Do I take my Imperial MSc offer or keep grinding??

I'm a recent grad from a semi-target UK uni. It's worth mentioning that I'm an EU international student and already in London. Just got accepted into Imperial and wanted to bounce some ideas to see if its worth it for me or not. 

Experience:

-Currently doing internship at a really small boutique PE shop in LDN

-VC analyst off-cycle in LDN

-IB summer intern at LMM in US (Not NY but Chicago, nepo internship)

-Audit intern at boutique in home EU country

-Cleared CFA L1 back in Nov, thinking about using MSc as time to do L2 and L3 without stress from work

My main concern is that all my roles have been in what are honestly no-name companies, and I give the impression that I am flip flopping between roles when really I always wanted banking but struggled to get past HR. Only started getting banking interviews in the UK in 2025 once my cv got beefier.  

Current Situation:

Have a few things in pipeline

-off-cycle internship at one of the Canadian banks (interviewing)

-T-2 strategy consulting firm summer analyst (I know we're already in June, don't get the timeline either but had an interview last week after getting referred by a friend from uni)

-Current internship might convert to FT but low probability and honestly not a place you'd want to stick around at as a young ambitious person. Also comp is atrocious for a PE firm but I'm staying positive and making the best of it.

-Fintech corp dev role went to final round but got ghosted and haven't heard back in 2 weeks

The Question:

Got an offer to Imperial's MiM after getting rejected from their MiF, but ultimate goal is to break into Finance.

I can't really afford it financially and from what I've seen online, MiM programs don't seem to be great feeders into IB. You can argue that most people in the course aren't applying to banking as to why the placement rate is so low, but I don't know how bank's would react (or care) about doing a course that isn't related or somewhat related to finance, since an MSc is a more deliberate choice than an undergrad course you picked at 17. 

Also, I could only justify taking out a loan if it would substantially boost my chances. It would also delay me another year when I feel like I already have solid experience. My main concern about not taking it would be that the absence of a blue chip name on my resume will keep holding me back because I've had conversations with friends at top institutions and they have all told me sincerely that's what's probably lacking on my CV and that I'm not doing anything wrong. At this point I'm one year out of uni and stat padding internships can only get you so far and you can only do it for so long before it looks bad. After I finish this one in September I hope that I am in a good position to apply for FT roles whether that be by myself or leveraging Imperial.

Also worth noting I'm one year into my graduate visa meaning I would need to secure a job by graduation or move back. Saw online that you can apply to defer entry by one year but don't know how flexible they are and what your reasoning for deferral needs to be.

What would you do?

-Take the Master's and hope blue chip name opens doors to better recruiting?

-Keep grinding applications and trust the process?

-Consider other paths entirely?

Honestly feeling like the Master's might be a waste of time/money given my situation but maybe I'm missing something. On one hand I feel like it's extremely unlikely to come out without a good job after doing it if you have experience before hand, even if it isn't in finance. On the other hand, seems like overkill and applied only as a plan B in the first place in case I didn't have a job by sept.

TL;DR: International looking for MUH PRESTIGE on resume. Worth doing over-priced Master's for IB recruiting or keep grinding?