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MORSE or ECONOMICS?

Hello

I am confused between the two degrees
MORSE( FROM WARWICK)
ECONOMICS( FROM LSE)

Yes, I like maths and I am going to do maths, further maths, physics and economics at A level.
I want my career to be in finance or idk like to be a consultant or go towards banking. Basically anything in this field which has a higher earning potential.
I think actuary is also a good career as in terms of work-life balance and pay.
However, the main goal for me is the higher salaries, bonuses( ready to sacrifice work life balance for that).

Is it easier to get into actuary than in banking ?

I know that economics from lse would be more prestigious. However, I cant decide which degree route should I opt for. Will I have more/equal/less opportunities if I picked 1 degree over the another?

Any ideas, suggestions is highly appreciated

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 1

ajj2000

Both are excellent courses.

I suspect that Warwick MORSE opens a slightly wider range of doors for future careers.

Reply 2

JamesMM

In terms of the careers you listed, both degrees would be very good.

Investment banks traditionally like LSE a lot, but they also like Warwick a lot and MORSE is a very good degree if you want to do anything finance related. Consulting also hires from both heavily and tends to recruit from a variety of subjects so I'd say there's very little difference in career prospects between the two courses. If I really had to choose, I'd go with LSE Economics just because of the LSE brand but the difference between the two is small, if it even exists.

In terms of becoming an actuary, the mathematical demands are higher so while economics wouldn't be a dealbreaker, the much higher mathematical content in MORSE would probably be favoured.

In the end, the career prospects between the two are very similar but the courses and universities are quite different. I'd definitely recommend you choose between the two based on:

(1) Do you want to do MORSE or economics?
- MORSE is very different from an economics degree and is best thought of as a joints maths/statistics/economics/business course. In the first year you will do roughly equal parts of each but as the years go on you get more freedom to choose between those areas. In second year you do a smaller amount of each with some more freedom to choose what makes up the rest. By third year, you have almost entirely free choice to focus on whichever areas you want (which usually means people drop the maths). Unless you really enjoy Further Maths A Level and do very well in it, I would probably recommend avoiding MORSE. The level of maths in the first few years is high and a lot of people struggle with it, but if you enjoy it and can handle it then it's a very well-rounded and respected degree.

(2) Do you want to go to Warwick or LSE?
- These universities are different in a number of ways. The biggest difference between the two is location, as going to university in London is a very different experience than going to university anywhere else in the country. Besides that, Warwick is larger and LSE has a more international student population. The best way to choose between the two is by visiting them both and speaking to people who study there if you can because until then it's hard to know what you'd prefer.

You can't really go wrong with either choice so you should choose whichever you'd enjoy the most and maximise your chances of getting good grades (which will probably make more of a difference than which of the courses you do).