MBA / Masters / Industry options

Ladies and monsieurs,

I have, in a way, what I'd say, a typical first world problem and was looking for advice from fellow feigners.

I graduated from a target school and have since worked in a CMBS / Real Estate Finance group at a BB for a couple of years before transferring to a research / strategy role in Structured Credit at the same bank as an associate. The new role isn't permanent so I'm looking for options. While I have thorough interest in real estate / CMBS & fixed income, I'm also quite fond of quantitative finance (barring option pricing and stoch calc). So target roles on the buyside would be fixed income / real estate / cmbs analyst, or quant trader / asset allocation (if I choose the quant fin route).

Given my career aspirations, I have the following choices:

a) MBA - Would only go if I get into a top 7-8 school, all else seems to be a massive waste. This hopefully would open roles on the buyside in Fixed Income / Real Estate / CMBS

b) Masters in Statistics - I have a decent statistics / programming background and hoping that this opens roles in both fixed income and quant fin. However, from what I've seen going to the buyside from a Masters' program seems difficult, even if you have 3-4 years of experience. Most roles seem to be analyst roles at banks - which kinda defeats the purpose.

c) Continue looking for jobs without a higher degree

I would have 4 years of exp before I enroll in either of the programs. Would be great if anyone of here could share their insight if they've faced a similar quandry, or know someone who did. If not, what option from the above seems most reasonable given the background information.

Thanks very much in advance!