CFA vs GMAT Senior Year of College
Senior who is going to be in AM after graduation. Which one would be a better use of the free time I have?
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What will you do at an AM? Does your firm require a CFA to be promoted?
Are you considering a career change down the road? Otherwise, no need for GMAT.
All valid questions
1. Product Strategy at one of the large AMs
2. No direct requirement to get promoted, although many seniors do have it
3. As a rising senior, I do not want to leave the AM industry regardless of my role. Although I am very early in my career so lots can change
2. Many seniors have it don't mean you must have it. Unless CFA adds credibility in helping you get business (but you are not in sales or a PM who needs to fund raise), you don't need to waste 900 hours of your life.
3. Do GMAT when things change and you definitely need an MBA to pivot. Otherwise, hold off for now.
An MBA (after 3-5 yrs of work experience at a major firm) will give you lots of optionality. If you intend to stay in AM (or on the technical side of AM) you could focus that towards a more quantitative / financial oriented program. If you find you have other interests, the MBA will help you get there. For those reasons, I like the MCAT as I believe you have 5 yrs to use those scores and it will certainly become harder to study once in the workforce.
CFA is a very specific certification valued narrowly (gold standard however). I know several PMs and institutional CIO types. They all have it. In fact the ones I know have both but I think that's primarily due to there being no access to the PM path without an MBA when they started (25-40 yrs ago). It's different now. Many funds will require CFA for PMs. Some will require it in client facing roles, especially if you're dealing with institutional money (as their CIOs or OCIOs will typically have a CFA so you need it for credibility sake).
Personally, at your stage I would go MCAT to set up the MBA for later because that will always be meaningful.
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