Hi @Raghav526
Thanks for sharing your profile!

Your GPA is competitive and your 715 GMAT score very well rounds off your academic strengths. The fact that you have scored 100th percentile in the Quant section will attest to your numerical aptitude for the MFE program.

Where your profile starts to show some vulnerabilities is on the experience front. The Oxford MFE strongly values pre-professional exposure to finance whether it’s via internships, projects, or others. Right now, your resume appears scarce in this regard. While the FMCG internship is a decent early step, it won’t be seen as directly relevant to your post-MFE ambitions in asset management or ESG investing unless you specify what exactly your role and responsibilities were and how it ties to the program. However, the Barclays internship, should you do it, will definitely elevate your profile. Barclays is a globally respected name in banking and investment services so it will help close the experiential gap, especially if your assigned to projects that are the core areas of the MFE program. I’d strongly encourage you to try and make it work, even if it’s a short-term engagement.

Your interest in starting with asset management and gradually shifting to ESG investing is well aligned with Oxford’s own positioning in the sustainability and impact space. However, the very apparent dilemma you will face here is showcasing how someone with no finance experience or investment exposure (since you haven’t specified the nature of your work, I’m assuming this) will break into the investment management space, which is extremely competitive as is. This is where you bring into focus your pursuit of the CFA L1 certification and strategically mention it in your essays. We would also suggest to get involved in finance-related clubs if your college hosts any. This is a good way to work on affiliated projects and even possibly use your CFA knowledge.

So, while you do make a strong contender for Oxford’s MFE program, supplementing your profile with these recommendations will improve your chances.
You can also consider LBS’s MFA and ESSEC’s MSc Finance programs as they also align with your goals.

We’d love to offer a 1-on-1 profile evaluation to dive deeper into your strengths, discuss more about your portfolio, talk through your fit across schools, and co-create a tailored application game plan!

Feel free to reach out to us at the coordinates below!
Email: gwyneth@thembaedge.com
Phone/WhatsApp No: +91 88502 49409
Website: https://thembaedge.com/

Warm regards,
The MBA Edge Team

Hi Raghav526,

You’re right that the program is designed to make students industry-ready, and Oxford’s MFE certainly does that well. That said, in a competitive field like asset management or ESG investing, motivation alone can sometimes fall short unless it's paired with demonstrated initiative. Many successful applicants bring with them not necessarily full-time finance experience, but relevant exposure such as internships, projects, or certifications like CFA L1 (which you're already pursuing - great move).

The consulting-cum-finance club you co-founded is definitely a plus in this regard. Even if you didn’t take on finance projects directly, highlight those that you did do and draw connections to skills that relate to the MFE’s curriculum and your future goals.

Ultimately, any evidence of real-world initiative will strengthen your essays, interview performance, and even post-program recruiting outcomes. This is especially useful when competing against a strong, global applicant pool.

We’d love to talk further on this and resolve any other queries you may have. You can reach out to us via any of our below coordinates and we can take it from there.

Email: gwyneth@thembaedge.com
Phone/WhatsApp No: +91 88502 49409
Website: https://thembaedge.com/

Warm regards,
The MBA Edge Team

Hello,

You're academically solid with a strong 8.5 GPA from India’s best commerce college and a 715 GMAT Focus score, including a standout 100th percentile in quant.

That quant score and your CFA Level 1 candidacy will help demonstrate finance readiness. However, the lack of deep internship experience and no visible extracurriculars or leadership exposure does hold back your profile’s competitiveness, especially for a program like Oxford Saïd's MFE.

To break into asset management and pivot toward ESG investing, you’ll need to show more applied interest, ideally through practical internships, ESG certifications, or project work.

Essays will need to carry weight, and the Barclays opportunity could help if it comes through.

Let’s talk about how to elevate your profile and build a compelling application story.

Ameer Khatri, Admissions Consultant
Schedule a free 1-on-1 call with me for detailed profile review:
https://calendly.com/ameer-khatri/profi ... th=2025-04