PPE vs Economics Path into IB in London
As a 17yo in the UK who wants to work in IB, would the path of doing purely economics be a better decision than going for PPE (ideally at Oxford). I would rather study PPE as i find the subjects more interesting but am unsure if I was rejected by oxford and LSE, whether PPE at Warwick or UCL would be a step down in terms of recruiting compared to its counter parts in economics at the same universities. I am confident I could make a good application for either paths with all 9s GCSE and 4a* predicted, but am wondering if the economics path would be safer to get into IB with the schools below. Furthermore, would a PPE degree's less quantitative nature be a disadvantage compared to pure economics when on the job in IB.
PPE: Oxford, LSE, UCL, Warwick
Economics: Cambridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick, Imperial (EFDS)
Also, would Oxford PPE and LSE PPE be roughly equally as advantageous to an IB career as Cambridge LSE.
Oxford PPE and Cambridge economics are comparable targets, but I suspect at lower targets like Warwick or UCL, economics would be slightly better than PPE. It would be interesting to hear whether any other PPE students from places like Durham or York have made it into Ib
I’m in a similar situation, would anyone be able to rank the courses mentioned here?
We do not care what you studied in London. Economics at Cambridge vs PPE at Oxford is marginal.
1) Be smart
2) Ideally be interesting (LSE finance kids are not interesting)
It is such a shame that a brilliant course like Oxford is being passed over because it is not "quantitative". IB is not quantitative, we at most do addition and multiplication in a spreadsheet. Studying and writing essays on the great books is far more valuable than doing DCF models — both for your career and for your life.
"be interesting" - just to hire the next boarding school kids from Oxbridge & LSE
well those "Boring" LSE finance kids take most of the roles lol
University over course, first. Whatever the course is (within reason) focus on getting Ox/Cam/LSE if at all possible.
Within Ox/Cam, Econ at one versus PPE won’t make a huge difference. LSE is a bit more course sensitive.
Do not under any circumstances sacrifice an Oxbridge place for a Warwick one. And do not forget that Ox/Cam/LSE >>> UCL/WW >>>>>>>>>> [pretty much fucked]
So would LSE PPE be considered a step down from LSE economics in terms of IB recruiting?
I can only give you my single (biased) opinion, but I often think of LSE as a factory for finance tryhards.
On that basis I find LSE kids getting judged against the cookie cutter profile - perfect course, experience, clubs, whatever.
To that end I might view a non-finance or at least Econ degree as odd yes. Then again it’s still LSE so…
How course sensitive is LSE’s value in recruiting? Like would LSE history be as good as for instance UCl or warwick economics?
LSE probably still wins ceteris paribus, but I suppose you’re starting to get to the edge case where a UCL/WW candidate with great experience takes the lead.
For one, that tells you the advantage that targets have. Second, the thing with targets is that they’re a self-fulfilling cycle and it’s almost a falsehood to compare them like this.
If you go to LSE you get better exposure, experience, and support for finance than at the other schools. So, it’s somewhat likely that will end up with the better university *and* CV overall.
Either way, I’m not a huge fan of talking about universities like trading cards. Targets have a huge advantage, semi-targets have a fair chance, non-targets are largely NGMI without at least a Big 4 detour or similar. Yes if you’re at a semi and you do the perfect course and get great experience you can compete with targets. But also yes, targets have a lower requirement for experience because the brand name does more talking. There is also massive variance in individual screener preferences, criteria, hiring needs, which side of the bed they woke up on that morning… etc
Just get to a target if you can, a semi if you can’t, know that you’re potentially making your life a bit harder if you take a really odd course, but that you can make up for it and if you thrive better for it then power to you. These what ifs often become contrived
Oh, one other thing. If you do history at LSE your greatest competition isn’t the Econ/Finance student at UCL, it’s the Econ/Finance student at LSE.
This always seems to get forgotten, you’re up against your peers within your own university as much as from others. Offers/places aren’t infinite.
Notably, your next greatest competition after your peers at LSE are those at Oxbridge, not just UCL.
Oxbridge is god tier, the rest are somewhat lower but LSE is still close to G-tier
Try the Canary Wharfian website for some more EU focussed advice
it all depends on the course but Ox/Cam/LSE > UCL/W > Others, as someone else said
that being said, it depends on the course. studying classics at Cam is less competitive than Econ at LSE I'd say, while History or IR at LSE is less competitive than PPE at Ox or STEM at Ox and Cam. The difference is marginal and plenty of people from all degrees from the top 3 get into finance.
I would prioritise just getting in (ideally not to a classics/geography type degree) to Oxbridge/LSE, but once you're in really try getting your foot in the door. The best ways? Clubs, languages (if your uni offers outside language courses!), stock pitch competitions, and going to events.
Once you do enough OAs and SJTs you can basically guarantee a 90% pass rate so also just learn how to pass those. Part of it is trial and failure but it's one of those things.
note: the benefit of a 4 year degree is very high (if you can afford it), because it gives you an extra chance to recruit for summers/springs! This applies to lots of STEM (eg biochem at Ox) degrees and PPE at LSE.
Oxbridge brand trumps all, I think something to consider that hasn't been mentioned here is time spent on course can sometimes make or break an application cycle. I noticed a lot of oxbridge ppl on courses with low contact hours (landec @ cam, ppe @ ox) tended to outperform STEM students/ even econs at cam especially.
Oxbridge is hard and breaking into IB is harder, you might as well play the course game strategically and give yourself enough of a bandwith to take applications seriously. Best of luck!
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