Undergraduate: Yale-NUS or LSE
Hi everyone! I am an international applicant (S.Korea) and I will be starting my undergraduate this coming September. Currently, my career interests lie in investment banking, consulting, and real estate. I would like advice regarding which would be a better option in terms of my future career paths and potential graduate degree paths.
In the UK, I have received conditional offers from Warwick (MORSE), UCL (Economics), and LSE (Mathematics and Economics). In Singapore, I have received an unconditional offer from Yale-NUS in which I am considering (i) an Economics major or (ii) a Mathematical, Computational, and Statistical major. From my UK offers, I am leaning towards LSE as I feel like it has the most name value and would offer the most career opportunities after undergrad. So, now I am conflicted between Yale-NUS and LSE.
Here is my list of pros and cons for Yale-NUS and LSE :
Yale-NUS: Pros
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Liberal arts system, which I think would broaden my perspective
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weekly guest speakers in various fields which I also think is an insightful experience and opportunity
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CIPE (an organization within Yale-NUS) gives a lot of help with internships, graduate schools, and employment
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Special program after graduation (i.e. Silver Scholars Programme with Yale School of Management)
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Semester Study Abroad programs at Yale (if selected)
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abundant opportunities for internships
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unique experience of going to a Singaporian university (one of the reasons why my counselor said she would think it would be better to go to Yale-NUS for undergraduate and go to other schools for postgraduate)
Yale-NUS: Cons
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a fairly new school (established in 2011) and small class size which might mean a weak alumni connection
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with a tuition grant scheme (subsidizes $13k), I have a binding contract to working at a Singapore-related institution for 3 years ( this can be a pro or a con, not too sure)
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although NUS is quite reputable in Asia, I'm not sure if that same reputation is held in the U.S or Europe.
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4 years instead of 3 years in UK undergraduate
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less career-oriented (this can also be seen as a pro as they aim to cultivate more critical thinking and problem-solving skills in multidisciplinary ways)
LSE: Pros
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strong name value and reputation
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strong alumni network and great employability related to my career paths
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3 years instead of 4 years (saves up time and money. this would be helpful as I also need to obligate to military service in Korea)
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a lot of opportunities for internships as it is located right in the center of London
LSE: Cons
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not really a campus, heard there are just buildings
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I get the impression that I wouldn't have such a tight-knit community as Yale-NUS
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because the school is academic-focused and career-oriented, I feel like I wouldn't get as much nurturing experience as I would in Yale-NUS (this may be subjective or wrong)
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the low student satisfaction ratings
Please let me know your opinions/thoughts and thanks in advance !! Open to any advice/thoughts :)
Definitely LSE
Don’t you want to be able to tell people you went to LSE?
Not an easy decision, but you're going about the evaluation process exactly right. I'd agree with pretty much all your points, but would suggest that this essentially comes down to where you want to work?
This forum significantly overestimates LSE's placement (relatively speaking it's behind both Oxbridge and Imperial in the UK), but it will give you a good shot at FO finance - assuming you have a solid resume, it will get you a decent number of interviews and then it's up to you. So if you want to be in the UK, then go LSE - but I wouldn't discount Warwick's MORSE course either, which seems to have excellent placement for those targeting finance. I know someone at Yale-NUS, and their view was that it basically won't place into the US market, so you're stuck with Singapore (or maybe HK and other APAC countries). NUS is still not really known in Europe/America, although I expect that will change over the coming years. LSE will be better known in America, but there's a trade-off against the Yale element, and by the time you can actually transfer offices your education shouldn't make that much of a difference - except if you subsequently want to recruit for PE, for example.
So yep, for UK/Europe = LSE (or possibly MORSE); APAC = Yale-NUS.
Agree with this. LSE's placement in spring weeks are lagging UCL. (disclaimer: I go to neither) Being at LSE doesn't give you an automatic interview at BB/EBs. In fact I've heard alums from other unis at BBs say they toss out LSE CVs when they see one.
Although I knew that Warwick's MORSE would be a good course/uni, I didn't realize it would be an option considered alongside LSE. Thanks for your insightful advice! I think another thing that I need to consider is that if I choose to go to LSE, then I can only go to military service after graduating from LSE; this is a bit worrisome as I am unable to take full advantage of the 2-year work visa after graduation and as firms may be reluctant when employing me (I would only return back to the UK after a year and a half).
Try to get the military service out the way first, regardless of your choice.
If i found out you went to Yale's Asia campus I would be far less impressed than if you attended LSE regularly. Normal Yale > LSE > Yale-Nus
Worked in both SG and UK. Advice is take LSE unless you have a much more compelling reason to go to SG... all else being equal LSE is recognised in both Asia + EMEA + worlwide but not the same case for yale-nus. Also much more established with a larger alumni base in the finance industry so will be more recognised from a career standpoint.
Thanks for your reply! As you had experience working in SG, would you say there are compelling reasons to work/go to SG?
Pros = Low tax, clean, safe, decent business environment.. but from a career perspective likely not somewhere where you’d see the best volume or size of deals (vs eg. HK or London). Unless you have personal ties in the region or especially interested in SEA for some reason, I would say there isn’t much particular incentive to work here
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