Mr. Swiss Banker

You have a lot of what Bocconi and INSEAD are seeking in students, despite a lower GRE score. Is there any way you can raise this score or try the GMAT instead? At present, this score is the weakest part of your profile. It will be more of an issue for INSEAD than Bocconi, but both care about averages (less so than US-based MBA programs, as these EU schools tend to prefer older applicants with more established career profiles, but they still compete with each other in the rankings and scores are a part of that). Your GRE score also seems optically incongruous with a UC Berkeley alum who graduated with an economics degree in 3 years. You clearly have loads of intellectual prowess! Many candidates raise their score considerably by drilling through a question bank with data tracking complemented by 1:1 tutoring. This is especially true for the quantitative portions of exams like the GRE because there are predictable taxonomies to question types which are imminently teachable.
Aside from your GRE score, you have the type of profile that top EU schools want: consulting and finance at what appears to be a bulge bracket bank (I’m guessing Credit Suisse or UBS?). Wanting to be in the EU also helps, especially combined with your dual citizenship. Considering that recruiters for European MBA programs are generally seeking candidates for Europe-based positions it’s helpful that you won’t require visa sponsorship. US MBAs typically aren’t seeking Europe-based post-MBA positions, even if they are from Europe themselves, because these positions typically pay less than equivalent US positions.
Arguably the most important part of your application and the part over which you have the most control is your strategic positioning, notably your proposed career path post-MBA. Here’s where there seems to be a lot of confusion. Your profile states that your post-MBA goals are “luxury goods management, technology, or returning to finance.” These are 3 DRAMATICALLY different career paths which will be seeking different things from MBA recruits. Your likelihood of admission depends on which of these things you choose to write about and how good of a case you can make for them. Remember, your proposed career path needs to be ambitious but also imminently achievable based on prior experience. I think you are qualified for any of these three options, but you need to consider which one you actually want, which one will resonate most with the AdCom based on the stories you can tell about your prior professional experience, and which one you’ll be most genuinely enthusiastic about talking about in the interview.
Your leap to fashion, if you don’t already have a professional tie to it (e.g., consulting for luxury packaged goods companies or covering these types of firms in banking), will need to be watertight in your essays. European schools are generally better for luxury good placement (especially INSEAD, which is arguably the best and which places many people at companies like LVMH and Diageo every year). If you haven’t had professional experience in luxury good management, you’ll need to make a case for why you want to be in that space and why you believe you will succeed in it. The same goes for technology – I’m guessing you’d be seeking a PM or PMM-type role (this is what most MBAs do in tech post-MBA). What skills and experiences do you have that would be applicable in this area? (Cross functional leadership, especially between technical and non-technical personnel will be key to highlight here).
If you talk about wanting to go back into finance, you’ll need to have a water-tight reason for why you NEED the MBA. You are likely already very well aware that certain sectors of banking no longer necessarily “reward” the MBA, and going back to school could very well be a professional opportunity cost rather than an accelerator. If you are thinking of going back into finance in an area that especially rewards/tacitly requires the MBA (e.g. equity research or investment management), then complementing your econ UG coursework with specific coursework in these areas will make sense to the AdCom.
Although you have a lower GRE, you still have a good shot at Bocconi if you make sure your strategic positioning is watertight and the rest of your application is flawless. Your INSEAD application would be well served if you apply for the accelerated option, which typically offers more grace for lower test scores (though you should know if you do this accelerated option you will not have a break for an internship that might be helpful for a career switcher). The Wharton INSEAD alliance has a lot of published papers on CPG/luxury goods/fashion that might be worth checking out for ideas on essay materials. If you apply to INSEAD, you should start sooner rather than later as it is probably the longest and most arduous written application of the top global MBA programs. The Retail, Consumer and Luxury Goods Club at INSEAD is the most well-organized of its kind and the Singapore campus offers unparalleled case study application of academic principals in the space. Best of luck to you!