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

Hi,

Background + university: I'm a 21yo business management student from a non-target uni in UK (top30 in UK). I'm originally from Eastern Europe and moved here for university + I'm a female if that's important. My degree is 4 years long and between 2nd and rd year I have a "year in the industry" which I'm currently completing. Both in my 1st and 2nd year I scored a 1st (+70%) and hope to get +70 in my final year. I had a few finance modules, but most of them I will have in my 3rd year when I will already apply for masters.

GMAT: I think I will get 720-740

Work experience: Completed 2 pro-bono short internships in startups, one was more of a consultancy project and during another one I was doing financial planning. Currently, I'm completing my 1 year long internship in one of the biggest companies in the world in heavy industry. Being a product management intern, I work mostly in operations and financial planning. I also created research reports on military and oil&gas industries. In summer I hope to get a internship in either investment banking or consutling (tier2 or big4) in my home country. If I'm lucky I will get a internship in a small consultancy firm in UK starting in 2nd term of my 3rd year.

Community: Was a president of national society at a university and a marketing executive of a consulting club. I want to become a president of a consulting society at my uni in my 3rd year. As a marketing exec I helped organise a 1-week long consulting event allowing students to solve a business case. We regularly invited consultants from big4 and tier2 consulting firms and received sponsorship from one company. Before uni I was training one sport for 14 years scoring many national awards.

Goals: I'm stuck between Master in Finance, Business Analytics or general MIM. Post masters, I want to get into consulting or maybe (?) finance.

Universities: HEC, NUS, LBS, Imperial, UCL, ESSEC, LSE

Do I have any chances of getting into those universities, and what course might be best for me? Is MIM even useful if I did business management before?

Hey kforkleptomaniac,

To begin with, your undergraduate GPA of 7.22 showcases your academic prowess, and the brand of your undergraduate (engineering) college gives your profile a boost as schools tend to pick out applicants from the top schools of each country. However, while your grades and brands do play an important part, you should highlight your extracurricular activities and other endeavors because AdComs are looking for applicants with holistically developed profiles.

In order to further add value to your profile, it’s imperative that you target a minimum GMAT score of 690 in order to target your preferred list of schools. Moreover, since you are targeting a Masters in FInance Program, a quants score of 49+ is what you should aim for in order to strengthen your pitch for an MS in Finance.

As for your extracurriculars, you have a lot of leadership and volunteering roles which all showcase your strong interest in developing your profile holistically. So make sure you elaborate on what you did in the roles and how you handled problems, planned the events, raised funds, etc. You should dig deeper into this aspect and bring out varied skills in your profile. Though to be clear, Adcoms are more interested in impact created rather than participation, hence highlighting your quantifiable achievements would help enhance your application.

Moving on, you have a good amount of work experience comprising diverse roles in fields like teaching and advertising. Since specialized programs like MSF demand prior professional experience related to the field of finance, you will need to highlight the major projects that you undertook and any sort of exposure towards the field of finance you received through this.

Since you lack big brands in your work experience, you can compensate by providing an apt reason as to why you chose these firms, how you have gone beyond the role, any initiatives you took, award won, and any kind of impact created to showcase an equally competitive profile (with candidates hailing from the big 4 firms).

Furthermore, you have a lot of certifications from prestigious universities in the field of finance, which showcases your passion for finance and also substantiates that you possess significant knowledge in the field itself. In addition to this, you could take up some certifications like CFA or FRM to build a concrete alibi for your finance passion.

Coming to the schools that you are targeting, LSE and St. Gallen would be a bit difficult to target with your undergraduate GPA as such schools are very GPA centric and would require a minimum of 7.5. On the other hand HEC and LBS fall under the dream category, and ESSEC and ESADE under the competitive category.

Based on your profile, you have a 50% chance of acceptance in schools in the dream category whereas a 70% in the competitive category. Moreover, in order to hedge your bets wisely and to increase your chance of acceptance, you can target some more schools in the competitive category like FSFM, and IE; and Michigan and UVA in the dream category.

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. This service will also 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

Hope this helped!

