How high my GRE escores should be for MFE, MSc Finance?

[davidgl1986]

Hi all,

I wish to apply for fall 2009 for a MSc on Finance, Financial Economics, or simmilars in UK/Europe. I am from Colombia so i have little knowledge of the very best universities in this area besides well-knowns Oxford and Cambridge.

I'm planning to take GRE test for applying, I'm hoping to be admitted into a good university and also maybe to receive a scholarship (Clarendon fund type). I would like to receive som advice on:

- What are the best universities in this field.
- Is it possible to get to an scholarship?
- How high my GRE score should be to get and admission&scholarship?

I'll give you a brief on my profile to give u an idea:

- Bachelor in Industrial Engineering and Electronics Engineering by september of this year ( My university is the top 1 here in Colombia, but i don't think it counts outside ).
- My total average was 4.93/5, plain conversion is a GPA 3.95/4 (still i don't think i can do a conversion like that). I have received many scholarships during my career (I 'm not sure if that counts for the application).
- Right now I am working since Jan/08 as an actuary trainee here in Colombia, making some financial models. That woud be 1.5 years of work xp by the time I'm taking the master.
- I took the TOEFL iBT test, obtained 108 ( 30R/30L/24S/24W ).


Thx in avance

[asianeconomist]

> 780.

[davidgl1986]

Both quantitative and verbal?

[Bayern]

I think asianeconomist meant only quantitative. Verbal should not be very important .

[rvalchev]

I would agree with AsianEconomist. Take my word with a grain of salt as I am very inexperienced on the whole issue as well, but for what it is worth here it is. I have spent countless hours lately going through the departmental pages of about 50-60 different schools, ranging from TOP5,10,20 down to like 50-60. What i picked up from most of them is that if you are an international student you need to get at least 780 Quant. Of course, if you can pull off a 770Q and 800V I would not retake the test. Verbal is not very important, but a perfect score is a perfect score...

I would say the probability of getting more than 750V as an international student is not very high, however. So you only have Analytical and Quantitative to differentiate yourself. Most internationals have 800 on the quants, so it's probably best to play it safe and retake if you get less than 780. The Analytical portion is a bigger mystery, but I would say that a 4.5 or higher would speak well for an international and make up for a low Verbal score (although 4.5 for a native speaker might not make up for a non-characteristically low Verbal.)

All that is speculation of course and applies to US PhD programs (it is deduced from readings lots and lots of admission FAQs.) But the fact is that in Europe you can't apply for a PhD program straight out of undergrad. So everybody goes through the Masters programs, and although I am not familiar with them in particular, I would assume Top European programs would have pretty much the same admission standards. After all, in their Masters programs they are admitting a big percentage of the best future European PhD students.

[nitwit87]

well, if u want apply to uk except for oxford , cambridge and LSE also, not forget imperial u wont require a gre score. And schools like WBS AND MBS are quite good given IN the FINANCIAL TIMES rankings their rankings were 24 and 28 respectively. Compared to SAID which was 19 th with all its hype.

[davidgl1986]

Thanks for all your comments

I have two questions remaining:

1. For universities Oxford/Cambridge/LSE whats is the minimum i can get for Verbals for getting in there?. I agree with rvalchev, as the experience of some friends that have good academic achievements, a decent Verbal score is nearly impossible for a non-native.

2. Besides a good GRE, which aspects of my profile should I highlight?

Thanks to nitwit87 for the advices on the other universities, i was attired for Oxford and Cambridge for the scholarships open for overseas students, but i see MBS has some scholarships as well.

[asianeconomist]

I apologize for creating any confusion. I was referring to the Quantitative section.

To answer your specific questions:

1/ I got into Cambridge & LSE with a verbal of ~ 500. Hence, that probably constitutes the lower bar. However, this only went on to confirm my suspicion about how universities evaluate international students. I had a great TOEFL (116/120) and AWA (6.0) score, and I was pretty sure that for international students, these 2 scores are considered to be more important than the Verbal score.

2/ Your LORs would be tremendously important.

Oxbridge are well known for offering a lot of scholarships to their students. I think Cambridge made around 1300 awards this year. LSE is generally known for its miserliness, especially in the Masters level. You'd be well advised to check out the country-specific scholarship schemes in Oxbridge.

[davidgl1986]

So do u think i have to retake my TOEFL test?