Life at LSE vs Oxbridge

What’s life like at LSE for a mature student?

How does a this compare to studying at Cambridge as a mature student?

As a bit of a random brainfart summary: in general, life at Oxford or Cambridge is a lot more sheltered than life at LSE. You normally live in a small college community. In your first year, at least some of your teaching will be delivered by your college tutor/director of studies who you will have quite a personal relationship. As well as lectures you will have tutorials/supervisions where you will receive very small group teaching (sometimes one to one, normally two or three students). The towns are quite small and students are discouraged from working in term time. As a mature student at a 'regular' (i.e. non-mature) college you might be allowed to join the MCR to make friends with graduate students.

Life at LSE is less personal. You may live in halls but these will be away from the main campus. There will not be the ready-made college community so you may have to work harder to get to know people. You will be allocated an academic advisor but they are unlikely to teach you directly. Lectures are supported by classes of about 15 students so it's easier to be anonymous. More students work during term-time and some take part in career-type internships alongside study. It's probably easier to balance LSE study with things like childcare.

Basically, in Oxford or Cambridge you have strong personal relationships with your tutor and hopefully with other students in your college, but it can be a bit claustrophobic. At LSE you are expected to look out for yourself a lot more. Tutors can be very helpful but you need to proactively reach out. The community is a bit more diverse which can make it harder to make friends but also means you have less enforced interaction with 18 year olds. More of the LSE student are on one-year Master's programmes so if you do make older friends they may be more likely to move on, whereas the MCR system at Oxbridge makes it easier to meet PhD students.

Does that make sense?