Is an MSF useful for asset management?
A bit about me: Current senior studying finance with a 3.94 GPA at a non-target school. F500 doesn't recruit here and my alumni network goes as far as financial advisors. I also had an FP&A internship this past summer.
I want to break into Asset Management and was wondering if an MSF would be helpful? I plan on applying to UT Austin, Vanderbilt, Southern Methodist University, and Villanova (preferences in that order). I know that even then it would probably still be an uphill battle without an internship so I'd be self studying and sitting for the CFA L1 in June to try and make up for that, and reading more investment related books to learn about different strategies and be able to talk intelligently about securities and the markets.
Is this plan feasible? Is there anything else I should look at or do differently?
Unless those programs have historically placed grads into AM roles, I think you're better off doing cfa level 1, putting together 2-3 investment theses, and networking.
All of their employment reports have asset management firms, or research titles posted.
Since I can't search LinkedIn by degree (unless I'm doing it wrong?) I can't really find any graduates of those programs.
Go for MIT and consider Columbia's financial economics and SIPA programs. Great placements, you seem like a smart kid.
First, if you haven't seen this post yet, you should look at life-at-a-top-asset-manager post on WSO.
As a current MSF student at UT Austin, who wants to get into AM as well, my answer to you would be it depends on what you value and are really looking for...
As you are already in the process of completing an undergrad in Finance, an MSF program would most likely be a repeat of many of the classes you took as an undergrad, and maybe less helpful because you did so well academically. So make sure you consider the curricula of each program closely. (I didn't do business undergad so most of it has been new to me). Also the value of the programs, given their costs $$ and time.
As the linked post says, AM is extremely ad-hoc and networking focused because a majority of firms do not take large recruiting class so you will be looking for "one-off" positions most likely. At UT Austin, there have been a few AM postings so far (5), compared to many more for IB and CF. Additionally, with each school you have to consider the location of their alumni and the companies that recruit there. UT and SMU will be heavily focused on positions in Texas, I can't speak to the other two.
From my experience so far, the CFA is definitely a must regardless of MSF or not. Second, you have to be able to show a genuine interest in the area and speak about AM intelligently. Certainly, an internship would be helpful, but pursuing the CFA and being able to engage with someone else about the financial markets and your opinions. If you are able to do that, you should be able to overcome the lack of internship experience.
At UT, most of the class is interested in doing Consulting, CF, or IB. You might take a look at WashU's MSF because they have a Wealth and Asset Management specialization.
Hope this was helpful.
Do you think a MSF at one of those schools is useful for someone to rebrand themselves and obtain a better network if they went to a really bad non-target school? No alumni connections, OCR, or networking at all. I am open to both IB and AM, I find them both really fascinating. I already finished CFA L1 and have high GPA. Haven't had any luck finding any jobs recently in both fields due to lack of networking and being entrenched already in PWM.
Many of my classmates chose the MSF for the rebranding purpose -- coming directly from undergrad with a non-Finance background, making an early career switch, or broadening their networking opportunities. So yes, the MSF is useful for those reasons. I think that using the degree to get an IB position is extremely difficult, but not impossible, from my observations so far. For AM, we'll see what happens as the semester continues.
Asset Management is tougher to get than ib. The top shops hire very few people and you can't bs your way in like ib. You need a few stock pitches & network with as many shops as possible. Nothing wrong with going to a 250M AUM shop. The cfa does help but remember that it will be until january or february when you find out whether you passed or not (if you take the test this december). I'd start reading as much as possible and following the markets. Also, you could spin your experience at the pwm shop if you did more deep dive research tasks. I think people here don't realize that PWM shops often have their own research analyst.
This is true, especially for UHNW shops who provide more than just passive strategies.
Yep. Not to mention a PM will make much more than some ib dork. I'll let the prestige whores stay with the pe/ib circle jerk, risk-averse weirdos lol.
London Target Masters for Asset Management (Originally Posted: 06/05/2013)
Hey all,
I am currently a student at a target in Canada with stupid low gpa with major in econ and minor in math.
Freshman: 1.66 Sophomore: 2.89 Junior 1st Semester: 3.89
My father's company was in danger of bankruptcy during first 2 years of my studies and I could not focus on my studies at all.
I have gmat score of 730 though, which I am hoping to leverage to get into a masters program to offset the low gpa, and school prestige.
I would love to work in AM industry in london, and what programs should I aim for ?
I will most likely graduate with 3.0~3.1 GPA without the help from my school's advisors
I have talked to people from Imperial and they told me they have hard gpa cutoff at 3.1 for my school and I would need to talk to my advisors and ask if there is anything they can do to mitigate hte catastrophe under circumstances.
Imperial Msc Finance is what I really want but any programs I should consider?
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