Georgetown McDonough MBA -- Worth the Investment?

I was admitted to Georgetown McDonough's full time MBA program a couple months ago (also waitlisted at UCLA Anderson and NYU Stern. UPDATE: ADMITTED TO STERN NOW). Am excited about the prospect of business school, but also nervous about making the leap and whether the ROI will work out.

I'm a career switcher looking to move into investment research. I have 5 years of assorted experience: 2 years economic research at a policy think tank, 1 year due diligence on financial fraud/securities regulation cases at a boutique consulting firm, and now in-house corporate compliance at a Fortune 200 firm where I've ended up working closely with corporate finance on pre-acquisition due diligence for the 3 companies we've acquired in the last 2 years.

So as the last sentence suggests, I work for a thriving company, have zero debt as of now, and overall have a pretty good life in New York that many would envy. I just know that professionally this is not where I want to be or my area of interest, and can't see myself staying in compliance much longer. Is it better to pursue this on my own, doing the CFA etc.? Or should I go for it?

 

could you try UCLA FEMBA? a part-time format could be helpful if you're not too decided~ CFA type of stuff is also do-able. But if you want to switch career, you may find alum network to be helpful, unless your UG alum network can already be pretty helpful.

McDonough is a fine MBA. it'd more useful in Northeast of course.

But regarding your question, I can't help you decide what you want to do. you need to look at your Situation, set your Target goals, and then decide on Actions that brings you closer to the goals.

 

I think as a career switcher, the full-time would make more sense for me vs. part-time if I pursue the MBA, for the networking benefits you mentioned. I intend to continue working in New York City, or possibly San Francisco (though fewer IM jobs out there of course).

I'm just wondering if I can get a specific or anecdotal sense of placement at McDonough for career switchers into investment research - both for the internship and post-graduation. Their 2014 employment report reveals that 26% of student overall broadly go into financial services, but that doesn't tell me much (specific positions they're in, what were the students' background etc).

Also I think it's interesting that for internships, 38% were in financial services -- so there's a drop-off before full-time employment. Would be interesting to know whether this was by choice (students hated their finance internship and decided to go another way) or not (full-time financial services jobs were harder to come by_.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I may start a new thread on this now that my school choice has changed. Would love people's thoughts on the feasibility of switching into investment research post-MBA, without a prior financial service background, and how much doing an MBA at a finance-centric school like Stern helps towards the goal. Vs. networking and doing the CFA on ones own. Also for anyone who has moved into equity research post-MBA, what was the most helpful job search strategy?

 

In terms of recruiting, brand name is essentially the be all end all. I know Gtown places a ton of people into things like B4 consulting, SEC type shit, etc. Talk to a few alums as I'm sure some people get out of their to Banking but it isn't the norm.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
happypantsmcgee:
In terms of recruiting, brand name is essentially the be all end all. I know Gtown places a ton of people into things like B4 consulting, SEC type shit, etc. Talk to a few alums as I'm sure some people get out of their to Banking but it isn't the norm.

So, someone who did Teach For America or Peace Corps --> Harvard MBA has a better shot of landing at a top Consulting/Corp. Strategy group than someone who did Investment Banking --> Georgetown MBA?

If so, why the fuck do we slave away for years just to wind up in the same place as someone who spent 3 years in Tahiti working with small businesses and fucking natives. God, I hate the system.

 

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