My thoughts on LSE vs LBS vs HEC Master's in Finance (MFA for LBS) after getting into all of them

[Very Long Post]

So, until quite recently I held offers from all of the programs in the title which naturally drained a lot of my free time in researching to make sure I made the correct option. I read every thread, comment on here, every reddit post, and almost everything you could get your hands on in the internet (and I also had long debates with the very new refined ChatGPT 4). It then also included, naturally, chats with admissions, as well as the interview processes. This post comes late in the admissions cycle but it still may be useful for future applicants that may be in a similar position. 

I'll preface this by saying that, after all of my research, which also included speaking to friends at all unis, that indeed, it is really splitting hairs, and at the end of the day the biggest conclusion I could draw is that it is really up to what you have done so far internships wise, your overall profile, and then your skill in recruiting. Nonetheless, like me a few weeks ago, I was tired of reading that everywhere, since I needed to decide which one to actually choose. Hope this post is helpful for you if you are in a similar position

Quick notes on my profile:

Among the top graduates from nr. 1 school in my EU country, SA at a small investment and advisory firm in my second year, full time doing FDD at a Big4 in my country after graduation and (currently) IBD SA in Frankfurt. So currently, I am completing my first year work experience upon completing my bachelor's now, after which I am pursuing a MiF to apply probably almost exclusively for LDN IBD. GMAT 645

Quick note on my initial target, Chicago Booth MiF (which I also got into):

Booth's recent program (MiF), drew my attention after a friend I met on exchange said he was going to take the MiM, and since US is unparalleled when it comes to opportunities in Finance. I thought the MiF could be a good way to pivot to the US early on and start my career there. Since I only applied for HEC and LBS in R3 (LSE is rolling), I had actually already applied and gotten into Booth before. There were several reasons that made me skeptical about the program and made me not pursue it:

1- No employment report (ER). Since the program started last year (Fall 24), there is no available employment report yet. This is quite crucial. Also, up to that point there was a lack of announcements on LinkedIn from current students, which likely meant the vast vast majority of them hadn't landed anything. Also practically inexistent popularity of these types of programs for hiring managers at banks, and underdeveloped (or inexistent) recruiting pipeline unlike the MBAs.

2- Absurd cost (I estimated it to be at least $150k), given that there are no "receipts" for placement yet... Almost the cost of an MBA. It may be worth it if they prove to have good placements, but not yet. Speculation here on WSO and talks to my friend there, point to debt burden of the school itself, and these grad programs are a cash cow. 

I'd keep this program on my watchlist to see how it develops (for instance MIT's MiF, though more quant oriented, proves to have good placement). However, don't take the ER at face value and look at HK placements, as these may misrepresent the outcomes if you are not Chinese. From LinkedIn I saw the majority of the class was Chinese and a lot of them use the US as a way to get prestige to get into good roles in HK. 

Now back to Europe.

LBS:

Regarding LBS, since I only knew the definitive results after getting the LSE and HEC offers so I had to disregard it because HEC offer would expire. However, I think the rational would be the same in the HEC vs LSE debate that remained. 

 LSE vs HEC:

This question preocuppied me for the whole 3-4 weeks I had after getting the formal HEC offer and I only decided in the deadline day. My inclination had long been to go LSE due to its prestige and branding and the fact that it was already in London. I had also felt that really the top notch students in my country tended to favor LSE MiF over the others and thought I would be dumb to forego it considering I got in. I had a strong inclination to join it until like two or three days within the deadline for HEC.

However, upon further research, I decided to choose HEC. Here are key reasons:

1- My forever number one priority was placement. I always believed that the outcome for careers in high finance would always outweigh any cost savings at this point and therefore felt comfortable going into further debt if I felt like it boosted my chances. However, I felt like both programs really place equally as well. There is the drawback of not getting the visa by not going to the UK, but it hasn't seemed to stop HEC's grads from placing equally well in London. Probably there is less of a safety net since you are almost immediately ruled out from smaller boutiques or advisory firms because of visa complications (they never sponsor basically). 

Another key aspect on this end, which does get overlooked, is really that location does not seem to play a role in this case. You would think that if you want to go to London, then study there, and though that may be truth, it only is to a certain extent. I don't recall the exact percentages and cba to go find the PDFs for the ERs now, but LSE and LBS hold roughly a 50% placement in London whereas HEC (from insider info) places 45% into London. So placement in London is marginally better for London programs, but not to the degree that it would override points 2 and 3 I make next. This is quite crazy! You would think they would place much more heavily in London! I do remember LSE and LBS and having considerably more Chinese students targeting HK, so it always adds some further layer of complexity to this analysis.

