From Bottom of the Class to Imperial FinTech: Arthur’s DIY Application

Updated 2026/10/16

Arthur went from the bottom of his class in his first year of college to an offer from Imperial College London’s MSc Financial Technology, and it took him two years to turn his studies and career plans around. In this interview I’ll walk you through how he built experience from nothing, scored well on both the GMAT and IELTS, and handled every essay and his school strategy on his own. He ended up with 6 master’s offers from top universities in the UK and the Netherlands in FinTech, Finance and Digital Transformation.

Of the students I coached on application essays this year, Arthur is one I remember especially well. He knew exactly what career he wanted and had plenty of hands-on and extracurricular experience, and after we worked on his resume and essays he got an offer from his dream school. Early in college he “slacked off” and sat near the bottom of the class; later he earned admission to 6 well-known schools on his own merit. With 3 work experiences, results from a quant competition and carefully targeted essays, he was admitted to Imperial College London’s MSc Financial Technology, along with offers from top FinTech and digital transformation programs at LSE, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Manchester and the University of Amsterdam!

If you’re thinking about applying abroad in Financial Technology, Data Analytics or Quant Finance, and you’re not sure whether your background is strong enough, whether to hire an admissions agency, or you’re stuck preparing for the GMAT / IELTS, read Arthur’s story. I’m sure it will give you some ideas.

Arthur’s background:

• National Sun Yat-sen University, Department of Finance, GPA: 3.94/4.3
• IELTS 8.0, GMAT 680
• Work Experience:
  • Data intern at a Taiwanese bank, 5 months
  • WorldQuant Part-time Research Consultant, 10 months
  • Digital intern at a Taiwanese financial holding company, 2 months
  • Part-time administrative job at the university, 1.5 years (mentioned only in some essays)
• Other Experience:
  • Quant finance competition, Taiwan Final Round
  • Publicly funded exchange trip to an international FinTech expo
  • University volleyball team and department team officer
• Offers:
  • Imperial College London, MSc Financial Technology
  • 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
  • University of Amsterdam, Master’s Quantitative Finance (Finance)
• Final choice: Imperial College London, MSc Financial Technology
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_wh_hxinnn/
• Medium: https://medium.com/@HsuXin (Arthur has posted some articles there and will keep writing about his master’s studies.)

Imperial College London MSc Financial Technology: An Overview of the Program

Imperial College London’s MSc Financial Technology is an intensive interdisciplinary master’s that combines financial engineering, programming and data analysis. It aims to train people who can do quantitative modeling, write code and understand how finance works in practice. The program lasts one year, but students can choose to complete a 4 to 6 month Work Placement (internship), which brings the total length to 16 months.

What the program offers:

1. Interdisciplinary: a Foundation Module, Core Modules and electives covering data analysis (Data Structures and Algorithms with Python / Applications of R and Databases for Finance), finance (Mathematics for Finance), blockchain (Blockchain & Applications), big data (Big Data in Finance I) and more
2. Industry focus: located in South Kensington in central London, with wide industry connections and internship options, and the option to extend to 16 months of practical learning
3. Hands-on: assessment through Case Studies, Formal Presentations, Reports and more, which builds practical skills and supports career planning

Entry requirements:

• A bachelor’s degree in a highly quantitative subject (such as finance, mathematics or economics): Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Economics, Finance or Science
• The program website states that applicants familiar with programming languages (such as Python, C++, Java, R, SQL) will have an advantage
• Language requirements: IELTS ≥ 7.0 (each section ≥ 6.5), TOEFL iBT ≥ 100 (each section ≥ 22)

College and the Turning Point: From Near the Bottom to First in Class

I heard you ranked near the bottom of your class in first year. What happened? What made you start taking it seriously?

In the first semester of my first year, my GPA was just over 3. I wasn’t especially busy with anything else. I simply wasn’t studying and didn’t feel any urgency. Passing everything seemed good enough, and I got a B or B- in most courses.

