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Agreed. Would also add that it depends on how and who is paying for tuition. If OP can get a decent scholarship/parents paying tuition, then it’s 100% worth going to a Vandy/UVA. If OP had to take out $80K in student loans, I’d still advise to just hold off until MBA.

 
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Purely my opinion and anecdotal. Not sure what aggregate stats actually look like… I don’t think it’s worth it. Primary issue is that without the benefit of the summer internship that undergrads or MBAs target, you’re gunning for a full time offer. And those are tough odds. In my experience, banks increasingly aim to fill the entire new hire class with summer intern offers. I haven’t seen a formal full time hiring process in a long time and instead, any remaining spots get filled in quick and targeted interviews in the fall after offer acceptance settles. Sure you can point to part time internships during the school year, but the sort of banks that do that are not the sort of banks you’re after. The whole msf program feels a bit like a scam where schools market it as a way to rectify any undergrad issues and get you a job in finance/banking. I just struggle to see how a chance to roll the dice in the full time hiring gong show the second you step on campus is worth $90k or whatever

 

I agree with what this guy is saying. As someone who did an MSF it entirely depends on how good the program is at placing, and how the job market is. I went to a regional semi target type school. My class was about 70-80 students last year and I think less than 5 of us got MM bank for FO positions. No one got EB/BB. Some people ended up at Goldman but in operations/controller roles. An MSF isn’t just an instant job offer, and there’s a high chance you just go 30-70k in debt and still don’t end up with what you want. I got extremely lucky to end up where I’m at, but it’s still not the specific product group I want, so I have to continue to network to transfer at the AN2 mark.

 

depends if your undergrad is finance or not. if it is then suck it up and recruit. if not it is a great program to pivot your career to finance

MSF grad here and it was the best decision of my life

 

Mike_wacczowski76:

depends if your undergrad is finance or not. if it is then suck it up and recruit. if not it is a great program to pivot your career to finance



MSF grad here and it was the best decision of my life


I’m an engineering grad deciding whether to study an MSF to pivot into finance. I have offers from UCL and Edinburgh. Any advice?

 

Completed an MSF and would say it is only worth it if you have completed a summer internship and need an extra year of school to return FT to the same bank (except for Vanderbilt and maybe Georgetown). It is extremely difficult to recruit/network since you do not fall into undergrad or MBA bucket.

Otherwise, try to work in finance for 2-3 years then go into an T20 MBA where you can recruit for larger banks and go through the internship pipeline at a larger bank.

 

do you feel like your msf was worth it then? and could you say where you went (so I can knock it off my list if it's not great lol)?

 

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