Hi All,

I have received admits from three schools for MSC Finance EM-Lyon Business School (france), Trinity Business School(Dublin) and University of new south whales (Sydney).
Also, I am in the process of closing my application with Judge Business shcool, IE, Esade and Frankfurt.
high chance of selection of IE and ESADE.

I need to accept the application in a week's time please it would be great if anyone can provide me with some feedback on these schools.

Profile background - 4 years of work experience in invesment banking and consulting. Graduate from SRCC delhi university and a CFA level 2 candidate

Goals - Want to work abroad alteast for 4-5 years in the same domain not looking to change industries and probabaly settle there.

Questions:-

Trinity vs UNSW vs Em-lyon
Quality of msc finance program with prespective to investment banking
opportunity to work there after the program in AUS vs France vs Ireland


Looking forward to hear.

Hello, I would really appreciate it if I could get an evaluation on my profile


I am an Indian currently in the US, 23 years old
Undergrad - Did a double major in Finance and BAIT(Business Analytics & Information Technology) from Rutgers Business School, New Brunswick
Graduated Cum Laude with a 3.51/4 GPA

GRE - 317 (160 Q & 157 V & 5 AWA)

Work experience - Had 3 internships in college - Internal Audit - American Express, Wealth Management - AXA Equitable, Treasury - Cigna
Worked in Business Development & Sales for 6 months for an IT company and currently working as a Financial Analyst at a small logistics firm

Community - Filed free tax returns for low-income individuals for two years as part of the Finance Honors Club, started a trust in India to fund sports gear and training for underprivileged children in India

Post Master goals - want to work in IB, PE or Asset Management

Would love to know my chances for Masters Finance program at LSE, Imperial, ESSEC, ESADE, SSE, UT Austin

Hi pm1798,

The most striking aspect of your profile is your strong academic records in the form of 28.44 GPA which is further complemented by a 162 GRE score. Moreover, you have completed your undergrad degree in business and management which adds a relevancy factor in your profile. Furthermore, you have had an international experience in the form of a summer exchange program at HEC Paris which you can utilize to highlight your broadened perspective and adaptability quotient, something that is very much valued by the B-schools.

Coming to your work experience, you have mentioned that you have worked part time for a period of 4 months as a financial and insurance consultant which is in sync with the finance field. Having said that, you lack big brand names under your profile, and since most of your competitors are going to hail from these brands, it is even more important that you pay extra attention to your professional profile. To enhance your profile, you can highlight why you choose this company, what projects you handled, what skills you gained and what were your major takeaways.

Furthermore, when it comes to your extracurriculars, you need to make sure that you only mention endeavours from your undergraduate time and beyond so as to maintain the relevancy pattern. You need to highlight any positions of responsibility that you undertook in your college society and clubs as well as your involvement in volunteering works. Additionally, you can undertake certifications which will further boost your profile and would vouch for your constant thirst to upskills yourself. This way you will be able to showcase how you have all the traits of a future leader which is what the schools are mostly looking for in their students.

Speaking of the schools that you are targeting, for the MIM program, HEC comes under the dream category( where your chances of acceptance are 50%) while EDHEC comes under the category safe category(where your chances of acceptance are 70%). For the MSc in finance, St Gallen comes under the Ultra dream category (where your chances of acceptance is 30%) while ESSEC and BOCCONI come under the competitive category (where your chances of acceptance are 60%). Moreover, here are some more schools that you can consider some competitive schools such as ESCP, FSFM, IE, and ESADE.

However, you can upgrade these figures 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 has helped 3500+ applicants secure admits from the top schools. Moreover, it is a complete end-to-end consulting process aimed at providing personalized 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!

Hello,

I'm interested in doing a masters in finance or maybe financial economics and I'd like to know how competitive (or not) I am for top foreign unis.

Background:
- French Canadian. I'm fluent in English and French and intermediate in Spanish.
- My dream school would be the LSE or Oxford but I'm open for suggestions on what you think should be my "reasonable" and "reach" schools.

