Msc Finance - Need guidance and evaluation for 20F non-IT Indian

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I'm going to apply to Msc Finance but I have no idea where to start and where to apply.

Please bear with me, I'm listing everything I've done with the mim-essay evaluation.

Basic profile:
Female, 20, Indian, Muslim

Academics:
Final year BBA student at a top 25 business school in India (Private)
CGPA: 9.43/10 | 4.00
GMAT 730

International Exposure:

Visited foreign countries but for leisure/travel, actually, accompanied my dad on his business meetings but I was having fun.

I know English, Hindi, French, Spanish (medium fluency, not certified, learnt through Duolingo)

Work Experience:

I have done 2 internships, one in Marketing after which I changed my career choice to Finance.

The first internship was in a marketing position at a startup as an early team, which was an endeavor in the startup ecosystem and I learnt about venture capital and equities, which resulted in a deep interest in finance.

The second internship was 2 months long, a finance internship at JP Morgan Chase and Co.

I received an intern of the month cert for the first internship.

Further education
I have worked on many projects in financial modeling, stock trading, portfolio creation, etc, through Coursera Specializations, and I've completed the following Specializations on Coursera.

Financial Management - Uo Illinois
Investment Management - Uo Geneva
Investment and portfolio management - Rice Uni
Managerial Economics and Business Analysis - Uo Illinois
Investment Management with Python and ML - EDHEC
FinTech - Uo Michigan
Blockchain Revolution in Financial Services - INSEAD
Analysing - Numeric and Digital Literacies - Macquarie

Courses
Private Equity and Venture Capital - Bocconi
Advanced Valuation and Strategy - Rotterdam
Behavioural Finance - Duke
Financial Markets - Yale
Global Financial Crisis - Yale
Unfortunately there are many more and I feel pathetic lol.

Certified with SAS Programmer, SAS Statistical Business Analyst, working in SAS Advanced Programmer. I know Python, learning SQL, Good with Excel, learning Tableau.

Extracurricular Activities:

This is the worst part. I have never taken part in Sports because my religious parents never allowed me to. Like, zero sports. ZERO. NIL. The only physical thing I've done is Karate where I am a Black Belt.

I'm a part of the Cultural Committee of my Uni and the Finance Club which doesn't do a lot of shit.

For the volunteering part, I was a Fundraising Coordinator at an NGO for animal welfare for 2 months, after which I'm currently the Campaign Manager (one year as of now) and I manage the campaigns and create impact for sure. I was also the best Fundraiser the NGO ever had.

I presented a finance topic research paper in an IEEE conference.

I think that's it?

So I was to do an Msc. Finance, what should be my target schools and what are my chances in good universities. Also, I need a scholarship so will I have any chances in that? Mostly because, religious conservative parents.

I really don't know where to start. I'll furnish additional details if that's required. Thank you. Please consider giving me a few minutes.

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Hi -- your numbers look great, but the first thing we need to determine is whether the schools you're interested in will accept applicants with no post-undergraduate work experience. (As an MBA specialist, the MsF applicants I've worked with generally have had a few years of work experience.) Looking at a top US program, MIT, as an example, work experience isn't an absolute requirement, but internships in finance would be preferable -- your internship with JP Morgan is just what they're looking for. London Business School, on the other hand, looks for applicants with a few years of experience.

So to start with, narrow your targets to schools where your current level of experience would fit, and then look at an application like MIT's (https://mitsloan.mit.edu/mfin/apply/how-to-apply) and assess where you are with all of the components they're looking for. You'll want to think about your short-term and long-term goals and research them a bit to gain more specificity -- talking to current students and alumni who are doing the things you'd like to be doing post MsF is a really good way of getting from general to specific.

Hope this helps -- the more you look at specific schools and identify your goals, the less amorphous the process will become.

Good luck!
Margaret Strother
Margaret Strother
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Stacy Blackman Consulting

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