2025 Business School Master's Applications: Imperial, LSE and More in the UK & UvA in the Netherlands

Easier-to-read version on Medium: https://medium.com/@HsuXin/2025商學院碩士申請紀錄-英國imperial-lse等校-荷蘭uva-b3355d389807

I trimmed this post a bit to suit the platform. If you're interested, the full write-up is at the link above.

1. Background

National Sun Yat-sen University, Finance

Data Science / Smart City program

GPA: 3.94 / 4.3; Last 2 years GPA: 4.28 /4.3

IELTS: 8.0, GMAT: 680

Professional/internship experience: Digital Intern at a Taiwanese financial holding company, Qunt Research PT at a Quant Fund, Data Intern at a Taiwanese bank. Other experience on my CV: Taiwan Final of a quant competition, a government-funded exchange at an international FinTech expo, varsity volleyball + department team officer, assorted volunteer work

2. Programs and timeline

Admitted:

• Imperial College London — MSc Financial Technology (Decision)

• LSE — MSc Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation

• University of Edinburgh — MSc Finance, Technology and Policy

• University of Edinburgh — MSc Banking Innovation and Risk Analytics

• University of Manchester — MSc Digital Transformation (FinTech Track)

• (Netherlands) University of Amsterdam — MSc Quantitative Finance

Rejected:

• UCL — MSc Banking and Digital Finance

Honestly, for my top few schools my GPA was on the low side, and that was my biggest worry when I started applying. My Last 2 years GPA got up to 4.28, and in practice many US schools really do look at Last 2 years / Last 60 credits GPA. Of course I wasn't applying to the US, so it might not have mattered, but I still put it on my CV to highlight the upward trend. It can't hurt anyway XD.

I had also planned to apply to NUS & NTU in Singapore and had all the documents written and ready to submit, but since Imperial's offer came very early, I never sent those applications.

3. How I chose schools and researched programs

At first I went back and forth between Finance, Quantitative Finance, Business Analytics and Data Science. Each one seemed a bit like me, but also seemed to fall just short. Then I decided to flip the question: which kind of program would give me the biggest advantage?

I spent a long time researching each school's curriculum, employment reports, upperclassmen's experiences and official program pages, gathered information on Dcard, Xiaohongshu and Reddit, and also checked alumni careers on LinkedIn & reached out to upperclassmen to talk in person. A big part of this also goes to the information I picked up while browsing online in part 3.

In the end, weighing my own career direction, I chose broad fintech as the core of my applications, focusing on two areas:

1. Tech-oriented Finance (e.g. Imperial FinTech): heavier on financial math and programming, suited to Tech Analyst, Risk Quant, Data Engineer / Scientist, etc.

2. Combining business and tech transformation (e.g. LSE MISDI): favors cross-disciplinary skills and a digital innovation background, suited to Tech Consulting, Tech PM, etc.

Compared with the total cost of studying abroad, application fees are relatively low. So there isn't much to say about choosing schools: I just applied from the top down, to any school I thought was good and would want to attend if admitted.

Dutch schools usually send offers fast, and you don't have to pay a deposit to hold your place (which is amazing), so they work well as safeties. By the way, the best business school in the Netherlands is RSM (Rotterdam School of Management), but this year their MFin applications closed less than 8 hours after opening, saying they were full because of the huge volume. Apparently applications for the class of 2025 also closed after just 4 or 5 days. So if you're aiming for Dutch schools, keep a close eye on the official sites and apply as soon as they open.

While choosing programs, I also paid some attention to aligning my experience with each program. A quick example:

• In my Imperial PS, I wrote about my interest in the Student Investment Fund and International Electives and tied them to my quant and programming background

• LSE MISDI emphasizes "digital innovation" and "technology adoption," so I focused on my internships working on digital transformation in finance and built my SoP around that

Here are also some notes from upperclassmen, no guarantee they're right XD:

1. Imperial FinTech has had only one Taiwanese student per year, so I planned to apply as soon as applications opened to get ahead

2. Imperial's application essays have changed every year recently, so don't start writing too early XD

3. Unless your background is super strong, applying to LSE too early can easily land you on the Waitlist, so applying a bit later is recommended. That's why I waited until November

4. LSE's management department doesn't weigh GPA as heavily as the finance or accounting departments; it focuses more on your overall Profile

4. Standardized tests

• If you're aiming for business programs at the UK G5, I'd still recommend applying with a GMAT score, especially if your GPA isn't high.

