From the very first week at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) it became clear to me that this world-renowned social science institute was like no other.
International to its core, I found myself taught by and learning alongside very intelligent people from across the globe. The teachers were all world-class researchers in their respective fields and I made sure to take advantage of their generous office hours. The content of each module was stimulating, well-structured and as described in the programme outline. I would strongly recommend LSE, albeit with some caveats. It is a university that is best suited for people who already have some academic and professional experience, given the fast-pace and the competitiveness that is very much present. Indeed, it is neither cosy or particularly welcoming an institute, due in part to its office-like facilities and its proximity to the bustling City of London, although this will undoubtedly by viewed as an asset for some. To conclude, I’d highly recommend LSE as a university for the quality of its teaching and for the career-enhancing contacts you make whilst there, but I’d advice any prospective candidates to visit, reach out to students and teachers and to think carefully whether it is indeed the right school for them. 

LSE is a prestigious university, no doubt. The qualities of teaching and research output are also great. Yet as a master’s student I do not feel very supported, in terms of academic development (and the potential of it) and well-being. This could be a result of school policies or department support. To a certain extent, this is also a systemic and challenge that many universities face–but during my time here I honestly felt that more resources are put to administrative stuff and promotions/marketing than the students themselves and better remuneration for professors and academic staff.

Each department varies a lot within LSE: budget, student bodies -> the support we get. My department is relatively small, this means most of my lecturers and class teachers ACTUALLY knows who we are and hence support us whenever we need (you can think of it as student staff ratio). I’m not talking about all small departments are good, but in terms of the relativity, if you want a closely knitted community, I’d say go for the department and see how it looks like. For my department though, the “smallness” also contribute to the fact that we are poor. It took years of planning to make our winter/summer ball. But it was worth it! In terms of the school in general, I think they put in so much effort to communicate with the students, multiple lunch time session with free pizza and drinks to lure the students to give our their opinion. But to be honest, I don’t think the students have this impression that the school is listening to them. They have other system to support it like the Student-Staff Liason Committee, which the student can give feedback to their representatives, and then through the SSLC of each course/department it then feedback to the whole school etc, but I think a lot of advice/opinion/suggestion get lost in the processes, so it turns out the department is effective in adapting to what the student wants, but the school would not (of course there’s also the scaling problem, but I’m not gonna lie, I see departmental changes, but not the school) –
Lastly, LSE is a never ending construction site. So it’s always “noisy” if you can bear that, then I think you are pretty good to go

Being a student here is hard work – a lot of independent study is required, and it’s important to try and stay on top of things so that you can get benefit out of the classes and be able to participate. The workload can feel a bit much sometimes, but everyone is in the same situation and if you feel overwhelmed other people on your course are probably feeling the same way, so don’t be afraid to reach out and ask others for help or to work together on things. The teaching is good and lecturers are experts in their fields, so take advantage of this and ask questions when you need to. There are complaints that the social aspect of uni isn’t great here, but even with the hard work you can have a good time – people probably don’t go out as much as at other unis but the opportunities to go out are still there once or twice during the week. There are a lot of societies that you can get involved in that put on their own events, and joining a sport is also a good way to make friends and improve your social life, as the AU puts on a number of events throughout the year and teams practice at least once a week. The location of the LSE campus is great, you’re right in the centre of London and there’s always something to do on the weekends. The campus is small and all the buildings are close together, which is good because it only takes a few minutes to walk to different classes/lectures.

Personally I’ve had a good experience overall although that could be because of the specific department I’m in. The students are nice and the staff members are also helpful and want to deal with any issues you may have with any of the course content.

final year students applying for the postgrad program. waiting for decades for my reference letter but my aa just keeps procrastinate for no reason. hope he understands that it is better not to ruin people’s lives.__school is always under construction, poorest facilities ever seen in the library__the only good resource is the reputation and connection with employers

Staff: Many of the teachers in the Geography & Environment, as well as the International Development department are quite inspiring and take their teaching very seriously.

Careers: The support services with regard to finding & preparing yourself for a career in an area you are interested in are far greater than at many other Universities. Because the LSE specialises in social science perhaps, careers staff are able to develop a deeper knowledge of what opportunities are out there. In comparison, at other Universities with much broader subject scopes careers advisors have much more limited knowledge as they need to know about far more sectors than social scientists would be interested in.

Stress and support: While people here do tend to be very driven and this can create a stressful environment, ‘LSE Life’ offers a great amount of support for students in their studies + career development. I believe this is a relatively new initiative and see it as an indicator that LSE is increasingly taking student wellbeing very seriously.

The intellectual benefit that I gained from LSE was phenomenal. No matter whether it was from lectures and class or just generally talking to other students, everyone was a highly functioning individual who carried unique perspective about the world. No other university is like that.