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Dubai and the UAE
MBA admissions, Oxford and Cambridge maths entry, and quant interview preparation for families and professionals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. All online, and in a convenient time zone.
What is different about applying from the UAE
Dubai and Abu Dhabi have an unusually dense concentration of British-curriculum and IB schools, which means candidates arrive with the right qualifications and, very often, with no one around them who has sat a MAT or a STEP paper. The syllabus is not the obstacle. The absence of anyone to be stuck in front of is.
Schools here are also used to preparing students for the UAE's own university pathways and for the US, where the application rewards breadth. A UK STEM application rewards almost the opposite: depth in one subject, and evidence of it. Statements written in the American register — well-rounded, activity-heavy — read as unfocused to an Oxford tutor.
For professionals, the MBA question here is usually whether to go at all. Salaries are untaxed, so the real cost of two years away is higher than the same decision taken from London, and the arithmetic deserves doing honestly before the essays are started. I have talked people out of applying on exactly this point.
Why it works from here
The UAE is two hours ahead of me in summer and three in winter, so afternoon and early evening sessions in Dubai fall comfortably in my working day. Everything is online, which is how most of my work has always run.
Students at British and IB schools
Many families in the Emirates have children at British-curriculum or IB schools, aiming at Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial or LSE for mathematics, computer science, engineering or physics. For them the decisive parts are the admissions test (MAT, STEP or TMUA) and the December interview. Those are the parts I teach myself, every session. See Oxbridge & US STEM admissions and MAT preparation.
Professionals applying for an MBA
Dubai and Abu Dhabi have a large community of bankers, consultants and engineers applying to LBS, INSEAD (which has a campus in Abu Dhabi) and the M7. I interview MBA and Executive MBA applicants for London Business School, and I did the LBS MBA myself. See MBA admissions and LBS interview questions.
Quant careers
For candidates targeting trading and research roles, preparation is the same wherever you live: probability, market-making games, mental arithmetic and the way you think out loud. I work as a high-frequency trading quant. See quant interview preparation.
Who you work with
One person, from the first call to the last session: a working high-frequency trading quant with an Oxford MSc in computer science, a master's in financial engineering and an LBS MBA, who interviews MBA and Executive MBA applicants for London Business School.
The first conversation is twenty minutes and free. Or write to alex@geodesicpartners.co.uk.