LSE V Bristol uni
Have unconditional offers for both of the above unis. I am looking to apply for spring weeks next year and I am keen to know the difference in prestige between these two unis. Lse looks like the obvious choice, but have heard really bad things about students life there and have heard becaus there are so many lse Econ students applying to internships, they all look the same and it’s hard to differentiate yourself.
LSE is better than Bristol, but you can get into IB from both. Would consider the lifestyle seriously though. Some people have an amazing time at LSE others hate it. Depends what you are keen on in life I guess!
Yeh ultimately I am quite keen to do IBD, but I would rather sell my soul to the corporate life at 22 instead of 19. Probably gonna choose Bristol even though it’s not a “target” uni.
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LSE is the clear winner for IB, LSE econ still places very well, although you're right about the homogeneity of the class. You're lucky to know what you want to do early enough that you can work on making your application stand out from the start.
Having said that, Bristol is a more rounded uni, and if I were choosing based on my own satisfaction as a student, I would choose Bristol. I have heard bad things about student satisfaction at LSE, and you have to consider whether you want to be in a uni full of hardos for 3 years.
As far as I know, Bristol is a top semi-target/low target and places fairly well, although you may have to push a bit harder than from LSE.
Disclaimer: I didn't study at either university, this info is from word of mouth/friends at both unis/observations, and placement info from LinkedIn
Cheers for the advice. From a quick LinkedIn search of the “incoming spring interns” it appears that LSE’s placement is significantly better than bristols( about 20x the number of “incoming spring interns) Do you think this is because LSE really does place that well or because it is the lse culture to update LinkedIn or simply because everyone at LSE is applying?
The updating culture may play a small part but the placement is significantly better at LSE, also loads more people will be applying for springs. Bristol may catch up a bit for summers but I'm not sure.
more people at LSE applying + more hardos at LSE will update their linkedin as soon as they get off the phone
go to bristol for a more well-rounded uni experience
Go to bristol. You can defo break into IB from there if you're dedicated and get the right experience/interview practice. Uni years are supposed to be the best of your life and no job is important enough to take that away from you imo - go where you'll meet the best people and have the best time.
Would heavily advise against LSE. It’s literally a factory of law/finance hardos. Mate told me everyone there is so focused on their career that nobody ever goes out and he doesn’t know a single person who has found their significant other there. Life is about balance, especially in your formative years. Go to Bristol.
Went to LSE and now a first year analyst, here’s my take:
Pros: Was relatively easy for me to get interviews considering my CV was quite vanilla. Had very good grades and some internships but nothing extraordinary.
There’s so many like-minded people, makes prepping for interviews / understanding the industry very easy
Alumni network is strong, you’ll have plenty of networking opportunities, case study sessions, modelling classes from alumni on campus.
You’re in London, if you can afford it you’ll have a fabulous time.
Cons: Student life wasn’t terrible, but speaking to friends that went outside they definitely had a better experience than me.
Workload is considerably higher than other unis. Knew many people who struggled scrapping a 2.1 whilst balancing prepping for interviews
Campus facilities are poor, however they’ve got a new building since I’ve left (so may have changed a little). But when I was there, library was always overcrowded - you’ll have a tough time finding a seat. If you’re into gym / sports: the gym is laughable compared to unis out of London, for sports you’ll have to travel 1hr to the outskirts of London for practice.
I would definitely advise for the LSE. Anyone saying otherwise is not having your best interest in mind. You shouldn't make a short-term decision on this on. You might regret not partying three times a week during uni, which you can do later in life, but you'll definitely regret not going to one of the best unis in the world.
Sure, you'll work more at the LSE, however it will provide you with significantly better opportunities. LSE is second for placement in the UK after Oxbridge, and on par with LBS and foreign unis like HEC. Bristol might send some students to IB every years, but LSE almost guarantees you'll pass the CV screening in a few banks. Sure, you'll be one of many LSE BSc students applying for banking, but I don't see how differentiating yourself for the worse would be of any help. It will also allow you to apply for strategy consulting roles, and most likely the brand name will be appreciated by recruiters in PE/HF/VCs if that's of interest to you. Bristol is still a good uni, just not on par with LSE
Finally, you'll be living in London, which is arguably one of the best cities on earth, your class at the LSE will be more international..
Honestly go to Bristol, if you are already thinking (or even know) about spring internships before uni starts then you almost defo gonna get placed somewhere. From there, it is on you to get a summer internship offer and then to convert that to full time. I went to Bristol and it is unbelievably fun and still viewed as a target in the City. Just make sure you don’t pick Wills halls for first year!
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Go to LSE and get involved with Global platinum securities. Almost guarantees GS/MS/JPM placement.
LSE alum who insured Bristol (and was also on the fence). From a pure careers perspective Lse is a no brainer. University brand doesn’t matter, until it unfortunately (or fortunately) does.
Did I enjoyed my time at LSE? No, but (at least personally) I was put on a better life trajectory by being surrounded by incredibly driven and intelligent people. LSE is a hardo factory true but you make many friends inside and outside of the careers-sphere.
On the enjoyment front, the work is tough, applications are oppressive, but I can only think of a minority of people who didn’t place. IMO it’s better to be average at Lse and be dragged by the network effect than be exceptional at Bristol and hope you get looks, when some firms tier universities internally on recruiting priority.
