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（转帖） 一个外国学生 在LSE 学MSc. Econ 写的学业感受（仅供参考）
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Mid Year Review and Advice for Incoming Students
February 13, 2005 By
Vinayak NagarajVersion 0.05 – 14-02-2005
I didn’t have much time to sit down and write this out earlier, I’ve been extremely busy trying to get my act together and see if I can still manage a respectable grade on my course. Now that the issue is moot, I might as well tell you how to get it right at the LSE.
First of all, congratulations! Beyond all doubt, you are entering what could arguably be the best ranked non-phd course in the world. LSE and it’s row of Nobel Prize winne
rs (the first thing you notice when you enter the Students Service Center) still has better recall among people in the know, than any other institution serving Economics as a course. The biggest reason for this is perhaps the fact that it solely caters to instruction in the social sciences, but some amazing work has come out of this place over the last one hundred years!
This paragraph is mostly a quick review of where I’m from and a lot on the Indian educational system.
In case you haven’t read my profile, you can find little bits of it here, and here. I finished my undergrad in India, so coming here was obviously going to be something entirely different. In all fairness
, I didn’t study much Economics in India – the style and approach to the subject could fool you into believing you are studying an Economic History course. I recently recieved some critique on this issue, and felt that I should elaborate a little further. At the undergraduate level, almost all Economics courses in India (excepting Calcutta which I don’t have any information on) are effectively a three year journey into the origin and development of the subject. Most of the reading material we used were ‘do it yourself’ guides
to understanding how to pass an exam… one that contains no problem sets and little or no mathematical material. Exams are usually essay questions geared to test your understanding of the historical significance of what you learnt. JG raises the point that Delhi/Calcutta offer problem set approaches with technical levels that may exceed those that are offered in the United States. My own personal opinion is to strongly disagree with that opinion. Atleast when it comes to Delhi/Bombay/Madras, friends who still study / just graduated from these institutions confirm that the system hasn’t changed in the last two years that I haven’t been around. Once again, with regard to Calcutta, I don’t have much information so I won’t say anything except for the fact that they’re one of the only institutions to offer a BSc. in Economics (a la United Kingdom) as against a BA. Please don’t take this as an absolutely negative comment on the Indian system. There are many advantages to the way in which we are taught. We get a much better bigger picture than most other systems in the world. Whereas history of Economic Thought is optional most everywhere, most Indian Economics students must compulsarily enroll in a HET course or related option. This brings about a much better intuitive understanding of Economics as a whole. However, I still stand by the fact that the entire systematic problem-set approach
is on the whole a non-existent entity in India (Calcutta may be the sole exception). The first time I did a problem set was at the LSE, at summer school
.
My offer of admission came in November last year; I was one of the first applicants, and I really pushed hard on my app for an admit. From the looks of it, most of my peers have an 800 in their GRE Quant. Its something that probably appears to be an initial way to chaff the applications, as do many other institutions around the world. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t admit non 800s… but those that get in without an 800, are exceptional on most other counts (and would have got an 800 on any other day). That leads me to an important point – expect to see the cr?me de la cr?me of students when you get here. One interesting observation is that I encounter people who would cruise through Grad school in the United States like a world champion ice skater. When I ask them, “so are you thinking about Grad school in the US”, a lot of them often tell me that they’d love to do a PhD but rather die than go study in the US. They detest the thought of their European liberal freedom being curtailed. There are a *lot* of students who feel this way, and in a way, the American in me feels a tinge of sadness – these guys are insanely brilliant… and Goldman Sachs gets them instead :)
To keep this review in focus, I’ll stick to the MSc. Economics one year course, and dabble a little bit into the MSc. Econ two year and the MSc. Econometric and Mathematical Economics degree. The MSCE2Y is basically the combination of the Diploma course – a one year undergraduate course that beefs up your concepts – very often required for Indian students, and almost always required for non-economics
students, and the MSc proper that I’m doing right now. The EME course is considered the gold standard of “Psycho-Insane” existence. It’s a year of crazy-assed
Econ/Math/Stat courses, and a year of advanced Economics/Econometrics courses that are one level higher than what we learn at the MSc. Economics course.
MSCE1Y students are required to compulsorily take the September course in Economics (EC400). The rule is that you need to pass this in order to continue to the course. If you fail or are on the border, though they may ask you to leave, no one to my knowledge had that treatment meted out to them. Instead I think some may have been asked to attend additional Math prep classes organized specially for them. I’m not too sure on this, but this is what they had told us would happen.
