Oxbridge vs LSE connections to city
Currently hold offers for Oxbridge/LSE undergrad. Which one offers greater finance exposure?
Are some firms Oxbridge or LSE 'only' ? Back-door connections to city at either?
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By virtue of its proximity and reputation - LSE has deep connections into the city and has an exceptionally high placement rate into IB that eclipses either Oxford or Cambridge. That being said - no firm would be closed off to you for choosing Oxbridge. Oxbridge does rank higher than LSE and if you’re a fan of the tutorial system could educationally be a better fit. Basically - these are both great options: don’t overthink it. You will have every opportunity attending either.
Thanks for the reply, will definitely reconsider
Ceteris paribus in terms of course, choose Oxbridge. This forum significantly overestimates LSE's placing power; yes, it has the most alumni in London, but the actual placement rates (compared to people gunning for it) are lower than Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial. At the end of the day, only just over 10% of students end up in FO finance (and a further 10% in "finance and accounting" jobs more generally). LSE is expensive, lacks a proper student community, lacks a "real" campus and generally has pretty miserable students. The Oxbridge college experience is worth something, although I would add a small caveat and say that it is much easier to end up "accidentally" jobless from Oxbridge than the London targets as the career side of things is pushed in your face a bit less by the universities; however, given that you're asking the question at this stage, assuming you stay on top of things like spring weeks etc. then I don't see that being a problem for you.
Backdoor connections don't really exist in the same way that they do in the US. You might get PE/HF placements out of some OCR that aren't advertised publicly, but you'll need to be really, really good to even be in contention. For the banks, everybody applies through the same mechanism online and the targets are treated pretty equally (minimal difference between Warwick and Oxford, the perceived difficulty of the actual subject is more important). If your CV is decent, you'll get interviews from both Oxbridge and LSE - although neither are guarantees of the job itself.
Great reply, thanks a lot.
As a former LSE student with friends who went to Oxbridge, I couldn't agree more with your post.
Question for both if you would
Exams are cancelled here, and not entirely sure if Oxbridge offer can be met. If resat though, confident it will be met.
So ultimately Q is - is it worth taking a year out for Oxbridge or go LSE?
In your year out, would it mean that you would lose your place at LSE? If not, I personally would take the year out to take the chance at Oxbridge - it will truly be a worthwhile place if you can make the grades. Good luck!
Thanks a lot
Given that you'd have to reapply for both in a very competitive year, would say a strong no to this. There are currently people being rejected without interview at Oxbridge/Imperial with 43+/45 predicted on the IB. LSE obviously doesn't interview, but unless you are uber confident in your own abilities and have stellar (not A*A*A, but A*A*A*A*) grades to justify that you think you'd be admitted again by default, I wouldn't do it.
Despite my earlier recommendation, which was mostly based on student experience rather than recruiting, Oxbridge only confers a very marginal advantage over LSE for graduate recruitment in finance. It's maybe a little more advantageous in consulting (and a lot stronger in say law), but not enough to justify taking a year out. If you fail to meet the offer, be happy that you'll be at one of the leading econ institutes in the world. You can always do an Oxbridge MSc/MPhil later if you want the name.
*Slight caveat that this is for "good subjects" at LSE. If you're planning on doing one of their joke degrees with AAB entry requirements, then reapply for Oxbridge instead. Getting into finance with a soft degree from Oxbridge is still just about possible, getting in from other targets for non-finance/econ/management/philosophy/STEM degrees is pretty difficult.
I was under the impression course is somewhat irrelevant for UG recruiting from top targets.
I study a joke course at a top target so have some skin in the game lol.
Hey Im an LSE student for law right now could you elaborate what you mean by Oxbridge being far stronger for law-job placements? The proportion of LSE law students who goto V10 and Magic Circle is incredibly high so I’m not too sure what you are referring to exactly. Is this a matter of branding? If so, then admittedly Oxbridge will always reign supreme. But in corporate law specifically (LSE’s specialty i.e antitrust, competition, M&A, etc) we produce a lot (ratio-wise A LOT) of training contracts with top top firms. May you please elaborate a bit?
anecdotal but i've met more people in MO, BO and Accounting jobs from Oxbridge than I have from LSE.
either way it will really depend on your internships.
if I were in your shoes id chose oxbridge, just for the fact the finance industry is in secular decline and Oxbridge will hold more weight for tech and other corporates IMO.
Interesting and I'd agree - seen loads more at EY/PwC etc.
Good point, and very inclined to taking a year out - but again, no guarantee I'll get offers
Someone I know who chose LSE over Oxbridge ended up with 0 spring week offers
-
Rough, any idea as to why?
Multiple people at Oxbridge (and all four other targets) end up with no spring week offers... there's still effort required and the recruiting power of the top UK targets isn't as strong as say Harvard or Stanford in the US because of the lack of proper OCR. And it's not entirely unusual to choose LSE over it at UG for some subjects - I know two people who did for Econ and it's worked well for them. Same with Warwick Maths, Imperial Engineering, Edinburgh CompSci, etc.
Per my advice above, I'd take Oxbridge over LSE ceteris paribus. But it's not a completely outlandish decision, and if it were say LSE Economics versus Cambridge Land Economy, I'd probably take the former.
idk. lots of people from LSE Econ bomb out even with strong grades/exp. Camb for even Land Econ is something else. Look at incoming ctv
Spot on - I feel like this isn't really understood by people in the US. People at Cambridge/Oxford who apply to 20+ spring weeks regularly get 0 offers (some don't even get a single interview)
Spring weeks don’t matter.. the important hurdle is the internship program.
Nowadays connections won't really help you for getting a job in the city.
