Trinity College Dublin vs UCD MSc Finance Placement?

I am considering the two programmes in the title to pursue a career in IB. While Trinity has better international brand recognition, UCD's MSc Finance seems to also place quite well in London IB

Any thoughts?

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I went to Trinity, and to be candid with you, I would never make that mistake again (although I would also not pick any Irish university for that matter). Barely any people from my master's program broke into IB or M&A adjacent jobs; I would have struggled if I had not attended a target university for undergrad

 

Thanks! To be fair, they both send quite a few undergrad students to IB in London each year. I just wanted to see if placement was similar at the masters level.  

 

Not close. I mean there are obviously a few that might end up (diversity, connections) but it isn't a for sure shot to it. You might need to be the best applicant from there to stand a chance imo.

Nothing is impossible.

 

Agreed with the other comments. You will have quite a large networking pool if you choose UCD over Trinity. But don’t be under any illusion, no one from these masters programmes get much luck in London.

Better to try a tier 2 in London/UK if you can.

 

I went to one of them and ended up in IB (mostly through networking). I have seen very few ppl make it to IB as you are competing with bigger pool of universities in LN.

But it is doable and you will need to network aggressively in London - off-cycles are the best shoot and a graduate program will be a good outcome.

 

The Irish diaspora in Ireland are generally very helpful.

Would recommend reaching out to whoever you can. Be polite, interested and prepared and they will be more than happy to help.

Good luck!

 

Went to one of the two, so can speak upon this. If you had to choose between the two, I would also choose Trinity, as the Trinity brand name is stronger and is seen as a target for certain banks in London. However, as it has been stated above, neither are true targets for the UK when compared to some of the UK/ French schools. 

If you do end up deciding on UCD/ Trinity, as mentioned above, networking is a key factor to get in. Irish in London are very helpful to their own, regardless of which university you attend. 

Ideally, you can land a SA position before graduating. If not, applying for OC or getting FT in some Irish shops. I have seen several cases of people lateralling from Irish boutiques to mid-market shops in London.  

Welcome to PM me on this and good luck!

 

I am currently doing the MSc Finance at Trinity and it really won’t help you get into London IB roles if you didn’t do your UG at a target. Also networking opportunities at Trinity and in Dublin in general are scarce for any IB roles. The masters itself also only has one corporate finance class and more than 50% of the classes are totally irrelevant for IB.
I would have definitely made a different choice if I could go back now.

 

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