At some point in the first semester of my second year, I started thinking about what came next and realized my dismal first-year grades had pretty much closed off admission to a Taiwanese graduate program through the recommendation route. Even if I got a perfect 4.3 every semester from then on, it probably wouldn’t lift my overall ranking enough. So I gradually looked at other options. My English was decent and my family could afford it, so I decided to apply for a master’s abroad.

Business graduate programs in Taiwan admit through recommendation almost strictly by class rank percentile. Most schools abroad use a Holistic Review, so if you make up for it with test scores and more internship and extracurricular experience, you have a real chance. My GPA was very low at the time, though, so I set myself a goal of graduating with at least 3.7/4.3. In the end I was lucky enough to reach 3.94/4.3.

I think what made the difference was that once I set the goal, I worked toward it deliberately. (I’ll admit I was also lucky with course selection, which cut down the load from general education courses a lot.) My GPA stayed above 4.2 for each of my last four semesters, and since I took more credits in those semesters, they pulled my overall GPA up even more.

Your grades kept climbing after that. What did you change? Which courses, competitions or internships helped your applications most?

For me it came down to finding a goal, committing to it, and understanding the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be.

After a bit of research it was obvious that, on my timeline, I had to bring my GPA up, or I could forget about the stronger schools. And a merely decent transcript would never be enough on its own.

So the conclusion was clear: I had to take the GMAT/GRE and build as much experience as I could. Otherwise, no matter how moving my essays were, my profile would look thin and give the school no reason to admit me. I asked some alumni and spent a lot of time reading forums and organizing information, and slowly worked out the core pieces an application needs. After that I just completed them one by one. Doing several things in parallel is ideal, but mostly you just move forward step by step. If you follow through, the result usually won’t be too bad.

I didn’t so much change anything as realize what would happen if I didn’t: “What kind of mess could I end up in, and what opportunities would I miss?”

Once that picture was clear enough in my head, the motivation came on its own.

Choosing Schools and Programs: From Finance and BA to FinTech

Why did you end up applying to Financial Technology? How did you match programs to your background, and how did you narrow them down?

After sorting through my experience and career plans, I chose FinTech in the broad sense as my core and applied along two tracks:

1. Programs leaning toward financial math and programming
2. Programs leaning toward digital transformation and strategy

I had relevant experience for both tracks from my internships and competitions. Compared with applying straight to pure finance programs, these two directions showed off my background better and also matched my career interests. I went through every school’s website and read each program page one by one, and spent a lot of time on research before settling on the programs that fit me best.

Recommended Resources for Researching Programs Abroad

These were the main resources I used for research:

1. LinkedIn: look at past admits’ profiles, send cold messages to alumni for advice, and check what graduates went on to do
2. Dcard, Chasedream, Xiaohongshu, Reddit, The Student Room: these are all forums. There’s a lot of useful material, but some of it isn’t accurate or objective, so filter it yourself
3. Personal write-ups on Medium: many alumni post their application journeys on Medium. Arthur later wrote one too
4. Articles from admissions agencies: these are usually fairly general, which makes them good for building basic knowledge early on
5. YouTube: search the full name of the school and program and you’ll find plenty of information you wouldn’t expect

At first you were torn between Finance and an MSBA in business analytics. How did you decide?

At first I went back and forth for a long time between Finance and Business Analytics programs, the two directions I originally had in mind. After weighing my background and my future career, I picked something of a compromise that also fit me better.

Apart from my finance major, my experience didn’t make me a typical MFin candidate. I also don’t expect my career to go into traditional finance, so I ruled out pure finance programs. As for BA, I liked the overall idea, but when I looked closely at the curricula, some of the modules didn’t match my preferences or plans, so I didn’t apply in the end.

How did you build your school list? What did you weigh (curriculum, career resources, location, school name and so on)?

My rule was simple: go down the rankings from the top, and apply to any school I’d actually want to attend if I got in.

