(i) Your application will be received by the central Graduate Admissions Office, who provide the School’s admissions service.
At this point, your application will be checked by central Graduate Admissions to ensure all necessary components have been supplied. Neglecting to send complete information with your application will result in delays. If any missing information is identified, you will be contacted and requested to submit the requested material. Upon all items being checked and approved by central Graduate Admissions, your application will be released to the Department of Economics for academic review.
(ii) Receipt of application to the Department of Economics
When the Department receives your complete application, the contents of your application will be checked again by the Department of Economics’ admissions team to ensure that all items on file meet the specific requirements of our academic selectors, for reviewing purposes. If the team identify missing/contradictory information – eg. no transcript to account for a qualification listed in your application form or a missing Exchange programme transcript – your file will be sent back to central Graduate Admissions who may contact you to request clarification/any missing information.
(iii) Academic review and consideration for choice(s)
Once the Department deems that your file is ready for academic review, we will send your application to our academic selectors. Our selectors are highly experienced in screening applications from all over the world; we have regional specialists who are familiar with international academic assessment systems. They will consider all factors when reviewing an application. Applicants who wish to provide relevant background information/commentary for the attention of our selectors may do so via their Statement of Purpose or an additional note submitted with their application (see FAQs 14 and 15).
We endeavour to make decisions within eight weeks of the Department receiving your application. However, in busy periods the decision period may be longer.
(iv) Decision
All decisions are communicated to the applicant by central Graduate Admissions. Departmental offer recommendations are subject to mandatory checks by the Graduate Admissions Office before the formal offer can be communicated to the applicant.
The decision will be visible in the applicant's tracker via their Graduate Applicant Portal (GAP) account. However, the decision is normally deemed final only when formal notification of the decision is sent by email from Graduate Admissions - see also FAQ 18.
Applicants are offered places at LSE based on a fair and equitable assessment of what they have achieved academically, compared with their peers, and on their own merit.
Applications are considered sequentially not simultaneously. If you submitted your application listing two programme choices, you will initially receive a decision for your first programme choice. Applicants are only considered for their second programme choice if unsuccessful for their first choice. In exceptional cases, applicants holding an offer for their first programme choice, may request to be considered for their second choice, including reasons for their request.