Undergrad Information:
- In the Joint Honours Economics & Finance program at McGill University.
- This program is very math heavy and is supposed to prepare you for a masters in economics. (Let's you skip the first year of the masters in economics if you stay at McGill)
- GPA of 3.3 with an important upward trend. 3.7/3.8 GPA in the last two years of my degree (Probably one of my weak points tbh)

GMAT/GRE:
Didn't take it yet but I perform very well in those standardized tests so I'm confident I can get a top result. (Feel free to tell me the result I should target to get into a top school)

Work experience & leadership:
- Interned at a Canadian insurance company for a year.
- Interned for a French bank (Soc Gen) in corporate finance.
- Interned for Rio Tinto in strategy & investment analysis.
- Interned at a well know pension fund (300 B in AUM) in the Money Markets team.
- No leadership role on campus but I'm part of the finance club.

Community & others:
- Volunteered for my local soccer club for 5 consecutive years.
- Created, managed and coached my own soccer team. (responsible for the registration process, recruiting and dealing with suppliers)
- Published an article in a local journal.
- Passed the CFA level 1

Post masters goals:
- I'd like to work in finance, especially investment management, but I'd also like to keep my door open for opportunities in government or journalism. (Maybe later in my career)

Hi DeWitt,

Overall, I think you have a good profile. Definitely possible to target LSE/Oxford. A few points below:

1. GPA
3.3 is slightly lower than the LSE/Oxford averages but I think you can address this in the essays. The upward trajectory of your GPA + quantitative aptitude from your degree/internships/CFA/GMAT should be sufficient to position yourself as academically capable.

2. GMAT Score Target
Following the previous point, you should probably aim for a Quant score of at least 49 given the quantitative nature of the programmes you're applying for. I can't remember the exact average GMAT scores for Oxford and LSE, but given the slightly lower GPA, you should probably target to have a slightly higher than average GMAT score.

3. Other Schools
UK - LBS has a pre-experience Masters in Financial Analysis that might be interesting to consider.

Rest of Europe - There are a few great business schools in Europe (HEC, Bocconi, ESADE, EDHEC, etc.). I can't remember the details of the programmes but definitely something to look at. Generally, European schools have a lower emphasis on GPA too, so these can definitely be good "reasonable" options.

Good luck!

That's extremely useful, thanks a lot for the great advice and the sanity check !

Hey shantanusood,

Starting the evaluation with your academics, graduating with a GPA of 3.51/4 showcases your strong academic prowess which is further complemented with international exposure which goes on to portray your broadened horizons and the ability to succeed and adapt in foreign environments. As for your GRE, a score of 312 is pretty competitive; however your Quant score of 160 is a bit on the lower end. Since you are applying for an MFin program, a score of 165 in the quant section can help you highlight your excellent analytical aptitude. Hence, retake is definitely what is recommended. Additionally, try boosting your overall score to a 320+, the higher the better!

Coming to your professional front, you have a good amount of internships with reputable brands. However, you need to be mindful about the fact that you’d be facing competition from applicants of big4 companies, to remedy which, you can utilize your application to draw the focus on the quality of your work. Talking about the roles and positions you undertook, the teams and projects you led and the impact you created in those positions would help you stand at par with other candidates.

Further, your profile's most impressive aspect is that you started a trust to fund sports gear and training for underprivileged children in India. This shows an amalgamation of your entrepreneurial and socially empathetic skills and goes on to vouch for the budding leader within you. In addition to this, you can portray a well-groomed profile by taking up a few courses and certifications related to the field of finance like CFA or FRM. Besides that, you can also take up a few MOOCs on Coursera or Udemy. These endeavors will illustrate your drive to upskill yourself.

Given your school choices, LSE falls under the dream category where your chances of acceptance are 50%. While at competitive schools like Imperial, ESSEC, ESADE, SSE, UT Austin, your chances of acceptance are 60-70%.

