London School of Economics MSc. Accounting & Finance

I currently am a business major and go to a top 100 US university. not at all a target. I am very interested in going to Ibanking but i know my schools name or the career services here does not have the reputation to land good jobs, even small firms as interns.

I have been contemplating on going over to London for a masters in accounting and finance in order to get a stronger hold on financial knowledge.

I hear that LSE has great prestige with banks and placed many students in banking..

assuming i get it, should i go or would be a waste of 40-50k?

 
Best Response

You would be better off with the MSc in Finance and Economics. Many people there come from seriously unknown US schools, and land jobs with Lazard, Blackstone, all the BBs, some hedge funds. Mind you, even some people who study anthropology at LSE end up with BB offers so it may not be a huge deal anyway. However if you have the chance and you can survive the program then finance and economics is probably your best bet.

 

March has almost ended and given the intense competition for places at LSE, I believe it is too late to apply for Fall 2009 entry. You can start thinking about Fall 2010 entry because you might need to prepare for and sit the GMAT/GRE. Msc Finance and Economics at LSE is probably the best course there is in London. All my friends who graduated in 2008 from that course landed BB offers.

 

The downside of finance and economics at LSE is the difficulty of the material. It is pretty hard stuff, so I hope you took more than the minimum level of math required at a typical US undergrad business program if you are planning to go this route. Loads of people at LSE do much lighter masters programs and still land BB FO jobs, without the 12 months of suffering.

 

Alright, some people are clearly being way to crazy with this "All my friends in MSc Finance and Economics land BB jobs" talk. Yes, it does help, but no the placement rate is not that awesome. 2008 had 2 people go to GS (1 trading, 1 risk management), 2 lehman (1 structuring, 1 research), 1 UBS (PWM), 1 CS (structuring), 1 MS (IB), 1 JPM (research), 1 ML (IB). And that's it as far as BB is concerned. So 9 out of about 90 landed BB jobs. Even the overall placement rate was around 50-60%. Quite a sizable number of people finished without any jobs lined up. This year, only 4 people have jobs...total. The thing is while most kids there are smart, most also have zero work experience and that matters much much more when applying.

Going back to the original topic, as long as the market is crap, no MSC Accounting and Finance will not guarantee you a job. Again it does help, but unless you have good work experience you will most likely be returning back to the States empty-handed unless the market seriously starts to pick up by the time you start.

 

Ok, I admit it, saying "All my friends in MSc Finance and Economics land BB jobs" sounds way too juvenille. Also, I need to correct my above statements:

  1. I meant people who graduated in 2007 actually. I knew three and all three got jobs. GS Research, CS Research and UBS S&T.

  2. 2008 batch, I knew just 2 people, who both got jobs. One got RBS, the other got Macquarie. Hardly Bulge Bracket though.

Sorry for the confusion.

P.S- Go to LSE simply for the fast-pace of Central London (Fast for me since I am from S.Asia) and the fact that you'll get sick of i-banks because they practically live on the campus so you'll get tremendous networking opportunities.

 

I would like to know more about the program:

How hard is it to get in? What are exit ops in consulting like? Will this help a nontarget student when MBA admissions come along?

Thanks in advance!

 

Virginia Tech, it is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

Debits and credits backwards for UK companies? It's not like driving on the wrong side of the road. A debit is a debit is a debit - wherever you are in the world.

When you learn accounting under one country's GAAP, you learn about the technique of accounting which are the same the world over. You then learn the specific applications for that country. If you need to apply another country's GAAP, you just go on a short course to get a list of the differences and you're done.

Your assertion that an American would not give credibility to UK-sourced accountancy knowledge is laughable and just highlights your personal prejudice and opinion that the US is the best in the world at everything.

UK-qualified accountants undergo what is widely documented as the most rigorous training in the world in this field - certainly harder than becoming a CPA in the US.

As to answering the OP's question, do it if (and only if) you can afford it without taking on board debt. Education can't be taken away from you but you don't want to be faced with onerous debts if it doesn't lead to your dream job straight away.

 
Brown_Bateman:
PWMonkey:
If you get hired out of LSE MsF&E by a BB, is it going to be an analyst or associate position?
Analyst. Bachelors and Masters grads follow the same path. The distinction comes in after an MBA/quant PhD.

Depends on whether you have work experience or not. Some candidates have 2-3 years of analyst before pursuing an MSF or MFE. These candidates come back as associates. I think the system differs a little bit from bank to bank and region to region.

 

I hope you finish the degree at the minimum. Some can afford that fortune but still can't join LSE. That's a huge network opportunity.

how you want to structure it... I'm not too concerned as long as you learn from it. Even Top US MBA programs will take a few direct undergraduates. Just compete with the undergrad jobs first and later leverage your LSE degree to go faster.

 

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