Oxford & Imperial MCF 2022 Applications

[JackRooker]

Yeah - basically at least 20% of each AC’s (Euro and US banks) were made of Poly students, and most others confirmed this happening in their ACs too. About UCL - I’m not sure, I only gathered UCL and the fact that the candidate was on exchange there?? but my guess would be CompFin as I think this is the one that has HSBC’s partnership for the dissertation? I would guess employment opps are not terrible - not from UCL nor RMFE. Though, you would definitely be working harder to get through to interviews than Tier1 students do - not necessarily due to some intellect gap, but those courses have solid support systems (i.e. basically guaranteed at least 10-15 interviews with big banks and buysides, because these are arranged internally for industry dissertations - which often roll off into a FT role)

That's pretty interesting. Do the poly schools also include the Swiss schools, such as ETH and EPFL, which have renowned programs in quantitative finance?
I can imagine the support systems are an advantage when it comes to tier 1's, practically being guaranteed placement is definitely helpful in the pursuit of a job. Still hoping for acceptance to Oxford MCF, but I'm delighted I've received one offer so far.

Sorry I should also specify that Poly students are the majority out of candidates with MSc. There are also PhD candiates all the time at ACs, and they’re basically from any uni (I’ve seen swansea and camb phds at the same AC)

Yes, a PhD is probably a strong differentiating factor, regardless of the institution, as it proves great dedication and intellectual capability.

 

[IIlllIlI]

That's pretty interesting. Do the poly schools also include the Swiss schools, such as ETH and EPFL, which have renowned programs in quantitative finance?
I can imagine the support systems are an advantage when it comes to tier 1's, practically being guaranteed placement is definitely helpful in the pursuit of a job. Still hoping for acceptance to Oxford MCF, but I'm delighted I've received one offer so far.

Yes, a PhD is probably a strong differentiating factor, regardless of the institution, as it proves great dedication and intellectual capability.

None seen from either.

 

[anondag]

Hi all, I'm an international student and I currently have offers from Imperial RMFE and LSE MSc Financial Stats. I've been having a lil trouble with deciding between the two. Which one do y'all think has a better reputation and career prospects. Cost wise Imperial is far more expensive and i've some really mixed reviews regarding the RMFE programme. I'm interested in venturing into risk mgmt or data analytics, not really quant so which one do y'all think would be better?

 

[McfOxfInt]

Hi all, I'm an international student and I currently have offers from Imperial RMFE and LSE MSc Financial Stats. I've been having a lil trouble with deciding between the two. Which one do y'all think has a better reputation and career prospects. Cost wise Imperial is far more expensive and i've some really mixed reviews regarding the RMFE programme. I'm interested in venturing into risk mgmt or data analytics, not really quant so which one do y'all think would be better?

I will try to answer it from my own perspective as an international student as well- I did my undergrad in the US as an international student and currently living and working at my home country.

You need to take all factors into your decision and probably in the end- go with your guts.

In the US both imperial and LSE are relatively known. I would argue the LSE is a little bit more known (many people are business and politics oriented in the US so LSE is sometimes their go to option) but this might be debatable.

In my country of origin which is where I want to live my life, both LSE and Imperial are relatively less known and saying I went to LSE or Imperial will probably be followed by “which school is that?”

So after you answer the question of where you want to work/live and connecting people’s perception of prestige you will be better able to answer the following question- “should I pay for that prestige since it will give me some added income/value?”

So to summarize- you need to know the where, the perceived reputation of your where , and then answer does it worth it.

Personally, I don’t think that having a degree from imperial will bring me any added value (better future job or higher salary) relatively to a degree from a local uni while local uni will be much cheaper.

 

[anondag]

I will try to answer it from my own perspective as an international student as well- I did my undergrad in the US as an international student and currently living and working at my home country.

You need to take all factors into your decision and probably in the end- go with your guts.

In the US both imperial and LSE are relatively known. I would argue the LSE is a little bit more known (many people are business and politics oriented in the US so LSE is sometimes their go to option) but this might be debatable.

In my country of origin which is where I want to live my life, both LSE and Imperial are relatively less known and saying I went to LSE or Imperial will probably be followed by “which school is that?”

So after you answer the question of where you want to work/live and connecting people’s perception of prestige you will be better able to answer the following question- “should I pay for that prestige since it will give me some added income/value?”

So to summarize- you need to know the where, the perceived reputation of your where , and then answer does it worth it.

