As an undergrad at LSE, wondering if people have heard of LSE in finance firms.
Specifically private equity and investment banking firms, do any of them know what LSE is? Is it held to the same level of prestige as Oxbridge (as it is in the UK/Europe) or is it a lost cause applying to US firms as an LSE student?
Obviously excluding BB, EB, and MFPE firms that know about LSE.
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Americans actually don’t think about the UK
Americans know of LSE but imo it’s not that impressive to because we have no gauge on how competitive it is. Also the US has a fuckload of quality and prestigious universities so we don’t think of the UK at all. Very few Americans have a desire to go to a university in the UK since we have great options at home that are comparable.
As a Brit who attended an Ivy League university for undergrad, I can confirm that many Americans don’t care much about UK universities. The only reason they recognize Oxbridge is that it consistently ranks highly in global university rankings every year. Some finance-oriented individuals may be aware of LSE and other UK universities, but because LSE is quite small, it often gets overlooked in the U.S.
Conversely, among non-Ivy students and even some Ivy students, UCL is slightly more well-known. Being a larger university in London and offering more exchange programs contributes to its visibility. Personally, when I traveled to Asia (China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Japan), UCL was seen as the gold standard of UK universities and was regarded on par with, if not better than, Oxbridge. LSE was also recognized, but only in more niche circles compared to UCL.
In the UK, however, LSE is consistently at the top of every high finance recruiter’s or HR professional’s list. Globally, I would argue that this level of recognition is not as prevalent but in the UK its number 1.
Do you think recruiters in small US shops that do sponsor would recognise it? I was considering applying to the US regional and LMM/MM firms but not sure if its worth it in that case
Im from Asia(East Asia) and no one recognizes UCL, They either ask me back if you're referring to UCLA or say that you went to the no-name 3yrs college and weren't good enough to make it to the proper universities LOL
But my country is very US-centric and even US party schs are more respected in my country so no wonder. For LSE some ppl do recognize it but very few ppl think that it's prestigous, they regard it as a random sch in Europe that no one cares.
You clearly don’t know Americans too well. Americans don’t think about anything outside the US that doesn’t impact their interest. That includes universities. They have everything they need at home.
Nah I know, at the UNC graduation they claimed to be one of the top universities globally. US exceptionalism to the extreme I suppose
“Globally” means the US to Americans.
I don t care tbh
It's difficult enough to get Americans to realize other nations exist
Yes, many of us have a general sense that LSE is one of the more prestigious schools in Europe
Do they recognize other UK unis/Good asian unis as well? Just curious
For the latter, absolutely not
Americans know very little apart from the Unis in their respective states, maybe they would recognize HYPSM due to the representations in media but that's all.
If you ask Layman in US about which schools do you know apart from the US ones they would answer Oxbridge and Hogwarts.
Even St.Andrews is more famous than LSE. However the finance bubble or the ones who are working in public sector might recognise LSE or even Imperial/UCL, and the US T20 students do recognize London unis becuz of the exchange students.
Wheareas In academia they're quite familiar with UK unis but very few ppl in US are inclined towards academics so it's not a norm.
I literally assumed Hogwarts only exists in harry porter
Bruh
What do u mean by Americans ? The layman recognizes nothing but the layman is retarded. On Wall Street it would be
I've found that Americans "who are in the know" like bankers/lawyers/academics/etc all know Oxbridge/LSE/UCL/Imperial/etc.
In a way its like University of Chicago or the LACs, the people who matter know clearly what you are talking about, the rest don't, but frankly why should you care about them
Thanks, that was most what I was trying to find out, whether recruiters and people 'who matter' will know when it comes to applications and job searches.
Seniors at my firm from America all know. They all did year abroad(s) / summer schools or their kids go to these programmes
Most Americans don’t even know about the “elite LACs” that people talk about here, I have never heard of them either. It’s really just the top 2-3 ivys and then state schools that are good at football. During training I met a ton of people from small colleges I’ve never heard of before, I assume they are good colleges but just have never heard of them.
I've obviously heard of LSE but nonetheless see it as a notch below Oxbridge. Definitively tier 2 in the UK though, along with Imperial and UCL, depending on course.
imperial and lse are considered better than oxbridge for many courses/areas
Such as which ones?
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