MSc Finance at Uni of Edinburgh vs Bayes (Cass)

Hi all,

I currently hold offers for MSc Finance from University of Edinburgh and Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) and I am trying to decide which one to go for. From what I have read, Edinburgh enjoys slightly better reputation than Bayes, but the latter has the advantage of being in London which would be better for internships/ job networking.

I intend to get into IB / asset management in UK. I am an international student from India with ~1 year 8 months of backend IB experience (work with a swiss bulge bracket IB).

I connected with a few Bayes alumni who are woking in IB and they told me it all boils down to networking, for which London is a better city than Edinburgh.

I have got very mixed reviews about Bayes’ course & learning community hence I am a little unsure if it would be a good school.

I have read that both Uni of Edinburgh and Bayes are semi-target schools so they are essentially placed on the same level, but I am not sure what would be more reputable in terms of a career in UK.

I applied to Imperial as well but I am in their waitlist currently. I am thinking of applying to UCL but given how late I am, I would still need to choose between one of my two offers and forego deposit money for one, in case I get into UCL later on.

Any help / reviews would be very much appreciated!

 
Most Helpful

Not sure where you got this advice, but networking is largely pointless in London unless you have a very strong connection that can go to bat for you (I do know of a case at a lower-tier BB in London where an acquaintance got an interview after being sponsored by a close family member that was an analyst at the bank). Unlike the U.S., the initial parts of the recruiting process in the U.K. are more about acing numerical/psychometric tests rather than networking. As for your options, neither Cass (Bayes) nor Edinburgh nor UCL are IB targets at the postgraduate level. Imperial is your best bet out of all those, if you manage to get out of the waitlist. Good luck!

To infinity... and beyond!
 

Thanks for your reply! When you say Edinburgh and Bayes are not target schools, I’d agree to have read the same thing but what about UCL. Everywhere I have read that UCL is a target for IB and just a notch below Imperial in terms of reputation. Please let me know on this. Also for imperial, while I applied for MSc Fin course, I got waitlisted for their Inv & Welath program (they thought its a better fit). If I were to receive an offer for this, should I go for this program and hope to look for IB roles as the overall course structure is a bit different for this program and more focused on AM / portfolio management.

 

Haven’t seen any post grad UCL in my bank. At the undergrad it is a very strong uni.

 

As the user above said, UCL is a target at the undergraduate, not the postgraduate, level. As for the I&WM program at Imperial, from what I know, most kids there shoot for asset management positions, as the name would imply. Not sure how well it would place in IB, if at all. Most Imperial placements at the PG level come from the MFin and MFin&Acc. 

To infinity... and beyond!
 

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