You need to enjoy your university years. Being super career focused from the age of 18 will just lead to a mid life crisis. If you don't think you can hack London nightlife, don't go to LSE.
If you do a bit of research on places like thestudentroom you will see that it is actually possible to have a good social life at LSE. You can start by picking the right halls in your first year e.g. passfield, roseberry, cass saunders etc. And there are also intercollegiate halls allowing you to socialise with those from other london unis who are more laidback and willing to go out and do things.Some societies will be beneficial too eg the athletics union. There are people who go out often at the LSE you just need to find them.
I almost view the tough social life as a positive because it forces you even further to become more outgoing and thus more confident, which will help in recruitment and life in general. If you want to have a good time there you can, it just takes effort.
So, it takes more effort to establish a social life but the opportunities that the LSE will give you are worth it imo. I want to go into investment banking but so many other doors are open to you if you study there in comparison to elsewhere which allows you to explore your interests. You don't have to be 'super career focused' as the other guy said, in fact I'd argue that the LSE is a really good place NOT to be career focused because your breadth of options just because you went to the LSE are so vast.
With that said I'm not actually an LSE student, I'm just also deciding between two offers. But I had the same concerns as you and after some research I'm less worried about it. What I'd say is take the risk and go to LSE, and if you don't like it just transfer the next year because you will not be able to transfer to the LSE if you don't like Bristol
LSE wins.
No brainer....
Bristol student here. Just giving my 2cents that you can be far from exceptional and still get looks from many IBs coming from a semi-target.
Key is to come into semi-targets with a clear mandate of what you want to achieve, as it gets progressively harder to break in at a later stage. I secured 4 Spring Week offers at top EBs and top US BBs. Also numerous looks from consultancies.
I've interviewed for 4 EBs whilst here, two top BBs and three mid-tier BBs. One advantage of Bristol is there is far far less competition from society perspectives, by December first year I was doing lots of pro-bono work, IB workshops/projects etc. Had minimal prior experience but it's comparatively quite easy to stand out.
Flipside, all my fellow cohort with top grades and high firsts who waited until 3rd year with minimal ECs get literally zero looks from banks - but again, with proper planning one shouldn't be in this position.
Finally, doing a top course here one can maintain a first doing term-time work perhaps 12 hours a week, if that. So much time to focus on ECs.
If you want to sweat it out go LSE, but breaking in from Bristol isn't difficult if you tick the boxes, and you can have a nice and smooth ride in the process.
The point isn't whether you can make it from Bristol (you can, if you're one of the top students there and apply to springs), the point is which school is the best, and it's the LSE. That said it's valuable to see that one can break into top firms purely based on its work and desire to break in.
As for the workload, I do believe it's manageable to have a social life at any uni, provided you're efficient, organized, sleep well and cut social media/Netflix time. Even more, socializing, sleeping enough, meditating and working out enhance your productivity.
Completely agree with this. It may be different in the US, but the importance of your uni's prestige is overly exaggerated in the UK for the investment banking industry. As long you go to a target or semi-target, your university in itself stops being important, and it's the other things on your CV that begin to make the difference in the form of ECs and work experiences.
This is coming from someone who went to a higher ranked uni than Bristol, and made the realisation during uni that my friends who went to lower ranked but still targets, had a much more enjoyable time due to being in a better city and having a lighter workload. Not only that, given the fact those unis were less "sweaty", the competition was a lot lower for obtaining good EC positions and the lightened workload meant that they could pursue more things.
Undoubtedly, for someone who had no clue what they were doing career-wise, they'd probably benefit from going to LSE since they'd be forced to catch up. But for someone already with a game-plan, going to a uni like Bristol not only means that you'll have a more enjoyable time, but you can abuse the decreased workload and low competition to improve your CV.
As an international student, is it worth paying >60k for 3 years? And how hard would it be to convert an internship to a job?
Converting the internship isn't hard, getting the internship is.
Graduated from the LSE last year, albeit from a MSc
Work load is definitively a lot but dont forget that is because of (i) ambitious and hard working LSE student cohort (ii) you are taught by the one of the best teachers in world/Europe and ofc you want to show your academic ability. If you are not willing to put the hours, then the LSE might not be the place for you.
But as my professor told us: if you are spending 5-6h per day (Mo-Fr) preparing for your seminars, reading, writing essays etc - then you are more than fine and will def achieve a 2.1. Everybody who stays more than 10h in the lib, every day - then clearly something is wrong with ur orga skills.
With regard to the student life: seriously that depends on you. if you want to party/go out, you will have plenty of time to do so. I met some people complaining about the social life, but these guys were the one's who spend 12h in a library, went straightforward home: and in the end, ended only up with a 2.1. The key thing is to learn how to prioritise.
And no, not all studying Eco are going straightforward into IB. Most of them are either going into research, think tanks, consulting, and some into IB.
On a personal note: the LSE was def the best time of my life. Yes, the essay/exam period is very tough but the overall experience was very rewarding. and most importantly, i have met so many brilliant and fascinating people, especially I will ever always remember our discussion we had in the student pub talking about politics/eco/philosophy.
Nicely said, but I doubt the typical LSE Economics student studies less than 10 hours a day.
LSE social life is going to networking events or going to talks on Hayek v Adam Smith.
it would be rather Hayek vs Keynes...
I would say that LSE is your best bet. There are more opportunities in regards to networking with bankers and traders, and it has close ties to the city.
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