In the UK, LBS’s resources are heavily concentrated in IB & Consulting, and Oxford and Cambridge didn’t have the programs I wanted, so I didn’t apply to any of those three. Of course, those three are also harder to get into XD. That made Imperial and LSE my natural Top Choices.

Next came the tier of King’s, Edinburgh, Manchester and Warwick. I didn’t see much difference between them, so I mainly looked at the city and overall cost of living.

The Dutch schools were my safety options. Based on alumni experience, Dutch schools care only about how well your coursework fits the program and your GMAT (meeting the threshold is enough). They also send offers very quickly and don’t require a seat deposit, which makes them great for building confidence early in the application season.

By the way, the best business school in the Netherlands is RSM (Rotterdam School of Management), but this year its MFin application closed less than 8 hours after opening because it had received too many applications. I think the year before it also closed after only 4-5 days, so if you’re interested in the RSM MFin, prepare early and keep an eye on when applications open.

Did you have any particular strategies or tips for applying?

The most important step is to ask alumni about their experience, especially current students or recent graduates of the program. They got in, and they know the teaching and the admissions preferences firsthand, so their advice is very useful. Before I applied, I planned my submission strategy based on what alumni told me. Here are two of my dream schools as examples:

1. Imperial FinTech had admitted only one Taiwanese student each year, so I applied in Round 1 to get in early.
2. At LSE, unless your background is exceptional, applying too early can get you waitlisted, so I waited until mid-November to submit.

All of this came from alumni. Application strategy can feel a bit like superstition, but since my background wasn’t exceptional, I preferred to believe it and do whatever I could to maximize my chances.

How Did You Make the Final Choice? Why Imperial?

Imperial College London, MSc Financial Technology

I spent a very long time choosing between Imperial and LSE. Both had been my dream schools, and giving up either one felt like a loss. In the end I read a lot online and reached out to some alumni myself before deciding. These were the main reasons:

1. For High Finance, LSE’s name does carry more weight than Imperial’s, but that isn’t the career I’m after. If I get the chance, I’d also like to try industries outside finance, so I felt Imperial was the better choice for me.
2. LSE MISDI’s curriculum leans toward soft skills, and graduates mostly target Tech PM and Tech Consulting roles. Without any full-time work experience, I didn’t think I could turn those soft skills into something employers would hire me for right away. Imperial’s courses would help me more, and more directly.
3. Following from that, comparing just the course content of the two programs, I was more interested in IC FinTech.
4. Imperial sent me an offer very early, and I had already done a lot of the groundwork (paid the deposit, found housing and so on). It’s a silly reason, but switching schools at the last minute would have meant redoing a lot of that, so it did play a very small part in my decision.

After looking at where earlier IC cohorts ended up, I think the FinTech program offers quite a flexible path. There are data roles (such as Data Scientist, BI Engineer), quant roles (such as Quant Dev, Risk Quant; Quant Research exists too, but very rarely) and traditional finance (such as primary and secondary market investment research). Almost every cohort has several graduates in each of these roles, which suggests they’re all realistic options. Most graduates go into finance, but a fair share join FinTech startups or other industries.

Of course, a degree only gets you a ticket. Whether you actually get in is up to you, and after that it all comes back to your own hard skills and past experience (especially for more Technical roles).

So beyond taking classes and writing a dissertation, you also need to build the specific skills for the direction you want to go.

LSE MISDI (MSc Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation)

I didn’t choose LSE in the end, but both schools were dream schools for me, and I never expected to get into both. For anyone interested, here is some background on LSE MISDI (MSc Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation) and what stands out about it:

MISDI is about information systems management and digital innovation. The cohort is remarkably diverse: about a hundred students from nearly 50 countries, fewer than 20% Chinese speakers, and only a handful of Indian students (which is very unusual for business master’s programs in the UK and US). The share of European students is relatively high.

