MS(Finance) at London Business School

Dear All,

Hi! I am new to this forum and this happens to be my first post. I must appreciate that GMAT Club is a knowledge powerhouse for potential MBA/MS candidates and GRE/GMAT aspirants.

My query is regarding entry to the MS Finance program at London Business School. But first, a detailed introduction to my profile.

I am an Electical engineer from a top engineering college in India (not IIT) , with average academics (first class without distinction), and will have 3 years experience with a reputed Mumbai-based knowledge services company as an offshore Equities analyst (by Sept '08). My GMAT score is 730.

My job profile: Equity research for a major American Investment bank client, along with a NY-based lead analyst. Despite being the only non-MBA/CA/CFA (i.e. just an engineering graduate) in the entire 100-member equity research team, I was interviewed by the client and was initially selected as a sector expert (though my designation was analyst), basically for back-end database updation for the US capital goods sector - because the person who did that had resigned. I was interviewed among two others - both fresh MBAs with no prior experience - and was selected because the analyst needed a replacement who could do the murky job.

Together with him, I strated tracking capital goods and though initially I only focused on simple maintainance stuff/ writing thematic sector-specific articles, within 3 months I began doing 50-70% of what a stock analyst does - except meeting the clients/front end - and within 6 months, in terms of the performance ratings I was at par or outperformed existing members of my 10-membered cap goods and diversified/ conglomerates team. I am referring to MBA/CAs because my perdormance is always stacked against theirs.

Within 8 months, I could independently create and update financial models, perform DCF and multiples valuations and write complete (i.e. end-to-end) equity research reports for my analyst - who could spend most of his time marketing. This is of course, on top of a strong understanding of the capital goods sector. He then called me to NY office for a month, where I covered Q2 results with him. Since then, I have been to the client's NY office twice, for a total of 2.5 months.

Within 15 months, I began training new recruits on report writing, financial writing, and capital goods sector updates. I was then promoted within the team, and assumed higher responsibilities - such as interviewing potential job applicants to my company. Let me re-iterate that am employed with a 1,500 employee strong finance-back office in Mumbai and not an investment bank - I work for the ibank client analyst. I have good client interface as I communicate with my analyst on a daily (rather continuous basis). He is a VP, and along with him another VP-level stock analyst in NY is willing to recommend me.

On a separate note, I have won certificates in litrary activities such as debates, GDs etc and other events such as Business plan and business case contest in college. I am a member of the red cross society, donate enough to sponsor 5 cataract operations each year, and also 1 child's education for a year. Overall, I am satisfied with my career progress till date, and have been able to achieve an optimum combination that leverages my engineering skills, and acquired-on-job finance and sector skills. But going forward, I do not have the required qualifications to join the front-end in an investment bank in a major financial hub.

Coming back, looking at my profile, what are my odds for the LBS MS(Finance) program ? Please comment. It was my genuine interest in finance that made me foray in this field and to my understanding, MS-Finance program will fulfill my career objectives.

Also, please suggest with my profile, what other options can I consider ?

Regards