When Ma Yihao, a prospective graduate from BNBU's Faculty of Business and Management, received his long-awaited offer to study the MSc Risk Management & Financial Engineering programme at Imperial College London (ICL), he looked back at his four years of study, and counted 20 densely packed notebooks filled with handwritten notes.
Ma Yihao
Class of 2025,
Department of Finance and Economics
Offer: MSc Risk Management & Financial Engineering programme, Imperial College London
These notebooks aren't just pages of scribbles. They are the evidence of his hundreds of weekends spent in the library, a near-perfect GPA, and four years as the top student in his programme.
Asked how he maintained such stellar performance, Ma shared his two-step note-taking strategy: first, quick digital notes during lectures on a tablet, and then carefully rewriting them by hand at the library. "It takes me about two hours to process each two-hour lecture," he said. "But the effort pays off." By reprocessing the knowledge, he was able to consult the teachers again on any points that he still found confusing and manage to understand them with practice.
Ma's notebook
Teamwork also plays a key role in his growth, Ma shared. Known for taking leadership roles in group projects, he has learned that early planning and a clear division of tasks are crucial. In one of his classes, his group produced a fund portfolio analysis that mimicked real-world asset management, which is an experience he likens to acting as an actual fund manager.
Ma and his teammates win first place in the CFA Institute Research Challenge (South China Regional Competition)
Ma's practical abilities extend beyond the classroom. During an interview with a security company, he impressed the panel by presenting an options pricing model he built using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), a skill he developed in BNBU's course. This landed him an internship in options strategy.
He also interned at KPMG and has accepted an intern offer in data analytics from ByteDance, gaining valuable insights across consulting, finance, and technology. These diverse experiences helped him discover his passion for data and risk modelling. To better prepare, he actively pursued elective courses in data science and programming, expanding his skill set beyond his finance major.
Ma interns at ByteDance
Looking ahead to ICL, Ma is preparing for intensive coursework while planning to make the most of the university's career resources. As always, he's moving forward with precision and purpose.
