Thoughts on Land Economy Cambridge?

Thoughts on Cambridge's Land Economy course? Does this course place better for SW/SAs than LSE, Warwick, UCL etc (assuming same candidate quality etc)? Or will it be perceived as weaker and less quantitative than say Pure Economics at Warwick, and thus place weaker.

 
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A brand name like Cambridge will always be extremely strong, regardless of course. Even Classics or Literature type courses will recruit well. University is always of primary importance, and course is secondary (along with other metrics).

That said, I'd steer away from Land Economy if you still have the runway to opt for other courses at Cambridge. Something more STEM or pure Economics.

Of the other universities out there, I'd say LSE and Oxbridge are the UK Tier 1 names, and Economics or Finance or similar at LSE might outrank Land Economy at Cambridge (factoring in also the London nexus and prevalence of societies / events at LSE). Versus Warwick or UCL (and I say this as a UCL graduate) or other UK Tier 2A names, I'd personally opt for Land Economy at Cambridge over Economics at Tier 2A.

An exercise you could do is review LinkedIn and see where Land Economy graduates from Cambridge have ended up.

 

So how would theology & religion fare? I’d be joining as an affiliate student (2y BA)

 

Honestly that's a little niche and a tough one. Which isn't by any means a way of saying that it won't place well, but just that I don't know - I'm not familiar with the Affiliate student structure. If it means you're a full time student at Cambridge and that brand can be top of your CV, then it's a good place to be.

I hope it goes without saying though that even straight Economics at Cambridge or straight Finance at LSE where the student doesn't apply for society positions, doesn't attend networking or recruitment events, and is lazy about applications, will (I think easily) be trumped by the Economics or STEM student at UCL, Warwick, ICL, Bristol, etc. that is President of the Finance Society, attends all the networking events, is diligent about applications, etc.

There's no silver bullets in this process, and even different bank HR teams or interviewers will have different views on the same candidate. A colleague of mine spoke up for a candidate we had questions on about her technicals. He went to the same university as her, and knew her course to be one of the most rigorous and complex. As one of our top bankers speaking up for her raw smarts, that helped push her over the line to moved to the next round. That's purely anecdotal, but speaks maybe to the fact that this is more art than science (and with a dose of luck too) 

 

Saw a couple of land economy students on my BB spring (more so than pure econ cambridge students somehow) so I believe you'll be fine in that regard.

Obviously the uni name carries I guess, but you'll probably be exposed to light jokes from other Cambridge students who do pure econ/ rigorous courses on picking an 'easy degree' but nothing too deep though, you're still at Cambridge.

As long as you have a good strategy to springs/summers, you'll have a solid chance of getting in, regardless of what course you pick to be fair.

Edit: Not solid, luck matters too

 

Land Economy is one of the few courses that seems to play well on buy-side RE out of undergrad. Know a guy at BX.

 

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