MS Finance Profile Evaluations [Master Thread]: Post all Profiles Here

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Hi Guys, This is a Master thread for all profile evaluation requests for MS Finance applications. We do not want random profile evaluation threads everywhere on the forum. This will help people get some consolidated advice from consultants and help others learn as well. Post your profile here if you want! Suggested Template Background and nationality Undergrad Information GMAT/GRE Work experience and leadership Community and others Post Master goals Anything else?

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Hi GreenPot123,

First and foremost, you have an impressive academic background as evident from your first class honours in economics from the top10 UK universities which is again an added bonus to your profile since these B-schools are notorious for picking applicants from the top 10 universities of their significant country. Additionally, you have also cleared your CFA level 1 which shows your passion, skills and knowledge in the field of finance.

Coming to your work experience, you have more than 2 years of work experience in a leading UK bank which is decent enough. While these experiences are definitely praiseworthy, you will still be facing a lot of competition from applicants who have worked in big four companies like KPMG, EY, DELOITTE and PWC. However, to set yourself at par with your competitors, you can focus on highlighting the kind of projects you handled, the value you added to these projects, the skills you gained and the major takeaways. All things considered, one thing that will definitely work in your favour and act as a differentiating factor is the simple fact that you are already building a lucrative career in your targeted niche finance.

Here you have not mentioned any details regarding your extracurricular activities which holds equal importance as schools are looking for a holistically developed profile. When it comes to depicting your extracurricular activities, you should always focus on highlighting how you went above and beyond in your endeavours and how you will be a great value addition to the school. To give you a brief idea of how to go about with this, you can maybe talk about the clubs and associations you were involved in during your undergrad, the teams you led and most importantly your volunteering activities along with NGOs. This way you would be able to showcase your constant learning curve which is an important aspect valued by any b-school.

Now coming to your dilemma of whether you should apply to Imperial without GMAT, I would suggest you should immediately apply at Imperial since it doesn't require a GMAT score submission. However, since it comes under a dream category(where your chances of acceptance is 40-50%), your application would play a huge role in increasing your chances of getting accepted as it would highlight your profile USP’s and overshadow any particular weaknesses in your profile. On the other hand, as you are also leaning towards Oxford which also comes under the dream category, you need to aim for at least a 720+ in your GMAT in order to set yourself comfortable amidst the applicant pool.

That said, in addition to this, you should always hedge your bets wisely by targeting a good mix of dream, competitive and safe schools. If you wish to gain in depth insights into the schools you should be targeting according to your profile, you can take up our Free Profile Evaluation service, the link of which is given below:

https://www.mim-essay.com/profile-evaluation

Here, you can also Book a Free consulting session with one of our consultants who through their expertise can gauge the competitiveness of your profile and help you plan a winning strategy to bag an admit from your target schools.

Hope this helped!
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Hi All, i am new to the forum so please excuse me for any mistakes. I want to evaluate my prospects of joining a MS in Finance Program. My background is as follows:

Nationality: Indian.
Educational Background:
1. BTech (Civil) - IIT Varanasi - CGPA 8.0/10 (One of the Top Institutions in India for Engineering)
2. Master in Business Administration - IIT Kharagpur - CGPA - 8.32/10 (Well Reputed Institution)
3. GRE Score: 310
4. CFA - L1 Cleared and L2 Aspirant
5. Banking Certification from Indian Institute of Banking and Finance.

Work Experience: I have a total work experience of 9 years and 6 of those supporting US Asset Managers as a Request for Proposal (RFP) Specialist (RFP Specialists are involved in Financial Tendering) as part of the India extension of the Asset Manager's own RFP Teams. During these 6 years I have had a chance to work on a wide range of traditional equity and fixed income strategies and also new investment trends like ESG in drafting and coordinating responses to both strategy related and general operational questions for tendering and selection process. I have also lead/work closely in leading these RFP teams. I now want to pursue a MS Fin program to specialise in these strategies within the RFP domain. Out of these 9 years I have also spent close to 2 years working with an India IT major in a consulting role for their proprietary Banking Platform used widely across India and world.

It would be very helpful if you could help me with the suitability of my profile and what schools and programs I can target. Please let me know incase any more details will be required.

