Kate
MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance
Imperial helped me secure an internship with a startup in London run by an Imperial alumnus. The founders reached out to my course cohort directly because they knew the capability of Imperial students.
From launching her own environmental non‑profit as a teenager to seeking the financial tools needed to scale real climate impact, Kate from the US found the perfect next step in her career in Imperial’s MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance. Find out more about the course’s hands‑on learning opportunities, what it’s like to deliver not one but two TEDx talks, and how Kate’s found inspiration and her community at Imperial.
Why did you apply to Imperial?
There are only a few courses in the world that focus on the intersection between climate change and financial modelling which made this Master's at Imperial the perfect next step of my career.
When I was a teenager, I started my own environmental non-profit company, The Compass Online. My team provided online and in-person educational curricula about Sustainable Development Goals as set out by the United Nations, reaching over 20,000 students globally. After that, I only worked for non-profits. I helped with everything, including finance, lobbying, policy writing, graphic design and programme evaluation.
However, I knew that I couldn’t achieve the same scale of impact in the non-profit space as in the for-profit space, which is why I specifically looked for a climate finance Master’s course to teach me more about the financial modelling aspects of the career field. There are only a few courses in the world that focus on this intersection, including Imperial’s MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance, which made this course the perfect next step of my career.
The course also has an extremely high graduate employment rate and teaches a good mixture of financial modelling, data science and climate technology, which has allowed me to apply my policy background as a framework to analyse current global decision making.
As an international student, cost was honestly a huge factor in my decision to apply to Imperial. Coming from the United States, the equivalent degree at an Ivy League university was twice the price of this course at Imperial. As somebody who has always had to fund my own education, this was a large selling point for Imperial.
My student experience of the MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance course
Growing up, I never thought I was a “STEM” person. I always preferred English class over maths and history over physics. However, this course showed me how much I adore all of it when applied to solving climate change.
The course goes in-depth about the entire climate industry, from reporting to deep tech to all levels of investing. It also provides the technical skills necessary to understand this information, such as teaching Python, R and Excel. I never imagined I would be energised from learning about exactly how an electric vehicle battery is constructed or get in “flow state” from building financial models – but here I am!
The course has an extremely high graduate employment rate and teaches a good mixture of financial modelling, data science and climate technology.
With the course covering so much content, I’ve been inspired to build things on my own in my spare time, such as practicing windmill investment modelling, trying a venture capital restructuring project and winning a research competition at the London Student Sustainability Conference for my research into a new way of reporting carbon emissions for AI data centres.
Additionally, I participated in both the Imperial TEDx conference and the King’s College TEDx conference. It had been on my bucket list to give a TEDx talk, and my time at Imperial allowed me to do this not just once, but twice!
My friends and I after my Imperial TEDx talk
My friends and I after my Imperial TEDx talk
Why did you apply to Imperial?
There are only a few courses in the world that focus on the intersection between climate change and financial modelling which made this Master's at Imperial the perfect next step of my career.
When I was a teenager, I started my own environmental non-profit company, The Compass Online. My team provided online and in-person educational curricula about Sustainable Development Goals as set out by the United Nations, reaching over 20,000 students globally. After that, I only worked for non-profits. I helped with everything, including finance, lobbying, policy writing, graphic design and programme evaluation.
However, I knew that I couldn’t achieve the same scale of impact in the non-profit space as in the for-profit space, which is why I specifically looked for a climate finance Master’s course to teach me more about the financial modelling aspects of the career field. There are only a few courses in the world that focus on this intersection, including Imperial’s MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance, which made this course the perfect next step of my career.
The course also has an extremely high graduate employment rate and teaches a good mixture of financial modelling, data science and climate technology, which has allowed me to apply my policy background as a framework to analyse current global decision making.
As an international student, cost was honestly a huge factor in my decision to apply to Imperial. Coming from the United States, the equivalent degree at an Ivy League university was twice the price of this course at Imperial. As somebody who has always had to fund my own education, this was a large selling point for Imperial.
My student experience of the MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance course
Growing up, I never thought I was a “STEM” person. I always preferred English class over maths and history over physics. However, this course showed me how much I adore all of it when applied to solving climate change.
