Master's Need Serious Help US vs UK vs FRA I am lost at this point!
Hi eveyone. I have just graduated from BSc. Econ program a couple months ago, from southeastern Europe (non-EU) I am having a difficult time choosing a master's program. My goal is to land an IB job after graduation. As long as it is a financial hub and a big city, I am ok with most locations. (London, Paris, NYC and other major US cities). But I plan to do something more policy oriented after some years, think IMF, World Bank etc. I applied to lots of schools in UK, US and France. But the programs are all over the place and not classic MFin and IB route. Can you help me out ranking these schools according to their reputation( I know it is sometimes much more important than the program itself) and job opportunities after graduation? Any sort of advice is also appreciated. I am sort of lost at this point.
UK
University of Exeter Msc Financial Economics
University of Manchester Msc Financial Economics
LSE Msc Political Economy of Europe
City, University of London Msc Financial Economics
Cass Business School Corporate Finance
Kings College London International Political Economy
Warwick Economics and International Financial Economics
Imperial College London MSc Economics and Strategy for Business
FRA ( I have an intermediate French, can bring it up to working fluency I think)
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Financial Economics
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Mathematics and Modelling Methods in Economics and Finance
Université Paris-Dauphine Quantative Economics, Digital Economics Track
Paris School of Economics Economic Decision and Cost Benefit Analysis
**US **
Boston College Applied Econ
Johns Hopkins Financial Econ
UCLA Applied Econ
Cornell Applied Econ and Management
Hello fellow Chimp,
I can provide some personal opinion that may potentially assist with your decision.
First and foremost you need to have your goals straight. From what I understand you want to pursue a graduate program and land in IB. Make enough $$$ and than pursue a job in public policy. What needs to be understood is that you can't solely just change industries without having prior experience (going from IB to public policy). This is a pretty big jump.
BUT! don't worry as you are not the only one that thinks and does such a thing. Most individuals in this case will utilize and MBA after 4-5 years of experience to switch into their dream role/industry.
So for your current plan of action is to get into an IB role. From what I see on yours schools/programs list, only Manchester and Cass/City come close to providing you an entry into IB. Also, these are not target schools, so you have to network on A$$ off to land in such. If you have good Academics/GRE/GMAT scores, I suggest LSE Finance or LBS MFA programs which are feeders to IB roles in London.
After you have achieved this, utilize the school brand/IB role to get into an MBA program and successfully switch industries into public policy.
This can also be done vise-versa where you pursue public policy now by pursuing a job with yours Bachelors or an Masters Econ program. After some years pursuing MBA to go into IB.
As I have suggested finance programs to pursue, below is what I think about Masters on Econ programs. As per Europe - I am only familiar with LSE's econ program that will open the doors for you. As per US - I am a current Masters in Applied Econ student at University of Maryland, College Park. I was also accepted into Johns Hopkins Applied Econ (Please note JHU has 2 econ programs, Applied Economics and Econ through SAIS). Boston college is pretty similar to Maryland and JHU. I am not sure about UCLA. I also like Cornell's program (especially their MPS program vs. their MS program. Cornell's MPS program gives an option of additional semester to pursue Masters in International Management at their CEMS network schools (Boconni, HEC Paris, LSE, ESADE to name a few). I chose Maryland over JHU as it is cheaper ($1100 less per class) and JHU is completely online.
Additionally, you don't have to pursue an Econ masters, as you can utilize your bachelors now to get a role if you choose to go through Public Policy > MBA > IB route.
Hope this helps!
Thank you very much for the response.
I thought that maybe a more research oriented IB role would be helpful when it comes to public policy afterwards rather than M&A or other departments in IB. Also I might consider a PhD in Europe (due to its shorter duration than US) when it is time for public policy shift.
Unfortunately, I don’t have GMAT or GRE or an incredibly high GPA. But I have good internships (BB digital finance, big four audit, global well known firm financial analyst), 4 languages and a couple of published research papers on macroecon and finance. But I don’t think these are enough for the LSE Fin or LBS MFA admission. But you think schools like Warwick, KCL, Imperial or Paris ones are no go?
I thought that JHU reputation (not just SAIS but all around) is fine in US like an underrated school for East Coast that can get you good places with serious networking and academics etc. It is at JHU’s site it says Online and Onsite (Washington, D.C.). Is it completely online? I was seriously considering this one but online is obviously a deal breaker for me
Getting into IB will be a bit hard with no concrete brand name (school) or academic excellence to back you up. Regardless of the various roles/departments within IB, getting in will be the hardest. While you can showcase your skills during the interview, getting an interview will be HARD. I strongly suggest taking your GMAT/GRE. LSE/LBS is achievable. Low GPA? Have high GMAT to offset. While I don't know much about Paris, Imperial is a good college. But the select program will not cut it. Attending a good university is good, but attending a good program is just as better. Looking at Imperial - while some top employers are listed, I do not see any IB placement.
JHU is a top college for sure, but not their economics program. JHU SAIS econ will carry more weight than JHU Applied econ. JHU is also mostly online with some classes offered face-to-face. I don't know much of JHU's placements, but Maryland's placements were mostly department of labor. If cost is not an issue, I will focus on Cornell's econ or even Georgetown's econ program. But both of the programs require GRE.
Wondering if you heard back from Cornell? I applied over a month ago and nothing so far.
Nope. Did you apply to same programme?
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