Land Economy is a subject that not many state school Cambridge applicants know about. If your interests lie in Geography, Economics and Law, then this may just be the subject for you. The most similar course offered by Oxford is PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics).
Land Economy is a multi-disciplinary course that considers intertwining factors of the legal system, economy, and environment. The workload is mostly essay-based.
Recommended A-Level subjects tend to be Geography, Economics and Maths - without an experience of A-Level Maths, one will definitely struggle with the calculus and statistics work in first year.
The most exciting part of the subject is that you can choose an interest, especially when going into second year. If you have an interest in specific areas of property law, you can pick more law-based modules.
A reason why one may enjoy this subject, instead of studying Economics, for example, is because the Economics studied in Land Economy is more applied to real-world situations.
Obviously choosing a college has its own criteria, but based on previous years, the most popular colleges that accept Land Economy students are Homerton and Fitzwilliam (on the complete opposite sides of Cambridge!). It must be known that some colleges do not offer this degree, namely Kings College.
When applying, you have to take the Thinking Skills Assessment Section I - which is the same exam as applicants for PPE in Oxford have to take - these papers will therefore be useful for practice. Thinking Skills Assessment official Cambridge information 🔗
Moreover, because the course is super niche, your original UCAS personal statement may not be specific enough, so you can send in a second, much shorter personal statement to the college when applying. You submit this through the Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ), which Cambridge will send for you to complete once they receive your application. Within this, you can tell the university some extra information about you, including why you want to apply for Land Economy specifically.
The Sutton Trust Summer Schools 🔗 don't offer a programme specifically for Land Economy, but you could apply for summer schools in Law, Economics or Geography to gain an insight into what elements of the course could be like. You can use this as a platform to enquire more deeply into Land Economy, comparing any similarities and differences between courses and deciding which is the right fit for you.
The biggest selling point for Land Economy for most of its applicants is its undeniably excellent graduate prospects. Half of all graduates end up in some form of finance, but there is also real estate and consulting opportunities. The best websites to look for highly competitive spring weeks and summer internships, something you can start thinking about in your first term of university, are Upreach 🔗 🌟 and SEO London 🔗 🌟. These cater for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and minority groups.
The overall degree is RICS accredited. This means that if you have an interest in property, you do not have to take a course later on in your career in order to be accredited in the field. In addition to this, taking some Law modules as part of your degree can mean you will not have to sit these in the bar if you choose to go into Law in future. This requires further research and consideration of what careers you might want to go into, but in general the Land Economy course allows future lawyers to specialise in property, land and environment law earlier than an actual Law degree would allow for.
Check out our Land Economy Course Guide 🔗 🌟 for more information, and read about the interview experiences 🔗 🌟 of successful Land Economy applicants on our website.