The class is also well balanced in academic background, gender and work experience. Quite a few students have three or more years of work experience across Finance, FMCG, Consulting, Healthcare, Media, etc., including some of the world’s top companies. One unusual part of the program is Sprint Week: students are split into small groups and spend an intense week on a technology and innovation Consulting project for a company. Many alumni consider it one of the most practical parts of the program.

MISDI also doesn’t put too much weight on GPA in admissions (though it can’t be too low), and doesn’t require any particular academic background. Based on other Offer Holders’ profiles, my guess is that the key is making your CV and SOP clearly point toward “digital innovation.”

Most of this comes from alumni, and it broadly matches what I’ve seen in my year’s offer holder group. I hope it helps if you’re interested.

Essay Prep: How to Write for Each Program

How did you prepare your SOP / PS, and how did you adapt it for different schools and programs?

The most important thing is to read the school and program websites carefully first. Before you start writing, check whether there’s a set prompt, a word limit or any formatting rules. SOP requirements can differ from school to school; Imperial’s business school, for example, has changed its prompt every year recently.

To keep track of all this, I made an Excel sheet at the start listing each school’s essay requirements, word limits and formatting rules, which made it easier to plan my schedule and compare versions as I adjusted the content.

Did you follow a set writing process (structure first, then content)?

1. Structure first: an essay usually comes down to a few main parts: Why this school / program, your background, why you want a master’s, your Career Goal, how the program will help you get there, and so on. You can start thinking about these while choosing schools and programs, and writing goes much faster once you start.
2. Write a general version: organize your experience and draft each part using that structure, as the base for every school’s essay.
3. Adjust the focus for each program: use each program’s curriculum, resources and employment report to change the angle and emphasis, so every essay is clearly targeted and shows how well you fit.

Once I had that base, I asked someone more experienced to help me refine and polish it. I think that’s one of the best investments you can make in the application process, especially since Imperial’s prompts are complex and its word limits are strict. Jason helped me a great deal, and I was able to reuse many of those paragraphs in my essays for other schools.

Admissions Agency or DIY? Arthur’s Choice and Reasoning

Why did you prepare everything yourself instead of using an agency? Did you ever consider one? Why did you go DIY?

These were the main reasons I didn’t use an agency:

1. I was still interning while applying, but it wasn’t very demanding, so I had plenty of time.
2. I felt safest keeping my application entirely in my own hands.
3. Most of the alumni I asked said the process is not nearly as hard as it looks. Where you most need help is writing essays and preparing for interviews; you can handle everything else yourself.
4. Cost. Many agencies are expensive, and many charge extra if you apply to G5 schools. I decided the money was better spent on polishing my essays.

Still, whether to use an agency depends on your situation. Over the summer I consulted several agencies, and quite a few offered very complete services, put real effort into school selection, and seemed like they’d be easy to work with. Some of my friends also found agencies that suited them very well. If you’re busy with classes or work, need someone to keep you on schedule, or simply don’t trust yourself and want the reassurance, an agency can be a good choice.

Across essays, program choice and scheduling, what was the hardest part of DIY? Would you do it the same way again?

I think the hardest part of DIY is time management, but because I spread my study-abroad plan over a very long period (from second year to graduation), I had a fair amount of slack.

Preparing to study abroad also showed me a way of working I really like: set a long-term goal, break it into small steps I can act on, then finish them one at a time.

For me, “not knowing what I’m doing” is the scariest state to be in. People often say to “begin with the end in mind,” and I think if you know clearly where you ultimately want to end up, you won’t panic even when you occasionally get lost.

In the same way, I know what I want to achieve in 3 years and what stands between me and that goal, so I’m less likely to feel lost or unsure what to do along the way.

GMAT / IELTS: Test Experience and Prep Advice

How did you get a GMAT 680 and an IELTS 8.0?

My GMAT score isn’t impressive. I’d call it a score that doesn’t drag the application down, and even that took real effort. For this test, if your time and budget allow, I’d recommend going straight to a prep course, because the gap in information and resources is huge. Also, don’t stretch your prep out too long. It’s best to do a focused push of about 2 months; if you’re not happy with your first attempt, spend another month on your weak areas and then book a second sitting.

