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MPhil in Management at Cambridge vs MSc in Management at LSE?

Hi all,

As you may guess from the title I've got unconditional offers for both of these courses. They're about equal in cost all things considered, but in my particular case there are a few differences I can see:

- If I'd choose LSE I'd live at my parents' house and have about an hour long commute into central London. I might be able to continue on in my current job which will give me some income and more work experience (I'm a Project Admin on a relatively large contract for a medium sized company - my way of saving up money for this masters without committing to a longer graduate scheme). LSE seems to be more finance/consulting focused and has a dedicated careers service for the School of Management which I definitely need. It also seems to provide more actual information about its employability statistics and alumni destinations. The course is also longer and seems more academic (it includes a dissertation) which makes me feel it'd give me more bang for my buck.

- If I'd choose Cambridge I'd move to live in College and by extension wouldn't be able to carry on working. I really like the idea of college life but I'm not sure how strong that is at graduate level. I'm also not sure how good the MPhil in Management is at Cambridge since it's not really paid much attention on the school's website and is totally eclipsed by the MBA and MFin. There's very little information about the careers prospects of graduates and not much information about the modules either. The course is shorter and seems much more like a professional conversion course. Cambridge is obviously amazing as a university and it's drawing me towards the MPhil, Judge Business School seems pretty good at MBA level but I'm not sure if its MPhil programme is any good? Is it better or worse than the LSE equivalent?

Overall my dream would be to get into consulting but I'm pretty sure it's not possible. I've got awful A-levels (BBC) and apart from my 1 years experience in an Admin role I've got no work experience whatsoever so I'm pretty certain I won't get a shot even with a Masters from LSE or Cambridge so overall employability in other sectors is crucial for me. I'd also like to at some point in the next few years move to continental Europe (either Germany/Austria) so a degree from the most internationally well known university would be better in the long term.

I'd like to know if anyone who's on these courses now or has been in recent years would be able to give me some information about the quality of the teaching, the university experience and (probably most importantly) about the careers prospects and guidance of the two schools.

Lastly, can anyone shed some light on why the two courses are not ranked by the FT MiM rankings? For LSE I presume this is because the course was previously only a 2 year one but afaik the MPhil course at Judge Business School has been running for many years now?


Thank you for any help in advance.
Reply 1
You’re so smart as it’s very difficult to get offer from Cambridge.

I got conditional offer from Oxford but I finally gave up struggling to reach required GRE scores and I decided to go for LSE unconditional offer instead which I’m still gratefully delighted.

If you like the collegiate system and the course structure at Cambridge then go ahead. Oxbridge will always be Oxbridge I’d say but LSE is still awesome.

Good luck with your selection ^_^
Reply 2
First off, congratulations on the offers, I've received an offer from LSE but I'm still waiting back to hear from Cambridge.

Honestly, even if I got into Cambridge, I would still probably go to LSE. From searching the forums I haven't heard anyone say anything positive about the course in Cambridge which is slightly worrying. I've heard a lot of people say that the MiM at Cambridge is always seen as second best when compared to the MBA programme.

I think either way your career prospects will be pretty good especially with a year of experience under your belt. You may not get into MBB but there are plenty of other consulting firms out there. Both universities are well regarded all across Europe so I don't think choosing either one of them will hurt in terms of prestige.

Again, this is all second hand information, but this is what I've generally heard across this, and other forums.

In terms of rankings, LSE's one year course is new so it's not ranked on FT. I read somewhere that Cambridge isn't participating in the FT rankings because Cambridge doesn't allow external internships and that's a criteria used for rankings.

Let me know if I can be of any help and good luck!
Reply 3
Big Congrats!!!
Could you please tell us your timeline?
I've been waiting for the decision for a long time.:frown:

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