When to apply

There is intense competition for admission; early applications have a greater chance of being successful and of meeting financial support/scholarship and visa deadlines.

Only a few programmes have deadlines by which you should apply – decisions are mostly made on a rolling basis, which means that a programme will close once all of the available places have been filled. You must therefore check the current availability of your chosen programme(s) and submit your application early to give yourself the best chance of obtaining a place.

Many scholarships, however, especially for research programmes, have early deadlines. See individual programme pages and the fees and funding page for details of particular deadlines.

Once we have received and processed your application, you should expect to wait an average of 8 weeks for a decision if you are applying for a taught master’s programme. Decisions for research programmes may take longer than this.

Your submitted application will be received and processed by the admissions team only once we have received a reference from each of the referees you nominate in your online application.

Research funding deadlines

Please note: to be considered for LSE PhD Studentships or ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership Scholarships (for 1+3 or +3 funding), you must submit your complete application, including ALL supporting documents, by the following deadlines 

• 1 December 2024 (Research programmes in the Law School)
• 18 December 2024 (MRes/PhD Economics and MRes/PhD International Development)
• 15 January 2025 (first funding panel deadline including ESRC) *
• 25 April 2025 Final funding deadline

*Please note: to be considered for ESRC DTP Scholarships you must apply by the first funding panel deadline.

Applications received or completed after the deadline will not be considered for LSE research scholarships. We will always do our best to make sure that applications received just after the deadline reach the departments in time to be considered, but it is much better to plan ahead and submit early.

Please be aware that some departments only make submissions to the earlier funding panels, and earlier applications have more chance of being considered for funding - check individual programme pages for details.

Some programmes will continue to accept applications for places after these deadlines, however it may not be possible to consider you for LSE funding.

Remember that your submitted application cannot be considered until we have received a reference from each of the referees you nominate in your online application.

Previous applicants

If you are unsuccessful, or are unable to take up your place in 2024/5, you have until 16 November 2024 to reinstate your application to be considered in the next admissions cycle for entry in 2025/6. As long as you complete the reinstate form before the deadline, we will re-use the documents that you sent to us, including your transcripts and references. Please note that it is only possible to reinstate your application once, for the following cycle, so if you initially applied before 2024/5, you should start and submit a new application from scratch.

The reinstatement fee is £95.

Start dates

Our main taught master's (MSc/MA/MPA/LLM) programmes start in the autumn term (late September). Some programmes, particularly those in the Departments of Economics, Accounting, Finance and Management, require attendance at Summer School or introductory courses in the July-September months before the main programme begins. 

Executive master’s programmes start at different times of the year depending on their mode of teaching. Please see individual programme pages for details.

Research (MPhil/PhD) programmes usually start in September, but may additionally start in the Winter (January) and Spring (April) terms at the discretion of your department. See below for more information.