(Europe) Master's in Finance - How much student loan debt is too much?
I am interested in applying for a master's in finance to get a job in IB. The problem is that I have almost no money to pay for it and would have to get a student loan (program fees + living expenses) if I was to go to a target school.
I have looked at the MSc in Finance from Bocconi, SSE (tuition-free since I'm European), HEC, etc, and most of these are really expensive with the tuition + living costs, and I would have to take a big loan. Since I am from Portugal and I could go to Nova SBE - I would get money from the government (about 17% of the program) and maybe a scholarship from Nova if they consider my application worthy, however, I'm not sure if it would be worth it because, by my research, they aren't really a target and it might be hard to pay off my loan if I don't get a well-paying job.
My question is, how much debt do you think is worth taking to go to a target school?
I am also thinking of working 1 or 2 years to lessen the financial burden and gain some experience to get into a better program.
Could someone help me on wether going on full debt to target schools (living + expenses) is worth it or not for Msc Finance?
To be honest it is a personal choice which depends on how risk-averse you are.
I did that and do not regret it. However, if it was not for the offers that I received I would be in a bad financial situation. Basically, I embarked on a trip called the "MSc in Finance" with a student loan from Prodigy Finance, covering my tuition fees, and savings/ money borrowed from family for living expenses.
The first few months are quite scary as you are applying for internships and jobs with an idea that you have a huge loan outstanding, which adds unnecessary stress. On a contrary, it makes you disciplined and ensures that you keep eyes on the prize.
I have not finished my journey yet. I am in the middle of my programme and managed to secure two internship offers by busting my a** off. However, given the pay that IB guarantees I am pretty confident in my ability to repay my liabilities (as long as I convert to a FT Analyst position).
On the other hand, if I was a bit less lucky I could be still sitting with debt piling up and no internship lined up. My advice to you is to take your GMAT, apply to as many schools as you want to, see where do you get the best offer and then make a decision (if you get a school you really like and do not want to take too much debt you can also ask them to defer your offer by a year).
Feel free to shoot me a PM.
Reading your journey was definitely very helpful for me, thanks a lot. I think the best option is, like you said, to try to get the best grade possible on my GMAT so that I have greater possibilities of getting a scholarship (and getting admitted).
The risk of not securing any offers on IB to pay the debt also makes me very wary, it will probably depend on the confidence in myself to achieve that goal at the time. I may also decide to spend a year or two in Big4 to gain experience and some money.
I will definitely take your offer and message you by the end of the year if you're still around then.
You may check the employment report and use the salaries data in there to make a financial model. You may send me a message if you need assistance in this.
That's a good idea, thanks.
I started my MSc in Finance at HEC this September, so cannot really speak for other schools.
The advantage that HEC has it that it is located outside of Paris, so your living expenses are significantly lower compared to other big European cities. Within 800-1000 euros per month range you should be able to live very comfortably. Furthermore, the school offers quite a lot merit-based scholarships that lower the tuition fees, especially to international students. While calculating the total expenses take into account that HEC's MSc in Finance lasts 1.5 years, but in total you spend only 9 months on campus (the remaining part you write your Master's thesis and fulfill the professional experience requirement by doing an internship or full-time work).
I applied to all of the schools mentioned by you (except for Nova) and considering the total costs of MSc I would say the best option is Bocconi (only if you get full ride scholarship), 2nd best is HEC (depending on how much scholarship you get). SSE is for free, however, the programme lasts 2 years and Stockholm is bloody expensive which makes the difference between HEC and Bocconi quite small (depending on scholarships you get).
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