How I Learnt About The Olympiad, Won, And Got Admitted to a Master's Programme

Deborah Oladosu, who is entering the master's programme in Strategic Corporate Finance this year, talks about her experience with applying to HSE and how she received financial support for her master's studies in Moscow.

After earning my undergraduate degree in Banking and Finance in 2018 from a Nigerian university, I decided to gain a deeper knowledge in finance in order to contribute to economic growth and development. Being a lifelong enthusiast of universities with a high reputation for academic excellence, first-rate infrastructure, and great teaching methodology, I started searching the world's top schools and scholarship opportunities.

In 2018, I submitted three applications for admission and scholarships, and I received both conditional and unconditional offers of admission for master's finance programmes. However, these offers were without funding.

The following year, I met a 2019 Olympiad winner on Facebook and I learnt from him that the next call for applications for the Russian Open Doors Scholarship (Olympiad) was going to be in October 2019 and that I should keep an eye on it. When it was time, I applied for the 1st stage of the process which was a portfolio competition. Our certificates, publications, and essays, among other requirements, were assessed and graded. By December 2019, the results of the 1st stage were released and, being 2nd on the list for the Economics subject area, I qualified for the final round of the Olympiad which was a proctored exam in my chosen subject area. I prepared for the exams with the syllabus, sat for the exam around January 2020 and with God's help, I was shortlisted among the few candidates who won the Olympiad. 

Having gotten funding, I knew the next stage was to choose universities among the Association of Global Universities who were partner universities with the Russian Open Doors scholarship, which would be my source of funding. I chose the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) as my first choice and applied. While going through the finance related courses on the school's website, I read the profile of a student who was in the same programme I intended to study in, searched for him on LinkedIn and connected with him. He encouraged me to apply for the Strategic Corporate Finance programme which also provides students opportunties for a double degree with a prominent European university. 

Navigating HSE's applicant's personal account system has been quite easy too. This made my application less stressful. I applied for both the Master's in Finance and the Master's in Strategic Corporate Finance and was recommended for admission with full scholarship by the programmes. I had to accept one programme and I chose Strategic Corporate Finance. The International Admissions office and all of the admission committee members at HSE University have been helpful throughout the process.

Many thanks to the Russian government and HSE University for this opportunity. I look forward to an interesting and life-changing experience at HSE University.

Indeed, "whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” 


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Other future students stories:
Syeda Ulya Ehsen Kazmi from Pakistan, PrepYear alumna, Economics: Research Program 

Tingxi Tan from China,  Strategic Corporate Finance Master program 

Open Doors Olympiad official website