MS in finance vs MBA

Are you including tuition costs only?

All-in, many MBA programs are more like $150k.

the numbers are just tuition

Where are you going for your MBA? Where would you want to go to get the MS in fin?

For the MBA and a friend is going to do the MS in finance it's a non target but still an outstanding school.

Just looking at cost basis vs reward.

Want to be envolved in emerging markets in Asia.

The MBA is going to get you a lot further. Obviously it depends on your experience, but a lot of people use the MS in finance to break into the industry, where as an MBA is to advance yourself. Coming out of an MBA you are going to start at an associates level, where as for the MS, unless you have prior experience you are going to start at the analyst level in almost all cases.

I can also tell you that I have a friend who got his MS after graduation and then found it necessary 3 years later to go back and get his MBA. So while I think the MS in finance's are great programs, I would generally pick the MBA.

What do you guys think about doing a 2 year M&A analyst stint (with a v. good firm) and then hitting LSBF/INSEAD/Said Business School for a one year MBA?? No way I'm going USA for this 2-year malarkey.

of the three you mentioned, I would go for INSEAD. Oxford's a great university, but its business school is not in the first league. A bit like Yale actually.

If you want to work in the USA, you will have to go for a US MBA though. NY offices of banks or PE funds don't recruit from non-US b schools.

I appreciate it!

But LSBF ranked really highly this year didn't it? Top three I believe? And as regards to INSEAD, je ne parle pas Francais! :)

I'm pretty sure I could still swing a U.S. based job without attending a U.S. b-school.

Way to ask for advice and then completely disregard it.

way to post something completely pointless that doesn't further the discussion in any way
(I mean, at least I'm posting this to make it to 100 banana points)

I'm pretty sure the main instruction language at INSEAD is English, not French.

the main language is in english but some courses are in french i think, not sure. about LSBF and SBS..take LSBF over Oxford. Oxford's great, but the business school's very young and although it's developing fast, it's probably still not in the same league

If I know an INSEAD alumnus who owes me a favour, would that in any way assist me if I applied there in future?

What is LSBF? I've never heard of it. Is it LBS - as in London Business School? Then again, I've only heard of three European B schools - Insead, LBS and Said. Said is there only because of the Oxford name.

LSBF = London School of Business and Finance [http://www.lsbf.org.uk/]
Basically it's what you said although what I just wrote is the official title.

Said is up and coming but I've heard good things about it, my mate does undergrad there and rates it highly.

What do you U.S. guys think of INSEAD?

There appears to be a serious misunderstanding about what LSBF is. LSBF is in no way related to the much better regarded LBS.

LBS = London Business School. Arguably the top business school outside the United States. It is usually considered to be on par with the top 10 US business schools. MBA program ranked #1 in Europe and #2 worldwide by the Financial Times.

LSBF = London School of Business and Finance. Affiliated with the University of East London (a not-so-well-regarded university), the Grenoble Graduate School of Business (never heard of it), and Sun Yat-Sen University (no idea what this is). LSBF does not even appear in the top 100 rankings published by the FT, and I have never seen it even mentioned by the WSJ, Business Week, Forbes, the Economist, or any other major publication that writes about business schools.

To Joefish and several other people in this thread:
You appear to have confused two totally different institutions. LBS is a top-ranked business school. LSBF does not even appear on the 2008 European business school rankings, let alone the global business school rankings rankings (didn't break the top 100 globally, or the top 60 in Europe).

LBS: http://www.london.edu/
LSBF: http://www.lsbf.org.uk/

Hope this helps.

I hold my hands up, thanks for the correction! :)

MBA all the way.

Not that you wouldn't learn things that would benefit you in a MS Finance program, but I think many people would agree that the main purpose for most MBA students is to get a break from work and to expand your business network, other then that, I think a large amount of people question how beneficial the curriculum is, even for an MBA.