not enough pastoral care.
4- Crush
5- The Beaver's sports pages.

I especially agree about the Beaver's sports pages, in fact the whole of the Beaver - it's one of the worst student publications I've ever seen...

Crush?

LSESU's friday night event. It's held in the tuns, quad and underground. It's basically really cheap drinks, overcrowding and music.

Reply 15

claire1985

W.A.S Hewins

Ironically, LSE's real history and influence is far more right-wing and social democrat than it is left-wing, despite the much hyped student activism and the activities of Attlee and Laski. The economics dept for instance engaged in a famous debate with Cambridge in the 30s, in which Hayek and Robbins took on Keynes. Keynes won in the short term, but as post war history demonstrated, LSE won in the end. Many of Mrs.Thatcher's closest advisers and policy makers were LSE alumni or staff: ie Bauer, Walters, Johnson, Sherman, Griffiths etc. Indeed Anthony Giddens was the first LSE Director to be a Labour Party member.

Really? What about the Webbs, they were socialist ILP members. To be a member of the Labour Party isn't really left wing anymore, in fact is probably about the same level of right wingness as Conservative.

Reply 16

Imagashead

1

claire1985

Really? What about the Webbs, they were socialist ILP members. To be a member of the Labour Party isn't really left wing anymore, in fact is probably about the same level of right wingness as Conservative.

Whilst its true that 'New Labour' is further to the right than 'Old Labour' and its also possible that the membership may be so. Being a Labour Party member doesn't neccessarily make you as right politically as the policies of the government, since anyone - well other than members of other parties, Ken Livingstone (until recently when they eventually admitted him) and George Galloway - can join. A poll in the Guardian I read a few months ago found that around (very roughly from memory) 40% of members thought Blair had gone too far right, whilst about another 40% thought he'd got it roughly right and 20% actually thought he'd gone too far left!

Reply 17

Igor

well yes, the whole idea of Third Way, which was first adpoted by New Democrats and Clinton in USA and now by Blair in UK, is to take all the good things from the rightists and incorporate them into the leftist doctrine, thereby leaning slightly (or in some cases, quite strongly) to the right whilst still remaining left of centre. in theory, at least. :rolleyes:

Reply 18

W.A.S Hewins

Somebody mentions the Webbs. They were Fabian socialists, gradualists par excellence, always carefully cultivating connections with donors in the City, a long way removed from the revolutionary firebrands of legend. My namesake, whom they appointed as the first Director, actually became a Tory MP. Not the sort of appointment that Rosa Luxembourg would have made if she'd founded LSE.

Of course LSE has housed plenty of Marxists, but so has every other university in the last 100 years. The difference is that LSE also played host to a significant number of right-wingers, in a period when most universities in the West were solidly leftwing...

Reply 19

W.A.S Hewins

Talking about best and worst: what do people think of the various attempts to tart the place up in the last few years? Obviously the renewed library is a triumph ( it should be at a cost of £30 million -not a cheap and cheerful refurbishment), although it's bloody noisy...

But there's also, inter alia, the John Watkins Plaza, the 'demi-atrium' in the Old Building (which will one day contain a life-size statue of Gnostic V), the 'student salons', the pedestrianisation, and the purchase of two adjacent pubs....and now apparently they're going to completely regenerate the Clare Market building......at central London prices this all adds up to a fair amount of dosh..

5 best things and 5 worst things about LSE...

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