LSE Economic history

I got into the course with just the AAB predictions and having 5 Cs at GCSE but because they loved my personal statement so much that they decided to give me the offer. As the person above me has said, your personal statement is the most important thing to get right, if you show your interest and passion for the subject then there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to get in.

Congratulations. I thought Economic History was AAB or have they raised that to AAA?

No you're right it is AAB, if I can get in with the bare minimum and underwhelming GCSEs then people above that range can most certainly do so.

Hi, as LSE is almost the only university that offers straight economic history, how did you set out your PS? Where the other courses you applied to Economics or History? I would like to apply for Economic History but most of my PS is about why I want to study history and then when I give specific examples of it I mention my interest in economic history- e.g. reading articles and books by economic historians. Is that enough? As the competition is so high and the PS is so crucial is it worth applying for a course that you're personal statement isn't completely geared towards even if it is not widely available elsewhere?

Thank you very much this has given me a lot more confidence as I have done most of the same

Hi, I know this is a bit late, but recently I got an offer from LSE for BSc Economic History.

Basically, my central theme for the personal statement was about inequality - I structured it at a micro level as well as at a macro level. What I did for my PS was that I picked out my favourite niche area of economic history and development. It was about India’s Dalits, and because I read a lot about them, I was able to drop a lot of facts, and link my interest about society, history and economics as a whole.

Afterwards, I skimmed through a lot of other books like Muhammad Yunus’ A World of Three Zeroes, Acemoglu-Robinson Why Nations Fail and also Baradaran’s research on black banks. Note that I used the word “skim”, because I did my personal statement roughly within 5 days as I was catching up with the deadline 😂

Anyway, I used quotes from the books which I found interesting and linked it with other ideas presented by other authors into a central theme. Then, I finished it off with my extra-curricular, and how I learned from them etc.

I don’t recommend you doing your personal statement the way I did ie. rushing for the deadline, but I think the main important thing is to really find out your interest, and try your best to convey it in regards to your course. If you can’t do so, then perhaps maybe you can explore, and you may find other courses more suitable to your interests.

My predicted grades are A*A*A, and my AS grades were high A in Economics and C in History. I did Edexcel Math in my first year, which rounded off to roughly an A - not keyed in yet. If you have any questions, you can direct message me.