Calling all St.Gallen MBF Applicants (2024 intake)

In the Master in Banking and Finance (MBF) Integration Days video of 2022 they show that the students that were accepted had an average GMAT of 711 (90th percentile), so I think its best to aim for that score on regular GMAT or score of 655-665 on GMAT Focus.

Hey Guys! I have a bit of a dilemma of whether I should apply now in R1, or retake GMAT and apply in R2.

My current score is 700(Q45V41). I appreciate that the average is around 710, but am still unsure of what to do.

The rest of my profile is:
-2 Internships (1 at a PR firm, 1 at a financial services firm)
-2 years of WE at a big4 in the UK (worked on huge clients)
-1st with Honours from a top 8 UK University in Accounting and Finance (Unsure what grade this translates to on the Swiss scale, but it's the highest you can get in the UK)
-Very strong university ECs with leadership, etc
-Fairly unusual/unique international background

My options are either:
1. Apply now in R1 with my GMAT as is, or
2. Retake on ~20th of Dec, apply for R2 with, likely, a higher GMAT

What do you guys think?

HSG MBF is my top choice for masters, so would appreciate any advice!

Thanks!

Hi Pekho! You can translate your UK grades or other country grades into swiss grade based on the table provided by HSG just copy this into google: ZL Notenumrechnung Master Doktorat_en HSG (cant post link). I asked a girl that went to HSG and she said to rather apply in R1 as there are more spots, but if you are confident that you could get lets say 730 on your next GMAT attempt maybe its better to apply R2, in your case I would focus on getting a better quant score since its a Finance school. But I think you got strong background based on what you provided so it is a tough choice.

Hi Laiar, thank you for your quick reply!

And thank you for all the insightful info (especially the grade translation table!).

Looks like I’m closest to Swiss 5.5/German 1.5, which, from what I gather, is fairly average for HSG MBF.

It really is a tough choice! I think I will email admissions and ask if there is any chance I can apply on the 30th with an unofficial GMAT score, and potentially sit the exam on the 29th of Nov. Then see what they say and go from there.

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Hey Pekho. I actually had the same problem as I am taking my exam on 29th. On the admission web site they say you can also provide unofficial score I asked the admission office about how to upload the unofficial score and this was their answer.

"Please upload some kind of proof that you took the GAMT exam on the stated date. We will reopen the respective documents section when checking your application, so that you can upload the official GMAT Score as soon as you will recieve it. At the same time make sure that you instruct GMAC to make your Score available to the University of St.Gallen. This will enable to verify your Score electronically.

Please note that taking the GMAT this close to the deadline includes the risk that we might not be able to consider your application in the respective application round if the publishing of the Score Report will take longer than the regualar 3 to 5 days."

I met couple of Swiss people on my exchange, one person who does Master elsewhere but got into HSG MBF. He told me that he got in with grade of 5.5 / 6, I asked about the same grade because its my GPA as well, but granted he was of swiss nationality.

That's good news, thanks for all the help Laiar ! I'll email them regardless just to let them know. In that case I guess my life from now onwards will be endless hardcore Quant revision for the 29th

There are the following threads you might find useful from wiwi treff:
https://www.wiwi-treff.de/Oesterreich-a ... sion-89552
https://www.wiwi-treff.de/Promotion-PHD ... sion-57598

According to the first one, you get the following amount of points for the GPA/GMAT:

GPA
1.3 - 30
1.4 - 28
1.5 - 26
1.6 - 24
1.7 - 22
1.8 - 20
1.9 - 18
...

GMAT
750 - 30
740 - 28
730 - 26
720 - 24
710 - 22
700 - 20
690 - 18
...

Just a disclaimer - this was taken from a table published in 2021, but feels like fairly reasonable guideline! Seems as though a 5.5/1.5 puts us towards the top end of the GPA points, but a 700 GMAT is really far from ideal.

According to the second link above, you need 80 points to get in, so I think it's somewhat fair to say that applying with 50-52 out of 60 (83%-87% just to be safe) from the GMAT & GPA sections alone gets you a solid shot. For us that would mean a 720+ GMAT.

What would be the equivalent points for GMAT Focus scores, and will they accept GMAT Focus for this year's admission?

Hey! Yes, St Gallen will accept GMAT focus scores; I would aim for a GMAT Focus score of 655-665, equivalent to around 710-720 on regular GMAT. https://www.mba.com/exams/gmat-focus-ed ... your-score. Here, you can see all the equivalents of all GMAT focus scores.

Hi guys I applied today. I did my GMAT focus and scored 655, I unfortunately did score fairly low in Quant only 77/90 but I got 90/90 in Verbal, hopefully St. Gallen will not deny me because of this.

Hi, I applied at the first round with 29,22/30 Italian GPA at Bocconi bachelor and 735 GMAT focus edition

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Waitlisted :/

What do you mean?

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Bro, are results out for round 1 as I haven't received any update on portal yet and my status still shows application being processed.

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Same for me

Hi! so I got an e-mail saying my application will be again considered in R2 agains other pool of applicants. However, there was a personalized reason why that is a case. Therefore, I believe in general the results are not out yet.

Can I ask you what do you mean for personalised reason?

[/quote]Can I ask you what do you mean for personalised reason?[/quote]

Yes sure. I am planning to do a banking internship with one firm (my first banking/AM/Consulting) work experience, but it is not in the writings yet, thus they asked me to provide the confirmation of the internship when it is in writing, to help in considering my application.