In the excellent Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis describes how he was invited, after working for Salomon Brothers for a few scant months, to speak about bond trading at the London School of Economics. Having graduated with a Masters in Economics from the School, he was not expecting there to be much of an audience for his talk. In fact, he writes how he was surprised that there was a Conservative Students’ Society there that would invite him, as he remembered the LSE as a hotbed of leftist sentiment.
Any official or semi-official description of the LSE will undoubtedly mention active student politics, leftist activism and the numerous active societies on campus. The School rides on a reputation of active, even radical, students. Lewis writes about the turning point in the history of the LSE, a time when investment banking took over changing the world. Expecting an empty lecture theater, Lewis describes his shock as the students climb over each other to ask questions about getting employed in investment banking.
Investment banks still hold sway over considerable numbers of the student population. I assume it has been this way for most of the last twenty years, between Lewis’ account and present day. The money and “challenging work opportunities” offered by City firms lure many students to spend hours honing their applications and preparing for interviews. There are “insider talks” where current employees, most probably recent LSE graduates, give tips on getting through the selection process. Financial institutions even attract students from non-economics programs, such as International Relations.
Michael Lewis writes that companies began to use a degree in Economics as a sort of gauge of the general knowledge of applicants sometime in the early 1980’s. They weren’t necessarily looking for deep understanding of underlying economic theory, but rather a convenient base level of “these are things you should know” to be able to work in “making money come out of a telephone”. In many ways this is good - in a field as varied as trading, one’s degree speciality does not necessarily weigh as much as one’s skills and non-academic qualities. However, it does mean that schools may adapt their economics programs specifically toward the expectations of one facet of the industry. Has that happened at the LSE? I don’t know.
What I do know is that at least these days, the last part of the School’s official name, “And Political Science” is in effect just that, an afterthought. Economics degrees are a huge percentage of the total degrees awarded through the LSE. After meeting new people, I have often been asked not only “Does the LSE do degrees in Environmental Policy?” but also “We have a Geography Department?” Many people simply see the School as a way to get high-paying City jobs. While graduating from the LSE can probably help with that, I hope the other aspects of studying in a world-class social sciences institution weigh in the cups of current and prospective students.
The London School of Economics displays a strange duality - on one hand, there are the visible remains of a hotbed of radical student activism, and on the other there is the single-minded pursuit of a high-paying bank job. Most of the student population probably doesn’t care much for the campaigning of the aforementioned because they are engrossed in the latter. I assume it’s been that way, or on its way to being like today, ever since those crazy days in the mid-eighties described by Michael Lewis.