Oxford MFE chances - 2014/2015, MSc Financial ECONOMICS!

[Coke and Cola]

Hey guys, I'm hoping to gauge my chances at the Oxford MFE before I apply.
I realise this isn't a "quant course" as such, but I want to work in M&A/private equity so this isn't a big deal for me. Anyway here are my stats:

• Current 2nd year at the LSE, studying for a joint honours in econ & a qualitative subject (think philosophy, politics etc).
• 1st & 2nd year average is 70%, which = first class honours
• Expect to graduate with first class honours or high upper second class honours (only need to average 40.5% next year for an upper second).
• GRE scores: Quant 167, Verbal 164, no percentiles yet.
• 2 IBD M&A summer internships, one at a regional boutique and another at an elite boutique in London.
• Another summer internship in research and trading at a small brokerage firm.
• References should be good, one academic and one professional.

Will apply in round 1. I'm slightly worried about a microeconomics module I took this year (I got a lower second class honours), will this hinder my application significantly?
Also the Oxford website says they want GRE scores to be in the 90th and 80th percentile for quant & verbal respectively. Not sure if this means my score is competitive?

Any additional tips are much appreciated!

 

[Arsalan Ihsan]

Hello there! I too will be applying to the MFE programme for 2014, and would like to request you for some help.

Would it be possible for you to guide me on the interview questions you encountered, if you did indeed apply in Round 1?

Thank you very much in advance, and I will be looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Best Wishes...

 

[Alexandre Chretien]

He said he is currently a 2nd year student at LSE. He did not apply yet.

 

[Coke and Cola]

Actually since term has started I'm in my third and final year now! =]

Had my interview recently, and the questions weren't too bad. The interviewer started with some generic interview questions, then went on to game theory, probability and economics / finance.

Alot of time was spent on explaining why I approached the question the way I did. Kind of got the feeling he was more interested in my thought process than the actual answer. The interview is supposed to last for 30 - 45 minutes.

Hope this helps!

 

[Arsalan Ihsan]

Thank you very much indeed. Of course it helped!

In addition, are there any technical questions/terms in particular, that you happen to remember from your interview? I'm trying to gauge the areas which I need to read in to before my interview you see.

Thank you once again.

 

[Coke and Cola]

Yeah it was asked to solve a game which required me to use backward induction.
The probability question was fairly straight ward, i was given a gambling "scenario" and asked to choose and explain the optimal strategy between 2 options.
Finance/economic wise, the question was related to the yield curve, and what it meant in practice. I think this is likely to vary though, the interviewer for me was a reader in the econ department. Many other applicants have told me that they received questions of different areas of econ and finance depending on the specialisation of the interviewer.

Are you a round 2 applicant?