Stats:
Age 28
– First class honors in economics from LSE (a First class honors in the British system is equivalent to a 3.8 to 4.0 gpa)
– MSc Economics from LSE (fully funded by a scholarship)
– 4.5 years trading emerging market derivatives for a bulge bracket bank in london (good references, left as a senior associate)
– assume 720 GMAT (i haven’t done it yet so maybe that’s cheeky)
here’s the unorthodox bit:
I left my job to go and study Arabic 2 years ago because bonuses looked bad (and they were) and I felt that i was trading a lot of things in far away countries without actually knowing much about the places (sob sob
). It had always been a personal ambition of mine to study the language (properly, not just a couple of phrases for ordering tea in a cafe) and now i’m approaching fluency in it. anyway, the point i’m trying to make is i left to do something i found interesting and not because i had to (wasn’t fired, made redundant or left to avoid any of these). also i have some interesting military experience but ultimately turned down that option (i.e deployment abroad) to pursue my language study
i’m still interested in finance want to do an mba at a good school with a view to working in private banking or fixed income (emerging markets again). any thoughts on my b-school app? chances etc to a top five program? many thanks