The Student Room Group

History at Oxford or Economics elsewhere?

Hi,

I’m incredibly grateful to receive an offer to study history at Oxford, though I would like to firstly say that I originally applied to study history and economics. I don’t mind studying history there at all, but if I get an offer to study economics and economic history at LSE should I go for that option instead? Which one is better and why? I really hope to get a job in the financial sector and was just wondering if it is worth it to study history since I’m not sure if it contributes to my career :smile:. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!
Original post by Anonymous
Hi,
I’m incredibly grateful to receive an offer to study history at Oxford, though I would like to firstly say that I originally applied to study history and economics. I don’t mind studying history there at all, but if I get an offer to study economics and economic history at LSE should I go for that option instead? Which one is better and why? I really hope to get a job in the financial sector and was just wondering if it is worth it to study history since I’m not sure if it contributes to my career :smile:. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Oh that’s a tough one. Where LSE makes up on the course-side my, somewhat informed, guess would be that it disappoints you on the social side. Furthermore you would have missed the opportunity to go to the #1 ranked uni (I’m not sure about whether it is for your course, but there’s a lot attached to the name, like it or not). Would you consider applying to a masters at LSE? I think with an Oxford degree you would be well regarded in most aspects. ( For context I live in London and have a friend studying at LSE. They are feeling a bit of the lack of “community” which characterises london unis for some, sometimes overwhelmingly. They also found it hard to make friends given that there is a large international body at LSE who have led completely different lives to that of a UK state school student. )
Reply 2
Original post by Anonymous
Oh that’s a tough one. Where LSE makes up on the course-side my, somewhat informed, guess would be that it disappoints you on the social side. Furthermore you would have missed the opportunity to go to the #1 ranked uni (I’m not sure about whether it is for your course, but there’s a lot attached to the name, like it or not). Would you consider applying to a masters at LSE? I think with an Oxford degree you would be well regarded in most aspects. ( For context I live in London and have a friend studying at LSE. They are feeling a bit of the lack of “community” which characterises london unis for some, sometimes overwhelmingly. They also found it hard to make friends given that there is a large international body at LSE who have led completely different lives to that of a UK state school student. )


Thank you for the advice! I’m just a bit afraid of the investment I’m going to take if I were to go to uni, but this provided a bit more clarity
You don't need a degree in economics to work in finance and in fact a degree in economics is not a "finance training course" so you may have mismatched expectations of the degree anyway...
An Oxford history degree is a great foundation for a career in almost anything that isn't STEMmy, and the history course is so broad that you can do a lot of economic stuff. Almost no two Oxford history undergraduates do the same degree. You can pick and choose from a wide menu.

LSE is very good, but doesn't offer you the same amount of contact time with academics or the social environment which you get at Oxford.
Reply 5
Thank you for the advice! I think I will stick with Oxford now :smile:
Reply 6
Original post by artful_lounger
You don't need a degree in economics to work in finance and in fact a degree in economics is not a "finance training course" so you may have mismatched expectations of the degree anyway...


I definitely agree, however I think it’s one of those subjects that I’m quite passionate about so that’s why I also decided to pick it, but I think I can research more into the economic history side of my history degree :smile:
hello hello, oxford historian here. congrats! it is true, the course is very varied and there's even a specific economic history paper in first year that you could take. economics isn't my thing so i've never paid much attention to the more economic-y options, but most papers cover economic history in some form. for example, in first year, you have to do both a british history paper and a european world history paper. both of these have lots of content about economics that you can chose to study (but i did not). what i'm trying to say is there's still lots of choices for you to get your economic fix should you want it. oxford also has lots and lots of societies and talks that you can attend to keep your economics brain switched on and contribute to your career. if in doubt, the ppe and e&m students love talking about the economy so you can always just chat with them should you desire.

the next part i'm going to say is just something to bear in mind. you applied for history and economics, so you obviously like history. however, if you're not completely passionate about it, you may find keeping up a course at oxford for three years that you're not entirely sure about quite difficult. from personal experience, i've realised that i'm not that into history - it's very interesting but i'm not enjoying my degree which is have all sort of consequences for my life in oxford. this is a personal thing, so i'm not saying it will happen to you, but do bear it in mind.

whatever you decide, trust your gut - you are the one living this for three years 🙂
Reply 8
Original post by Anonymous
hello hello, oxford historian here. congrats! it is true, the course is very varied and there's even a specific economic history paper in first year that you could take. economics isn't my thing so i've never paid much attention to the more economic-y options, but most papers cover economic history in some form. for example, in first year, you have to do both a british history paper and a european world history paper. both of these have lots of content about economics that you can chose to study (but i did not). what i'm trying to say is there's still lots of choices for you to get your economic fix should you want it. oxford also has lots and lots of societies and talks that you can attend to keep your economics brain switched on and contribute to your career. if in doubt, the ppe and e&m students love talking about the economy so you can always just chat with them should you desire.
the next part i'm going to say is just something to bear in mind. you applied for history and economics, so you obviously like history. however, if you're not completely passionate about it, you may find keeping up a course at oxford for three years that you're not entirely sure about quite difficult. from personal experience, i've realised that i'm not that into history - it's very interesting but i'm not enjoying my degree which is have all sort of consequences for my life in oxford. this is a personal thing, so i'm not saying it will happen to you, but do bear it in mind.
whatever you decide, trust your gut - you are the one living this for three years 🙂


