MSF then MBA?
Are there any benefits of completing a MSF then get some work experience then apply for MBA school? Or should I just apply for MBA school? I have a feeling I need various work experience to get into a good MBA school, which is why I was thinking of completing a MSF program and then find a investment related job and apply for MBA school after.
My goal is to eventually land a job at a HF or any big fund companies to manage portifolios.
I am currently working at a BB PWM shop in operations (fixing trade errors and now a senior associate). Started this position 3 years ago right after my internship, which I started after graduating from a top 20 undergrad (3.3 GPA).
I'll let people comment on the career benefits but you're correct that you need work experience. Take a look at the range of work experience for top 25 programs. there's a few rare exceptions obviously, but for all intents and purposes you need several years of work experience to even be considered.
MSF after MBA? (Originally Posted: 11/02/2009)
Hey guys, some friends from school this would be a good place to come for some feedback from industry professionals...
I am a soon to be MBA-Finance Graduate in March. At this point I'm not very confident I'll have a job after school in Asset Management or Investment Banking (either of which I'm very interested in working in). Does it make sense to follow up my MBA with a MSF? I have a 5+ year work ex. in an IT company so its a career change for me. I only became interested in Finance after starting my MBA, so I'm very "light" on finance background.
Please advise.
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Yeah, I was afraid that might be the case. Is there really such a thing as too educated though??? I'm mostly worried about the extra debt, not so much that another degree could could actually be viewed as a bad thing. Would it change anything though if I were to stay at the school I am at and do a joint degree?
How hard is it to move from asset management to i-banking? What about the reverse (how hard is it to move from i-banking to asset management)?
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Definitely can be too educated, people wonder why you would go from one program to another.
It is much easier to go IB->anything (including AM) then vice-versa. I know a number of people who have gone from IB into AM (sometimes with a PE or funds management interlude).
Start going for a CFA if you are really interested in AM and don't get much traction, they like it more than an MSF and you can do it while working and getting some experience they might like.
CFA definitely seems the better option. It is relevant though whether you're going to a decent b-school now; if it's shit, and you're not going to get any decent experience coming out of it, and you could get in to one of the top MSF programs, it might be worth it.
Good point. I should have mentioned am at a very regional school (University of Denver) and really don't have any reason to stay in this locale. If I go for the MSF I would be looking at schools like Purdue, Rochester or Boston College (and several others along those lines mostly ranked in the 20's and 30's for MBA).
Want to get a MBA later, so a MSF or MMS type program would be pretty pointless? (Originally Posted: 11/08/2011)
Maybe not completely pointless, but a waste of money at the least?
Some background. I am a sophomore at a non-target, and I was able to land minor, unpais internship at a small PWM place by me last summer. Good experience and I’m hopefully going to leverage it into something bigger for next summer. I guess the end goal is a BB internship on the street at the end of my junior year. 3.8 GPA, honors college, usual clubs and stuff, on the e-board of a club, probably going to president or VP of that one next year.
So, my end goal is to go to a top business school for my MBA when I am in my mid/late 20s, ideally Harvard (but who doesn’t want to go there?) but anywhere in the top 10 would be sweet. I think I might like to settle in Chicago, so Booth and Kellogg are up there too.
But I go to a non-target (big ass state school, so huge alumni network might be able to help somewhere along the line, so maybe this will be a non-issue, but I probably won’t have the perks of OCR) so getting a coveted job at a BB or top MM bank is going to be tough, I was thinking about going somewhere for a masters in finance and then heading into banking (ideally). Princeton’s and MIT’s programs obviously look top notch (though maybe a bit math heavy?) but Villanova, BC, maybe Vandy would be cool. CMC would be cool, wouldn’t mind living in California for a few years. Tuition doesn’t seem that absurd for some of these either, especially Nova’s and it seems like their placement is pretty solid in NYC.
Also interested in Duke’s MMS since I’m not 100% I want to go into banking, consulting also seems like an appealing career to start in. Plus the Duke name would be really nice next to my name, that alumni network would certainly be nice. But program costs of $65k kind of makes me question if it would be worth it.
So, if my goal is to go to a business school like Harvard/Booth/Darden, etc… for my MBA would a MSF be a poor investment? Even if I can’t land a nice banking gig out of undergrad, people from corporate finance jobs get into top b-schools, right? How competitive are fldps? My school sends a few people to consulting firms like Accenture and Deloitte as well each year, those jobs would interest me. I’m a finance and accounting double major so Big 4/CPA route is an option but that is really plan C at this point if banking or consulting don’t work out.
So, any advice? Would having a MSF directly hurt me when applying for b-school?
Thanks!
you're leaning towards the right answer and to all your questions, that is yes
That is really long, but I'm also interested in knowing which MA/MS degrees are not good ideas to take in addition to an MBA.
For example, Computer Science makes a lot of sense cause there's no overlap, but for people who don't plan on getting PhDs, things like Econ, Stats, Finance, Marketing (do people actually get an MA in Marketing?!) feel like there'd be a lot of overlap.
So why waste a year and pay a ton for one of those degrees when you can do the MBA and touch on them while also having a better overall experience?
A top MBA is a function of your UG institution as well as the work you do. If you go to a no name school and get into GS IBD you should be fine. Problem is that is incredibly hard from a no name school.
If you get a mediocre position from a school no one has heard of, your shot at a top school is small. So you use the MSF as a way to mini rebrand, get a "blue chip" position and then go into a top MBA. So no, an MSF will not hurt you nor is it a bad investment if it helps you break into an industry that is lucrative, attractive to adcoms and something you otherwise would not be able to get into.
Thanks guys.
I know that MBA admissions is based off of UG school but mainly your work experience but it seems to me that there is a wide range of people that get into good b-schools (ie not everyone is a banker or works for a top consulting firm) but those two paths would probably help.
Thanks ANT, that is kind of what I thought, if you need the MSF to push you to that job, but I saw other things that pointed otherwise. I go to Ohio State, so not exactly a piece of shit school, but nobody is really going to confuse us for a target anytime soon. A couple kids are usually able to land gigs at big banks each year and a couple decent Consulting firms come here to recruit, Deloitte and I guess a tier down would be Accenture.
I guess I will have to just wait and see how the job search goes for me. Would rather not spend another year in school (when I'm planning on spending 2 more for my MBA) plus shelling out $50-60k (total COA) for a decent MSF/MMS program.
thanks!
edit: nice thing is that I'm going to graduate from undergrad debt free which gives me a ton of flexibility and parents might be able to help out a little bit for my masters (nothing huge like paying for half of it haha)
Oh nice, I was just at the Ugly Tuna Saturday drinking. Awesome campus. Get into the Fisher Futures. There are some PE shops in Columbus that you might try interning at. Stone Hedge Partners is one (I believe that is the name), PM me if you want to talk offline.
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