Hi Everyone,

Let me start off by giving you my stats:

23, Female, US Citizen
Undergrad - Tier 1 Research University in USA
BBA, Finance and BS, Psychology (graduating with both in August 2013)
GPA Cum: 3.04, Finance GPA: 3.67 and Psychology GPA: 3.83
Both degrees are Magna Cum Laude*** (my university only counts last 2 years for this honours calculation)
About 2 years of intern/part time work in the financial field
GMAT: expecting to get at least 700

***For those of you who aren't familiar with the latin honours system, Magna Cum Laude is for a degree with great honour.

NOTE: I had a 3.6gpa in my first year. My cum. GPA is low because during my second year I was struggling very hard to decide what I wanted to do in my career. I started off as a finance major, however, back in 2009 when the market was doing horrible, I was advised that it will not be a wise decision in the end. So, I made the horrible choice of deciding to study something else... my grade kept dropping for a solid 1.5 years because I had literally zero motivation to go to class and take the exams (I simply did neither). I have two or three Fs and a couple of Ds, because of this reason. After changing my major 7 (Yes, SEVEN) times, I soon came to realize that I will only excel in a subject that I am truly interested in learning. So during my fourth year, I changed my degree to BS in psychology and during my fifth year, I added BBA in finance to that. I could only do it in this order because the business school's entry requirements made me wait until i get my gpa to at least a 3.0. Otherwise they wouldnt admit me into the program.
While I realized that I would be going into an additional year and risking admission on the premise that I would get a 3.0, I figured it is worth it simply because I wanted to get the degree in what I absolutely wanted to do, plus I wanted to finish what I started. I was a much happier person after I got back on track and actually enjoyed the learning experience much more. That's why my gpa got back up. During the past Spring (official last full-semester) I managed to get a 3.75 in 24credit hours (8classes = 6 were from 4000-level fina and 2 were from 4000-level adv business) while working 30hours in a professional setting.

My gpa trend is strong in the last two years, hence the Magna Cum Laude. I am hoping that this would play to my advantage, over the low cum.GPA.

These are the universities I am hoping to apply to:

UK:
Imperial, Warwick, LBS, Cass and Oxford

USA:
Stanford, Booth, NYU, UCLA, Cornell, Duke, Columbia, Rice and UT (UT is my safe school)

Thoughts on my chances of acceptance?

I would greatly appreciate any serious feed back!
Thank you again for taking the time to read the long post!

I think you would be a strong candidate for an MSc programme at Warwick or Manchester. Oxford and LBS will not be interested. Imperial will be worried about your grades; you won't be a strong candidate there.

I think you would be a strong candidate for an MSc programme at Warwick or Manchester. Oxford and LBS will not be interested. Imperial will be worried about your grades; you won't be a strong candidate there.

Yes.

Yes.

Also, take a look at http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-management-2012 and add the column for programmes designed for candidates, like you, that have a relevant degree. You will waste some time in a UK programme designed for people without your finance background. At St Gallen, ESADE, or Rotterdam you and your classmates would hit the ground running; as a result, alumni of those programmes have higher salaries than the UK schools we have been discussing, even though the cost of living is lower there. You would also gain a valuable and challenging cross-cultural experience than you would in the UK, and you would develop your languages.

PS I'd also look at HHL in Leipzig and WU in Vienna, which are also designed for people with relevant degrees. These schools have great outcomes, and fewer US candidates will apply there.

Also, take a look at http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-management-2012 and add the column for programmes designed for candidates, like you, that have a relevant degree. You will waste some time in a UK programme designed for people without your finance background. At St Gallen, ESADE, or Rotterdam you and your classmates would hit the ground running; as a result, alumni of those programmes have higher salaries than the UK schools we have been discussing, even though the cost of living is lower there. You would also gain a valuable and challenging cross-cultural experience than you would in the UK, and you would develop your languages.

PS I'd also look at HHL in Leipzig and WU in Vienna, which are also designed for people with relevant degrees. These schools have great outcomes, and fewer US candidates will apply there.

I'm not aware of MSc programmes in management at those UK schools which require a BBA or a degree in finance. Certainly they would naturally prefer candidates with that experience but, typically more minimally, they expect applicants to have some quantitative skills (to have studied some physics, mathematics, engineering, economics, for example, or business). I think you need to look carefully at the curricula to make sure that you are not wasting time.

PS Have you considered a masters in finance? Those MSc degrees have an even higher salary http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-finance-pre-experience-2012

I'm not aware of MSc programmes in management at those UK schools which require a BBA or a degree in finance. Certainly they would naturally prefer candidates with that experience but, typically more minimally, they expect applicants to have some quantitative skills (to have studied some physics, mathematics, engineering, economics, for example, or business). I think you need to look carefully at the curricula to make sure that you are not wasting time.

PS Have you considered a masters in finance? Those MSc degrees have an even higher salary http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-finance-pre-experience-2012