EC400 can be a nightmare to anyone, irrespective of what kind of a background you’re from. The reason is that it is extremely cramped. In three weeks they take the life out of you – filling you with information that you would ordinarily wish to consume over a few months. You attend one week of economics revision, one week of Micro-Math, one week of Macro-Math, and three weeks (concurrently running) of Statistics. Econ revision is out of a Hal Varian’s Intermediate Microeconomics and is fairly straightforward. Micro-math is out of Simon and Blume – concepts such as concavity/convexity, quasi-concavity, optimization, Kuhn-Tucker conditions. If these are strange terms to you, now is a good time to start brushing up – you have about six months, which should be a fairly good amount of time to get started.
The macro-math is by far the most interesting. One gripe I had was that the math-macro is only taught for 4 days. It was exciting stuff – differential equations to get you warmed up, followed by dynamic optimization techniques such as the Bellman Equations and Hamiltonians for continuous time. There is an extra chapter on Markov chains, but we didn’t get time to go through it.
Now a quick warning: The math that we do at the LSE in EC400 is not the math that Chris Silvey burned in hell with. It is far more theoretical in the US – they spend a lot of time using basic set theory / functions / mapping concepts and build you into more advanced ways. Here, its very cookbook – its a one year course and they teach you how to apply the tools you need to get through it. If you are expecting hardcore theoretical Math, then you’ll be in for a surprise (pleasant or otherwise).
Once you get through the September course, you have to write the exam. You then get a weekend to cool off all those 2 hour nights. Some of my posts from back then will give you a flavor of what life was like. 1) “The Butchery Begins” 2) “Ten days on” 3) “Week Two and the Torture Ahead”
For the first few weeks of the main course, you won’t really feel the burden of the material being covered. The reason for this is that there is a significant decrease in the speed of things. September was all about 5 hour work-days with quizzes every day and problem sets on top of that. October is a slower pace – especially the first three weeks when you still don’t have classes or tutorials.
Three core courses are required – Micro, Macro and Econometrics. Each of these comes in two versions, MSc. and Advanced. This year, they were particularly strict about not allowing MSc. students to take the advanced course. It is something that I felt strongly about earlier (here is my post on that), and I still strongly believe that it is an unfair decision to be stringent about admitting MSc. students into the Advanced course. My personal gripe comes from Micro, where I am still to learn something that is profoundly new. In my summer school course (Intermediate Micro), which is a 2nd year level course, we pretty much learnt everything that we’re doing in MSc. Micro. The main text is Varian in the MSc. course, whereas in the advanced course it is MWG… which is the bible of all bibles in Microeconomics. My advice: if you are sure you have done a significant amount of Micro in the past – especially game theory and basic industrial organization (monopoly, price discrimination, duopoly
, bargaining etc), then push hard for Advanced Micro. Dr. Pratt, who was the person responsible this year, can be deceptively sweet, but will send you back to Msc. quite speedily. You have to burn with passion with whoever is deciding on admitting you. Make sure you do it! This applies for Macro and MEI as well. However, there is one caveat to this. The MSc courses are a lot more ‘fun’. They give you a nicer take on what the subject is about. This applies to all three subjects… but most importantly to Micro and Macro. In Micro you get to do classic papers that may not be covered in Advanced Micro (which is highly theoretical and covers a smaller footprint of the subject). A good barometer is, “if you’ve read The Market for Lemons (Aklerof) and can solve a problem set on it, take Advanced Micro”. Watch out for Corner Solutions (the famous Piccione Corner Solutions are exam classics… and should always be respected deeply!)
Macro is exciting. From day one you are introduced to the fact that most of the macro you learnt as an undergrad was all crap. I remember that in high school, many of my friends who took Chemistry used to whine about how everything they learnt in the 9th and 10th grade was pure bullshit and that they had to effectively unlearn everything and start from scratch on completely different principles. Macro at the graduate level is a lot like that. IS-LM and many related concepts are usually not mentioned at all for fear of the Dynamic Optimization gods showering lightning on you. It is very micro-founded, and goes into great lengths to teach you about representative agents, utility functions in macro, asset pricing, monetary policy, et al. Alex Michaelides and Danny Quah do justice to the course in terms of the footprint. Michaelides’s section requires you to be quite nifty with discrete time, whereas Quah’s course will have you mastering differential equations and dynamical systems a lot faster than you might have wished for. I have a lot of respect for both of these people and the stuff that I’ve learnt for them. It’s the ONLY subject that I wake up in the morning and actually want to study. It is the only Mock exam that I crammed my brains out for. In short – don’t miss it for the world.
