MIT master in Finance
Hello everyone. Long-term lurker here. I would like to get your opinion about the MIT master in finance and its suitability.
I am originally from North Africa. My undergrad was unranked, and to add insult to injury I got a 3.36 GPA. I've been working in valuation at a Big 4 firm for a year. Worked on different projects in real estate, financial services, and oil and gas. I did some work on currencies and commodities as well and had formal training for it.
I passed all CFA exams and am waiting for the charter, done the IMC certificate as well and still walking through the ESG certificate. Scored 740 on the GMAT, don't think I will take it another time for improvement though. I have some interviews coming up with asset management firms and banks so I'll see where that goes.
Based on this, does it make sense to go for the master's at MIT? Do I stand a chance at admission in the first place?
Keep in mind I'm 23 years old, and given that I already missed this year's deadline I'll have to apply for 2024 class, which means I'll be far above the conventional age for a master's holder. My end goal is either long only asset management or preferably L/s equity hedge fund.
Happy to hear your thoughts.
Will be hard to say the least
The level of specialization offered varies; some Masters in Finance allow students to study a range of finance topics before choosing a specialization.The Master of Finance is a master's degree awarded by universities or graduate schools preparing students for careers in finance.
Where exactly in North Africa?
So you have a decent GMAT score, an acceptable GPA, some finance related work at a big name shop, and you passed CFA. Now you want to do something more exciting. You sound smart and motivated. I'd say, think about getting an MBA. A degree in finance is for people who love academics, and it's very specialized, but a good MBA program will give you access to recruiting for all kinds of jobs including finance, a network of people who can help you do what you want to do, and won't be as much about competing on exams. Although there is still an element of this, it's more of a cooperative experience than a finance program would be.
This is accurate and based on what you’d be looking for in an educational program and exit oops I’d recommend the same thing to apply to an MBA vs MSF. This is coming from someone who got a MSF (top 3 ranked) and went into banking after. Your GMAT will get you passed the first screen at M7s but you need to kill it on essays and recommendations to go to HSW.
A lot of MSF’ers now a days actually do go as a stepping stone into banking (like myself) when there was no banking experience on the resume, and not just to get the educational benefit. I caveat with the fact that MSF graduates place as analysts and NOT associates. And yes this is true even for my classmates like you who had 1-2 years or more experience in accounting/audit, etc. The bank I work for has a strict 2.5-3 year analyst program. Do the math. If you can stick it out and get into M7 and start Day 1 as an associate, you’re going to skip some steps. Plus you would launch yourself into an established network with lots of MBAs in the banking ecosystem with alumni’s. My classmates and I would speak about how MSFs are pretty recently becoming a thing for banking and our class is going to be one of the first classes to really establish the first wave of alumnis. This is not true if you go the MBA route.
Should have read more detailed about your end goal is going into AM/research and not banking. Honestly knowing your end goal (again it is NOT banking and is research/quant-ish AM) I would go back on what I said and say go to MIT MSF. Again I am a Top 3 MSF grad, I am telling you everyone who targeted equity research got the offer. The top 25 quartile (Top quart as in not just GPA, this is everything like prev exp., social skills, grind, grades, GMAT, CFAs etc.) mostly target banking but of that group of grads the ones who did target AM also placed in extremely well. I have confidence if you network hard early after you get your acceptance and start studying for research and AM interviews to prep you will easily put yourself in an excellent position to land a job in that field. To summarize, I should of read your whole post, and 1. For banking wait and do an MBA and 2. For research/AM do the MSF. Lastly, Yes you definitely have a good chance at getting into that program if you have all of your application checkboxes checked complete, for example they require some advanced math courses in undergrad etc.
Sorry for the 3 posts but want to say take this with a grain of salt and good luck man(or woman). Once you figure this all out life will get easier and it will be more about finding the the right firm.
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