For IELTS I studied on my own. I was fairly lucky and scored better than I expected. A few things I think made the difference:

1. GenAI makes everything much more efficient, whether it’s speaking practice, grammar fixes or marking your writing. If you’re used to GenAI, I think it can basically replace a prep school or a tutor
2. After the GMAT, IELTS Reading feels easy. Do a few mock tests to find your pace and you’ll be fine
3. I really was lucky. I did 8 past papers while preparing and my best Listening score was 8.5, twice, but I got a 9 on the real test, which surprised me

A high IELTS score helps your admission only a little (some schools say outright at their Info Sessions that it makes no difference). From what I’ve seen among my peers, I also think you just need to clear the threshold; plenty of them got a Con Offer and submitted their scores later. Top schools do have higher average scores, but I think that’s mostly because their students are stronger to begin with, which pushes the IELTS average up, and has little to do with the admission criteria.

How did you plan the Timeline, order and strategy for GMAT and IELTS?

I prepared for the GMAT in the first semester of my third year. I wanted to get it done that semester, when my department’s workload was lighter, but I only got a score I could apply with at the start of the second semester. I didn’t take IELTS until after graduation, just before application season. Partly I was confident I’d hit the requirement; partly, to be honest, I was just lazy.

I think it’s better to prepare for the GMAT first, for these reasons:

1. The GMAT is valid for five years and IELTS for only two, so taking the GMAT first leaves you more flexibility if your career plans change.
2. The GMAT is harder than IELTS, and training on GMAT RC helps a lot when you take IELTS afterward. When I prepared for IELTS later, I could focus on the other sections. Then again, it’s a trade-off between doing the hard part first or last, and it depends on the person.
3. GMAT prep usually takes longer than IELTS. If you start with the GMAT and can’t get the score you need, you still have time to cut your losses and switch to IELTS, so you keep more options open.

Studying for IELTS on your own, how did you prepare for Speaking and Writing?

I see myself as a typical Asian student: stronger at listening and reading, weaker at speaking and writing.

For speaking, I found people online to practice with. I don’t think the other person’s English level matters that much. What matters is finding a setting that forces you to speak. Of course, a partner at a similar level, so you learn from each other, is even better. While preparing I’d also sometimes talk to myself. If I saw something while riding my scooter, or a thought popped up in the shower, I’d pick a topic and start talking out loud. That kind of practice also suits IELTS Speaking, which is mostly about everyday life.

For writing, I relied heavily on ChatGPT, and I’m grateful to it. IELTS essays are a great fit for GenAI. When reviewing, you can memorize some of the sentence patterns ChatGPT uses often and build a set of all-purpose sentence templates. After a while you’ll notice ChatGPT writes in a very systematic way, and that orderly, clearly structured style is what IELTS Writing rewards. IELTS essays don’t need wild creativity or fancy vocabulary. If your logic holds up and your sentences are correct, you can get a good score.

Internships: From Taiwanese Financial Firms to Quant Research, Each One Strengthened the Application

Which internship helped your application the most, and why?

I’d say all of them. What helped most wasn’t one particular internship but the combined effect of all of them. For me, these experiences were a gradual process of exploration: I slowly found out what I was good at, what I liked, and even what I didn’t like, and all of that shaped who I am now. So I mentioned them in every school’s essays, adjusting the emphasis and interpretation to suit each program.

Most of the programs I applied to were FinTech-related, and FinTech covers a very wide range. That let me connect internships in different directions and explain my understanding and future plans from a broader angle, which gave my essays a clearer thread and made them more convincing.

As a finance major, how did you build your quant skills? How did you get the part-time role at WorldQuant?