Personally, I don’t think that having a degree from imperial will bring me any added value (better future job or higher salary) relatively to a degree from a local uni while local uni will be much cheaper.

thank you! This is really helpful. I'm from India and I'm actually looking to work in London itself post my masters. One thing i've been a lil worried about is that the programme at LSE could be very theoretical and not an adequate preparation for finding jobs within the financial industry in London. Besides its only a 9 month programme, so would that be a negative factor for employers? Imperial on the other hand as a career center (not sure how helpful it actually is) and I've heard that the teaching is relatively more practical. But although they assume that admitted students have good math knowledge, mostly all their courses are v introductory and I'm not really sure if its worth the cost. Are the employment prospects really that good as they market it to be?

 

[McfOxfInt]

thank you! This is really helpful. I'm from India and I'm actually looking to work in London itself post my masters. One thing i've been a lil worried about is that the programme at LSE could be very theoretical and not an adequate preparation for finding jobs within the financial industry in London. Besides its only a 9 month programme, so would that be a negative factor for employers? Imperial on the other hand as a career center (not sure how helpful it actually is) and I've heard that the teaching is relatively more practical. But although they assume that admitted students have good math knowledge, mostly all their courses are v introductory and I'm not really sure if its worth the cost. Are the employment prospects really that good as they market it to be?

I am glad my perspective helps. A few more things to add-
1. work/industry is mostly practical (unless you go to research in industry). The hiring process often times is built of conversations (interviews) with other employees within the team who would ask you some technical, background and behavioral questions. In background they will ask you for projects you did in school or previous things you worked on in previous jobs. In the US for example, the education is relatively practical so you can easily describe projects you did etc.
2. no employer is going to care how long you studied 9 months VS a year.

If you feel that imperial’s courses are mostly introductory and not deep enough for you then go with LSE as it is also cheaper (sounds like both interesting and cheaper in the same school). To be a good data analyst you need to know SQL, Python, math, statistics and databases. I believe both programs will give you that experience and add the finance/risk aspect to the education.

I will add that I don’t know how imperial VS LSE prestige is looked at in the UK + I don’t know how good or bad imperial career center is vs LSE’s.

 

[txj]

Anyone heard of waitlist? Is there a one?

 

[McfOxfInt]

Anyone heard of waitlist? Is there a one?

Nope, but you can email the department if you want.
For CS at Oxford the upload button disappeared after 8 weeks of the deadline and on Sunday night everyone got a rejection. We might be at the same situation but in a delay of two weeks since the deadline was Jan 21st.

 

[NrdmOl]

upload button did diseappear

 

[JackRooker]

upload button did diseappear

Mine did too this afternoon.

 

[txj]

upload button did diseappear

Mine did too this afternoon.

Guys, what does it suggest? Being waitlisted? My button is still there.

 

[JackRooker]

Guys, what does it suggest? Being waitlisted? My button is still there.

I read on the student room (another forum) that the upload button does not disappear for people who are waitlisted, so it may be a positive sign for you depending on what awaits those whose upload buttons have disappeared.
Let's hope some offers are being sent out!

 

[McfOxfInt]

I read on the student room (another forum) that the upload button does not disappear for people who are waitlisted, so it may be a positive sign for you depending on what awaits those whose upload buttons have disappeared.
Let's hope some offers are being sent out!

Mine disappeared too. For CS it meant rejections for everyone on Friday night and Sunday night.

Not sure what it means if it doesn’t disappear- maybe waitlist. Fingers crossed for you

 

[JackRooker]

Mine disappeared too. For CS it meant rejections for everyone on Friday night and Sunday night.

Not sure what it means if it doesn’t disappear- maybe waitlist. Fingers crossed for you

Let's hope that does not happen to us!
Fingers crossed for you too.

 

[McfOxfInt]

Let's hope that does not happen to us!
Fingers crossed for you too.

Did anyone hear anything over the weekend?

 

[JackRooker]

Did anyone hear anything over the weekend?

Haven't heard anything so far.

 

[McfOxfInt]

Haven't heard anything so far.

After sending the message I realized that for the rest of the programs people heard back (rejections) during the night of Sunday to Monday- so one more day to wait

 

[JackRooker]

After sending the message I realized that for the rest of the programs people heard back (rejections) during the night of Sunday to Monday- so one more day to wait

Yeah, I think tonight might really be decisive. Let's hope for the best!

 

[udays]

I haven't been able to login to the portal and keep getting this error: You must enable session cookies to use this secure system. ** Y.

Is anyone else facing the same issue? I tried changing browsers and enabling cookies but it didn't work.

 

[JackRooker]

I haven't been able to login to the portal and keep getting this error: You must enable session cookies to use this secure system. ** Y.

Is anyone else facing the same issue? I tried changing browsers and enabling cookies but it didn't work.

In Microsoft edge go to edge://settings/privacy and change tracking prevention to basic.
I've had this problem with other websites and this has fixed it for me.