International Student : Break into USA IB

hello wso,

Im a french BBA student at a target french business school (emlyon its like top 4 in france, basically you can go to MBB & EB/BB) and I would like to work in IB in New York for some years then come back in France.
I was thinking of doing a Master in Finance degree (STEM) in USA after my ug. Firstly, do you have in mind another path to go in USA IB or is the MiF the only option ?

Secondly, what are the schools that are really targets for BB/EB ? I guess ivy leagues but what about georgetown, chicago, texas, Johns Hopkins, UCLA/UC Berkeley & Notre Dame ? Like as french UG + these masters can i realistically break into BB/EB in new york, la, chicago or boston ? btw im going to UCLA as an exchange student for the fall semester, is it a big plus or they dont give a sht ?

Thanks

3 Comments
 
Most Helpful

MSF in the US does not have structured recruiting. Most people lateral into roles after completing their masters. There are a lot of problems that you will run into as an international student in the US, mainly WRT to sponsorship. From what I know from my personal network, some BBs have looked past international students due to the complications with filing for H1B. Recruiting in the US is also different from EU in the sense that it is very networking heavy. Knowing all of this, if you are still interested in doing a specialized masters, I would highly recommend that you look into UChicago, MIT, Northwestern MiM, JHU. You can also consider MSFecon at CBS. UCLA and UCB have MSFEng programs from what I remember. UT Austin is a great school, but their masters programs feed well into texas based IB jobs

My recommendation would be to look past a MSF. Try to get an IB gig in France/EU. Follow the popular route (2 or 3 years analyst, 2 years associate) and then look into an MBA in the US. MBAs are more likely to be sponsored by firms and have structured recruiting and you will have more schools to choose from. 

 

what about MSF from vandy or nova ?
I would love to hear your thoughts on the MSF program that these two offer !
Note : Msfe is quite diffr in courses and placement from Msf ?

thanks :))

 

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