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I don't know about LSE and I'm not a visiting student myself, but at Oxford I know a few visiting students, and can pass on how they described the educational experience.

Contact time All UK schools are different from US in that we have a lot less contact time. For example most humanities or social sciences people in Oxford have ~10 contact hours a week including all classes, tutorials and lectures. Oxford is different from most UK schools in that we have tutorials, which involve 1 or 2 students having a weekly lesson with a tutor in each of their subjects. Other UK schools (apart from Cambridge) don't really have anything like that, they have classes of a minimum of 8, usually more. This makes Oxford (and Cambridge) more intense on a week-to-week basis as you have to learn your subject-matter very well to not come across as an idiot in tutorials.

Most American visiting students I know found the lack of contact hours disconcerting. If you're used to very directed learning, it's tough to get used to it, as you're just expected to direct your own learning to an extent--just read a lot from the massive reading lists then show that knowledge in tutorials.

Number of units per term In Oxford we do 2 units/modules per term. For example someone might have International Economics and Public Economics. That would be all they have for the 8 week term. That doesn't mean it's easy--some of the visiting students I know complained a lot about the workload here. You have a LOT of reading and reasonably long assignments (on average for social sciences and humanities two 1500 word essays a week) to do. If you're good at managing your time, and can motivate yourself to just sit and read for a couple days a week for each assignment, you'll be fine. If you can't stop yourself procrastinating when you don't have a class, your GPA will probably suffer and you'll end up pulling a lot of all-nighters.

GPA Conversion The system of grading and converting to GPA can vary a lot between programs. I know some people who managed to improve their GPA coming here, because their schools made a reasonably low mark here count for an A there. I know other people who badly affected their GPA because their schools asked for overly high marks for an A (like, marks that less than 5% of people get). If you do think of applying for this sort of program, I would try and speak to people from your school who have previously done something similar and find out what the GPA conversion was like and how it affected their GPA. You don't want to drop the ball on your GPA just to come to Oxford.

Happy to try and answer any other questions about the experience here or at UK schools in general--don't know anything about the application process for visiting students though.

 

I studied abroad at LSE.

The application process was straight forward - fill out the application and submit your transcripts. I had a shitty GPA (sub 3.0) and LSE has a 3.3 cut-off but they make exceptions for stronger universities (I studied at a Canadian university).

During my study period I visited my cousin who studied at Oxford so I've seen both campuses.

For a study abroad, I'd definitely recommend LSE over Oxford (as would my cousin) since it's in London and you'll have ample opportunity to conveniently travel around or enjoy the city.

Regarding the lectures:

At the time, I found the lectures incredibly boring but in retrospect the material stuck. Whereas my previous finance courses leaned heavily on complicated technical questions to separate the good students from poor students, LSE's emphasis was on understanding and applying the materials, and I found the questions, which combined technical questions and essays, much simpler yet more enjoyable.

- V
 

I have the opposite experience from viktri. I studied abroad at Oxford, just for one term because I play baseball back here at a small LAC, but had numerous friends that studied the whole year at LSE. McDermott pretty much nailed everything that is unique about Oxford's academic and learning environment (excluding Cambridge). My application process for Oxford, however, seems a little more rigorous than the what Viktri said about LSE's. It varies based on what college you apply to within Oxford, but the minimum GPA cut-off was 3.8 at mine. As McDermott mentioned, you simply aren't going to have a typical "study abroad" experience at Oxford, as you have to do the same work as an undergrad there (minus final end of the year exams). One thing I loved about Oxford was that I was able to participate in school groups (played for their basketball team and joined their Law Society), and although this didn't leave me any time to travel during the 8-week term, I don't regret taking advantage of all that Oxford has to offer.

I have a 3.7 from a non-target, but top-30 LAC, and with a lot of hard work I was able to pull off a 3.9 GPA at Oxford (with a 73% in my major tutorial and 69% in minor tutorial). One thing to keep in mind about going abroad, especially from a non-target, is that you need to stay on top of networking (especially if you go for the full year). I will be interning at a well-known PE firm in NYC this summer (which will be a great experience but no FT offer will be given), but I feel way behind on SA recruiting for IB, and now must go through FT IB recruiting which will be difficult. Despite this, I wouldn't change my decision about choosing Oxford, or anything I did while at Oxford, as it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. On a side note, however, I did wind up hanging out with more British students at Oxford then Americans, and found that the LSE American guy students were far more down to earth and normal than the American Oxford students studying abroad with me.

 

This has all been very useful and helpful information. I understand it can be quite the expense to go SA in the UK; were your universities supportive in providing scholarships and how was the fundraising process?

-Roberto92
 

I was actually considering doing the same thing but people have told me it does interfere a bit with recruiting. I know someone who did study abroad junior year though and while it hurt his chance with internships he still landed a banking job during his senior year. He had a blast and no regrets (probably because he went to Amsterdam)

 

I don't think it would affect your recruiting negatively at all. You may have to travel a bit or interview via video conferencing or interview with someone in London, but in general the fact that you are abroad for a general course year at LSE shouldn't hinder your application process. In general, I would say that it always looks good to have some experience abroad and even better if its at a well known institution such as the LSE.

I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. See my Blog & AMA
 
Boston7Strong:

Wanted to hear people's thoughts about studying abroad for all of junior year at the London School of Economics. How does this affect recruiting? How does it look if you attend undergrad at a top LAC? Thanks in advance

studied abroad at LSE my sophomore summer in place of taking an internship. i don't think it would be looked down upon - feel free to PM if you have specific questions.

And so it goes
 

LSE is fine for sophomore year, but doing it junior year is likely going to interfere with recruiting. It's not a good substitute for an internship if you take summer session.

 

Who cares about recruiting... what are you going to remember in 30 years; the BS internship you had, or a full year in London studying abroad and gaining life experiences? Live your life, man. There will always be opportunities in finance; you may not ever have a chance to live in London for a year. Who knows, perhaps you land a killer position in Canary Wharf...

 

It's worth it if you go to a US non-target. However be aware that you will be going through London recruiting and HR, so if you don't want to stay in the UK, I'm not sure it's a good idea to study abroad as a senior. I put through applications in the US and UK and got only 1 US interview offer, despite having gone to a US target for undergrad (I'm a grad student now). It wasn't a problem though because I wanted to stay in London so I took an offer here.

 

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