As an international student, the financial commimtment required is pretty intense so I've been agonizing over this for the past few days. Hope someone here can help.

I've been offered a place at LSE's MSc in Management programme for 2007/2008. My end goal is to do a ph.D in Management in the United States(has to be in the states!) and I was wondering if this Masters program is appropriate as a stepping stone. Are their research assistanship positions available?

I'm also curious on how the atmosphere is really like, since I would like to take into account the whole experience itself.

Replies will be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

hi,
about the atmosphere, why don't you get in touch with people from the department, as it is different in every department. you could check the homepage or perhaps contact people from a student's society.
teaching is usually only available for PhD students. research assistantships might be available but you'd have to check with the department to be sure.

as for the stepping stone question: i have a friend who did a MSc at LSE (different subject area though) and then went on to do another Master's in the US. I guess it depends on what you have done before. But in general, as British MSc's are only one year and in the US, as far as I gather, normally Master's are two years, a British MSc won't automatically be recognized as equivalent to a US Master's.
On the other hand, if you already have a Master's equivalent, say from Germany, and really what you need is just the name of a top university, the stepping stone strategy might work. But then I'd ask why you don't try going for the PhD in the US directly.
Hope that helps.