LSE Msc A&F: Take it or leave it

Hi everyone,

I have lurked around here for a year or two but never made a post. During that time, I was able to learn a lot from everyone, including all the trolls :). So first thing first, thanks everyone for all your thoughts and discussions.

Today I decide to post because I find myself in a rather peculiar position.

First, some info about myself:

+ International student. Just graduated from a T30 school in the US (Tufts, Brandeis, NYU, UNC...) with 3.75. Also a 3.8 from my previous college, a good LAC. GMAT: 700. At both colleges I received strong academic scholarships and aids.
+ Major in econ and business - finance, minor in computer science.
+ Relatively strong ECs: school clubs, work-study stuffs and work with my country's biggest study abroad organization.
+ I wants to work in real estate, especially real estate finance and investment. I have internships and early exposure to the field due to the fact that my family has a small business.

With that being said, here is my problem:

I applied for LSE early this year. Of course my first choice is their Msc real estate. I didn't care about my second choice at all, so I just put Msc A&F to fill in the blank knowing that I would get rejected anyway.

In late Feb, I got into my first choice but with no funding. I decided to work and reapply next year. A week ago, I got accepted into A&F. The thing is that my ECs, recommendations and PS are all about real estate. I got nothing relevant for A&F beside a transaction service IT intern for Citibank back in my country (no crazy coding, just some VBA reconciliation tools and Ops work as usual).

I started to have second thoughts about this opportunity and what I really want to do. After all, LSE A&F is an established program. I can find a job in the UK or go back home for a solid position. An A&F degree will allow me to apply for more positions including real estate finance ones.

So I summarize down some main questions:

1, Is LSE Msc A&F still good anymore? The way they accept me makes me think twice about the program's quality.
2, Should I burn 30,000 pounds for it (both tuition and living fee)? My parents are pushing me to finish a master degree but I don't want to waste money.
3, Given my profile, can I fight for myself a decent finance or accounting position in the UK right now? I know I am not competitive for IB, but ER or corporate banking are good enough. I also think that real estate investment companies can take me. Of course I know that things are really shitty over there.
4, Most importantly, if I don't bite this, which way should I take? Should I continue to follow my passion or quit and follow the traditional finance/accounting track? Should I reapply next year?

Please help me out :D

 
Best Response

A) Do you already have somekind of job in your heands? If the answer is yes and if you like it, I would not go to LSE. To your questions: 1) The LSE MSc in A&F is a solid and good program. It is not LSE top program and it probably does not place well as MSc in Finance and MSc in Finance and Private Equity and it is not well regarded in Academia as the MSc in Economics but it is probably their top "second tier" program. I've seen a lot of people from their BSc in A&F or MSc in A&F landing front office job. 2) Honestly, if your parents can afford the program and they are pushing you for it you are not "wasting" money. At the end, this will not probably impact that much on your parents account and you will end up with a MSc from a top school. 3) If you don't have VISA issues in UK, I don't see why you should not get a decent internship in IBD and then convert it in a full time posizion. The LSE is a target school and people with a BBA (BA, BSc, whatever) from good school in USA are respected in London. And you will probably have a very good profile for IBD Real Estate and a top profile for BO position (still making £33K + bonus as starting salary). 4) If your passion is Real Estate and you can already get a good job in that field, there's probably no reason to go back at school at this stage. My question is, why did you apply only to LSE?! MIT has a program in RE, SDA Bocconi has another one and I am sure there are some other good programs around the globe. Why are you considering to re-apply next year? What are you going to do in the mean time? Why did you turn down your first choice with no funding and are considering another program with same tuition/living costs?! Can't you negotiate with the LSE adcom if they still have place in the RE program?

I'm grateful that I have two middle fingers, I only wish I had more.
 

Thanks,

I wonder how much weight will they put into the titles"Msc finance" and "Msc A&F"? I mean in term of recruitment, do they really look those with F&E, finance or economics much more favorably?

I don't have a job at the moment but I have a solid network back home from companies that I have worked for. I should be able to get around for a job in RE. Otherwise my family's business still needs a lot of help so I can spend time there during this gap year.

I didn't apply to US RE schools because they are too expensive and geared toward development people. For ex, MIT program needs people with 5 -6 years of experience, same for Cornell. Other programs like the NYU one seems to be filled with people who just wanted to get a degree (part-time). I really don't want to burn 60k - 100k like that if I get accepted.

Asian parents, at least my parents, and even recruiters like US/UK schools much more so I never bother to apply out of the UK/US circle. As good as Bocconi is, I will only receive blank stares when I mention that the school is from Italia. I applied to Cambridge and LSE solely because of brand names. Yeah it's bad to do so but school name is all that matters in Asia.

In fact, Msc real estate is cheaper by 5000 pounds. I turned it down because I felt like it is not worth that much. I decided to attend only if I get some funding. RE is already a limited field so a master will be even more limited in term of career. Once I turned down the offer it's final. The condition for the second choice to be consider is to have the first's choice offer turned down.

Yeah I did try to get a job in the States but for international kids, real estate is not the deal. Most people in the States do development and they don't need a non-native workers around doing financial spread sheets. The work is about connections and intl kids lose right there. The investment sides are not good either. There are only a few firms and most of them too elite. REIT funds go on a hiring-freeze over the last few years. In fact, they even remove the career section. REIB is another way but more about IB than RE and we all know how hard IB is. The closet thing I ever got was final round interview with UBS real estate farm land, (yes farm land, I was desperate last summer) but in the end they hired a UConn kid who know more about corn price than me, fair and square. In the UK, everything is different as they have a lot more real estate investment companies and research firms that work to support the investment chain for the whole of Europe. Firms with strong real estate arm like BNP Paribas and MS REPE are more popular over there.

“He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style” (Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace)
 

Well, I'd go with the MSc in A&F at LSE then. You will put a top name on your CV (and this is important in Asia) and you will have a decent chance of getting an internship both in IBD and in RE.

Good luck

I'm grateful that I have two middle fingers, I only wish I had more.
 

Hey everyone, thanks for the response so far. I still want some more data points/ opinions so may be a bump?

Btw some new questions: 1, My friend (in the UK) says that banks/ companies separate school by brand name: OxBridge = first tier, LSE = 1.5 tier and others = second tier. Is this correct? 2, Can I network around effectively in the UK? Aren't people really up-tight over there?

“He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style” (Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace)
 

Hi cruel3a, I see that you are really active here and over at TSR. I want to seen you a message here but I will need 10 bananas. Can I send you a mess over at TSR... btw, why WSO, why? Trolls gonna troll anyway.

“He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style” (Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace)
 
quangzizi:

Make this my last bump. Also, can you survive London for 10 months with 8000 pounds?

Depends how much your rent is. I'd highly suggest trying to rent housing through LSE.

If your rent is ~400 pounds a month (should be able to find this as a student at LSE) then you have ~100 pounds a week to live off. Sounds perfectly fine to me.

 

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“He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style” (Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace)

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