Going to LSE will probably be remembered as the best decision I made as an undergraduate at UM. It’s an incredibly unique program for those interested in the social sciences, and offers countless opportunities that are both unique to LSE itself and London.

The student body is more diverse in origin and thought than any I’ve ever encountered, which fosters a truly global learning environment–my friends taught me just as much, if not more, than what I learned in my classes. And since it’s a university centered around economics, political economy, management, international relations, and the like, all students have overlapping interests in each other’s disciplines.

LSE also gave me the chance to study specific areas of economics that I couldn’t have studied otherwise, and allowed me to focus on them for an entire year. While there are sacrifices with leaving for an entire year, there are also incredible benefits that a student wouldn’t get by spending just one semester abroad. A full year turns ‘abroad friends’ into lifelong friends, it enables you to take up more responsibility around campus, and it allows you to truly focus on your studies and not cram everything you want to do while abroad into a mere three months. I would do this program again in a heartbeat, and I'm confident nearly all others that have been in the General Course program would say the same.