Hi all,
Background and nationality: Azerbaijani male, 21 yo
Undergrad Information: BS Economics (thought in English), GPA apr.4
GMAT: 710 (Q50, V35)
IELTS: 8
Work experience and leadership: year of internship as an internal auditor at a TNC, newly started a new jab at Big4
Post Master goals: Work in finance sector
Anything else: aim to learn at least basics of some programming language by the start of studies
Please give me advice as to what universities are ambitious, likely, and safe for me. What's more important than admission is financing tho. Please give your best piece of advice on financing options such as scholarships and assistantships (e.g in whatuniversites I have better chance for full financing)

New user here, please don’t mind if I missed any guidelines.

Nationality: Indian
Gender: Male
Undergrad Information: One of the top five undergrad unis with slightly less than average GPA in major degree and average GPA in finance minor degree.
GMAT: 750
Work experience: Two and half years.
Work exposure: Well above an average back office analyst role at a BB. Responsible for a back office department in the absence of offshore counterpart for an AUM ~ billion dollars.
Community and others: led and participated in multiple CSR activities throughout work ex and undergrad.
Post Master goals: PE, HF and other alternative investment roles. Would not want to venture into front desk for BB
Anything else: European entity MD level LORs are assured

Would appreciate if you could help me with:
1. Dream colleges & Safe colleges
2. Serious ‘20 fall applications vs serious ‘21 fall applications considering post master goals.
3. US vs European (with an inclination towards LBS) college pro and cons
4. Chances of a good scholarship considering the delayed application.

Have a good year ahead. Many thanks in advance.

Posted from my mobile device

Hey MSFinAspirant!

Commencing your profile evaluation with your academic background, having a GPA of 8.32 in your MBA program and 8.0 in your undergrad goes on to showcase your strong academic prowess. Moreover, having a big brand name such as IIT further embellishes your profile as top B-schools tend to pick out students from the top 10 colleges of each country.

Even though your GPA vouches for your academic excellence, your GRE score however tends to fall on the shorter end. For a specialized master’s program such as MFin, you need to score at least 320+ in your GRE with a minimum of 165+ in the quant section. So, a retake is what I would recommend.

Coming on to your work experience, you have 9+ years of work experience in the field of finance. With such extensive experience in the domain, I would say that you possess quality work experience with a plethora of key projects and achievements to vouch for your excellence in the domain. However, one important factor that is missing here is the mention of huge brand names. The brand name definitely plays a major role in an application as you’d be competing with applicants from the top schools and big4 companies. To negate the lack of big brand names, talking about the kind of projects you have undertaken, the impact you created and your career progression with major learning takeaways would definitely showcase the quality of your work and establish you as no less than a big4 candidate.

Further, on the note of extracurriculars, you must be cognizant of the fact that schools seek applicants with a holistic profile. Hence, accounting for the same, your endeavour to clear CFA level 1 as well as gaining a banking certification from IIBF displays your proactive nature and your will to constantly upskill yourself. However, B schools tend to favour applicants with well-rounded profiles in all aspects. Therefore, to further build upon the same, you can also take up some volunteering activity with a local NGO or with your company’s CSR initiative to highlight your community involvement and your calibre to create a positive impact on society through your skills.

As you haven’t mentioned any preferences based on country, Here’s a generic list of schools you can target based on your profile and also based on the fact that you are up for a GRE retake.
Dream: NYU, Vanderbilt, Berkeley
Competitive: UC San Diego, UT Dallas, ESSEC, ESCP.

Another aspect that you should be acquainted with while applying to B-schools is the importance of a strong application. Since you wish to apply to a highly competitive program such as MFin, you’d be facing competition from a highly saturated and holistically developed competitor pool. Hence, a strong application would not only allow you to highlight your strength but also distinguish you from other applicants.

Therefore, in lieu of that, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, which has helped 3500+ applicants to get into their dream schools. As you are still in the early process of your application, it would provide you with end-to-end consulting and unlimited edits on your application documents. Not only that, you’d be connected with B-school alumni who’d be helping you directly with your application process, right from shortlisting the right schools to submitting the application to the school.

Link for the ALL-IN-ONE service:

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one

Hope this helped!
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Hey Rovshan16,

Academically, your undergraduate GPA of approximately 4.0 is pretty impressive and showcases your academic prowess in the field. Furthermore, your undergraduate degree in BSc Economics being closely related to the field of finance adds further weight to your profile, since MiF is a specialized masters program and most schools prefer applicants with relevant academic background or work experience in finance.

