1 year equity research internship with low pay vs expensive London Business School 1 year Masters

So I all of a sudden have a dilemma that I need to resolve in the next week or so. I was accepted to a master's program at LBS for this coming Fall term. It has amazing career placements and LBS has a good brand name, especially in Asia where I want to end up.

This past week, though, I got an offer to do equity research at a brand name boutique investment bank in Newport Beach. It's a weird program that is 7-12 months of minimum wage labor with a small chance of a full-time offer at the end. That being said, the MD personally reached out to me and connected me with a bunch of former interns that went on to BB and HF immediately after the program.

So I'm trying to decide between the brand name and career center of LBS at the cost of 60k and a year or a potential opportunity at a place where the MD makes a big effort in being a career mentor and I would be essentially be treading water financially. The former interns gave rave reviews about how much they learned and the team environment itself even though none of them stayed at the firm after the internship, so there's that.

I'm a recent graduate of a non-target top-10 state school majoring in international relations. I've had investment banking and private equity internships in the past but haven't had too much luck with recruiting, making it to a couple superdays and that's it.

1 Comments
 

Ullam dolor rerum ipsum et cum itaque voluptatem. Rerum ipsum maiores maxime rerum harum dolorum soluta rerum.

At cumque cumque natus rerum. Sunt est occaecati quo dolorem.

Voluptatem minima amet est at sed commodi ipsum. Ab consequatur neque dolor quod eum quod quis. Sunt consequatur sint repellat natus. Sequi magnam nulla est qui quis. Quia laudantium aliquam sed voluptatibus eius quod.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan No 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”