2013-06-01 | Her decision to pursue Master of Finance after her undergradaute study at HKU She stopped to say "hi", and "goodbye", in early May. "Have a seat," I said. In the next ten minutes, she told me about her plan after the summer (her last summer at HKU). She first told me of the news that she was going to study Master of Finance at MIT. So, I asked, "How did you end up with MIT? Why pursue a Master degree?" Then, she started to tell me her story.
"Can I give you one last assignment?" I said. "Can you summarize your experience of applying for a Master degree program in the United States? So that, other students can benefit from it?"
Below is her submitted assignment. On this assignment, I would gladly give her a grade of "A". :-)
------ May 25, 2013 ------------------------------------
WHO AM I?
My name is Zhang Mengru Angela. I am a BEcon&Fin Class of 2013 student. I took ECON1001 with Prof. Wong when I was in Year 1. I went on an exchange to UCLA in Year 2, and now I am going "back" to the US for a Master of Finance program at MIT after graduation.
IS MASTER'S DEGREE A MUST TO FIND GREAT JOBS?
My answer to this question is that it depends on where you would like to start your career, and how you define "great jobs". If you are looking for a job in mainland China, especially big cities (e.g. Beijing, Shanghai), a job advertisement in the financial service sector would very probably include "Master's degree or above" in application eligibility. However, if you are going to start off your career in Hong Kong, a Bachelor's degree is good enough, and even better than Master in some cases, for applying to banking, accounting or corporate finance jobs.
WHY APPLY FOR A MASTER, THEN?
Honestly, I applied for personal reasons, but a reason that I often heard from my friends and classmates is that they would like to move to another place, or start their career in another place. Also, as the job market is really down in Hong Kong this year, some of my classmates chose to apply for graduate schools to defer their job search.
WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICATION?
(The following sharing applies only to business school programs. i.e., not applicable to MEcon programs)
Usually business schools will ask for:
(1) Transcripts
(2) Recommendation letters (2 to 3)
(3) GMAT/GRE, and TOEFL/IELTS results
(4) Personal statements/required essays
(5) Application fee
WHO AM I GOING TO ASK FOR RECOMMENDATION LETTERS?
As business school programs usually believe that you are going into the industry afterwards, they would like to see that you have internship (paid or unpaid)/part-time/full-time work experience before joining their programs. Therefore, some programs will explicitly ask for a reference from your past employer/supervisor.
A second source of recommendation letter should be academic, proving that you have the ability to accomplish a Master's program. For your benefit, I would strongly suggest that you ask the professors who really know you, whether from class or research assistant experience. If you have been on exchange, a professor from your exchange university would be a great recommender, too.
WHICH OF THE REQUIREMENTS ABOVE IS MOST IMPORTANT?
If you ask this question to the admission committee, the most probable answer that you would get is: we look at all the materials. And they are not lying. Personally, I would say, besides having a generally good profile, you need to have something really "shiny" to qualify yourself for an interview or even admission. It could be your past professional experience, your career inspirations or something that makes you special.
WHAT ARE THE COSTS?
Master's programs at business schools, especially the good ones, are usually extremely expensive (up to USD 45,000 per academic year), and it is very hard to get a scholarship. In addition, if the job market is good and you are not "forced" to apply for a Master, you would lose a year's time of getting professional experience (opportunity cost, remember?). Of course, it is not all that bad. Being in business school itself is a great opportunity to know great people, and build up professional network.
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