Econometrics is a slightly weaker spot for me. The course is quite interesting – they don’t get too complicated with the stuff you have to learn. In fact, I studied out of Gujarati, which is an undergrad textbook to learn the concepts, and then used lecture notes to actually get by. Though Green is the recommended textbook, you will find that both Vassilis Hajivassiliou and Stephen Nickell are excellent with their lecture notes. The problem sets are very difficult. Don’t be surprised if you cannot answer most of it until the end of each term. I personally have given up attempting them… and will study like crazy in my vacation time to make up for it. The lectures themselves are harmless – they’re fun to attend and you learn a lot about basic theoretical Econometrics. If you haven’t done Econometrics/Time Series before, don’t think about doing Advanced Econometrics.
I’ll write a brief bit on my own personal opinion of what this course has done for me. I’ll refrain from being personal, but let’s make sure you know that I have a lot of personal opinions just like any other young hot-blooded
22 year old in the middle of his test of manhood :)
I have learnt far more than I had expected to at the LSE. The sheer experience of interacting with all these people is maddening. Every other guy on the row you’re sitting in is from some kickass institution, or (this ones for you Kevin) comes from the Potato/Chicken heartland but can solve a mean differential equation while levitating in yogic bliss. The strongest feeling I often get is that I am extremely academically inadequate to be here. Very often I feel like I didn’t deserve the admit… and that I was just really street smart to get in. Look, I have a big ego, so don’t think for a second that I’m NOT pompous. I’m as street smart as you find them… but you know what… this just isn’t a place for that. You may survive one Danny Quah quick fire question (as I just about scraped through in our first class with him), but after that, you’d better run like your arse is on fire and start reading and cranking out those problem set solutions. LSE forces you to tune up more. It pushes you to demand more of your own knowledge. It however knows when to let go – unlike most grad schools in the US. This is both good and bad. Its good because just when you think you’re going to die, you get a little breathing space. Its bad because popular belief sides with death as the only way bring out the best in you. When you graduate from LSE you still won’t be ready for Grad school in the US – not by a long shot. However, in a crude way you’ll be academically street smarter – a better player at the jack of all trades game, and that will be your best weapon when you reach the doors of hell. I discuss grad school at length, only because there?s so much to talk about. If you want to study at the LSE and get a job… its just a one line affair
: no shit… you’ll get lapped up before you can count to ten… provided you’re shrewd enough to get hired. Lehman, Goldman, ?everyotherman? will come by, drop a business card
, and invite you to drink and eat with them. Do it, apply smart, and you’re in before Dorothy reaches Kansas. I’ll leave it at that.
I haven’t talked at all about the optional subjects – purely because this is a more opinionated discussion and I thought it best to leave it until later. You get the first three weeks (and more if you really need to) to decide on which optional you want to take. There are lots – go read the LSE website – and you can attend different lectures to decide which one you want to attend. One word of advice: decide on your shortlist before week one of main term and attend all lectures that are on your shortlist. They don’t wait for you to make up your mind – you make it up as you go along. If you didnt attend the lectures you missed out on a crapload of stuff.
My own optional was Monetary Economics, and my various frustrated constipated
posts (click here) will enlighten you on that. Make sure you choose wisely – this is the subject that you’ll obsess over. You have to write a master’s thesis on it which counts for 50% of your grade… the final exam being the other 50%. You will quite often read sleep and eat this subject – especially if most of the students in your class are PHD students (optional subjects are common for MSc and PHD students). Monetary is a course dominated by research students – the level of the course is far higher than the rest of the MSc. Seriously – I’ve written enough about this one so I’m going to let it go. You will enjoy it… but only if its where your interest lies. Mismatches on the optional subject will lead to a slow and painful conclusion to your year.
There is a lot more to write about – the social life, living and adjusting to London – but these are well covered by many other sources of information. If you think something is missing in this lengthy and burdensome write-up, mail me and I’ll add to it.
