How screwed am i?

Throughout my middle/high school years, I was set to become software engineer but I discovered finance in my last year of high school and decided to pursue it instead. I'm from a non-EU country in the MENA region, and since I had planned to study CS in the USA, I didn't worked hard to achieve a perfect GPA or anything since I knew top US universities were either very hard to get into or not financially supportive enough, so I targeted mid-tier universities and managed to get an almost full-tuition scholarship. However, since I decided to pursue a career in finance instead of tech, I decided not to attend and take a gap year to aim for a target university in Europe.

To summarize, target EU universities either don’t offer English bachelor's programs or expect very high GPA scores, which I unfortunately don’t have (my current GPA is around 9.2/10). I'm really panicking and don’t know what to do. I know I still have a small chance but most likely I will fail to get into these universities (such as Bocconi, SSE, RSM). On WSO, a lot of people were talking about how bachelor's degree doesn’t matter much and that what’s really important is getting a top master's degree. How true is this? Should I go to a non-target bachelor's program in the EU (such as Bologna, LUISS, Tilburg, Lund) and work hard to get into a top master’s program in the UK/EU, or would it be a dead end for me?

13 Comments
 

Thought about it. Problem is that the school i got in is mid at best. I tought that if i work hard enough i can get a job after graduation but looking at current CS market even US citizens are struggling to get a job, let alone an international student from mid school.

Also for IB part i dont know how i can get into finance after CS degree from non-target school. I may go to target master in europe after finishing my CS degree,as i asked about if what matters in europe is really the master, but i would have to compete with people who already have finance related internships and networks. I think not graduating from Finance in Europe would decrease my chance a lot.

 

You can absolutely get in those schools with that GPA, I am applying to Bocconi and got early in BIEM with 9/10 GPA which translated into 9.2 and a 1480 SAT equivalent, now I'm just trying again for BIEF with a 1530. However, the deadline for RSM was January 15th and I believe Bocconi closes in a few days keep that in mind.

 

I already opened studielink account for RSM, application deadline is 31th Jan and I'm going to apply. I also applied to Lund and SSE and definitely going to apply for ESE (Erasmus S Economics).

My 10/11th grade GPA is around 90, not 92 (12th grade was 97). Since bocconi exclude things like religion/sports my bocconi calculated GPA is around 9.1/10 and my SAT is very low (1430). Ofcourse i will try my chance, for pretty much every courses, but looking at 24/25 Early/Winter polls and 25/26 Early polls i will probably going to rank somewhere around 900-1200 and Early BIEM cut-off was somewhere around 890. Who knows maybe I'll be lucky, but chances are not that good.

 

Great, I'm sure you'll get in some of those schools as ESE is not that competitive for example. If you want to improve your chances for Bocconi, you could try the Bocconi Test as you only lose 60 euros for trying, and you have plenty of time to prepare until the 23rd. I would also apply to HSG or ESADE if you don't get in Bocconi or RSM as they are better targets than SSE, Lund or ESE.

 
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