• Whether to go for a super high score is up to you, because past a certain score the marginal benefit drops fast (both in how prep time affects your score and in how a higher score affects admission). But if you're aiming for a very competitive Program like an MFin, the higher the better.

• The GRE is fine too. Personally I don't think it matters which one you take.

• From my peers' experience and what upperclassmen told me, IELTS makes no difference to whether you get admitted (unless it's strictly required at the time of application). Lots of people I know submitted it later.

5. Imperial / LSE / UvA application details

The documents for these three schools are more of a hassle. Each has its own rules and the information online is scattered, so I'm giving them their own section. Each part also touches on my understanding of the program.

Imperial College London, MSc Financial Technology

My first impression of Imperial is that they're real coding & math nerds. You can tell from the application page: you have to fill in two extra sections, Quantitative Experience and Software Experience.

Required documents:

• Career Planning (1750 characters): your short- and long-term Career Goals

• Personal Statement (two questions, 1750 characters each):

1. Why Imperial? How will you contribute to this Community?

2. Pick from the five Values of Respect, Collaboration, Integrity, Innovation and Excellence, and write about matching experiences.

• Software Experience: programming languages (C++, Python, SQL, etc.; there's a list to choose from) + proficiency level + examples

• Quantitative Experience: course name, description, level of study and grade for math and science courses. I listed seven courses here, including Financial Engineering, Python Data Science, linear algebra, differential equations and Data Structure, plus Mathematics for ML, which isn't on my transcript; it's a Specialization Imperial itself offers on Coursera. Listing an open online course (MOOC) like that probably doesn't do much, but I figured it definitely wouldn't cost me points, so I added it anyway

For the two PS questions, I basically built my answers slowly through back-and-forth discussions with an upperclassman from an MBA program. This school really has a lot of quirks (but I love it; maybe I'm quirky too), and these questions are basically MBA application questions. But after finishing, even I was surprised: wow, I actually found real examples to match those Values?_? And I thought they came out pretty well haha.

According to the official site, 60% of the class of 2025 came from math/science or EE/CS backgrounds. There have been cases of pure business backgrounds being moved over, but I think strengthening your Quant background as much as possible still helps a lot. I'd say it comes down to three things:

1. Taking programming or math courses

2. Internships & work experience & research experience related to programming or math

3. GMAT / GRE quant scores

I had a little of all three, each a bit weak, but maybe together they were just enough to scrape by XD.

LSE, MSc Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation

This was the essay I spent the longest on, revised the most and found the most mentally draining.

LSE's application essay is called the Statement of Academic Purpose (SoAP), and overall it leans more toward an academic narrative. It asks for 1000–1500 words and specifically warns against empty talk like rankings or how great London's location is. Also remember to put your name and the program you're applying to in the header or footer. It's on the school website, but I bet a lot of people miss it XD

Here's roughly how I structured it:

• Open with how a course project at school sparked my interest in Digital Transformation

• In the body, describe specific challenges and observations from two digital and data internships (e.g. how slowly Taiwan's financial industry is transforming, and how terrible and painful data governance is)

• Then lay out my career goals: Tech Consulting in the short term, helping the financial industry drive innovation in the long term

• Close by connecting how MISDI's course resources (I specifically mentioned the theme of a past Sprint Week, one of the program's highlights) would help me reach those goals

There were lots of fiddly details in between, and I discussed it with an LSE upperclassman and did several major rewrites, but that's roughly the overall structure.

