Best Finance degree in Canada

Hello People!

I am planning to move to Canada as a Permanent Resident very soon. I have 3+ years' previous experience in Asset Management at an emerging market firm. I completed my undergrad in Finance in my home country with a solid CGPA. Once I land in Canada, my plan is to get into a specialized MS Finance program in a Canadian university. My future goal is to get into Buy-side. However, considering how small the market is, plan B is to get into pure research (MS--finance PhD--academia/specialized industry job).

I have some confusion regarding different types of programs and I was hoping to get some insights on these issues: 1) How do employers perceive MFin programs in Canada compared to MBA? Are the MS programs in SFU or WLU worth consideration? 2) Is the salary gap between MFin graduate and MBA graduate too high? 3) Would it be possible to switch to PhD later from a professional MFin program at a top Canadian University? 4) How are the research-based MSc Finance programs (Queen's/ UBC/ Concordia/ Saskatchewan) perceived among the employers? Apart from PhD, what are the typical jobs that these graduates get?

Thanks.

3 Comments
 
Best Response

1) Most firms higher straight from undergrad or MBA, I think the MBA program would be better than a MFin.

2) Yes, there will be a decent gap in salary.

3) Anything is possible. But seriously don't know the answer to this one.

4) MSC Finance graduates usually end up in risk management at the big 5 banks from what I have seen. Few are able to get IB analyst position or research positions but most go to MBAs or Undergrads. From a MFin you will start as an analyst, not an associate.

 

@tbz15 thanks a lot for your reply. Just to clarify once more, are you talking about graduates of the professional MFin programs or the programs that have thesis component at risk-management jobs? In general, which schools (MFin programs specifically) place well in the industry? From LinkedIn, I saw that many PRs did some sort of short certification courses rather than getting MBA/MS. Are these certifications required for getting job in the industry?

 

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