Hi all,
I'd appreciate if someone could explain the rationale for graduate degrees for those looking to start their careers in finance, in terms of how it helps, tactically, the timelines, costs, scholarships, differences for IBD, PE, REPE recruiting etc I'm in my final year of an undergraduate degree and not sure how seriously I should be thinking about doing a Masters.
Many thanks,
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It's pretty simple. It extends your graduation date by a year which makes you eligible for more opportunities.
If your undergrad uni sucked or was less than ideal then it also can bridge that gap.
All other details are noise.
Thanks, I assume only summer internships though as off-cycles and grads are generally open for up to 2 yrs experience? I assume if that's the case then it's a significant financial risk given odds of getting and then converting a summer aren't super high?
Also, do Masters students generally get more looks than undergrads i.e. if you do the masters at the same institution as the undergrad (target school) without any more work experience do you think the odds of getting an internshio are better or is it purely just another bite of the apple at the same odds?
While OCs are theoretically open to those up to 2 years out of undergrad, it's pretty rare you actually see anyone this far out of UG in OCs. It's normally straight out of UG. But yeah it's generally SAs ofc that I'm talking about.
The masters itself isn't inherently that valuable. Once again it's the name of the institution that matters. In fact the institutions that are targets for masters are far more restrictive than that at undergrad.
Bump
Does anyone know which would be the better of Warwick MSc Business & Finance or UCL MSc Management (Finance Track), in terms of career prospects only?
Nearly equal in terms of the weight they would hold in recruiting. When faced with a Warwick vs UCL choice I always recommend UCL if you can afford London. UCL is a far stronger brand and international name and is in London which is much better than Coventry
Thank you! I was finding it quite difficult to differentiate between the two since there isn't much between their rankings - UCL seems to just edge it.
If you didn't go to a target undergrad and don't have good internships then it makes sense to do a master. But most UK ones are just one academic year, so very short and don't give you as many chances (i.e. highly likely an expensive waste of time). They're good for people who have some relevant experience.
The only ones worth looking at are lbs mfa lse mif oxbridge mfe/mif. These ones will accept you but it's still a grind without some experience already. tier 1 EU programs (hec, escp, bocconi, HSG and other regional targets) recruit well into London too and have much more flexibility (gap years, apprenticeships etc.). In some specific teams they even hire more from these EU targets than UK ones.
Feel free to PM if you have doubts.
Good luck!
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