Help me choose the right university for Investment Banking

I am an international student from Pakistan who aspires to study combination of Mathematics and economics at undergraduate level. I have offers from Edinburgh, Bristol and Manchester university for Bsc Mathematics. I have been refused by LSE and Cambridge; however, I am hell bent towards the idea of using UCAS extra and applying for university based in London. I am confused about applying to king's College London or reapplying to London School of economics. Should I stick with my present choices or use UCAS extra? If yes, then which university in London should i apply to?

21 Comments
 

Firstly, what are your predicted grades? Secondly, are you confident of doing better than your predicted grades? Thirdly, don't apply to the same uni again, unless you wait until after your results so that you can demonstrate that your application is stronger - at which point you'll essentially be applying during a gap year, as a lot of the better unis don't have a lot of places through clearing.

It's worth considering that some unis, such as Manchester (speaking from my own experience) aren't target universities for some banks, so there aren't as many opportunities to network and attend careers fairs as there are at, for example, Bristol.

 

OK, you've already got 4 A*s. That suggests there was something fundamentally wrong with your application to LSE for them to reject you, unfortunately - so there's not much point in trying again unless you can change your application. Bristol is a very good university generally, or, as others have said, Warwick is a very solid choice. I think your best bet for using ucas extra is to go for the latter, or to go straight for Bristol and save yourself the bother.

 

Proximity doesn't matter. Banks will come to both so you'll get a chance to brush shoulders if you want. It might be a consideration in terms of reducing travel costs for assessment centres, firm-based networking events and final rounds however.

Was obsessed with finance, now do product in tech
 

Not true. Quant degrees are only helpful (in terms of making you more qualified) for quantitative jobs.

Was obsessed with finance, now do product in tech
 

Thank you sir for your response. By the way, I have an underwhelmimg SAT score of 1390 (740 Math + 650 English) and a few internships, paid jobs, drama participations, junior investing club participation and play soccer regularly. I will also be applying for NYU and UMich, but I dont see myself getting admitted there. So, which university out of UIUC, Northeastern or ASU will give me a best shot at getting recruited in Investment Banking?

 

I encourage you to look at Indiana University's Kelley. Certainly places more kids in banking than UIUC, Northeastern and ASU, and is on the heels of NYU and UMich. IU Kelley also has a direct admission program where you just need a minimum 1380 SAT/30 ACT and 3.8+ GPA to bypass regular admissions. Kelley has a program called the Investment Banking Workshop which prepares students with technical knowledge and interview prep and consistently places tons of kids at firms like Jefferies, Moelis, BAML, and William Blair with several kids each year going to places like JPM, MS, Evercore, Lazard, etc.

 

Definitely either Bristol or Edinburgh. I'd personally prefer Bristol just because of the proximity to London.

If you are fully set on IB, then as someone else already mentioned, smash your A-levels and try looking at courses at Warwick/UCL. If I recall correctly Warwick had a lot of the quant-y courses available in clearing this year (And even a couple of places through Adjustment in Econ but I wouldn't bet on that happening every year). Subject won't matter at these places since they're targets as long as it is something academic.

Reapplying LSE will mean taking a gap year since they are never available through clearing. Not something I'd fully recommend but your call.

 

Which academic courses should I apply for, if I intend to apply for ucl, warwick? By the way, I have an Extra option available, which means that I can re-apply for a different course at LSE in this year too; however, the issue is that I can apply for a single institution from the three choices above due to limited option available in the UCAS application. So, which option should I go for and which program/subject?

 
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