Profile evaluation for MSc.Finance

Hi,

I'm applying for MSc. Finance program offered by Imperial, LSE, Warwick, and MSc. Banking and International Finance of Cass.

I expect to get a first in Accounting and Finance (72 for 2nd year) from a reputable uni in the south down, but the business department of this uni isn't particular prestigious.


I also got reference letter from a Financial accounting Prof. and a Statistic Dr., since I didn't do particularly well in my finance module last year I didn't ask my finance lecturer(who is a bit lame anyway), will that work against me? I mean accounting is relevant but not strictly finance, right?

I have the experience of working as research assistant for two academics, in two statistic/ quantitative research projects, though the result were not published in any journals.

The biggest disadvantage of me, at least I think, is I have no experience at all in econometrics, my uni only offer them to economics students. I am studying statistics and probability theory at a pretty advanced level now, but my pure math was pretty much 1st year level. That is, I had only three pure quant modules, quantitative method in first year, statistics for eco & fin and further statistics in 2nd and 3rd year respectively. That seems a bit insufficient for IC, but should it be fine for other three?

I have got no experience of intern/ work in the industry either, since I spent summers with research leaders, that seem to put me in an even lower place.

Extra curricula, I was vice president of a mountaineer club, and currently function as the treasurer of a NUS award shortlisted society, but treasurer is really more like an accountant if anything. They don't seem to add much weight.

Since IC is top of my list I did GRE instead of GMAT and got 163/158(Q/V) and did pretty bad in the writing (38%). I know this would work with Warwick but what about the other two? They seem to prefer GMAT, but since I got decent percentile, would that matter? Also Quant wise I did pretty well but will writing drag me down?

This is actually my first post and I just registered today,Ive been reading this forum before I even got into uni, this is really a place for ambitious ppl.

Many thanks,
Stan

-reputation of department/university doesn't matter too much when applying for msc. I have a friend who did his undergrad in the bottom 100 uni (UK) and did mphil in Cambridge and he wasn't exceptional.

-references matter a lot so if you got good marks in their modules and they actually know you (do you go to their office hours? Have they seen your face before?) then that will work in your favour. It depends on how low the mark is. If you scored highly in all of your quantitative modules then I don't think one bad mark (2:2 equivalent) in a finance module is detrimental to your application. Quantitative modules seem to be very important for Msc finance and that includes the GRE. I'm only familiar with the gmat so can't comment on your GRE score. However, I have a bad feeling that your writing score will let you down and submitting that can potentially work against you. If I was in your position I would refrain from submitting the GRE unless it's mandatory.
I have another friend who got into Warwick finance and he didn't bother submitting his gmat(economics undergrad). It's up to you.


-lack of internships shouldn't matter. They want to know if you are passionate about studying finance and if they can tell that by reading your statement of purpose.

-Extra cur don't count for much when applying for msc programs, especially if they are non-finance related. e.g friend did real life trading at uni so that would be good to write about. But If you want you can write a max. 2 lines of your involvement and maybe say you want to get involved in the trading/finance soc. If I were you, I wouldn't put it in.

-In my opinion, your chances in getting to the unis are : lse=v. Low, IC=average (depending on your maths marks, minimum high 60s), Warwick=average, cass=good. (This is going by the assumption that you haven't submitted your GRE)

-you should ask a couple of lecturers about your GRE mark and whether you should submit it. They should definitely know

-for lse, I would switch to acc and finance. Your chances would increase drastically since there are less applicants and more spaces. It's still the same prestigious uni in a finance related degree. I would say you would have a good chance in getting in.
My friend who went to a top 30 uni got a low first in 2nd year and his lse acc and finance offer was only 65% overall average

aw, that doesn't make any sense to me. you are way good enough for cass