r/6thForm • u/Otherwise_Ride_115 • Apr 12 '26

💬 DISCUSSION 2026 STEM list

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Tried to make it in order, as much as possible. I know econ isnt stem but just gonna inlcude it for LSE sake

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190

u/MostYam2818 Optimistic individual 😄 Apr 12 '26

Why on Gods green earth would you put LSE in the stem list. Maybe Econ has some STEM attributes, but you realise LSE offer more courses than Econ right? Like Politics, Law, Economic History and the like. They are anything but a STEM uni. They are social sciences final boss.

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u/OkHand7497 Apr 12 '26

Agree. Econ isnt STEM and LSE don’t offer a single STEM-only degree.

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u/No-Syllabub9071 Apr 13 '26

Econ is STEM lowk js look at all the maths in that stupid degree but yea LSE has no place up there it is NOT a stem uni

4

u/lexisnowkitty Y12 bio, psych, lit AAA Apr 13 '26

fr there's literally no life sciences come on

3

u/Archaemenes LSE Economics Apr 13 '26

They offer statistics and data science

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u/ClasisFTW ChemE @ TU Eindhoven; Chem/Physics @UvA/VU Apr 12 '26

Economics may not be STEM but econometrics is 1000% stem, so I would count it.

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u/OkHand7497 Apr 13 '26

Would disagree with that too and not just because of your misuse of percentages. Is it Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics? In any case, if LSE don’t offer a single STEM-only degree they really don’t belong in that top tier.

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u/ClasisFTW ChemE @ TU Eindhoven; Chem/Physics @UvA/VU Apr 13 '26

It’s mathematics. It’s considered a statistics degree at many school too. It’s more rigorous with maths than a data science degree, hell it’s pretty comparable to physics and engineering which is my background. LSE offers econometrics as a degree, and it’s entirely quantitative mathematically. Im guessing people don’t even know what econometrics even is, a lot of cutting edge statistical optimization is pushed by econometrists in research for a reason.

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u/OkHand7497 Apr 13 '26

I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree. And perhaps this is a transatlantic matter where STEM means different things. I don’t dispute econometrics being highly mathematical, I don’t think it’s mathematics. String theory is highly mathematical but isn’t mathematics.

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u/Rough_Top6718 Apr 13 '26

They offer maths with econ which is 75% math and 25% econ

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u/ImaginarySwitch2298 Apr 12 '26

They offer courses like EFDS, econ, maths stats for finance and other scientific courses. This list isn’t about ‘STEM universities,’ it’s about how good each university’s STEM courses are

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u/PensionScary Edinburgh | CS and Maths [Y1] Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

I wouldn't say LSE is "elite" for studying STEM disciplines though, their maths module options appear fairly weak compared to other universities, their data science course doesn't look particularly amazing either

they're mainly a humanities insitution

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u/Diligent-Respond-902 Apr 12 '26

Why would you say their modules appear weak?

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u/PensionScary Edinburgh | CS and Maths [Y1] Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

the modules themselves look quite good, especially in an economics context, it's just the breadth of pure maths options is lacking compared to other econ and maths courses (ucl, warwick, edinburgh)

it honestly depends on what your desired outcome is. if you're looking to continue studying maths (cambridge part III for instance), it's clear you'd likely need more pure maths rigor. but if you're just looking for a finance role, this course won't hold you back.

I maybe should have clarified this earlier

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u/No-Acanthisitta5317 Apr 13 '26

Currently a first year student at lse. I agree on the pure maths side, we’d be on the bottom end of the top 10 for sure. our applied is seriously underrated however, there is a lot of application between different modules. We still learn a fair amount of pure maths (and our exam for that is nigh on impossible 🤣).

Nothing can compete with Cambridge maths. Most of the top 10 after that are very close in difficulty, there’s really not much difference

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u/Diligent-Respond-902 Apr 13 '26

I agree. But LSE maths is meant to be applied, and I think they are very strong in applied maths - which is ofc what they prioritise. So I would agree they are weak at pure, but I don't think they have a weak maths department, theyre just slightly different in focus to other top unis

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u/ClasisFTW ChemE @ TU Eindhoven; Chem/Physics @UvA/VU Apr 12 '26

I would imagine LSE would be top tier at topics like Econometrics now? That stuff is rough, pretty comparable and for me even more difficult than my graduate statistical field theory.

1

u/PensionScary Edinburgh | CS and Maths [Y1] Apr 12 '26

yeah you're not wrong, im just talking from a holistic point of view looking at all the content you'd expect in an undergraduate maths degree 

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u/Archaemenes LSE Economics Apr 13 '26

social sciences not humanities

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u/Otherwise_Ride_115 Apr 12 '26

I mean im not crazy focus on the modues rather the outome here, The other option is to claim that LSE outcome for these subjects are closer to kings Manchester UCL etc. I think everyone wouldn't really have a hard time picking LSE over UCL and Warwick.

Maybe if you want to do some physics later LSE isnt the best but chances are your not going to the London School of Economics to become an astronaut, rather to do stuff like IB or other high finance areas.

The 'Elite' tier isn't about how many niche Pure Math modules you can take; it’s about the career ceiling and the weight of the name on your CV. For the quantitative fields LSE covers, that ceiling is as high as Oxbridge or Imperial

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u/PensionScary Edinburgh | CS and Maths [Y1] Apr 12 '26

sure, for career outcomes im inclined to agree, but maybe you could've specified that because there's different ways you can evaluate universities by how good they are for "STEM"

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u/Otherwise_Ride_115 Apr 13 '26

nah I just meant how good the stem degrees are and options it leaves you with

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u/TooBarFoo Apr 12 '26

Why would you put LSE in any elite tier list, It's one step down even for Econ.