Moving on, a GMAT score of 710 is pretty competitive and would allow you to target most top B-schools in Europe. Moreover, your impressive score of 50 in the Quants section is what would strengthen your pitch for a Masters in Finance.

As far as your work experience is concerned, an internship of a year in the field of finance will definitely act in your favor, since MiF is specialized masters and AdComs are looking for applicants with relevant experience in the field of finance. The presence of a big brand in your CV is an added feather to your hat as you will be competing against a pool of applicants hailing from similar backgrounds. Here, showcasing your journey and the learnings gathered through this experience would allow you to differentiate yourself and thereby gain an upper hand with equally competent profiles with extensive work experience hailing from equally good brands.

Since the top B schools are always on the lookout for candidates who are constantly on the path of upskilling themselves, you can take certain certifications like CFA or FRM, which are core financial certifications and would also show your passion for the field of finance.

As you have not mentioned your extracurricular activities - during or after your undergrad, I’d like to let you know that Extracurricular participation plays an important role in strengthening your application as B-schools are on the hunt for all-rounder profiles. Hence, it is essential to shed some light on the endeavors you took up in any clubs, associations, sports, fest, or events you managed or volunteered in during your undergrad. Thus, you should dig deeper into this aspect and bring out varied skills in your profile in order to showcase a holistically developed profile.

Coming to the schools that you can be targeting, here is a division as per your request -

Dream Category - UC Berkley, NYU, HEC, LBS, and LSE
Competitive Category - ESSEC, ESCP, USC Marshal, Imperial, Boston, and Warrick
Safe Category - SKEMA, Grenoble, and IE

On this note, while you have a competitive profile, to increase your chances of getting admitted to these schools you would need to ensure that you have a very strong application (consisting of - Essays, LORs, and Resume) that highlights your strengths and overshadows your weaknesses in order to differentiate your profile. You need to showcase your journey, what makes you different from your peers, and how you are a great value addition to the school.

Therefore, in lieu of that, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, which has helped 3500+ applicants to get into their dream schools. As you are still in the early process of your application, it would provide you with end-to-end consulting and unlimited edits on your application documents. Not only that, you’d be connected with B-school alumni who’d be helping you directly with your application process, right from shortlisting the right schools to submitting the application to the school.

Link to our All-In-One Solution-

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one
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Hello and thank you in advance.

I graduated in December from the university of Louisiana at Lafayette honors program with a BSBA in business administration with a concentration in finance. Not sure if this actually helps my admissions profile but I am also Bloomberg market concepts certified and presented an investment recommendation to my university’s endowment fund committee.

GPA-3.4
GMAT-650

I have no real relevant work experience, but I do have a year of data entry as a student worker and close to a year now of being an assistant to a personal investment advisor.

I am curious about my options for a MSF. These are the schools I am currently looking at:
LSU
Tulane
Rice
Texas A&M

I would like to know my chances of getting admitted to these schools as well as other school recommendations that i could get into with my current resume.

My goal is to get into IB, but I am also open to careers in corporate finance.

I have already applied to and was denied admittance to UT.

Posted from my mobile device

Delete

Hey Joesonnier!

To commence your profile evaluation, I would say that your GPA of 3.4 not only displays your academic prowess but also opens a lot of opportunities and doors to top business schools for you.

However, your GMAT score does fall on the shorter end. Since you wish to apply to a competitive program such as MSc in Finance, I’d suggest you go for a retake and score a minimum of 670 in your GMAT with at least 50+ in the quant section.

Coming on to your work experience, you should be mindful of the fact that you’d be facing a competitor pool consisting of graduates from top B-schools and from Big4 companies. Therefore, my recommendation here would be to look for some internships and work opportunities, preferably in a big4 company in order to complement your existing work profile and stand at par with your competitors.

Further, on the note of extracurriculars, you must be cognizant of the fact that schools seek applicants having a holistic profile. Hence, accounting for the same, you should highlight endeavours taken up during your undergrad. Additionally, you can take up some volunteering activities in a local shelter or NGO, or certifications such as FRM or CFA. Extracurriculars are a great way to showcase your skills like leadership, networking, communication skills, etc and thus, it is imperative that you build on the same if you lack experiences on this end.

Given your school choices, all of these schools fall under the competitive category, which converts your chances of acceptance into the program to around 60-70%.

