UK Target Requirements

Hello. I'm soon going to apply for a msc finance program at a university in the uk and was wondering which target uni is the "easiest" to get into? The universities I'm thinking of are Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE, LBS, Imperial and Warwick. Which is the easiest to get into? How would you rank them? Thanks.

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For finance MScs, remove UCL and Warwick as they’re not targets. Of the remaining lot, Imperial is generally the easiest to get into as it’s the lowest target (their business school is subpar compared to the main College, but you will still get enough interviews from there). Slight caveat that if you don’t have quant abilities you might find one of the others easier as they’ll expect a relatively rigorous quantitative background.

 
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I agree and don’t agree with the comments that UCL and Warwick are not targets.

They are both targets for UG, therefore they will both pass any automated CV screening. And I can’t imagine that any recruiter would put you at a disadvantage for doing an MFin at these schools. However, recruiters will also know about the top degrees at the other universities and your chances of getting in are definitely higher if you’re in one of those.

But in the end, your question was where it’s easiest to get into, so Warwick and UCL, then Imperial, and then I think there’s not much of a difference between the flagship programs at LBS, LSE, and Oxford.

 

LBS MFA expanded their class size quite significantly from few years ago (you can check their class profiles) - so there could be recruiting dilution problems

(source: dialogues with alumni to make decision between offers from 2 of the 3 u mentioned)

 

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