FT for one year while applying for masters?
Context: I am currently in my final year of university hoping to work in London IB. I would like to do a masters in finance, however due to personal circumstances I won't have the time to study for the GMAT to get a competitive score for top schools (LBS, Oxford, LSE etc)
My plan was to work full time in a graduate role for up to one year in a something like Big 4 corporate finance/transaction services while studying for the GMAT and applying for the masters mentioned above. I would then leave the graduate programme to begin the masters.
Is this a common route where people work FT for a year before applying for an Msc finance programme? Would it be viewed negatively that I left my graduate programme early to do a masters?
One problem I can see with this approach is applying for summer internships. As summer internship applications open from August-October, I wouldn't know if I was accepted for a masters role yet, and therefore could not complete an internship before my masters which seems to be the best route.
Any advice would be much appreciated
I had a similar issue last year when I was planning for all of this stuff in advance. By speaking to people at my internship and contacts across multiple industries they all told me to work for 2-3 years first. The primary point was that you’ll just find the masters far more useful once you go in there with your experience.
Secondly, from the research I’ve done most masters programs that are solid, really like seeing some experience there (especially in the US where I wanted to apply). As I’m sure you’ve seen, nowadays the threshold for a masters program acceptance isn’t just very good grades, but experience, letters of recommendation ( some I’ve seen require 2 academic, 2 professional ) and the GMAT. In my case I found that with a job, uni, and applications I couldn’t maintain the quality of all while smashing the GMAT. Even if you could be up 24h, given how many competent people are in all fields and how many want to go to any top institution, you’ll be competing with people at different stages that might’ve had a lot more time to prepare. In my opinion something, eventually, will need to be marginally sacrificed to make room for really good masters applications.
So in my personal opinion, especially when taking into account the awkward timing of everything, try to go FT first and then do the masters unless you can smash uni without even studying so you can take the GMAT. Also, take this with a slight grain of salt as I’ve never actually looked at the GMAT thoroughly due to time but I heard it does require some good practice to get into the high 700’s. I’m sure there’s people out there who can do what I couldn’t but just try to prioritize what you can do first.
I disagree that a few years of work experience are an advantage when it comes to a Master's degree in Europe. You mentioned the US, and that's fair as Master studies are advanced there, more demanding than MBA in terms of content. However, in Europe/the UK the majority of people go into a Master's programme immediately after finishing their undergrad so they don't have FT work experience. And now, while having work experience doesn't hurt (so don't worry OP), you will still start as an analyst. I'm in a similar boat as I have 2 years of work experience and hoping to start a Master's degree next year. That's fine but I also know that I will need to start as an analyst anyway
Agree, the amount of work experience is being overstated.
But OP, yes, fine to go work and have a gap year. Will improve your application for LBS amyways.
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