Even though your profile is pretty decent, there are certain highs and lows in it, which is why I’d suggest you lay emphasis on your admission application as the application acts as the window through which the admission committee can peer into your skills, calibre and your personality. But simultaneously, it will also aid in highlighting your strengths and presenting apt justifications for your weaknesses to smooth over any flaws in your profile. Moreover, a strong application boosts your chances of acceptance by 3x and hence it is imperative that you use this tool in your arsenal to the best of your advantage.

Lastly, since the major chances of your admission depend on the quality of your application, you might want to seek professional help to secure your spot in your target schools. Therefore, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, which has helped 3500+ applicants get into their dream schools. As you are still in the early process of your application, it would provide you with end-to-end consulting and unlimited edits on your application documents. Not only that, you’d be connected with a top B-school alumnus who’d be helping you directly with your application process - right from shortlisting the right schools to helping you bag scholarships!

Link for the ALL-IN-ONE-Solutions:

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one

Hope this helped!
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Hello everyone,
Will be greatful for a profile evaluation.
Indian male, 24
Gre - 169/161 Q/V

Preferred schools - top US schools
Please suggest

Undergrad 6.5/7 CGPA from a top 10 college in India as a bachelor's degree in Commerce, graduated in 2017. University of mumbai ( HR COLLEGE OF COMMERCE)

Other  certifications- US CFA ( above 90 percentile at all levels) , US CMA , US CPA , US CAIA ( Part 1 completed).

Few other investment and derivative certifications and courses along with the FMVA financial modelling course.

Worked full time during all three years of my college,
2 years as an investment analyst in a mid size firm (full time though might be considered as an internship)
1 year of articleship as an accountant in a mid tier accountancy firm ( since i did two levels of Chartered accountancy as well)

Post graduation, 
Working in one of the top accountancy firms in my state , joined as an accountant but with pretty good performance, was promoted as the team leader within a year , managing a team of 8.
Well after working there for about 2 years, i had developed indepth knowledge of the biggest industry in that state ( mining and minerals) as they were our major clients and successfully started a new wing within my firm providing consulting and advisory service to MSME ( Micro small and medium enterprise).
Was a great success, bought in a chunk of clients bringing other business with them as well. Was promoted as the manager of the firm handling the entire msme consulting division along with the 20 employees that comes with it.

With respect to the social impact,  i am very happy and proud of the projects that i have successfully completed.
During my college days, was the head of the National service scheme, ( pretty big collaboration between colleges), though head of my own college.
Helped the workers and the domestic help to get themselves organised and worked with them forming a union registered with their local police stations bringing a regulation and oversight towards any wrongful treatment and exploitation against them.

For the past 4 years, I am a registered member of the heartfulness organization,  an education and spirituality organization, teaching the younger generation about the importance and understanding of spirituality. Have organized seminars all across the country  with an median attendance of about 2000-3000 people in every one of them.
Have been part of various initiatives such as the green kanha, wherein we strive and work towards environmental protection and preservation,  planting thousands of trees and having a means for water conservation for the use of agricultural.

On a side note- i created 2 firms in the mining and mineral line, using my skills and knowledge to grab a solid opportunity, (wanted to strategically use funds, selling one business at a good profit and utilizing that to run my other firm and making it a export oriented unit, this sale freed up my investment and helped my family come out of a tough financial condition). The important part of this venture was to make it a self sustaining source of incomenfor my family and form a partnership with the right kind of people having excellent business management skills and good hold at a local level. Hopefully everything till now went as planned.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi , I was planning to apply for the Mif program at different business schools during the month of September last year but due to the pandemic I was pursuing a professional degree alongside and the exams got postponed.So what happened is that the dated clashed with my GMAT exam and I was forced to give my exam on a later date.Now my question : Is it better to apply now for the September 2021 intake ie,Round 3 based on my profile of apply in Round 1 of next year .

Background : Studied till grade 12th in Qatar. Did my graduation in Bangalore India
Undergrad information : Bachelor of Commerce specialized in Finance and Accountancy with CGPA 7.5 / 10 Point Scale First Class Honours
GMAT : Awaiting results ( Say 700 )
IELTS : 7/9
Work Experience : None since i was pursuing chartered accountancy degree
Community Work : Public Speking , Toastmaster events and Church event organiser
PostMaster Goals : Enter Consulting
Target Schools : HEC Paris(MiF) , LBS (MFA) and INSEAD

Hello,

Background and nationality: 24 years old, Turkish
Undergrad Information: Koç University (top level university in Turkey) BA in Economics. GPA 2.45/4.00
GMAT: 710 Q:49 V:37
Work experience and leadership: Summer internship at an investment bank. Started my own mobile gaming company 6 months ago.
Post Master goals: Investment banking
Target schools:
Imperial
HEC
ESADE
Manchester

Hi - I'm an international student, recently graduated with a bachelors in Finance and minor in international studies from a good college in the US.