Either of them are great places to go to and will get you looks from all firms across the city. The rest is up to personal preference / what kind of academic or career driven environment you want to be in.
There are definitely more LSE grads in London IB positions than Ox grads.
However, having said that, a solid chunk of the LSE analysts are master graduates with 3+ internships in their pockets. Comparing the undergrad population would result in a much more even split.
I would definitely pick Oxford or Cambridge over LSE, let alone for the experience.
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Choose Oxbridge. It is more favoured for MBB consulting or Big Law in case you become interested in that. However, LSE is probably as good as Oxbridge when it comes to finance so if you're dead set on finance, then I'd go with LSE because it is easier to do well in your degree there.
Please go to Oxbridge and don’t look back!
Oxbridge is absolutely the better choice here. Agree with earlier commenters they are still well clear of LSE in terms of reputation & you will automatically get looks from anywhere you apply purely due to the brand name.
Would course be a big deal - suppose LSE's offer is for a top course, but Oxbridge's more, let's say Oxbridgey (and softer).
Somewhat. I gave an earlier example of LSE Economics versus Cambridge Land Economy, I'd probably take the former and I reckon a significant portion of cross-admits (but probably still a minority?) would do likewise. Course does significantly matter for recruiting, but I believe there's more of a "minimum" level of subject required and above that the difference is marginal. To pick two courses that are not directly relevant to finance but would both get strong looks from recruiters, would an Imperial Aeronautical Engineering student (one of the hardest UG courses in the world) be preferred to a general Cambridge Engineering student that probably has a weaker academic pedigree but has the Cambridge name? Probably not - they'd both get lumped into "engineering from a target," with the Cambridge student if anything having a slight leg up on the Imperial student for general prestige of the name. Imperial's specialised engineering courses would generally be considered more rigorous by academics and industry than Cam's general course, but they'll lose more cross-admits to Cam than they'll win - and, I would expect, lose out to Cambridge engineers in finance recruiting, ceteris paribus. LSE is in a very similar position to Imperial, albeit social science specialised rather than STEM specialised.
But Oxford and Cambridge are the only universities really where FO finance recruiting from soft subjects is still feasible - without significant EC achievements or a serious amount of hustling. Not saying UCL Geography is impossible (it's not, especially if quant/econ heavy), but it's a lot harder than recruiting from Cam Geography. LSE Social Policy, on the other hand, would be near-impossible, whereas Oxford Classics is still just about feasible.
I agree with this.
I know that JPM are big on the 'lateral thinkers' you get from random soft subjects at Oxbridge.
.
Although do note that Land Economy has a fairly low offer rate and has a very very good placement rate in terms of FO IB roles across the board
is LSE economic history feasible??
No person in their sane mind should choose LSE over Oxbridge. Do you want an A or an A+? Whatever connection LSE can offer, Oxbridge have it better.
I'll talk in the context of specific courses (all my opinion)
LSE Econ vs Oxford E&M
- LSE Econ has a tonne of hardos from day 1. Many, many people want to get into IB (seems like almost everyone). Springs will be the foremost thing as soon as you begin (and then Summers, etc). Of course, there are others that don't run to IB from day 1.
- Ox E&M has (imo) much broader aspirations from the students - some want to go into consulting, some IB, some data science, etc. i.e., a broad range of things.
The courses also differ, would say LSE Econ is far more mathematical. Naturally, the teaching styles differ too and their locations differ.
So, it is really about your preference - both will offer financial exposure. However, it is my belief that Oxbridge provides exposure to a broader range of industries due to the focus of its students.
Oxford E&Ms also a bunch of hardos from day one
Yes lol
No doubt, came across many
LSE is for Oxbridge rejects. Crazy to chose it if you have an offer from both.
This is like asking whether you should chose Wharton over Harvard.
That said, do not re-apply for oxbridge at risk of losing LSE. bird in hand etc etc.
Apologies for a slow reply, thank you all for your inputs.
Had a question looking ahead, any advice for Spring Weeks (also, is there a list somewhere of all the BBs/EBs/MM/PE/HFs that do them)?
Oxbridge > LSE talking into consideration your are studying same/similar subjects.
LSE Msc graduate here:
really depends on the stage you are within your life, and what kind of subject you are studying
- for undergraduate XP i will choose Oxbridge for its college systems
- if you are more mature, and enjoy the "adult" XP of bar/restaurants/etc. then LSE/London is def worth. Bear in mind that the majority of students at the LSE are MSc (and hence older) and that most of them are international/non-British, whereas Oxbridge is vice versa.
In terms of intern applications, I see more CV's from LSE than Oxbridge - and I am dealing with more people having LSE as alma mater than Ox.
Nevertheless, and as mentioned multiple times, both universities are top of their class - and this generalisation of A > B, or B>A without elaborating just show that people didnt get an offer from any of these 3 universities, let alone have a clue what they are talking about.
Also the study subject is key: Eco is strongest at the LSE, Mathematics/any STEM subject Cambridge, and any PPE/Law is Oxford. Oxford only offer a Msc in Financial Eco, whereas Cambridge only a Mphil finance (post-XP), wherease LSE's Masters offer a broader range of Finance.
The right mix is key, and this is: having a target university, some relevant work XP, speaking 1x European language
Great reply, thanks a lot
Based on LinkedIn scraping, removing all masters students the numbers for all current BB/EB/MM/BSB IB Analysts in London came down to:
- LSE: 169
- Cambridge: 103
- UCL: 101
- Warwick: 79
- Oxford: 77
- Imperial: 33
For all current MBB BA/A/ACs in London it came down to:
- Oxford: 123
- Cambridge: 121
- LSE: 40
- Imperial: 33
- UCL: 27
- Warwick: 16
Do with that what you will.
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