MBAs versus Vanderbilt MSF

Is it a better investment to go to Vanderbilt's MSF instead of a MBA program? The MSF program at Vanderbilt seems to have really good placement in NYC and it's only a 12-18 month commitment versus a MBA where you need 3+ years of work experience and you have to stay in the program for 24 months.

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Whimsical answer, but depends what you want to do. The MSF mainly works for 1. people coming out of UG without finance experience and 2. early-career applicants looking to bolster their finance experience (think finance ops trying to move to IB). Having worked with the Vandy MSF group, the placement is in large part due to just pure hustle, rather than a number of banks lining up at the door to bring in MSFs. It's a good program, but you need to be realistic about what you hope to achieve through it.

Besides that, it's worth noting that MSFs are recruited as analysts, whereas MBAs are recruited as associates (talking IB here). Regardless of title, I think it's probably easier to get into IB as an MBA than through the MSF program simply due to MBA recruiting being a more established path, as well as better networking (i.e. MSFs network with analysts, whereas MBAs network with associates and above, who have more sway in the hiring decisions).

 

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