Do I have a better chance of breaking into IB with MSF or MFE
Hi all,
I'm currently deciding which Masters program to commit to. I graduated undergrad with a STEM degree and business/finance minor, and I want to transition into IB/Corporate Banking Analyst role, which is why I thought that a Masters program would be the best way for me to transition.
I currently have offers from UCLA's MFE, BC's MSF, and NYU Stern's Masters in Quantitative Finance. I am also waiting on USC's MSF admission decision as well.
I've read that MFE is not the best way to go if you want to land an analyst role in IB/Corporate banking, as it lends itself to more of a quant role in companies, which could be an option but isn't my top choice at the moment. However, I do know that UCLA's MFE is a top ranked program and it would definitely be a strong choice.
NYU's MSQF is an extremely new program, and it was co-founded last year along with NYU Shanghai, which is why I'm hesitant to commit despite it still being under Stern. I know that NYU Shanghai's reputation isn't really comparable to Stern's reputation in NYC. Furthermore, the program recently changed its schedule to starting the first 2 semesters in Shanghai, and coming back to NYC in February, which would mean that I would lose out on a lot of networking resources offered by Stern in NYC.
In terms of BC and USC's rankings and placements, each website has different rankings for every school but the main takeaway I got was that BC has stronger placement on East Coast and USC has stronger placement on the West Coast.
I'm really new to all of this stuff, since my undergrad was extremely STEM-oriented, so any advice or tips would really be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone!
That's certainly a weird predicament, going to Shanghai with banking events going on. I'm an undergrad, so take my comments with a grain of salt, but I'd say UCLA if you want west coast, Stern for New York. Especially if you'd be starting it right now; most schools are online for the time being, so you won't have to be in Shanghai until they lift restrictions.
UCLA is a solid target school for west coast banking. I've met tons of people in both NY and SF that went to UCLA (for MBA, granted, but some for undergrad as well. MSF isn't extremely common because most people do undergrad --> IB or MBA --> IB, but it's still possible).
It's actually MUCH better that you'll be at NYU in the spring, I'd think. You can network by yourself without needing the events, which will show drive. You'll have time to figure out everything you need before you get to New York, so you'll come off as more polished. You might not be there in the fall (when most kids aren't ready for recruiting yet anyways and they look like fools), but you'll still be there for spring events (when banks are actually interviewing). You'll have on-campus interviews in the spring, which you wouldn't have in the fall. If you do the MSQF right now then you'll have access to all of the ONLINE recruiting events that will be happening for all Stern students, too.
If you were in a different situation (COVID didn't have spring and summer classes shut down for everyone right now) then maybe it would be a slightly different story, but for right now, all networking events will be online. You do a semester at Stern in NY, so you're still a NY student, and people will recognize the name. It also looks like a pretty solid program, especially if you want to go into the HF route later on.
Hey,
Thanks for the response! Yeah, recruiting this year is going to be incredibly weird/uncertain given the current COVID-19 situation going on.
I was primarily worried that coming to NY in the spring would be too late, since I heard that banks tend to recruit/interview really early compared to other fields, but reading your response I'm not sure about this viewpoint anymore, which is reassuring. One really nice thing about NYU is that their career center is still set to open for us in May (even though the program start date got pushed to August), so hopefully I'll get some insight from them soon about networking events.
If you don't mind me asking, when do most banks actually start to interview, since you stated that in the fall students are often scrambling and unprepared?
Depends on what exactly you're looking for. If you're looking for the typical summer analyst position, they tend to recruit over a year into the future. They used to begin recruiting in the junior year fall if they were extremely early, and most would recruit in the junior year spring (3-5 months before the SA stint started). Now, they begin recruiting in the sophomore year spring (15-18 months in the future) if they are early and begin in the summer (12 months out) if they are late. Most people don't decide for sure they want to recruit for banking until around November - December of their sophomore year, so everyone is scrambling to get ready all the time.
If you're looking for full time, they recruit right at the end of the SA summer for that.
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