Preparing to study at LSE (London School of Economics)

By Pankhuri Tandon

Securing an admission at the London School of Economics and Political Science is a matter of both good performance and good timing. The application for MSc. Economics requires the following:

1.        GRE
2.        2 academic recommendations
3.        Marks
4.        Statement of Purpose
5.       Resume’

1.  GRE: The Msc. Economics programme of LSE requires its applicants to submit a GRE score. This GRE score should not be more than 5 years old. The MSc. Economics program at LSE gives more importance to your score in the Quantitative section of GRE than your score in its Verbal Section and Analytical Writing Section. LSE has explicitly mentioned that for securing admission into the one-year Msc. Economics program, the applicant should score above 160(out of 170) in the quantitative section. For the two-year MSc. Economics program, they require a score above 163 in the quantitative section. So make sure you manage to cross this ‘cut-off’ in the quant section of GRE.

 You should aim to give GRE before October. This is for 2 reasons:

a)      The quicker you give GRE, the faster you complete your LSE application. You should aim to finish your LSE application before the first week of January (I shall explain reasons for this later in this article). Note that you receive your official GRE score 15-30 days after the date you have given your exam.

b)      If you are not satisfied with your GRE score, you can give the exam again, but only 21 days after your current exam date. So make sure you keep that margin.

Also, it is important that you have your passport made before you give GRE, as the exam centre only accepts the passport as a valid ID proof.

2. Recommendations: You need to have two recommendations from the teachers who have taught you in college. You do not need to send the recommendation letters in your application; you just need to provide the name and email addresses of the teachers who will write recommendations for you, and LSE will contact them itself. Still, you need to ask the teachers for a reference as soon as you start with your LSE application, because they take time in writing them. Teachers have a lot of preoccupations already, and as the month of December begins, more and more students start with their application and come to ask them for recommendations. The only thing that delayed my application till mid-January was a recommendation that was not sent by my referee. Make sure you keep reminding them to write for you!

3. Marks: Marks in your undergraduate course is the most important criteria for selection at LSE. For MSc. Economics, LSE requires you to score at least 70% (aggregate till the final year) in your undergraduate course. Moreover, LSE gives a lot of importance to your score in maths, statistics and econometrics at your undergraduate level.

4. Statement of purpose (SoP): Although your marks and references are given the highest importance in you LSE application, statement of purpose is an essay (1000-1500 words long) through which the admissions committee analyse your thinking, and your suitability for pursuing the course. A SoP should clearly articulate why you want to pursue the course in that institute(why particularly in that institute?) , and why you have the right aptitude for the course. For this, not only do you need to describe the abilities you have that will help you in the course, but also show that your thoughts and views are consistent with what you are going to study in the course. Make sure your SoP doesn’t look like your CV in prose. It should explain how the things you did till now were with a purpose of helping you in what you are going to do now (the postgraduate course), and how the course you are going to do now will help you in your ultimate goal of the future.

Deadlines to be followed

Although there is no deadline for applying to MSc. Economics at LSE, the seats get filled quickly. Also, most scholarships require you to have an admission offer before you can apply to them. Typically, the deadline for the scholarships is in the period of February-April. So try to obtain the admission offer by January-February. Moreover, LSE usually takes 8 weeks to process your application, so it is best to send your complete application (including recommendations) by December.

Scholarships

The most well-known scholarships are Inlaks Scholarship and Commonwealth Scholarship. LSE also provides scholarships, under its Graduate Support Scheme. Moreover, this year LSE has announced 50 new scholarships for Indian students! :D  There are also organisations like J.N. Tata Endowment and Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation that offer loans at nil or low rates of interest. I advise that you should try to obtain funds from as many sources as possible rather than concentrating your energy on just one fully-funded-scholarship. There are many small scholarships that just escape our attention. Make sure you keep checking regularly in newspapers and online about any new scholarships.

Each scholarship application requires as much effort as one application for admission into a university. Most scholarship applications need a statement of purpose and recommendations (2-3). Note that you can get a recommendation from a teacher only a limited number of times (usually 4), so make sure you manage your ‘profile of recommendations’ from different teachers well. Many scholarships ask you to describe how you will arrange your funds for pursuing the course abroad. My sincere advice is: please describe it as honestly as possible. Trust me, being honest will increase your chances of getting that scholarship.

(Pankhuri Tandon graduated from St. Stephen's College in 2013 and is currently pursuing Economics at London School of Economics. If you have any queries regarding LSE applications, you can leave a comment below)