Master in Finance: HEC MIF vs ESADE MF (or LBS MFA, Oxford MFE)
Dear all,
I have been admitted to both HEC MIF and ESADE MF.
Now, I believe HEC reputation is better (consistently ranked #1 MFinance worldwide by FT) and the school is more competitive (GMAT 710 in HEC vs 660 in ESADE), however, I am more appealed by Barcelona as a location.
I believe that overall both schools are good enough and will provide me with the opportunity to land in top jobs in finance, so I am really undecided (I consider the life experience as a whole rather than the placement being 2% better in one of the two or similar statistics). Moreover, the program structure is quite similar.
I would like to work outside of Europe, precisely US or Australia, but I think neither HEC nor ESADE is very well renewed outside of Europe. ( Probably UK schools are better for this).
Also, I applied to LBS MFA and Oxford MFE, BUT, my problem is I have to answer to HEC and ESADE before I know from the other 2 (I believe I will make it into LBS, while I doubt about Oxford). Since I don't wanna risk being left without any choice, I decided to pick one between ESADE and HEC in the meantime and then see what happens with the other 2.
I am open to any advice that can help me chose, anyway, my main questions are:
1) Is there any aspect I should pay more attention to?
2) In the end, would HEC reputation actually give me more chances than ESADE in getting, for instance, a IB internship?
3) Has any of the two schools a better reputation outside of Europe, and if yes, is the difference significant?
4) How is the student life in those two campuses/locations? (Am I gonna get bored at hec?)
PS.
HEC offers a double degree with Tsinghua University (China), while ESADE offers double degrees with Queen University (Canada), St. Gallen (Switzerland), Fundaçao Getulio Vargas (Brazil). I am very interested in this possibility. How much value could this potentially add?
Thanks.