Imperial College London MSc Finance vs Oxford Said MSc Financial Economics
Hi - I am deciding between Imperial College Business School's Master in Finance programme and Oxford Said's Master in Financial Economics.
My short-term career goal is to land a top-tier IB role at a BB or EB in London. Could someone please provide guidance on which school would be a better fit for my recruitment ambitions/goals?
For a quick background to gauge my profile and fit for these roles: I have a 3.82/4.00 GPA from a top-tier US university. I interned at a small private equity fund along with an internship in Wealth Management at William Blair. For my last internship, I landed an IB summer analyst role at Nomura. Upon graduation, I returned to Nomura as an IB analyst where I worked for a year. However, I had to leave the US due to immigration reasons.
Now, I am looking to use a Master's in Finance degree to resume my career trajectory within IB. I am deciding to pick a school based purely on recruitment prospects for IB roles and would really appreciate guidance from alums of these schools / professionals with experience of recruiting for IB roles in London.
Below are my additional points of concern that I would appreciate if someone with experience could address:
1. Location: Imperial is located in London which makes me feel like I could network more heavily with alums/professionals in the industry while Oxford, not far away, does not provide this edge.
2. Curriculum: Imperial's MSc Finance is purely corporate finance and highly-quantitative while Oxford Said's MSc Financial Economics is a blend of Finance and Economics. I am targeting IB roles only so from looking at the curriculum, Imperial seems like a better fit.
3. Reputation: Oxford Said is ranked 10th best for pre-experience Master's in Finance programmes in the FT rankings while Imperial is ranked 15th. Globally, Oxford is ranked 3rd best while Imperial is ranked 6th best. Going off rankings, I believe Oxford carries a stronger reputation but I am unsure how much that comes into play when recruiting for IB roles in London.
4. On-campus Recruiting: Both schools seem to be target schools for IB roles but I am unsure which is a stronger feeder.
Would really appreciate some guidance - thank you in advance.
One is considered is semi target in the UK, and the other one is considered a super target in EMEA. So Oxford all the way, but would say look into LBS, since you already have good experience, which is arguably the best school at the master level.
Thanks for this information. I got rejected by LBS unfortunately so that is out of the game. Would you consider Imperial significantly worse in terms of recruiting for IB roles in London particularly than Oxford? I am really attracted to the fact that Imperial is in London while Oxford, not that far away, is not.
SOxford and by 1 million miles. Biggest mistqke ever if you pick Imperiql; the school is known mostly for STEM. Oxford worldwide respect
Thanks for the guidance, appreciate it!
Oxford's master in finance program is only really rivaled by MIT and Princeton. Rankings are bullshit, especially FT's. It would be a grave mistake to choose Imperial over Oxford. Networking is not as crucial in the UK and even so Oxford is not far away from London. If you are really keen on staying in London I would look into LSE or LBS which are both better than Imperial, although would pick Oxford over these as well
Thanks for your insight, I appreciate it.
I'd also say Oxford is more known internationally, so if you decide to return to the US being an Oxford alum would help you a lot.
agreed obvouisly
Sounds great, waiting to hear back on scholarship decisions from both schools and if there is not a significant difference between the tuition I have to pay for Imperial and Oxford, I'll go with Oxford
Location doesn’t matter because you won’t network in person. If network was actually your priority, I would choose Oxford for the network
Oxford is miles away from Imperial (although Imperial is still good). Go for Oxford. Nothing else matters
Besides, I think it’ll be super cool to go to Oxford
Also, recruiting events that matter will come to Oxford. They aren't going to skip out on one of the biggest targets in the country.
Thank you for the guidance, I appreciate it. I also received an offer for LSE Msc Finance. I am currently waiting to hear back on scholarship opportunities from LSE, Imperial and Oxford as I have limited savings and cost of attendance is a huge factor in my decision-making process. Obviously, I understand Oxford comes as the first-choice here but could you provide any guidance between how to go around LSE vs Imperial?
Oxford > LSE >>> Imperial.
I think if you realllyyyyyy want to be in the city, and maybe want a bit less of a quanty/grind, you can make the choice between Oxford/LSE. But Imperial shouldn't be considered.
If you’re purely looking from an IBD placement perspective then LSE > Imperial. If there’s other factors you’re considering then Imperial could be more suitable to you depending on what you want.
Look, you’ll be making £100k+ in your first year upon graduation so student debt doesn’t matter much
I would still say Oxford > LSE, but purely for the prestige and cool effect of going to Oxford and bragging rights in family dinners, however between these 2 I would just go for the one that offers scolarship (to the extent the scolarship difference is significant).
Even if you have a scolarship at imperial and not at Oxford/LSE, would still go to the latter. Diploma matters
I studied at LBS (international student) and work in PE in London.
Go to Oxford.
Network well (there'll be plenty of opportunities in uni and you can take a trip to London every now and then and schedule all coffees together - and not even necessary for PE). 2, 5, 10 years from now, you want to be an Oxford grad more than an Imperial grad.
Congrats on both (your resilience will take you very far) and best of luck!
Thank you so much for your guidance, I appreciate it
The only reason you’d go to Imperial instead of Oxford is if you dislike economics. Don’t get me wrong, Imperial is a great program, but the Oxford brand name will make you stand out in any industry within any geography.
Have you applied and received acceptance for both? If you got offers for both you'd have to pick but if you only get accepted into one, problem solves itself
Yes I did which is why I posted.
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