remarquable

It's true that LSE offers a track for its master students who wish to attend PhD. As both universities are excellent, you can choose the one that best matches your field of interest. I am certain that UPF is better in Macro( that's why I want to be there! ), but maybe LSE performs better in other fields because I don't see many scholars in UPF work in areas besides Macro.

Hello, I've also gotten an unfunded offer from BGSE and I am about to accept it. I have heard from someone in class 2012 that most students started their PhD application after they completely finished their master study and got final grades. Each year about 15 students are qualified to another program (MRes in Economics, Finance and Management), and lots of them begin to apply for PhD during that year. So you can pobably spend 2 years in Barcelona, which I guess is better than what LSE offers.

It is hard to tell whether UMW masters have good placement among US PhD programs since this MSc was initiated just 2 years ago and no graduates are recorded yet. In many cases a department offers different courses to master and PhD candidates( PhD courses are tougher, of course), and I am not sure if UMW provides PhD- level courses to MSc program, just as BGSE does. If not, maybe the exemption cannot be done. BTW, I was also admitted to BGSE and hopefully I will go there.