All things considered, since you are targeting the top schools, you need to emphasise on your admission application. A strong application holds 30% of weightage in the entire admission process and is also the way through which you can highlight your strengths and give apt justifications for your weaknesses to smooth over any flaws in your profile. Moreover, a strong application sets you apart from the rest of the competition, and hence it is imperative that you use this tool in your arsenal to the best of your advantage.

On this note, as your major chances of your acceptance depends on the quality of your application, you might want to seek professional help to secure your spot in your target schools. That said, having helped over 3500+ applicants get into their dream schools, I’d suggest you check out our, All-in-One Solution, to gain insights into how you could boost your chances of acceptance by a minimum of 3x!

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

Profile:
Undergrad: 3.6GPA From a target school GRE 337 V168 Q169
Hedge fund internship/ Hedge fund FT for 8m by time of matriculation
2 professional recs and 1 academic

Programs:
MIT MFin
CBS MSFE, MSAFA, financial math
uchi math fin
yale am
oxford mfe
lbs mfa

Hey Nishant,
I've posted your query as a separate thread in General Masters Forum which is followed by BSchools, Admission & Industry experts, as well as current MS students/ alumni. There is a greater chance of your query being answered in that forum. Here is the link of your post... https://gmatclub.com/forum/trinity-vs-u ... 49464.html

PS: Request to all: Use this thread strictly for Profile Reviews.

Hi cultureshock5889 I am grateful for your active contribution to this discussion. We want recent admits / current MS students visit these discussions more and offer their advice to new applicants. Hopefully, more admits will be motivated to do the same.

Thanks again!

Ethnicity: Indian
Age : 21
Gender : Male
Target year: September 2021

Academics :
GMAT - N/A (was wondering if I should take GMAT?)
ICAI - Cleared Group 1 of CA(IPCC)- 56.75% (only 2% of the Candidates can achieve the score above 55%).
CFA- Level 1 cleared
Undergrad- Tier 2 college of Delhi university (6.432)
School : 12th: 93.4% (District Topper)
10th: 10 CGPA (Certificate of Merit by CBSE)

Work Experience (Articleship)
MBR India : 2 years experience as Auditing, Indirect Taxation and Direct Tax Consultant

- While auditing, have analyzed different businesses and industries and grew an interest in analyzing financial aspects of business and help them grow.

Extra-curriculars
1. Have been involved in Family Business since a young age and have learnt different dimensions of wholesale textile industry.
2. Head Boy (School)
➢ Organized various competitions in fields of Public Speaking, Dancing, Fashion Show, Singing, stand-up comedy events.
➢ Managed a workforce of 170 members to conduct various Events with more than 2000 participants.
3. Secured 2nd position in Intra School Commerce Quiz Competition.
4. Won many Math Quiz and Competitions in School.

Volunteer Experience :
SRCC Wings of Fire Team
➢ A pro bono student-to-student assistance initiative, which assists the CA Aspirants and College students.
➢ Acting as a mentor of 100 CA Foundation students and helping them in their preparation for the exams.
➢ Headed the Social Media platform to address the Queries of 300 CA and College Aspirants.

Post Graduation goals: Want to make my space in Financial Market by combining my knowledge in share market and experience through the said course. I am also interested in Investment banking.

Concerns:

1. I am concerned about my low GPA and if I am qualified for the Business Analytics course in Warwick.
2. Any other school or course suggestions based on my profile and Post-Graduation Goals?

MiMEssay ARINGO Admissionado GyanOne kindly provide your insights here

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Hey govshero,

To begin with, you have not provided me with many details to give you an apt profile evaluation. Nevertheless, your chances of acceptance into a top b-school are based upon several factors such as your academic background, CGPA, extracurriculars, projects worked upon, brand names of the companies you worked upon, etc. Having said that, let’s begin your profile evaluation with the limited information you have provided me.

Coming to your GPA, a score of 3.6 showcases your strong academic prowess, which, coupled with a GRE score of 337and a strong quant score of 169, highlights your aptitude and should easily allow you to target the top B-schools. Additionally, the brand of your undergraduate college significantly boosts your profile as schools tend to pick out applicants with prior education in top colleges of their countries.

