Msc in finance vs. Msc in finance and accounting?

Hi monkeys, hope you can help me on this one.

I will soon apply for 2018 intake, my goal is to break into IB (how original!). Given that admission should not be an issue, I was wondering whether you would go for a Msc in finance or a Msc in finance and accounting. I'm asking this because A&F would seem more reasonable for someone aiming at IB, yet everyone seems to be applying to Msc in finance programs only... Am I missing something?

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Best Response

From a European (UK) perspective - you usually have to check the course content with both.

At some universities, MSc Finance is fine for IBD. But at others (e.g. Imperial College London), it's more of a Financial Engineering / Financial Mathematics Master's that is tailored for guys who want to do more marketsy stuff.

A+F at a place like LSE, Imperial, Warwick etc. should give you a good grounding to go into things such as M&A since accounting (or more specifically, understanding financial statements) is a pretty important element of this role.

 

Can't comment on the marketability differences, but Accounting and Finance is definitely considered easier than Finance. Just look at their curriculum and you'll understand why. There seems to be a huge difference in the caliber of students between Lse's Finance and Accounting and Finance as evidenced by acceptance rates. I would have to think a seasoned recruiter would be aware of such differences, after all we are aware of it and it's not even our job.

 

I'm commenting on this thread so I can find it later when I use the track feature on my profile.

I want to know the answer to qwertyq's question.

"If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars." - J. Paul Getty
 

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