Male -24

GPA: 3.30

GRE: Not yet

Workex: approx 1.5 yrs of exp - Interned for a NGO in Africa, Finance intern for a company in the US and portfolio analyst for student managed fund. Managing my own personal investment portfolio and produced big gains.

extracurriculars: Participated in two case competitions during undergrad. Was a speaker for a big event. Conducted a case study in NYC for a large investment and private equity firm.

More info: No background in programing, but very interested and willing to learn. For math, only took applied calculus in college

Post Masters: Investment banking or asset management.

Please share If you have any suggestions for US programs I have a shot at, given the info i shared. I would like to get into a top program if possible. Thank you so much!

Hey Aibellanson!

To commence your profile evaluation, I would say that your GPA of 7.5 not only displays your academic prowess but also opens a lot of opportunities and doors to top business schools for you. Moreover, pursuing a bachelor’s in a relevant program such as Finance and accountancy further showcases the breadth of knowledge you possess in the domain.

The fact that you have studied in Qatar until highschool adds the international dimension to your profile as well, thus highlighting the fact that you not only possess the tolerance and broadened perspective to excel in a foreign environment but also have relevant soft skills such as communication skills and multicultural viewpoint, a trait highly revered by the top B-schools.

As for your expected GMAT score, a 700 is quite competitive and should set you comfortable to target the aforementioned programs.

You don’t have any work experience in your profile, which can be a drawback for you since you’d be competing against applicants with relevant qualifications and experience from Big4 companies. However, you can negate it by drawing attention to other important aspects of your profile or taking up an internship in the field of finance, preferably in a big4 company.

Further, on the note of extracurriculars, you must be cognizant of the fact that schools seek applicants having a holistic profile. Hence, accounting for the same, it’s great to see you have undertaken extracurricular activities such as Public speaking and Toastmasters which displays your excellent communication skills. Additionally, to further give your extracurriculars a boost, you can take up certifications such as Six Sigma/FRM or participate in volunteering activities that will portray your active community involvement.

Given your school choices, all of the schools fall under the dream category, which means that they have an acceptance rate of 8-12%, and hence you stand a 30% chance of getting into their programs. That said, while applying to Top-B-schools, it is important to hedge your bets wisely and apply to a good mix of 6-8 schools. Some other schools that you can target with your profile are:

Competitive: FSFM, IE, Essec, ESCP, etc
Safe: Grenoble, Skema, Cass, UCL, Kings etc.

Another aspect that you should be acquainted with while applying to B-schools is the importance of a strong application. Since you wish to apply to a highly competitive program such as MFin, you’d be facing competition from a highly saturated and holistically developed competitor pool. Hence, a strong application would not only allow you to highlight your strength but also smooth over any flaws in your profile.

Therefore, in lieu of that, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, which has helped 3500+ applicants to get into their dream schools. As you are still in the early process of your application, it would provide you with end-to-end consulting and unlimited edits on your application documents. Not only that, you’d be connected with B-school alumni who’d be helping you directly with your application process!

Link for the All-In-One Solutions:

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one

Hope this helped!
_________________

Posting my Profile below:

Age: 22
Nationality: Indian

10th Standard CGPA: 9.6/10
12th Standard CGPA: 8.9/10

Graduation University: VIT University (No. 1 in Private Institutions and 13th Overall in India according to National Ranking Scheme)
Graduate Degree: Engineering in Electronics and Communication.
Graduation Year: 2020
CGPA: 7.22/10


Additional Qualifications:
Specialization in Business Analysis and Economics from University of Illinois (7 Course Specialization, Online)
Specialization in Accounting from University of Illinois (5 Course Specialization, Online)
Specialization in Data Analytics using SQL from Cloudera (3 Course Specialization, Online)
Completed a course on Behavioral Finance from Duke University (Online)

GMAT: Not Taken (Will take in 1 month)

Work Experience:

1 month internship at a local Engineering company
8 months work experience as associate in an Advertising company
Freelance Job as a math tutor at an online educational forum

Volunteer Experience:

Worked in working capacities as an organizer for various events such as MUNs, Tech fests and cultural fests.
Worked as Secretary of College Quiz club

Targeting colleges such as HEC, ESSEC, ESADE, LBS, LSE, St. Gallen and some colleges in the US


Hoping you would respond. Really need help.

