London School of Economics and Political Science

LSE is on Houghton Street, London, between Holborn and the legal quarter. Founded in 1895, it has long done only social science, with no engineering, medicine or architecture. The campus is compact, one building running into the next, and the proportion of international students is high. Undergraduate degrees are commonly three years, and in the first year a university-wide course, LSE100, puts different social-science methods on the same table.

The undergraduate economics degree (BSc Economics) runs for three years and twelve units: in the first year microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, mathematics and statistics lay the foundation, and later the focus narrows. The finance degree is equally quantitative, and the mathematics on the timetable is not decoration. Politics, international relations and sociology involve heavy reading, and you must be able to write a public issue into an argument that can be defended. Law leads to the LLB, where writing and case analysis are daily work. Within the same school, preparation for the quantitative route and for the writing route is entirely different.

It suits a child with a sustained interest in economics, policy or public affairs. For those who want to come to London but whose subject is engineering, medicine or architecture, there is no corresponding school here. It also does not suit those whose direction is still unsettled and who only want a famous London university.