Huge congratulations to Seyon Indran for securing a place to attend Imperial College Business School to study MSc Economics & Strategy for Business. We caught up with Seyon to find out why he applied to Imperial and how he found the application experience.
Why Imperial College Business School?
The main factor that drove me to only apply to Imperial College Business School was the fact that they are not only a top-tier university with a stellar reputation amongst banks and consultancies but also are one of a few universities to offer the opportunity to study the unique blend of economics and strategy at a postgraduate level. From that, I knew I’d be able to deepen my knowledge in a range of fields interest by leading academics whilst also making full use of all the career focused services and society events; the prospect of both of which really excited me.
Why did you choose that specific course?
I really enjoyed studying Economics at the undergraduate level; however, towards the end of my degree I really wanted to understand and find out more about how the economic theories and models I learnt over the last 3 years were utilised by corporations to inform their strategic decision. From what I could gather by reading about the programme online, the module descriptions and from talking to their excellent student ambassadors, I gathered that this course really offered a unique blend of economics and strategy teaching that seemed excellent to me. Also, this course provides me with the opportunity to carry out a consulting project during the summer term. This really stood out to me as previous clients included very well-known firms and I felt this would be the perfect way to apply the skills and knowledge I would have learnt throughout the year in a hands-on, practical project where I have the opportunity to make a real impact.
What did you most enjoy about the application process?
One of the things I really enjoyed about the application process was attending the insight evening for the MSc Economics & Strategy for Business programme. Before attending I was already sure I would apply for this programme at Imperial College Business School. After having attended, not only did the event reinforce my passion to want to apply for this programme, but I enjoyed the insights into life at Imperial and talking to the student ambassadors so much that I decided this would be the only institution I would apply to for a postgraduate degree. I also really enjoyed the written application itself as I felt it was a highly introspective experience; encouraging me to think about possible career paths, future ambitions and my skills and weaknesses. I had a lot of fun with this part of the application process and found it be beneficial as well.
What did you find was most challenging about the application process?
Despite having completed several video interviews before as part of the application process for internships, I still found the video interview portion of the application process to be the most challenging. As one would expect, I was nervous and didn’t know what types of questions to expect; especially as there were competency and mathematical/economics-based questions. Whilst cliché, the best piece of advice I got to do well in this was to ‘be yourself’. There were questions I didn’t finish quite as well as I would have wanted and indeed, there was a question I didn’t manage to finish at all. However, throughout, I tried to be as true to myself as possible; answering questions honestly and thinking through questions as best as I could.