Hi guys!!

Nationality / Age:
Canadian citizen (born and raised), ethnically Greek and Italian, 23 male

GMAT/GRE Score:
GMAT 1: 600 (sad, but I didn't study enough and I'm confident I can get at least 660) GMAT 2: TBD (March 27)

GPA / Work experience:
3.46 GPA (out of 4.3). 3 years work experience (while in school) at Bollore logistics as an ocean import agent and currently as a data analyst

Educational Background:
Concordia, John Molson School of Business Bcomm in Finance

Some notes:
- Average GPA for my program: 2.7 (out of 4.3)
- I have straight A's in every finance class and every accounting, statistics, and economics class
- Average GPA for most of my finance classes range between 1.7 and 2.3, final exams and midterms for these classes tend to be very detailed and difficult

Master program(s) you are applying to?:
Masters in Finance. targets/dream schools:
- HEC Paris
- IE
- LBS
- McCombs
- USC Marshall
- Anything else?? I'd love some American schools not sure which ones tho

Post-MS Targets:
Hedge fund manager, portfolio manger, private equity analyst...etc. anything involving capital markets

Notes:
- Avid author on TradingView. I publish charts and trading ideas as well as due diligence on up and coming companies I invest in
- Myself with my 2 friends run a trading discord chat with 180 members. We charges $50 usd/ month and we call out all of our trades, we are very profitable
- I am very well versed in capital markets and follow them almost 8 hours a day while juggling work, school, and GMAT studying
- Active day trader specializing in high risk growth assets; I am also very profitable (to the point that I have considered doing it full time and pursuing a masters later on in my life)
- I have plans to start a (hedge) fund right out of my masters with a close friend; someone who I trade with. We have access to funding
- When I finish my masters I plan on buying another property with my brother as a means for passive income. My brother and I already own a quadplex as an investment


I am saying all of the above now as supplemental info because I'm unsure if I should talk about this stuff when I apply, would love to hear feedback!! Thanks so much

Hi aldoraine,

To begin your profile evaluation, the first thing I would like to address here is your undergraduate GPA of 2.45 which unfortunately is a bit on the lower end of the spectrum. However, by posing the right alibi you can overshadow your low GPA. For instance, you can shed light on your active participation in various extracurricular activities as well as draw attention to your GMAT score of 710 that can surely be used to justify your academic capabilities. Moreover, your undergraduate degree in economics showcases your relevant academic knowledge for a masters in finance program.

Coming to work experience, you have worked as an intern in an investment bank but you haven't mentioned the name of the bank. Since, you will be competing against applicants who have big brand names under their belt, you need to ensure that you are at par with them. Henceforth, if you lack big brand names under your profile, you can still manage to compensate for the same by drawing attention to other aspects of your internship such as the kind of projects you spearheaded, duties you performed, and most importantly highlight what were your major takeaways. Furthermore, you have mentioned that you have donned the hat of entrepreneurship by starting your own mobile gaming company. As much as this sounds impressive, you need to highlight your involvement in the finance department of your venture in order to show relevant experience in the finance field, a prerequisite for most MFin programs.

Moving on, you have not mentioned any details regarding your extracurricular activities that hold equal importance as schools are looking for a holistically developed profile. Thus, to give you a brief idea of how to go about with this, you can talk about the clubs and associations you were involved in, the teams you led, certifications you undertook especially CFA and most importantly your volunteering activities along with NGOs. This will basically showcase your constant thirst for knowledge and growing your horizons. It will also highlight your soft skills paired with your social skills which can ultimately vouch for the budding leader within you.

Coming to the schools that you are targeting, Manchester and Imperial are UK based schools that are a bit stringent with their GPA (a minimum of 3+), considering which you fall a bit short in that regard. Having said that you can target the European B-schools as they are a bit more flexible with their academic requirements. Here, you have mentioned HEC which falls under the dream category(where your chances of acceptance is 40%) while ESADE can be categorized as an upper competitive school.(where your chances of acceptance is 50-60%).

In this case, I would suggest that you hedge your bets wisely by targeting a good mix of 6-8 schools such as FSFM, ESMT, ESCP, ESSEC and IE in the competitive category.

