Hi everyone,

I have gotten an offer to do an MSc in International Public Policy at UCL, and an offer to do an MSc in Development Management at LSE. I want to end up working for the UN. I also have aspirations of being an academic (eventually). I have no idea which option to choose, and any help would be tremendously helpful!

I have a BSc in Development Studies from SOAS. So having (almost) the same name as my postgraduate degree at LSE (Development Management) is not entirely desireable. Then again, maybe the name of the school matters more than the name of the subject!

Finally, the UCL course is also cheaper - 7,000 at UCL vs. 9,000 at LSE. Not too much difference, but enough.

Any help would be great guys!!

do you want to do the MSc mainly because you need the degree for your career, or because you want to get deeper into the topic?

1) do some more research on the actual value of the name of the school. although LSE might open many doors in investment banks, is it also a real advantage at the UN? try to find some data on this before basing your decision on it.
2) have a closer look at the curricula (and the staff) and decide which suits your interests better. look at the actual courses being taught instead of at the adverts that are used to lure potential students.

if you are aiming for an academic career it shouldn't matter if you get your MSc from UCL or LSE - they are both top universities.
a word of caution though: perhaps the UCL is no better, but at LSE at least the MSc courses are clearly there (among other things, I suppose) to generate money for the school. thus, departments must put through as many students as possible - and teaching quality suffers. to the extent that some PhD courses are reluctant to take MSc graduates from their own school...

I have a psychology MSc from UCL. I don't know much of the LSE MScs, but I throughly enjoyed my time at UCL. The department was excellent; well resourced and taught by experts within their fields. The libraries and research facitilites are great and at UCL you will be close to the main research libaries (British Library, Senate House). The career opportunities were great to. 50% of us got immediate (funded) PhD offers during our MSc, and all of us were in employment after a month of graduation.

As others have said, both LSE and UCL are top unis!

I'm a PhD student in international politics and have to say that LSE has the MUCH better name in this field