Additionally, when it comes to a masters in finance program, b-schools lookout for applicants with relevant finance knowledge. Thus, highlighting this such traits through some of the initiatives that you undertook at clubs, associations, fests and events you participated in, related to the field of finance, during your undergrad would further upscale your profile.

Moving forward, while your grades play an essential part, you should be highlighting both extracurricular activities and other endeavours you undertook because AdComs are looking for applicants with holistically developed profiles. Hence, to enhance your profile, you can take specific certifications like CFA or FRM, which are core financial certifications, and they will showcase your passion for the field of finance. Additionally, initiatives such as NGO volunteering would highlight your drive to work for the betterment of society. These would further showcase your ability to take up initiatives, impact others, and empathise with other people. B-schools are looking for applicants that are future leaders, and such experiences and qualities strengthen your application.

Most importantly, you should know that AdComs only considers your current work profile. That said, your work experience seems to be on a bit of the lower end as you will be competing against applicants who have much better finance-related experience under their belt. To counter this, you need to highlight relevant experience in finance by focusing on internships undertaken, how you went over and beyond your role, any projects you worked upon in your current job or any kind of upcoming projects you are going to handle etc. All these will help overcome your profile’s shortcomings.

As for the schools you are targeting, all of them fall under the dream category, wherein the chances of acceptance (based on your profile) stand at around 40% because of their stringent acceptance rate. Having said that, it is essential that you hedge your bets wisely and target a mix of dream and competitive schools. Thus, you can be targeting a few schools like Michigan, Fordham, Mc. Combs, and Babson, etc., to broaden your options and increase your chances of selection.

On this note, I would say that to increase your chances of getting admitted into your target 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. 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. A strong application increases your chances of acceptance by up to 30%!

Therefore, I would recommend you check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, which has helped 3500+ applicants get into their dream schools. As you are still in your application’s early process, 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 and submitting an impactful application to the school to preparing you for the interview and bagging scholarships!

Link to our All-In-One Solution-

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

Hope this helped!

Hi there!

Profile:
Age: 21 (senior in college)
Gender: M
Nationality: Taiwan
Undergrad: IU Kelley School of Business (top 10 undergrad but not so high in master)
Degree: Finance & Technology Management
GPA: 3.3
GMAT: 680 (will retake it, aiming for 700)

Job Experience: 3 internships, (Corporate Finance at an international advertising agency, Digital Marketing at a startup, and Equity at a consulting firm in Arizona)
Focus: Would like to pursue my career in finance but accounting degree would prepare me for CPA. Also the technology job market has been growing rapidly lately so I'm considering it too

Programs:
1. Cornell MPS Accounting
2. UCLA & UCSD
3. UT Austin MSF or MS in IT
4. Kelley MSA or MSIS
5. NYU Stern MSP
6. CMU Tepper
7. UMich Ross MSA
8. Fuqua MSF (dream school of course)
9. Kellogg (also dream school)
10. ASU

Thank you so much!

Hey everyone
Gave the GMAT, got a low 670.
I am an Indian, so that makes things worse for me (since the rest of my cohort doesn't seem to be stopping with the 750+ scores)
I have an 8/10 GPA along with internship experience at a government-partnered development firm (unrelated to finance) and a large brokerage firm where I worked with the research and trading divisions.
As for my PORs, I am the Founder President of my Department's Finance Club along with being the President of the Debate Club and the Class President
I have also worked in a United Nations conference as a coordinator for the CSO (NGO) Panel.
Other than that, I completed my schooling in Africa, where I was the Secretary of an Interact (Rotary) Club.
I also run a portfolio for my family, and it is beating the market by quite a lot.

Does my profile show enough 'jazz' to maybe pull the adcoms of LSE/LBS (MFA)/Imperial/UCL in my favour?
I am also applying to Warwick, Manchester, Leeds as well. Chances for those?

Indian completed Bachelors in Business administration
GPA around 3.2
Gmat 620
Applied universities
Edhec (admission recieved)
UCD
TCD
EDINBURGH
UT DALLAS
Simon business (interview invite recieved)

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