Imperial College MiM – Sample Essays & Recommendation Letters

Imperial MiM Sample Essays – 1

Imperial MiM Essay 1: SOP

Before my family started the essential oils business, I have seen my parents struggle to make ends meet. There have been days where we used to share meals among us while that is all we could afford. Living a humble and simple life, taught me to value even the smallest things and not take anything for granted. So, I was determined to help and support my family, in whatever capacity I could as a teenager.

For the last 4 years, I have spent a considerable time growing and supporting my family business. I helped in acquiring customers, managing invoices, answering customer queries and complaints. As the business grew, we hired a Chartered Accountant to help with the financial bookkeeping. Assisting our accountant was my first hand formal experience in Finance. Curious to learn more, I self taught the concepts of Finance using Coursera and Linkedin Learning. Reading the Financial Times and debating over stock market and other topics with my father were a common occurrence. My interest in Finance piqued beyond books and applied these learnings into real projects. I built an automatic stock trading algorithm for Reliance with over 10% annualised returns. I also won the best project award in a national competition for developing an effective equity selection model based on business headlines scanning over 5000 new articles in a week to predict trend lines and movements of the stock market.

As someone who has lived through financial difficulties, I empathise with people who are underprivileged. Hence caring and supporting these communities has been a big part of my life. For over 3 years, I have involved myself in teaching underprivileged kids, english and math in government and NGO run schools. I have also volunteered, collected and distributed food to the downtrodden communities through NGOs and social impact clubs. When the second wave of Covid hit India, I along with my two friends started a GoFundMe fundraiser to airlift 20 Phillips 10L oxygen concentrators to the poorest and worst hit parts of the country.

These experiences have humbled me and taught me not to forget my roots wherever I go. As a leader in the future, I want to grow and lead businesses on the ground of ethics, sustainability and inclusivity. I strongly believe Msc Management at Imperial is the right step towards achieving my personal and professional goals.

Imperial MiM Essay 2: List your target organisation(s) and role. Please do not exceed 200 characters.

My post MSc career goal is to get into the finance industry, either in Private Equity or Investment Banking sectors. My target role is Financial Analyst in companies such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs.

Imperial MiM Essay 3: How will this programme help you reach your career goal? Please do not exceed 1500 characters.

My long term goal is to become a leader in the finance industry. To achieve my goals, I need the knowledge and understanding of not only Finance but the end-to-end business as a whole. I need to understand different facets of the business world, how financial decisions are made from project level to organisation level, and how strategy influences the operations of an organisation.

I strongly believe the MSc from Imperial will equip me with necessary knowledge and understanding of the business world. Electives such as advanced corporate finance will strengthen my foundation in Finance while courses in Strategy will impart the holistic business understanding. The intensive case based learning will broaden my horizon with real world scenarios and business problems.

I am keen to make the best use of all the opportunities that Imperial provides, as this will help me transition into a full time professional in the Finance sector. As a person who values learning by doing, I believe student activities in Imperial Finance Club and access to the huge Finance Hub in London provides me with an immense learning opportunity to gain real-life industry experience and keep myself up-to-date with the hot trends in Finance.

Imperial MiM Essay 4: Do you see any barriers that you may need to overcome to reach this goal? This can be personally, professionally, or academically. Please do not exceed 1500 characters.

One of the challenges I believe I will face while pursuing MSc is falling prey to impostor syndrome. As interesting and enriching it might be to meet people with diverse backgrounds, I feel I might be slightly intimidated amidst such high performing candidates. I hope to overcome this challenge by reinforcing the unique strengths I possess and focusing on the value that I bring to the cohort.

Apart from this, I am a person who struggles to perform in high pressure environments. In the past, I have often got stressed and anxious while working on projects with tight deadlines and high expectations. Yoga and Pranayama (Meditation) are my go to tools in such situations and it has helped me to a great extent in controlling my anxiety. Nonetheless, I am determined to overcome any challenges while at and after Imperial.

Imperial MiM Essay 5: What skills will you need to develop to prepare for this career? Please do not exceed 800 characters.

With no full time corporate experience, I need to develop stakeholder management skills. My exposure to managing a team has been limited to events and projects that I did in engineering days. However, in an international corporate setup, with diverse and multicultural teams, I need to learn to impact and influence across levels. I hope to hone these skills through internships, group activities and case competitions while at Imperial.

