RoseA

[RoseAmeliaBrown]

My DD is aiming to apply to universities like LSE, UCL, Imperial etc.. for economics/finance. She is about to start sixth form and is taking Maths, chemistry, spanish, and economics for A level. We understand that LSE and Cambridge usually require further maths, but is it possible to get into UCL/Imperial with these A levels? We are thinking about switching chemistry to further maths (as our school offers it) but my DD is worried that she will drop FM, and so will be left with only maths, economics and Spanish. Does anyone have any experience with applying to these universities for economics without further maths?

You might ask to get this moved to Higher Ed or secondary ed and change the title @RoseAmeliaBrown

Here's what I know – economics is having a massive moment and is very popular and some courses are extremely oversubscribed. Examples would be economics at the unis you mention.

I personally know of two YP who applied for econ to those unis and others and were refused, even with FM and excellent PGs. In fact one applied post A levels with grades in hand of A star, AA or similar, in maths and FM, and was refused by UCL, LSE, Imperial and Leeds. Tbf I don’t know how good a PS they put together but I feel they were ill advised in their UCAS list.

If she took FM instead of chemistry then that might give her a better chance. Unis cannot require FM bc some schools do not offer it, but in many cases as I understand it, it would be queried as to why they didn't take it if offered. You can research what % of econ students at Imperial and LSE took FM.

If she did drop FM (and that's probably a sign that a maths/econ degree at LSE or Imperial is not right for her, as many students there will have taken FM) then she would still have three great subjects at A level and a wide range of possible uni options. Best of luck to her.

@clary thanks so much for such a detailed comment🙏