University Shortlist suggestions

Question

Hi , I am a female and I have graduated with B.tech degree from AIACTR, GGSIPU in july 2013. Following is my profile , please suggest universities in US and CANADA for masters in finance.

( I am planning to apply for the fall 2014 session )

GMAT - 600 ( Q-48, V-25, AWA-5.5 , IR -2) 
TOEFL - 111 ( R-29, L-28, S-24, W-30)

1. NO WORK EXPERIENCE. 
2. DECENT EXTRA CURRICULARS. 
3.TWO INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PAPERS IN NEW JOURNALS. (ONE ON FINANCE , ONE RELATED TO ENGINEERING) 
4. WORKING WITH AN NGO. 
5. DID TWO INTERNSHIPS , 6 weeks each - a) AT NTPC , b) at BEL 
6. DID TWO PROJECTS As Part of my BTECH. 
7. GRADUATION PERCENTAGE -- 80.46% ( topper has 81.20%)

I am planning to apply to - 
PURDUE 
BOSTON COLLEGE 
SIMON FRASER 
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
JOHN HOPKINS

Kindly suggest how these universities are for my profile ? Also, any other suggestions are welcome. Please Help.

MSFHQ · Answer

I'd look at Purdue, Johns Hopkins, Brandeis/Bentley, DePaul, U Houston. My reasoning is this. Purdue is a well respected school. All the others are good schools in a major metro (Washington, Chicago, Boston, Houston). While these are good schools, they are not great. What they have going for them is a major job market that you can look for work from. All these schools are probably locally centered and most alumni will be in the respective cities. Good for networking.

sukriti24 · Answer

Thankyou so much for your time and for sharing useful insight about networking opportunities after graduation. I will be really grateful to you if you can tell me more about the following -

1. Brandeis/ Bentley are private institutions , so are they well respected around the world ?
2. With my profile , what are my chances of getting entrance scholarship ( good chance , no chance or thin chance ?) ? ( Approximate range ? )
3. Also , please suggest some schools in canada for my profile.

Thanks in advance.

Banzai · Answer

Brandeis and Bentley are not world renowned. The two universities mostly place their students within the greater Boston area for the MSF at least. There are numerous private colleges and universities in the US, so obviously not every single one is world renowned. That is not to say Brandeis and Bentley aren't good schools, in Massachusetts they have a good reputation.

I have researched both schools so I do know some entrance statistics. For Bentley with the class entering this year the average GMAT - 620, GPA - 3.4, and minimum TOEFL is 100. Bentley also admits people without work experience. Brandeis has the GMAT score range between 580 to 680. However with Brandeis I do think the school is looking for people to have work experience, but probably able to get around that. I have no idea about potential scholarships however.

The average starting salary for people without experience coming out of the program at Bentley is about $48,500. I emailed a couple people at Brandeis, but didn't get any kind of response.

Best of luck with the applications. If you have not already I highly recommend looking at MSFHQ's site, that is where I learned a lot about the MSF. Reading threads in this sub forum here has been a huge help as well.

sukriti24 · Answer

Thank you so much once again for the reply. I will start following the MSFHQ website for more information and insight. However, if you have some idea about B-schools in CANADA can you please suggest 2-3 Canadian B -schools for my profile ? I have only finalized on SIMON FRASER - BEEDIE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS. Kindly help. Thanks in advance.

MSFHQ · Answer

Canada doesn't have a lot of MSF programs and many of the programs they do have require work experience. I list like 6 on my website.

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