Thank you!! This advice definitely helped a lot.
Original post by Anonymous
hello hello, oxford historian here. congrats! it is true, the course is very varied and there's even a specific economic history paper in first year that you could take. economics isn't my thing so i've never paid much attention to the more economic-y options, but most papers cover economic history in some form. for example, in first year, you have to do both a british history paper and a european world history paper. both of these have lots of content about economics that you can chose to study (but i did not). what i'm trying to say is there's still lots of choices for you to get your economic fix should you want it. oxford also has lots and lots of societies and talks that you can attend to keep your economics brain switched on and contribute to your career. if in doubt, the ppe and e&m students love talking about the economy so you can always just chat with them should you desire.
the next part i'm going to say is just something to bear in mind. you applied for history and economics, so you obviously like history. however, if you're not completely passionate about it, you may find keeping up a course at oxford for three years that you're not entirely sure about quite difficult. from personal experience, i've realised that i'm not that into history - it's very interesting but i'm not enjoying my degree which is have all sort of consequences for my life in oxford. this is a personal thing, so i'm not saying it will happen to you, but do bear it in mind.
whatever you decide, trust your gut - you are the one living this for three years 🙂

In my day, you could switch from History to English, or to a modern language if you had the language skills. Is that still possible?
Original post by Anonymous
Hi,
I’m incredibly grateful to receive an offer to study history at Oxford, though I would like to firstly say that I originally applied to study history and economics. I don’t mind studying history there at all, but if I get an offer to study economics and economic history at LSE should I go for that option instead? Which one is better and why? I really hope to get a job in the financial sector and was just wondering if it is worth it to study history since I’m not sure if it contributes to my career :smile:. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!
I was in a similar situation a couple of years back albeit for grad school so i guess somewhat related?

I got into the MSc IR (Research) program at LSE and an Area Studies course at Oxford. The LSE course was the perfect fit for me, or so I thought. The Oxford program was good, too, but I would have to shape it to suit my needs by taking specific modules etc.

I reached out to a friend who had studied at LSE and she shared the same viewpoint as someone else has that London was an extremely isolating experience. Would also like to add that as an international student wanting to return to my home country after I graduated, I also weighed the reputational aspects of both universities.

Ultimately decided to go with Oxford and it has paid off. I did have to work around bureaucratic procedures in taking courses with different departments but that might not necessarily apply to an undergraduate course.

In the 2ish years since I graduated, the decision to go to Oxford has paid off. I've been a very good student from the beginning but it would be dishonest to say that some of the opportunities I have benefitted from in the past couple of years haven't been because of the "Oxford label". Now in an ideal world, that shouldn't be the case but I guess we don't live in an ideal world.

Ultimately you can see what matters the most to you make the decision accordingly.
Forgot to add, I'm not a big city person so from that perspective, I'm glad I chose Oxford over LSE.

Also, I know that at LSE you can also benefit from other universities in the University of London system, but Oxford takes that to another level imo. For example, at Oxford, I would go to talks.ox.ac.uk and attend a different talk almost every day for my first two terms. While LSE, KCL, SOAS also have similar avenues, they don't come close to what Oxford offered (in my opinion)
Original post by Stiffy Byng
In my day, you could switch from History to English, or to a modern language if you had the language skills. Is that still possible?

not that i'm aware of! have had a couple of friends that tried to change courses in the past (not from history but other subjects) and these were denied. this was also at the beginning of first year when the possibility of changing courses was at it's highest.
Original post by Anonymous
not that i'm aware of! have had a couple of friends that tried to change courses in the past (not from history but other subjects) and these were denied. this was also at the beginning of first year when the possibility of changing courses was at it's highest.

People wouldn't be allowed to switch to a subject that is harder to gain admission for than the subject which they are studying, but perhaps a switch from History to another humanities subject would be considered. Perhaps, however, you are too far into your course to switch.

It's probably not uncommon for people to lose some of their interest in a subject part way through a degree, although I enjoyed my degree right to the end, and have kept in touch with the historical world ever since. I hope that being a bit fed up with your subject won't ruin Oxford for you, and that you can still get something out of the experience.
Original post by Anonymous
Hi,
I’m incredibly grateful to receive an offer to study history at Oxford, though I would like to firstly say that I originally applied to study history and economics. I don’t mind studying history there at all, but if I get an offer to study economics and economic history at LSE should I go for that option instead? Which one is better and why? I really hope to get a job in the financial sector and was just wondering if it is worth it to study history since I’m not sure if it contributes to my career :smile:. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Hiya,

Sounds like you have this all sorted now but if you ever have any doubts, it is always a good idea to speak to a careers advisor at school, family and possibly also contacting the admissions team (if you would like to see if there is a possibility to change your degree).

Any who, congratulations on your offers and good luck with your exams!

--

SOAS Student Rep
i’m in the exact same situation as you right now! i’m leaning towards history at oxford, both because it’s *oxford* literally the best uni in the entire world, and because the degree is so broad you can really tailor it to be more econ history oriented with a bit more quant. (+ obviously history really excites me and i want to learn as much as possible)

the thing i’m most worried about personally is masters options (not sure it’d be possible to do an econ masters after this) and also limiting job options because i think it’s so important to have some maths skills these days but i’m not really set on a specific career at the moment yet and an oxford history degree is defo very versatile and would leave your options open. in terms of the financial sector i’ve seen oxford history students get spring weeks in the past + ib seem to be willing to hire humanities grads from target schools afaik.

hopefully see you next year!
(edited 1 week ago)
Original post by Anonymous
Forgot to add, I'm not a big city person so from that perspective, I'm glad I chose Oxford over LSE.
Also, I know that at LSE you can also benefit from other universities in the University of London system, but Oxford takes that to another level imo. For example, at Oxford, I would go to talks.ox.ac.uk and attend a different talk almost every day for my first two terms. While LSE, KCL, SOAS also have similar avenues, they don't come close to what Oxford offered (in my opinion)
One word...Oxford!!! 🙂

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