Oxford MFE Offer: Should I accept it?

Greetings,
I received an offer from Oxford MFE program. As it's quite early in the application process, I did not get the chance to apply to MIT MFin (another of my choice). I have many questions to answer before I make my decision. Here are some of those:

Should I accept the Oxford offer?
Is it worth the price tag it comes with?
How many students of the program receive some scholarships?
Given Brexit, does it affect the Investment Banking and Asset Management Industry in London enough to worry about it?

I am an Indian national working in a middle office in Hong Kong. I would like to break into IB after my masters. I don't have a location preference (I would not mind returning to Hong Kong)

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

 

The Oxford MFE is a great program placing very well into IB. In Europe it is common to do Masters before getting into IB where as in the US you usually get into IB during your Bachelors or MBA. Therefore I would take the MFE over the MFin.

London will remain central to the financial industry just because of the language barrier in other European cities ie Paris/Frankfurt.

 

Thanks

One aspect I'm concerned about is Work visa. As an non-EU national, would the companies prefer the European candidates over others as they don't need any sponsors? And how would that change after Brexit?

Any thoughts?

Cheers

 
Most Helpful

Coming from Oxford myself, my honest opinions are:

If you're targeting London IB quant jobs afterwards - sure take it. Offers pretty good move back to HK as well - a lot of on-campus attention. MFE in Oxford is highly populated with Asians, all colours, so be prepared to be forced into unnecessary-but-still-have-to-work-hard mode. Age is fairly young, mostly without work experience. Not sure what age you are, but you might wanna consider this bruh. Faculty pretty good.

If you have a slightest inclination of going to US... and you can afford to wait for MIT decision - take MIT. London -> NY/other locations is not as easy as you think given Indian nationality. What is likely to happen under trump though... is you graduate from MIT MF, you OPT for 3 years, then you try your luck at H1B. If you fail, your company is likely to transfer you to London or HK. If it works, you try your luck at the American dream.

I don't know your age but I think this is something you wanna consider: given low mobility (from what I see) for Indian nationals and for juniors with FO experience and/or without outstanding PnL credentials, make your choice depending on where you wanna be after graduation.

 

Thanks mate, makes sense.

Fairly young too, but will have 2 years of work experience at the time of start of the program. Don't mind that hard-work-mode. I've studied in Hong Kong and Singapore before. May I know what you studied at Oxford?

Cheers

 
  • Employment: If you want to work in the US, then go for MIT (STEM masters have high chances of conversion into a work visa/green card). If you are targeting Europe/Asia, Oxford is a better choice.

  • Tuition: MIT $78,312 vs Oxford £42,890. You also have more chances of getting a scholarship at Oxford since you were accepted in an early round.

  • Network: If you go to MIT then get a job in Europe/Asia, most of your graduate school connections aren't as relevant (career wise) since they're all likely to work in the US (which would be hard to come back to, due to visa restrictions after you leave).

 

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