LSE vs. Imperial College

[chingmum]

My daughter is lucky to get offer from the two universities (LSE: Business Mathematics vs. IC: Mathematics with Statistics for Finance). We are striking which one to confirm as the firm offer. My daughters is interested to work for something like quantitative finance in the business world. Would you please give us your opinions? Thank you

I'd have thought LSE woul have better links with finance type businesses as Imperial is predominantly science an engineering. LSE much smaller too which might be beneficial.

Well done her though - both are sterling institutions!

Agree entirely with the above. Go for LSE - it?s the world renowned London School of Economics and that?s where your daughter wants to be if her heart is set on the business world. Don't be deterred by league table standings between the two unis; league tables are nothing more than fairy tales to make readers with vested interests feel good.

I would go for LSE. Well done to your daughter for getting two fantastic offers. You must be very proud.

Congrats to your DD. Imperial also has fantastic links to the City. Honestly, from an employability perspective, she will be fine heading towards a business/finance career whether from IC or LSE - they are both fantastic unis and grads of both will be courted by the banks and trading houses (who employ lots of physicists, mathematicians, engineers - from Imperial as well as LSE). The differences are probably more about where in London she'll end up more likely to live as a student, and her social group may be more engineering/science-y at Imperial and more politics/economic-y (to state the obvious!) at LSE.

Thanks for all the replies. It is true that other than choosing the uni/course, we are also striking on the environment. It seems that IC gets a campus whereas LSE is "a kind of merge" with the city. Somebody tells us that IC will offer a better university/ school life. As we live far away from London. We don't have much idea in this aspect. Can anybody get us advice?

Well I loved my time at ic (not all that long ago) and have several peers who went into banking.

One thing she might wasn't to consider though is that she needs to get a 2:1 or first to go into banking. Can you compare entrance requirements and proportions of students getting top grades to take a guess as to which university she's likely to come away from with this (people will tell you this doesn't matter but remember that about half the straight a students will come out without this and be hampered by it.

If I recall correctly, Imperial has a campus in the sense of a walled-off area where the faculties are, but the halls are still a bit away from it, so students are travelling through the city each day just like LSE. Imperial is handy for the Kensington museums, and for living round Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Acton etc; LSE near the theatres etc in the West End, Parliament, and easy reach of cheap areas in south London.

I'd look into what accommodation they offer nowadays - do they both offer places in halls to all first years? What about 3rd years? Do they own houses they can rent to students not in halls? How much is rent?

Both are excellent unis though, so course content and where she thinks her outside interests would be better matched are the main considerations.

I think they are both excellent choices and your DD should go where her gut instinct tells her she will enjoy more.

My DS is in first year at IC. He was guaranteed a place in halls for his first year and he is 2 minutes from the college, in a nice square which has a garden in the middle and halls plus the gym/sports facilities round it. He's very happy in his hall, despite the fact he shares a room. This was a big worry at first but its turned out fine, and means he can afford to be in a really good modern hall so close to college. (I think all the halls are pretty close but this hall is about 6 years old and in excellent condition). To me its not at all like a campus (for example compared with Bath which I visited). It feels pretty merged into the local area ie Kensington which I find quite funny as I went to uni in Edinburgh and it seems strange to be a student in such an upmarket bit of a city!
We live far from London and I was worried about the move but he's coping well, and has found friends. They have to live out next year, so I can't comment on that aspect as yet.
Anyway, good luck.

PS - Not all rooms are shared but a fair proportion, so that's a factor if its a major issue. I'm just relieved its not been a problem for DS.

IC, it specialises in maths and has a better campus.

I'm not sure of the percentages but Imperial was extremely male dominated in the past.

2:1 generally, apparently, so it has improved. When my husband was there is was 100:0 on his course!

another vote for Imperial College. Mainly because the degree sounds more useful. I would definitely go for Mathematics with Statistics rather than a degree called "Business Mathematics" - it just doesn't sound like a "proper" degree - sorry to put it like that, I am sure it is very rigorous, but when she applies for jobs, if she has a snobby scientist or physicist looking at her CV, they will always respect a Mathematics degree more than one called "Business Mathematics".

Also, Imperial College is extremely well respected in Sciences, whereas LSE is famous mainly for Economics, Finance and International Relations. So for mathematics, she should go for Imperial College. She could always do an econometrics or quant finance master's at LSE afterwards if needed.

I work in quant finance by the way and it is a shrinking field - there is a huge oversupply of finance graduates given all the job losses in the City. MOst of the current grads in quant finance end up in disappointing middle office jobs. This is another reason I would go for a more generic mathematics degree so she can turn it into something else later depending on how the economy develops.