UCL Econ (with full scholarship) or LSE Econ?
Hey, so I have been lucky enough to get offers from both of these places quite early. I know that LSE's brand name is better than UCL's in finance and their numbers are quite better too. However, I believe I have a good shot at getting a full tuition scholarship from UCL and pretty much nothing from LSE. To pay the full price of tuition + living costs, my parents would have to sell their house and I am not sure if the LSE name is really worth that versus UCL. For context, I am an international student and I hope to get a high finance job in the UK after graduation. So, would UCL with a scholarship be worth it over LSE for me?
On the margin, LSE has a stronger brand name, but your recruiting opportunities at UCL will be largely the same, and the delta simply doesn't justify your family liquidating their primary asset to fund it (most of my spring / summer / FT roles had equivalent figures from both schools)
You also need to stress-test the downside scenarios here. The majority of people who enter university convinced they want to do IB quietly exit the pipeline. Whether because the reality of the work doesn't match the idea of it, a spring week or internship changes their mind, or they just discover a genuine passion for something else entirely (public policy, FP&A, strategy — the list goes on). That's completely normal and healthy. But the version of that story where your family has already sold their house to get you to LSE is a very different and much harder situation to be in
Even in the optimistic scenario where you stay fully committed to banking, you'd be carrying enormous financial and familial pressure through a process that, even for strong candidates, can be a bit of a crapshoot. And then the pressure / committment would have to be sustained beyond to (I imagine) make your family whole again
Take the full ride. The house isn't worth the marginal brand uplift
Did one, lots of close friends from the other. Would take UCL Economics given your circumstances.
Both place very well, see people from both across BBs in London. LSE opens doors for HF/PE in a way that UCL Economics likely will be a much tougher battle from, but as the commenter above mentioned, it's not worth selling a house over.
Lse all the way
UCL given the risk reward pay off. Also will be a cracking answer to the “tell me about a time you made a hard decision” question you’ll inevitably get in spring/summer/FT recruitment processes
UCL. In this market you'll need to do a master eventually anyway. You have competition from 27 year old continental Europe kids from hec bocconi escp thinking one more off cycle wouldn't hurt lol.
Considering how crappy the UK student loan system is, I would avoid it as much as possible.
don’t think masters is required at all, so long that you’re locked in early on and commit to recruiting
Bruh take UCL, this is a no brainer.
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