Hi,Got an offer from LSE, Fin and economics program. Anybody, who can share information regarding the program,job scenario and kind of on campus placemnet opportunities, especially for international students.Thanks

Hey pb, i'm a student there, so i'll give it a tryThe program is pretty theoretical, more than most US MFE programs (actually lse's fin/eco is not an MFE, i guess that's why )JP Zigrand lectures in the 2nd term are very good, that's where you'll learn the most useful stuff (basic stochastic calculus and derivatives pricing)Financial econometrics could be interesting but you will need to work a lot by yourself to get sthg out of it.Micro is pretty useless and uninteresting.Optional courses are reasonably diversified, you'll get the opportuity of learning some corp finance, general finance theory, a bit of matlab programming, advanced econometrics, etc.Job placement... Not too bad but not that good. Some students got offers in graduate programmes in sales&trading or capital markets.The others are now trying to get a job through contacts or looking for an internship.You'll get through to 1st round interviews in most banks with your LSE degree. And it doesn't matter if you're an international student, very few students are English anyway.feel free to ask if you have any more questionsi know i'm not the only LSE fin&eco student on this board, so what do others have to add?

For what its worth JP is an excellent lecturer....

doubled. sorry

Thanks for your reply.Now, I am in a huge dilemma. Last year I joined a quant finance program at a low ranked uni in US and have paid the fee(a lot for me) and right now, it will be tough for me to pay my tution at LSE, unless i get some sort of funding. As far as LSE is concerned, I am 100% sure that the quality of education and placement statistics are far far better as compared to my present uni. But, I am also confident that I will get some decent/good job if i stick to my present uni too. Just wanted to get your inputs, if it is worth transferring to LSE right now and pay again or other alternative is just deffer the admission and see what lies in the future.Thanks

This is a very good programme, no debate there, but mu experiance of it is that is is more suited for those who will wish to pursue a PhD, and is theoretical in a Econ way, not enough hard-core math compared to many MFE programmes or Fin Math. Depending on how sure you are what you want to do, it depends on how good it is. If you're wanting to study in London, the LSE MSc Acc & Fin has generally better job placement, and you can choose to do exactly the same options as Fin & Econ, but a little accounting too, which many employers like. For better math skills, look at the Fin/Applied Math programme at Kings, or the excellent Imperial courses.Just my views, speaking as someone who looked into this seriosuly having had offers from LSE & IC programmes...

Dupe post - sorry- deleted

My 2 pBeeing a colleague of quantstudent19 in the MSc FinEcon, I can tell about my experience in this programme.It is very theoretical indeed but do not expect much of quant finance - this is an economics programme. Hovewer unless you are really interested in pure quant stuff (e.g. solving pricing PDE by numerical methods) you can do any work ranging from trading to sales to economic research to IB. And if your previous background is quantitative you can also get into quant positions. I wouldn't agree that MSc AccFin has the same academic level - you need to pass by preliminary courses to do advanced quantitative optional courses (such as Financial Time Series) and you are not taking Fin Economics and Fin Econometrics which are the proud of LSE finance teaching (and are actually PhD not MSc level courses). If you have only (narrowly defined) professional objectives you might go for a programme in finance maths or accounting. If you think studies have some value per se (I think it is less the view in Anglo-Saxon countries) I would strongly advise you to chose MSc Fin Econ. The diploma from this academically challenging programme and the experience in such an intellectually rich environment as in LSE (as opposed to all other unis in the UK) will be a much more important asset than some specific technical skills and will prove to be of more value whatever would be the career you will consider in, say, 3-5 years horizon.

OK, two insiders' review of F&E programme at LSE. Now let me say something as an outsider, at least partly. I am at the Accounting & Finance programme @LSE. I would say F&E is a far more interesting programme to me. The high standard academic requirement of F&E is its main merit, I would say. As Aytek and HitmanH mentioned, the original idea for LSE to open such a programme is to provide some training before students start to pursue a PhD degree. Some students may find it hard to justify the effort they make to tackle those tough materials, when they believe only PhD students need to understand. But that is exactly the uniqueness of the programme, where you seldom get elsewhere. After one-year's of solid training, you are bound to have the fundemtental knowledge and skills to deal with any problems in contemporary finance. I wouldn't say you will understand everything after the course, but I am sure you have very deep and keen sense about finance, hence will be quicky in learning any new stuff in finance. I also sit in the lecture taugh by JP. Quantstudent19 is so right: JP is a fantastic lecturer. Even an outsider like me has been attracted by his teaching style and qulity. And indeed, economics and econometrics are really the pride of LSE, and the coverage of these makes the programme very prestigious. It's definitely not a computational finance course. It's about finance theories, with a lot of finance intuition, rather than just mathmatics and statistics. On the other hand, finance courses in A&F are of less theoretical foundations. Derivative course is a baby version of F&E's core course Financial Economics, although it's also taught by JP. It is still a good course, and people in my programme love it. But since I know what level F&E students have achieved, I kind of appreciate it less. Courses in A&F are less theoretical, but still more theorectical than a lot of other uni, simply because this is the style of LSE. The accounting courses are really theoretical, and its nothing like financial statement analysis; they are full of economic models that were build to explain the phenomena you see in accounting disclosure or measurement. For other optional courses, students from two programmes have more or less the same choices. Of course, these are just my own opinion. Personally I like the style of F&E programme a lot, and appreciate the rigirous flavor of the programme, even I am not lucky enough to be one of them. PS. LSE mates, do I have the chance to know you guys at all?

QuoteOriginally posted by: AytekThe diploma from this academically challenging programme and the experience in such an intellectually rich environment as in LSE (as opposed to all other unis in the UK)........ No doubt LSE offers some good courses, but some students there seem to take themselves a bit too seriously. If you are interested in quant finance then it's certainly NOT the place to be. Courses at Imperial, Warwick, or MTF at Cass are then better alternatives.Just my 2p.......

Grotifant I perfectly agree with you!As I mentioned in my post we are not doing quant finance in the MSc F&E.If you are interested in this particular field your choice would probably be one of the listed schools which are very good in maths for finance. My point is that some people with a more "conservative" and less professionally oriented point of view would value additional advantages of studying at LSE that you can get at only a couple of places in Europe. It was my piece of advice to PB.And the theoretical approach to financial economics allow you to specialise in some field for professional purposes while keeping the global understanding of finance and economics.

double post deleted

I agree with you Aytek

Hi guys,I'm thinking of applying for the LSE Msc Finance and Economics starting this year September. I come from a mathematical sciences background and dont have any formal economics background. Do you think having no economics background is a major hinderance to being accepted ?The thing is that I aim to learn economics from this course, I already have a quant finance background. I'm writing my GMAT soon ( dont expect to do amazing), besides the GMAT what are the big drivers to getting a place on the programme ?cheers dudes !

Every economics course always say prior knowledge of economics is not required...everyone who does economics without prior knowledge of econmics finds their life very tough....Given MSc courses are hard/disorganised as it is, I not quite sure whether learning a topic from scratch is worth the pain