Top social science schools: LSE vs Sciences Po

Rivalry between the two schools is further intensified by their locations in the heart of the capitals of France and the UK. Just over 200 miles apart and connected by a train journey (beneath the English Channel) which takes just over two hours, London and Paris have a long history of competition, each vying to be Western Europe’s most visited, loved and celebrated city. 

In the QS Best Student Cities, the biggest gap between the two is in the affordability category. While both are relatively expensive places to live, the UK’s higher tuition fees make London a costlier overall prospect for both domestic and international students. 

Undergraduate students at Sciences Po may also be based at one of six regional campuses, located across France. Each of these campuses specialises in a particular field of study – Reims for transatlantic relations, Le Havre for Asian studies, Dijon for a European focus, Nancy for French-German studies, Poitiers for the Latin American programme and Menton for Middle East and Mediterranean studies. 

Sciences Po is slightly larger in terms of overall student numbers, although this is spread across its multiple campuses.

Both universities are very internationally diverse, with around half of the students at each university classed as international.

Unsurprisingly, as the world’s leading institutions specialising in social sciences, LSE and Sciences Po boast two of the world’s most impressive resource collections in the field. LSE claims the world’s largest library devoted to social sciences, while Sciences Po has the largest within continental Europe. 

Sciences Po’s collection includes more than 660,000 books, 15,000 periodicals and 20,300 electronic journals. Meanwhile LSE’s British Library of Political and Economic Science features more than four million printed items, subscriptions to 33,600 e-journals, and 50km of shelving – equivalent to the length of the Channel Tunnel which connects the UK to France.  

These famed institutions remain two of the most compelling choices for those with an interest in social science and humanities subjects, offering some of the world’s leading resource collections in these fields, and two of the globe’s most international and elite academic communities.  

While a straight-up comparison in the rankings tables makes LSE the clear winner, Sciences Po’s differentiated course offering, strong faculty/student ratio and choice of locations in Paris and beyond will nonetheless give it the edge for many prospective social science students.