Paris School of Economics vs London School of Economics vs University of Toronto

[beautifullife]

I am a Canadian Undergrad that received offers from Paris School of Economics M2 program, London School of Economics MSc Econ program, and University of Toronto Msc Econ program. I kind of regret not applying to Harvard or MIT because I received offers from every school I applied. I will probably pursue PhD at one of Harvard, MIT, Chicago, and UC Berkeley. At the end of the day, I want to land a position of Economics Professor at any of top 10 institutions.

I specialize in Microeconomic theory and in particular the mathematics and game theory. I am really flexible in terms of research area since I have undergrad degree in math and by this, I mean learning a new topic in economics isn't a big concern for me. 

 

Offers:

PSE - second year masters, almost free tuition (basically skipping a year of comprehensives. I super hate tests)

LSE- admissions

UofT- admissions on full financial support $18000 

UBC- admissions on moderate support $14000

 

I am leaning towards PSE or UofT. 

PSE is highly ranked. UofT prof there seems to really want me there.

 

Which school would you choose if these schools offered admissions to you?

[Elchorro]

LSE is excellent if you are thinking of applying to PhD and if the costs are not main concern. They have a good track record of placing their graduates in good PhD programs. Also, their masters degree includes conditional offer for their MRes/PhD which is a bonus, since you don't have to worry that much. LSE is definitely a good option for PhD too. Further, LSE has a stronger theory group than the other schools, see John Hardman Moore.

In Europe PSE masters program does not have as strong reputation, especially in Micro. This might be different in US, though. Also, free tuition is great. £40k+ of debt after a year at LSE is not appealing for me.

I was applying to UofT this year as a backup and I can tell you that they are willing to increase you financial package if you want to negotiate. They more then doubled mine to $40k+ (including TAship) when I indicated that I might still consider their offer.

Finally, remember that the admissions to PhDs at Top 10 are much more competitive then to any masters program. No matter where you end up going, make sure that you are at the very top end of the distribution so that your reference letters will shine. 

[apollohelios]

Hi dregon03, I believe you must be already settled in your school of choice for your PhD.

I'm an Indian undergrad currently working as a research analyst at a not for profit think tank out of India, and I would like to pursue a masters in economics. As career choice, I want to become a policymaker. For that particulary, I feel PSE looks really good. Also Paris is a great place to be, and I know French. But I'm a little concerned about its ranking and performance. I've connected with a few students through LinkedIn, but I'm not satisfied with their responses. You said PSE is highly ranked, but I could not find that through a simple google search.

If you've chosen to do M2 at PSE, could you please tell me a little bit about the school?

And if you've not, would you please mind sharing why you decided against it?

Thanks in advance

[Anthony2016]

On 4/8/2017 at 8:59 PM, dregon03 said:

I am a Canadian Undergrad that received offers from Paris School of Economics M2 program, London School of Economics MSc Econ program, and University of Toronto Msc Econ program. I kind of regret not applying to Harvard or MIT because I received offers from every school I applied. I will probably pursue PhD at one of Harvard, MIT, Chicago, and UC Berkeley. At the end of the day, I want to land a position of Economics Professor at any of top 10 institutions.

I specialize in Microeconomic theory and in particular the mathematics and game theory. I am really flexible in terms of research area since I have undergrad degree in math and by this, I mean learning a new topic in economics isn't a big concern for me. 

 

Offers:

PSE - second year masters, almost free tuition (basically skipping a year of comprehensives. I super hate tests)

LSE- admissions

UofT- admissions on full financial support $18000 

UBC- admissions on moderate support $14000

 

I am leaning towards PSE or UofT. 

PSE is highly ranked. UofT prof there seems to really want me there.

 

Which school would you choose if these schools offered admissions to you?

Can you tell me what your GRE score was?

[Constantine hwang]

As far as I know, PSE does require GRE score unlike other prodigious universities in Ecnomics.

 

Some people might worry about the ranking of PSE... but too foolish to think about it.

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.econdept.html

That link is very well-known for economic ranking in terms of authors, institutions, departments etc...

I think the evaluation process is quite objective, because that link estimates the ranking(of author or of instutions), based bot on the popularity, but on the publication.

According to that link, PSE is ranked 5th in the world, 1st in Europe. No more words

Edited November 5, 2019 by Constantine hwang