The course goes in-depth about the entire climate industry, from reporting to deep tech to all levels of investing. It also provides the technical skills necessary to understand this information, such as teaching Python, R and Excel. I never imagined I would be energised from learning about exactly how an electric vehicle battery is constructed or get in “flow state” from building financial models – but here I am!
The course has an extremely high graduate employment rate and teaches a good mixture of financial modelling, data science and climate technology.
With the course covering so much content, I’ve been inspired to build things on my own in my spare time, such as practicing windmill investment modelling, trying a venture capital restructuring project and winning a research competition at the London Student Sustainability Conference for my research into a new way of reporting carbon emissions for AI data centres.
Additionally, I participated in both the Imperial TEDx conference and the King’s College TEDx conference. It had been on my bucket list to give a TEDx talk, and my time at Imperial allowed me to do this not just once, but twice!
My friends and I after my Imperial TEDx talk
My friends and I after my Imperial TEDx talk
Hanging out with friends from different courses at Richmond Park
Hanging out with friends from different courses at Richmond Park
Hiking at Seven Sisters Country Park with the Fellwanderers Society
Hiking at Seven Sisters Country Park with the Fellwanderers Society
What's the Imperial community like?
My cohort at Imperial is very collaborative. Everybody on my course has a healthy balance of focusing on market principles while integrating sustainable impact and it’s clear how much everyone cares about saving the environment.
We have a massive group chat where everybody shares job postings, helps each other with case prep for consulting, collaborates on hackathon projects and shares news articles about recent climate developments. There is even a Run Club, Pub Club, and a new Football Club just within my course alone!
I prefer one-on-one hangouts, so I frequently have coffee chats with my classmates. Many have ambitions to start a business one day so we often talk about potential ventures. It’s great because everybody is well-informed about society – we read the same articles in The Economist or watch the same Y Combinator videos as our professors.
Societies, clubs and extracurricular activities at Imperial
At the beginning on the year, I may have been a little overambitious and signed up to 12 different societies – turns out you can’t participate in that many club activities all at once! But it was great to see the wide range of activities and communities you can get involved with at Imperial.
I really enjoyed the panels hosted by various societies, as the Imperial network is great at bringing in esteemed guest speakers from large corporations, professors from Harvard or MIT and even entrepreneurship groups like Y Combinator.
Because I’m a really energetic person, I liked the societies related to exercise, such as the Fellwanderers which organises hikes. Imperial also brings in great instructors for the dance societies, and you can hop in when it’s convenient for your schedule.
What's it like being an international student at Imperial?
It’s been a wonderful experience to live in South Kensington. I told myself this is the only time of my life where I’ll be blessed to be able to walk to Hyde Park every day, wander around the cafes on Kensington High Street and browse the shops along Sloane Square.
Over the course of my year at Imperial, I travelled to ten countries across Europe, from seeing the sights in Azerbaijan to attending a conference at the United Nations in Geneva. If I was travelling from the US, these trips would’ve cost me at least $800 just for plane tickets. But with London as my base, I could easily see the rest of the continent by utilising budget flights and staying in hostels for a fraction of the price.
Hanging out with friends from different courses at Richmond Park
Hanging out with friends from different courses at Richmond Park
Hiking at Seven Sisters Country Park with the Fellwanderers Society
Hiking at Seven Sisters Country Park with the Fellwanderers Society
What's the Imperial community like?
My cohort at Imperial is very collaborative. Everybody on my course has a healthy balance of focusing on market principles while integrating sustainable impact and it’s clear how much everyone cares about saving the environment.
We have a massive group chat where everybody shares job postings, helps each other with case prep for consulting, collaborates on hackathon projects and shares news articles about recent climate developments. There is even a Run Club, Pub Club, and a new Football Club just within my course alone!
I prefer one-on-one hangouts, so I frequently have coffee chats with my classmates. Many have ambitions to start a business one day so we often talk about potential ventures. It’s great because everybody is well-informed about society – we read the same articles in The Economist or watch the same Y Combinator videos as our professors.
Societies, clubs and extracurricular activities at Imperial
At the beginning on the year, I may have been a little overambitious and signed up to 12 different societies – turns out you can’t participate in that many club activities all at once! But it was great to see the wide range of activities and communities you can get involved with at Imperial.