LSE MISDI is a rather unusual Program. The name says information systems, but the curriculum is different from a traditional MIS program: there's almost 0 Coding, and overall it's closer to a Tech PM track. The program doesn't weigh standardized test scores that heavily (though they can't be too low), and it puts a strong emphasis on Diversity, such as nationality, academic background and years of work experience. According to current students, each cohort has nearly 100 people from 47 countries, which is top tier Diversity among taught master's programs in the UK and anywhere in the world.

The school set up an Offer Holder group chat. At a conservative estimate, Chinese speakers make up no more than 20% of it, with the rest from Europe, Africa and the Americas, and probably more than half have 3+ years of work experience.

After talking with some Offer Holders, my take is: this program really does read your essays, and you especially need to show your connection to "tech innovation." Which industry it's for doesn't seem to matter. Looking through the group, there are people from Banking, Media, Healthcare, FMCG and so on, and quite a few from Consulting.

University of Amsterdam, MSc Quantitative Finance

UvA's application process is more tedious than other schools', on the rigorous side, and it cares a lot about how well your coursework matches. That's common across European schools: they really look at which courses you took in undergrad, while your grades don't seem to matter as much. If your courses all match up and you apply early, your chances of admission seem to be very high.

Required documents:

• Core Course GPA Calculation: the system provides an Excel sheet where you list all relevant courses and grades, and it calculates your GPA automatically. The standard courses listed for MSF include Investments, Econometrics, Derivatives, etc. I entered almost every required and elective course from my finance department

• Course Description: attach the Syllabus, credits, textbooks, grading method, etc. for each relevant course; I've included an example image below. It's basically compiling all the details behind your entire transcript at once. Very time-consuming, but preparing early saves you a lot of stress

• Motivation Letter: optional, basically a cover letter like for a job application. I condensed my generic PS a bit, summarized my motivation and fit, and submitted it

Overall, UvA's documents are fairly tedious. Preparing them feels a lot like filling out the standard résumé forms at some Taiwanese financial holding companies, which make you fill in family background, education history and that kind of bullshit, just as annoying. But as I said above, this school doesn't charge a deposit to hold your place, which is really considerate and worth it.

6. Summary and reflections

I don't think any part of my application stood out: no super high grades, no big-company internships, no exchange experience or anything like that. But here are a few things I think I did OK:

1. Every experience reflected the programs I applied to. Whether it was digital work in finance, data internships or quant competitions, once framed, they all pointed in a clear direction.

2. Programming & quant coursework. Honestly I don't think this part was very convincing haha, since I didn't have a double major or minor. But compared with classmates from pure business backgrounds in the management school, I probably had a bit of an edge in both.

3. Essays that go deep rather than broad. Find the right direction and just dig in hard. Especially for career goals, never say "I want to do A or B or C"; say "I want to be the best at A." Go deep on one path and clearly show that you "know what you want." (Even if that's not entirely true in reality XD)

A simple rule:

When writing application documents, don't put in everything you have; put in what you want people to see.

I re-examined every past experience and every course on my transcript: "How can I describe this so it ties back to this program?" If after reading your documents you think, "Wow, I'm actually a great fit for this Program," that's the winning version XD

7. Final thoughts

I first thought about going abroad for grad school in my sophomore year, and almost a year after graduating I finally got an offer from my dream school. The whole process took three years, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't moved. Since I stretched the timeline out so long, looking back now there wasn't really a moment I'd call agonizing, and I don't think I ever really broke down. What I remember most isn't the exams or the documents, but the anxious stretch after the interview, waiting for results. Those two or three weeks were really draining. I kept thinking that if I didn't get in, maybe I should hurry and apply to NCCU's International Finance program, super close to my home XD. Then one night an Email popped up, "Congratulations! Offer From Imperial," and I could finally breathe. Two months later, when LSE's letter came too, I felt like I was dreaming. It had originally been my first choice.

But in the end I chose Imperial. Long Story. I'll judge that choice once I've finished the program XD But I can't attend both programs, so I probably can't say objectively which was the right one for me.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. A lot of people helped me when I applied, and I'll do my best to give back to anyone who needs it.