Another skill I need to develop is critical thinking. Coming from an engineering background, I tend to solve problems based on facts and numbers. However, in business there are other factors such as consumer behaviour, brand sentiment, cultural impact to consider. Working with students from diverse backgrounds at Imperial will help me improve on these skills.

Imperial MiM Essay 6: Please share your motivation for undertaking this programme? Please do not exceed 1500 characters.

Before my family started the essential oils business, I have seen my parents struggle to make ends meet. There have been days where we used to share meals among us while that is all we could afford. Living a humble and simple life, taught me to value even the smallest things and not take anything for granted. So, I was determined to help and support my family, in whatever capacity I could as a teenager.

For the last 4 years, I have spent a considerable time growing and supporting my family business. I helped in acquiring customers, managing invoices, answering customer queries and complaints. Assisting our accountant in book-keeping and reconciliation activities was my first hand formal experience in Finance. My interest in Finance piqued beyond books and applied these learnings into real projects. I built an automatic stock trading algorithm for Reliance with over 10% annualised returns. I also won the best project award in a national competition for developing an effective equity selection model based on business headlines scanning over 5000 new articles in a week to predict trend lines and movements of the stock market.

Now I wish to gain an overall business understanding and transition into a full-time position as a Financial Analyst. My motivation for applying to this course is to gain that theoretical and practical understanding of different facets of business through the rigorous curriculum and activities that Imperial offers the student community.

Imperial MiM Essay 7: What would you contribute to the cohort and to the Imperial community? Please do not exceed 1500 characters.

As a computer science engineer, I have hands-on experience in solving problems using technology – for example I built an automatic stock trading algorithm that can trade on an intra day basis to make a net gain. With my experience, I can contribute to class discussion and case studies on how technology can be used to solve business world problems.

My introduction to finance came through my family business. I work with my Chartered Accountant to manage our business’s financial books and balance sheets. I have a good grasp of accounting and finance principles. Finance being one of the difficult concepts, I can teach and help my batchmates with financial concepts.

As someone who has worked on more than 5 live projects in my engineering days, I understand and appreciate the value of learning by doing. I would take part and represent Imperial in various case study competitions and real world projects.

A couple of years ago, I had a revelation about my sexuality, that I’m bisexual. For the past two years, I have been struggling to accept this fact about myself. I wish to join the LGBTQ+ club at Imperial and become an advocate for my community. I want to create support groups where people can open up and share their experiences in a non-judgemental, secure environment.

Imperial MiM Essay 8: How would you use your degree to make a positive impact? Please do not exceed 1500 characters.

As someone who has lived through financial difficulties, I empathise with people who are underprivileged. Hence caring and supporting these communities has been a big part of my life. For over 3 years, I have taught underprivileged kids math and english. I have also associated myself with charity organizations. However, in recent years, I have seen so many fintech companies that are helping social problems. For example, microfinancing startups that give out short term credit for businesses, product startups that help low skilled immigrants send money to home countries at a cheaper rate, community insurance startups and so on.

After gaining relevant knowledge on finance and business through MiM, I will apply these learnings to create a positive impact on society through the fintech sector. I plan to volunteer and associate with social impact organisations to devise financial strategies that create a meaningful impact on small and medium businesses. In addition, I also plan on putting 10% of my monthly salary towards helping those in need.

Imperial MiM Essay 9: What is your proudest achievement? Please do not exceed 1500 characters.

Breaking the taboo around sex education and creating awareness especially among adolescent kids is my proudest achievement.

When I was twelve, I was sexually assaulted by my math home tutor. He has been my teacher for over 5 years and was the person whom I trusted, whom my parents trusted. At that time, I had no idea what I was going through, and all I could say was that I don’t like this teacher, and I don’t want to study math anymore. When I was 18 and gained knowledge on the subject, I could look back and understand what truly happened.

Wanting to create awareness, I volunteered at an NGO, School of Life, to raise awareness on sex education for three years. During my undergraduate days, I have been very vocal about it, sensitising students on this topic. Partnering with social organisations, I created support groups and conducted workshops to spread awareness on legal rights and professional help that is available. We created spaces where a small group of people can come forward and speak about their experience under professional guidance. This helped create a positive and inclusive environment where the victims can get the necessary emotional and physical support they need. Impacting so many lives and extending support to those who need it has been a rewarding experience and my proudest achievement so far. I would continue to carry on such efforts as part of student activities at and after Imperial.