To what extent would a CFA certification help in securing a seat in top business schools (Stanford, Wharton, HBS)?

Sorry to disappoint you my friend but it won't help much. First of all for getting B Schools outside India you need minimum experience of around 5 years. Foreign B-Schools don't accept freshers. So first look into that. CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) is certifications for those who are looking to get into money/asset management. If you are looking to work as an equity research analyst of portfolio manager and other such jobs then CFA can help. But again there are 3 levels of CFA. For it to be of any use you need to clear at least two levels then only you would have enough knowledge to work as an equity research analyst or other such jobs. So CFA alone won't help. If you are already in finance sector and trying to change job or climb up the ladder then it may be a bit helpful. They will give lot of experience to your job experience as such. So do thorough research of requirements of the top B-schools and then make a well informed decision. There is no point doing CFA just for sake of adding something to your resume.

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Actually the answer of this question is depends upon the trajectory of your academic background. If the graph is ascending that’s fine but if it is declining then it doesn’t helps you in much better way If you are targeting MBA programs, CFA will help only if: Your post MBA goals have to do with Equity Research/variant of equity research. If you want to do investment banking, CFA doesn’t really help. Your past work experience has been in Financial Markets/investment management and you are competing in the finance applicant pool, having a CFA helps you strengthen your profile. If you have a poor undergraduate record, CFA can help you compensate a little bit on the academic front. A CFA will NOT help you: Compensate for a LOW GMAT. Business schools have to publish the average GMAT score for their class, which in-turn impacts their rankings. You doing/not doing a CFA does not help them much. If you want to work in areas such as Management Consulting or Investment Banking- these require different set of skills. CFA/no CFA does not matter. Compensate for your low work ex. CFA is an academic degree, not a substitute for real work experience. You need to focus on the why. What drove you to pursue the charter?There is no set formula to get into these B-Schools. A CFA charter might help you explain away some weaknesses in other parts of your overall application such as a weak Quant background in your academics.

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