Btw，Will对待感情也是非常执着，心中真爱一直都是电视剧女主，很可惜的是没有等到电视剧完结，Will在法庭辩护中被射杀了,感觉蛮失落的。不知道是不是演员没办法继续出演了，否则编剧的这个安排我挺不能理解的，没有了这个核心人物，电视剧失色很多。
记得时常被家里的亲戚问起“你在英国读的什么大学呀”，我每次回答伦敦政经时都有些尴尬巴虽然伦敦政经在国内并不家喻户晓，但它的确是一所仅次于牛津剑桥，和帝国理工
个人背景：魔都双非一本，管理科学专业
大四秋天，我申请了两所美国大学(波士顿大学，佐治亚理工)和三所英国大学(LSE, IC, UCL)，在过年前都拿到了录取，最终选择LSE的原因分为三个方面。第一地理位置，个人观点相比较波士顿和亚特兰大，我更喜欢伦敦；其二是学费，IC和UCL录取的专业都在计算机系，CS专业的学费一般来说是会多一些，LSE的运筹学专业在数学系，学费大概比其他两个专业少将近30%，当然学费不会是最重要的因素，伦敦这三所学校毕业后回国后认可度区别不大，否则尽管学费贵一些也要选择排名和声誉更好的；最后一点是LSE的社会科学非常强，最近的QS排名中，LSE在社会科学排名全球第二，我也比较喜欢这种人文社科氛围比较浓厚的地方，我当时住在学校的宿舍，八人住在一个大的套间，共用一个厨房，除了我是数学系以外，其他室友的专业包括国际关系、法学和经济学，平时在厨房一块做饭或吃饭时，我乐于听他们讲一些专业上的问题，外国室友也会经常问我一些中国方面的问题。
它和在其他世界一流大学
图书馆
学习强度： 我从国内某自诩该专业全国排名第一的大学来到LSE读这个专业世界排名第六的硕士项目， 结果发现自己完全跟不上（绝没有黑国内母校的意思）。但LSE读本科的同班同学跟我说他们之前都学过了。可能因为这个原因，基本上我的时间都在图书馆度过，做problem set,看paper,听回lecture record，所以学习强度特别大。。。
LSE中国发展论坛上，邂逅金刻羽老师
考试：典型英式考试，期末3小时的考试占100%，淘汰律很高。不会调分。备考压力相当相当大。所以大家备考起来很疯狂，跟答案最后的图一样。可能是我的项目自己的特别，学校不太管你，一入学就说得很清楚，我们就看最后考试的成绩，就是这么无理这么拽，早告诉你了，你考不好是自己的原因。其实我是很有压力的，最后也没有处理好。觉得对这个项目有点冷漠，有点悲凉，但退一步想，这是学术型项目，想做学术的人连LSE的考试都考不好，的确达不到他对学生的要求。从这一点看，我觉得凡是能从LSE顺利毕业的人都不简单。（以后遇上了，建议以礼相待，可以的话请顿饭呗~ ）
周边：因为LSE的Location很好。吃喝玩乐真的很多。吃的话前面说的Fleet River Bakery，咖啡是Monmouth的，cake是home make的，很赞。再往前一点的Lunch time Thai takeaway是我的首选。周日Holborn宿舍旁边的Shanghai Blue是半价的！作为广东人，我表示那里的竹丝鸡煲椰子汤
想知道自己可以申请到哪些大学，可以戳http://t1.ink/f/kmiiee 预祝您收到心仪的offer！
那么今天的科普就到这里啦，如果大家想获取更多留学申请干货，或者预约1V1留学评估，都可以扫描上方二维码添加美龄小助手
E 同学：” 来到LSE发现，这里简直就是“伦敦女校”啊，因为不是综合类大学，所开设项目主要是商科、社会与人文社科，所以就说华人圈子，周围长的漂亮、学习成绩好的女生真的不能再多了。“
（图源：院校官微）
（图源：IC官网）
（图源：院校官微）
（图源：网络）
（图源：LSE官网）
（图源：LSE官网）
本科的我
对于保研这个选择，怎么说呢，虽然我自认为我的成绩还不错，但是如果是打算进清华北大的保研团队还是很困难的，我也了解概率很低，最后保研结果估计就是在本校继续读研。其实我对我的本科母校，虽然很热爱，但是研究生的话，并不甘心就读在这个大学。
坎坷留学路的开始！