All things considered, you can boost your chances of acceptance, by drawing attention to the stronger aspects of your profile which can be achieved through your application. Your application is basically what differentiates you by highlighting your strengths and overshadowing your weaknesses which in your case is your low GPA. Additionally, it also carries a 30% impact on your admission prospects which is why I would urge you to pay more attention to the same.

Thus, if you are contemplating on how to draft an impactful application, you can check out our All-in-one service which is a complete end to end consulting process aimed at providing personalised application suggestions, unlimited edits and expert consultants who would constantly be there to help you throughout your application journey!

Below is the link to our All in One service:

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one

Hope this helped!
_________________

Applying from the UK which is my home country
Studied Mathematics and Finance at Undergraduate level - Predicted 1st Class
GMAT - 680
Reasonable work experience within the Banking sector and part-time job throughout university
President of finance related society and member of various others
IBD or ECM in London following graduation
Accepted on to MSc Finance at Bocconi w. Scholarship

Hey chefboi,

To begin your evaluation, I’d like to say that you come across as an academically strong candidate owing to your GPA of 3.3 that highlights your academic prowess. Moreover, considering your inclination towards the Mfin program, graduating with a degree in the same domain showcases your passions towards the field.

As for your GRE, a score of 320+ is what you should be targeting while ensuring that you have a 165 in the quant section as it will highlight your excellent analytical aptitude.

Moving on to your professional front, you hold 1.5 year of work experience and an internship in the finance domain which is pretty impressive. But, you need to be mindful of your competitors who will possess relevant experiences from the Big-4 firms or other big brands. So in order to stand at par with your competitors, you ought to put in efforts to highlight why you chose these internships, projects done so far, how you have gone beyond the role, any initiatives taken up, and any kind of impact created to establish a connection with your goals, and portray the knowledge gained from these experiences. Apt explanation of your experiences can be a differentiator for you, and help you stand out in a crowd.

Moving on, extracurricular activities are a way to showcase your proactive attitude and how you have emulated the theoretical knowledge you gained in classes and created a positive impact by utilizing them in real-life situations. Hence, the initiatives you have taken up should highlight your holistic development on all fronts. Seeing your extra-curricular activities, I’d say you have varied endeavors on this end, which portrays your proactive attitude. Alongside this you can also pursue courses and certifications in finance such as CFA and FRM that can align with your interest and showcase how you’ve constantly been upskilling yourself. Moreover, you can also volunteer for NGOs as this will show diverse activities in your profile and also bring to light the socially responsible aspect of your personality.

As for the schools you can be targeting, here are a few in the dream and competitive category:

Dream: NYU, Michigan, Duke, UVA
Competitive: UT Dallas, University of Buffalo, Fordham

In dream schools your chances of acceptance are 50% whereas for competitive schools your chances of acceptance are 70%.

All things considered, an important aspect you need to focus on is to complement your profile with an equally strong application. An application through its various components such as essays, LORs, and SOPs would help you to highlight your strengths and give apt justifications for your weaknesses to smooth over any flaws in your profile. Moreover, the application acts as the window through which the admission committee can peer into your skills, calibre and your personality.

Therefore, in lieu of this, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, that has helped 3500+ applicants get into their dream schools. As you are still in the early process of your application, it would provide you with end-to-end consulting and unlimited edits on your application documents. Not only that, you’d be connected with a B-school alumnus who’d be helping you directly with your application process, right from shortlisting the right schools and submitting an impactful application to the school to preparing you for the interview and bagging scholarships!

Link for All-in-One:

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one

Hope this helped!
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Hi guys, i'm a 23 years old italian penultimate year undergrad in business and management in an italian public university (top 20 in italy for business), this september i would like to start the admission process for my master, target schools are: HEC and EDHEC MiM; Essec msc finance; st. gallen mbf and bocconi msc finance. Here is my profile:
-GPA: 28.44/30
-GRE 162 Q, 161 V, 4.0 AWA
-HEC Paris summer school in Investment banking and finance (Final Grade: A)
-Volunteer experience as a summer camp collaborator during high school
-Ielts 7.5
-4 month of part time work as a financial/insurance consultant
-i will probably take part in an exchange semester starting from this september
-Amateur MMA fighter and kitesurfer
-Career goal: IB in a BB and then private equity
What are my chances to be admitted in such programs? I also would like to get the Bloomberg Market Concept certificate and the ICDL, are those useful to slightly improve my application profile?
Thanks