Thinking about pursuing graduate study at LSE and have questions? Who better to answer them than people from the LSE community! Yes, that’s what Virtual Graduate Open Events (VGOE) are all about.

As the application season rolls around, LSE hosts a number of live online events for prospective students to find out more about their study options, meet and connect with faculty and current students from various departments and gain insight into what life at LSE looks like.

The VGOE are held over a span of two weeks and cover a wide range of topics including but not limited to introduction to the application process, funding your studies, services offered at LSE ranging from careers to disability and wellbeing support, as well as a host of academic department specific sessions. These events are designed specifically for prospective students who are considering applying to LSE and are curious about the LSE experience. As such, the events are a valuable resource of information.

The VGOE are live and interactive sessions that provide an orientation to navigating the admissions process and understanding what student life at LSE will be like. So, any questions you have as a prospective student will mostly likely get answered in these events instantly. The Graduate Admissions Office runs sessions on the admissions process and helps you understand the entry requirements, answers questions regarding the application process, and also shares tips on preparing a competitive application. The Financial Support Office hosts sessions providing information on the range of funding options that are available for postgraduate and PhD study at LSE. The academic department sessions hosted by the programme managers and faculty provide useful information on the programmes you’re considering applying to. There are also sessions where current students share their experiences of applying to and studying at LSE.

In 2021, I attended some of these events prior to sending in my application. It helped me understand the requisites of a strong application. It provided me with information on the available funding options for my PhD study and how I could apply to those opportunities. As a prospective PhD student, I got an orientation to the PhD Academy and the various services that are offered by them to aid my professional development as a researcher. In fact, these sessions provided not just objective information on how processes run but also helped me get a sense of the LSE culture. I came away from these sessions feeling more confident in my decision to apply to LSE for my PhD study.

As a prospective student when you attend any of the VGOE sessions, you have the chance to get your questions answered and connect with people from within the LSE community even before you’ve made your application to the programmes. The range of events hosted is vast and they are designed to help you make an informed choice for your graduate study plan. Even if you’re unable to attend all the live sessions you’re interested in, you can still watch the recordings of these sessions on the website. In case you missed the live sessions, I would definitely recommend watching these sessions on your own time. After all, these events present you with the exciting opportunity to get a sneak peek into what life will look like for you if your application is successful and you choose to study at LSE.