I really enjoyed the panels hosted by various societies, as the Imperial network is great at bringing in esteemed guest speakers from large corporations, professors from Harvard or MIT and even entrepreneurship groups like Y Combinator.
Because I’m a really energetic person, I liked the societies related to exercise, such as the Fellwanderers which organises hikes. Imperial also brings in great instructors for the dance societies, and you can hop in when it’s convenient for your schedule.
What's it like being an international student at Imperial?
It’s been a wonderful experience to live in South Kensington. I told myself this is the only time of my life where I’ll be blessed to be able to walk to Hyde Park every day, wander around the cafes on Kensington High Street and browse the shops along Sloane Square.
Over the course of my year at Imperial, I travelled to ten countries across Europe, from seeing the sights in Azerbaijan to attending a conference at the United Nations in Geneva. If I was travelling from the US, these trips would’ve cost me at least $800 just for plane tickets. But with London as my base, I could easily see the rest of the continent by utilising budget flights and staying in hostels for a fraction of the price.
What's life at Imperial really like?
Connect with current students and explore the vibrant community that makes life at Imperial so unique.
Student life in London
I absolutely love South Kensington and Chelsea. The surrounding area is beautiful to take long walks at sunset. I love great coffee shops for studying, so I am a regular at places like Kat’s Coffee Company, EVE and Guillam Coffee House in Bayswater.
Two big learning curves for me in the UK were the grocery stores and the rain. Since the US dollar is valued less than the British pound, it took me a while to get used to grocery prices. Since the price tag looks the same at face value, I thought that Waitrose was a regular grocery store and quickly learned I was overpaying for groceries!
It rains the same frequency in London as in my part of the United States. However, in the US, you only need to walk in the rain for a minute to reach your car. In London, you must walk 15 minutes each way to go to school or the grocery store. So, investing in a raincoat was necessary since the strong winds broke five of my umbrellas!
Postgraduate accommodation in London
I live in a private accommodation across the street from the Imperial Student Union called Queen Alexandra’s House. It’s an all-female dorm building for students at Imperial, the Royal College of Arts and the Royal College of Music.
I struggled in the past with finding housing when I moved to a new city, as I didn’t know anybody who could be a roommate and was worried about renting an apartment without seeing it first, so I decided to rent private student halls. This ended up being an amazing decision – I'm right next to campus, so I can always hop in and out of the library, easily attend group meetings and go to society events.
The building also comes with a built-in friend group. We all walk through Hyde Park together, have karaoke nights, do movie marathons and have trivia nights. The whole building is very close-knit.
Career opportunities after Imperial
During my Master’s, Imperial helped me secure an internship with a startup in London run by an Imperial alumnus, which I did for six months. The founders reached out to my course cohort directly because they knew the capability of Imperial students. This startup worked on industrial heat pumps, so I directly applied my knowledge from the course to calculate the unit economics of our product, how it worked in different energy markets and applied my new skills using Python to visualise financial datasets.
Whenever I’ve been preparing for job interviews, the Careers Service has been helpful. I attended resume workshops and got real-time feedback, attended multiple careers fairs and have worked with the Careers team to do mock interviews beforehand.
Employers have really respected my course at Imperial. I’ve had interviews with companies ranging from tech, like Apple, to banks like Wells Fargo and Santander, as well as unicorn startups like Zipline and Ramp. My course addresses a very niche area that is rapidly growing, and few finance candidates have experience with both the technical and financial sides of building climate products.
My top tips for being an Imperial student
This is your year, and there are so many opportunities at Imperial that you should take advantage of.
This one will be controversial, but do not study in the library. You can use studying as an opportunity to explore London and find unique places to work from. Of course, you can still see Imperial’s libraries as the place to access a Bloomberg terminal, get free subscriptions to most major newspapers, to print papers and a way to check out any book you can think of.
This is your year, and there are so many opportunities that you can take advantage of if you look for them: fitness classes, music spaces, conferences, festivals, London networking events, proximity to great employers, travel through Europe, tons of musicals and so much more. But it’s all up to you to utilise them.
I’ve loved my time at Imperial and feel so sad to leave London and my amazing friends after graduating.
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