MFin Application dilemma - apply now with 700 GMAT, or..?

Question

Hi All,

Unfortunately, I have woken up ill on the morning of my GMAT exam after only 4 hours of sleep, and was literally shaking for half of it from fever. Nonetheless, I managed to score a fairly respectable 700(Q45V41).

Although I know that this is enough for most top tier MFins in Europe (LSE/HEC/Bocconi), I am slightly worried about applying to St Gallen's MBF, as it is my top choice.

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
Very strong University ECs
Unusual background
Have already started writing and am sure will have an interesting letter of motivation
Solid references from uni professors

I am at a point where I am confident in applying to any masters in Europe (LSE/HEC/Bocconi etc), but I don't think I'll get into St Gallen MBF with my GMAT. I am also not confident enough to just retake the GMAT next week, as I want to take more time to work on my Quant. As such, I would aim to take the GMAT around the 20th of December.

The way I see it, I am faced with two options:
1. Apply everywhere now
2. Apply everywhere (HEC,LSE,Bocconi) EXCEPT St Gallen & Oxford now, and apply to those two for R2.

My only issue is what if I get accepted to LSE MFin or HEC early when I still have a ways to wait to hear back for my St Gallen offer (which will be released at the end of February)?

What do you guys think? Am I overthinking this? Should I just pull the trigger and apply everywhere now?

Or is the 2nd strategy better?

Thanks!

mysterymanrog · Answer

Just a question - you state 2 years of WE, but this would make ineligible for most of the programs you are targeting (they are pre-experience, except for maybe LSEs). Are you sure that you can apply to those programmes?

Pekho · Answer

Hey  mysterymanrog  ,

I am not quite sure this is true.
I know for a fact that LSE doesn’t care much about this.
The same is the case for HSG.
Bocconi did confirm to me that they prefer people with under two years of experience (technically I have 1 year 10 months)
In all honesty I am not sure about Oxford and HEC as haven’t reached out to them directly. Can you kindly link any sources/confirm how you know this information?

Posted from my mobile device

Pekho · Answer

mysterymanrog

Just did a quick Google search “Oxford MFE LinkedIn” and saw 2-3 profiles of people graduating in the last 3 years from Oxford MFE with a gap between undergrad and masters similar to mine.

Also there is nothing on the MFE website about this.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to email HEC, but they are my fifth choice from the programmes discussed (I don’t speak French), so there’s that.

Posted from my mobile device

mysterymanrog · Answer

Hi, I did a quick google search: 
LBS does not allow people with over 2 years of work experience to apply for their MFA and MiM. 
MFE has no strict requirements on this, so you are probably good to go for that but I would give them a call to ensure that it is fine.
I cannot find anything on HSG, but it would not hurt to call as you said. The same goes for HEC.

I do not mean to alarm you, but it is in your best interest to verify that you are eligible for these programmes, as the ones you have mentioned are pre-experience programmes (and as such usually take fresh graduates orr people with <1 year WE).

I think your profile is solid. The GMAT score will likely not suffice for MFE (they averaged 742), so if that is your top choice you should probably retake the GMAT or even take the GRE. Rest of your profile looks good - especially on the academic side and WE side. I would say bar MFE, you could probably apply to programmes and have decent chances

MFin Application dilemma - apply now with 700 GMAT, or..?

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