I took some quantitative courses. Besides the basic econometrics, statistics and calculus required by the business school, my transcript includes financial engineering, data structures and differential equations. I also spent a huge amount of time on online learning platforms like Coursera, Udemy and Datacamp. I think these platforms are a goldmine, and I practically lived on them in college. Imperial’s own Math for Machine Learning course on Coursera is very good (except for the last course, which was terrible), and I put it in my application XD.

In my experience, though, quant skills mostly come from continuous self-study and hands-on work. Classes alone aren’t enough, and I’m still working on it.

The full title of the WorldQuant role is Research Consultant. It sounds cool, but in practice you’re a factor-mining machine, aka a worker on an Alpha production line. It’s a part-time role (the contract is similar to a contractor agreement), and the bar is lower than for their official internships. I still think it’s a great way to learn, and since getting into Quant is generally hard, an Entry point like this is quite rare.

WorldQuant holds a quant finance competition every year, and if you do well enough you may get an invitation. The role gives you exposure to a lot of quant knowledge with a relatively low barrier, and you go into the office regularly to discuss your research framework or any questions with full-time researchers. They are excellent, and if you want to learn, you can get a great deal out of it.

How did you present your two internships at a financial holding company and a bank in your essays and interviews? How did you make each internship “part of your application story”?

My two internships at Taiwanese financial firms were one in Data and one in Digital. They point in different directions, but both tie into the programs I applied to. When writing my essays, I adjusted how much space each one got based on the Program: one as the main thread and one as support, so they reinforced each other and formed a complete background story. For example, for Programs focused on financial math and programming, I emphasized the technical details of the data internship, explaining what practical problems I solved and what concrete impact they had. For Programs leaning toward digital transformation and strategy, I focused on the pain points I saw during the Digital internship, such as the challenges of digital transformation in finance and the cross-disciplinary skills needed to solve them.

Whatever the direction, I always brought these experiences back to my main career goal and tied them to the curriculum and the school’s resources, so the application story was consistent and convincing.

In my third and fourth years I also deliberately took some related electives, which in my essays echoed my internships and made the overall argument more logical and complete.

Advice for Applicants: Finding Your Own Pace with Grades, Internships and Essays

If you had to sum up three things you wish you’d known earlier, what would they be?

1. Take care of your grades: whether you’re applying abroad, applying to graduate school at home or applying for scholarships, GPA is almost always the baseline requirement. Once your grades drop, recovering is really hard work. Rather than spending two or three years pulling your GPA back up, protect it from the start.
2. Get to know more people: most alumni are happy to help, even if you’ve never met. If you connect early and reach out for advice, you avoid a lot of detours and get ahead on information and opportunities, which saves a lot of effort.
3. Don’t be afraid of looking silly: I used to be thin-skinned and very worried about my image, and I missed a lot of opportunities because I was afraid of asking the wrong question or exposing my weaknesses. But honestly, nobody cares that much; it’s usually just you blowing it up in your head. “The brave enjoy the world first” has some truth to it.

Is there anything you wish you’d known in your second or third year?

Everything is a process, and working hard in the present matters most.

Looking back, what were the three most important factors in your success?

1. Doing my homework: researching which programs to apply to and what each one looks for, so I could make the most of my strengths.
2. Waking up in time in my second year and pulling my GPA up to a decent level. If I had started a year later, it might have been too late.
3. Following through. I finished almost everything on my long-term To-do list, though some of it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped XD.

What would you say to students who, like you, “started late” but don’t want to settle for average?

Do your homework, set goals, and follow through. As long as you don’t just talk about it and are willing to act, it’s never too late.

You’ll often feel fed up along the way, because you have to put in extra effort to pay off the debt you ran up earlier. But later on, that effort will become one of the best parts of your story.

People who climb up from the bottom see more of the view than people who were at the top all along.

That may sound a bit cheesy, but it’s how I really feel. Looking back, I think what matters most in college is keeping a positive attitude and exploring fields you might be interested in. Climbing up from the bottom takes a lot of effort, but it’s worth it: along the way you learn what you like and what you don’t, and you’ll still have plenty of time and room to try, fail and experiment boldly.