其实上述列表中的大学，除了德国的大学之外，我最想去读的大学就是帝国理工和伦敦政经。原因说起来也是有点意思的，在2016年的那个暑假，我在帝国理工上了一个假期的暑期班，学到了很多知识，也被英伦文化深深地感染到了，同时吃的东西也比较和我胃口。在那以后，我一直很想有机会的话，再回到帝国理工吃一次英式早餐。
在多方面考虑之后，综合看了大学和专业的各个方面，我最后决定先申请英国的大学。因为德国的大学普遍申请开放时间都在次年的2月到5月左右，与此同时，我也在继续和德国的APS审核部保持着联系，持续跟进。然后把澳洲的澳国立大学，作为我申请的保底大学。
我之所以找了文书老师帮忙，是因为我不太清楚如何根据自己的实习情况，结合申请的专业，然后有逻辑、清晰的写出一篇兼备故事性和完整性的文书，以此来吸引招生官的眼球，并告诉他们，我——就是你们想要招的学生。其实最初在文书撰写上，我还是很侧重于文章的逻辑性。
其实当我给她发这些的时候，我就没打算要跟她继续合作下去了。也比较庆幸，她也知道自己没理，所以也没有跟我过多的纠缠，最后虽然只退了75%的钱，但是好歹不是肉包子打狗一分钱都要不回来，就当花钱买个教训吧。
等待offer也是多舛
但是事实已经是这样了，我也别无他法，只能在想别的办法留学了。当时感觉还有ANU这个备选大学，或者要不然去德国留学也可以，反正APS现在申请也来得及。
可能也是因为拿到了一个offer，所以信心又重燃了一些，还是没有直接交钱。（没错，我就是这么一个有点矛盾的人。）我想着反正有保底大学可以上了，而且LSE的第二志愿，虽然没有发offer吧，但是我也没有收到拒信，再等等，万一第二志愿来了offer呢？就等到下周五，如果还没有offer的话，我再去去ANU交钱。到了周五还是没有任何消息，过了周五的时候，又说等到周日，周末人家不上班，所以当然不可能等到的。但是我仍旧没死心，还是没有交钱，继续在等着。
我退出了微信，打开邮箱准备找一下ANU的项目相关信息，也就是这时，我看到了网易云邮箱
最后的最后，和题主总结一些我个人感觉在留学申请中，比较重要的tips好啦。
如果题主比较怕麻烦的话，也可以选择和中介一起合作，因为有了中介的帮忙，真的会省事省力很多，最起码不会跟我一样，在选校和选项目这两个方面一直犹豫，摇摆不定。而且在准备的过程中，我也真的遇到过一些流程上的小问题，基本上都是从一起准备留学的小伙伴找的中介那里得到的答案，在这也很感谢我的小姐妹愿意让我白嫖。
后记
我叫Angelina，这次有幸获得了LSE的数学与经济专业OFFER。我喜欢打羽毛球、乒乓球、游泳，以前还学过5年钢琴。有时候会看点书来充实一下自己的生活，平时比较喜欢看悬疑类的小说，但是在升学期我会看一些和专业相关的书籍。之前我有在LSE官网上看他们的推荐书目并从中选一些来读，之前也读过一些经典的经济著作，比如说Adam Smith的国富论，但是那本书过于深奥，比较晦涩难懂，后面就换了一些书看，比如曼昆
01 我为什么选择经济专业
02 我为什么选择LSE
03 我的基础课程学习
04 我的竞赛冲奖心得
05 我的拓展学习及PS撰写
06 我的TMUA笔试心得
LSE 的 OFFER让我喜出望外
学弟学妹们我想对你们说：
学姐推荐阅读书单
美联储前主席本·伯南克 (Ben Bernanke) 与道格拉斯·戴蒙德
给大家大致说说我的就读情况：
Simi老师的课堂在欧洲的这一年，，即便在疫情的阴霾下，我还是冲了许多国家。苏格兰的壮丽山川，爱尔兰的迷人田园，威尔士的古老传说，西班牙的热情阳光，葡萄牙的浪漫海滨，希腊的古老文明，意大利的文艺气息，甚至还远赴摩洛哥，感受了不一样的北非风情。参观了许多博物馆，特地前往了Tudor王朝的王宫Hampton Court。这个过程中，认识了很多国外的朋友，见识到不一样的世界。
我和Jenny的合照
绚烂的街头夜景如果你想留学申请我的母校——LSE，可以直接点击下方卡片，有什么文书撰写方面的需求，我会尽力帮助你的！