One final point on placement, and probably a more speculative one. This doesn't apply to LBS since they don't have undergrads, but I have also hypothesized upon some comments here on WSO that particularly BBs and EBs may have certain quotas by schools they adhere or target to have i.e. x% OxBridge, y% LSE... If this is the case, for the LSE case you would be competing with a very strong super target bulk of undegrad students, a lot of them with spring internships and summer's at great banks and companies, as well as competing with the Master's in Finance and PE, Master's in Finance and Accounting and any other program that may target similar roles. LBS and HEC only have this sort of competition for the Master's (since there is no undergrad). Particularly, HEC presents a further interesting proposition since it attracts many students of which 40% (insider info) stay within France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Germany, therefore competition for London roles may be less fierce than LSE and LBS (even though very fierce still ahaha).

2- Environment. Another key point for me was something that I really never prioritized, but since, from placement alone there wasn't a clear winner, I started to think about this. HEC, being in the middle of nowhere with an astounding rate of international students which I believe are granted housing on campus, makes the experience completely different. All alumni I spoke to from HEC said that the time they had there was the best of their lifes. Think about summer camp: football field, tennis courts, a lake, plenty of greenery in the peace of the French country side (1 hour public transport from Paris). You have classes and then get to hang out with your colleagues, barbecues, parties... and are able to build genuine connections since you are all kind of on the same boat. When compared to London, aside from paying like double the cost for a shoe box bedroom in a shared flat 40 mins away from uni, I always felt (and spoke to alumni about this, especially at LSE), that did say that there wasn't such a community feeling at LSE since you kind of just have classes in Holborn and then go back to whichever corner in the city you are living in. Even if you are living in Central London, it is going to take you a while since the city is so huge. Less interaction than at HEC where you are almost 24/7 with all other students attending the uni. 

I'd rather live in LDN because I don't speak any French, however, if I can build more meaningful and deeper connections with people at HEC, somewhere along the line, especially medium to long term, it may prove to be more resourceful in case I want to pivot or say I end up in a deal with an alumni. I think the fact that, on average, there is a closer contact with people during this short period of study (all programs are 9 months or so), in these situations, you are more able to get additional benefits due to proximity. Still will happen to a great extent at LSE and LBS though.

Also, I feel that perhaps if say you are trying to get a cold coffee chat with someone at HEC vs LSE because you are both alumni, HEC is more likely to answer you since the overall alumni network is smaller and probably they get less messages than at LSE which has a very large student body (speculation),

3- Cost. Once points 1) and 2) didn't make any program a clear winner, I also ended up considering cost. LSE doesn't give merit scholarships, only needs based, which I apparently didn't qualify for. I do know LBS tends to give out more scholarships (I know a bunch that got up to €20k), but I didn't get to that stage. HEC gave me a merit scholarship of €8k. Overall, all things considered (including living costs), I got to a difference of €25k between staying in LDN with no scholarship or in Jouy en Josas (HEC). My final though regarding this was that, if realistically the outcome of my job searching experience comes to my own work and experience so far, and not so much the hair splitting between the programs I have been doing in this post, then might as well save €25k. Also I know there may additional subsidies, like up to 300 or 400€ for rent I can qualify for (god bless the humongus French state), and likely others, especially as an EU student, though I haven't looked into that very further.

Overall, HEC's MiF is a program with very good reputation with a strong connection to London (placement is on par with London programs, considering BBs and EBs, especially) and seems like the most overall joyous experience. Grind is really what matters the most for placement. Wish there was no research paper at HEC though. Needless to say, I chose HEC. Noted that talking to friends that were in the same position I was in and committed to different programs of these threes, and even after securing MS and JPM IDB SAs in LDN, they said that a lot of the times they second guessed their decisions. I think time will tell where I end up, but this was my rationale. Really think you can't go wrong with any. Personally, I think my time at HEC will be most memorable in the long term, and since I will likely end up in LDN regardless - though admittedly at a marginal expense of less brand recognition among older generations in the UK and also globally (though that is slowly changing) - might as well.