ofthejungle

Both Yale and Stanford are great schools, but placement wise, I heard that Yale PoliSci Ph.D grads have not been doing very well on the job market recently. Maybe you should check the placement records for Yale and Stanford PoliSci Ph.D grads for the past two years? Good luck deciding on a school!

I think I am turning down Oxford, and attend LSE, because: 1) I have a scholarship to LSE - money is not a constraint for me, but its still nice to save some money on education. 2) I have a professor who knew the professors at the LSE Government Department really well, so I will be able to do research with some good professors at LSE (i.e. David Held). 3) LSE's program will give me more quantitative training - I went a school with a PoliSci that emphasizes historical analysis instead of quant stuff. It's good to have exposure to both. 4) The LSE will introduce to some generic models which will lay a strong foundation for my later studies of public policy and political science. 5) Reputation and prospect wise, both LSE and Oxford are pretty good. 6) Quant components will help in applying to U.S. PliSci Ph.D greatly, if I decided to apply later. The Oxbridge tradition is actually a plus for me - I am an international student from Taiwan and it will be an interesting experience for me. But academics and future work prospect are my main considerations. Finally made a decision! I have been struggling for three 1 month already! I like both schools a lot!

Hi all, I have applied to the MSc Political Economy at LSE and MSc in Modern China Studies at Oxford, and I have received offers from both schools. I got the offers from almost a month now, and I still have a hard time deciding where to go. Eventually I plan to go on and get a Ph. D, but I will most likely work for a few years (aim for consulting) before going back to academia after my Master's, and here are my questions: 1) I heard that Oxford still has the better reputation compared to LSE, is this true? Do graduates of Oxford have an easier time getting a job/ admissions into Ph. D program compared to LSE? 2) Related to the second question, the subject of the LSE masters (Political Economy) is more impressive, and may be more helpful in helping me get a job/ Ph. D admissions in the future, right? 3) If answers to both 1) and 2) are yes, does the subject matter at LSE offset the reputation advantage of Oxford? 4) For graduates of LSE - I heard horror stories about how it is really hard to get the required readings from the library - people often have to fight for the few copies. How bad is the situation? Thanks for the help! I really want to make my decision soon so that someone else on the wiatlist can take my position! Best regards, George