Straight to mediocre master or LSE General Course -> MSc Finance at target school

Hi, I'm a 23 years old Nordic Finance undergraduate graduating this year. My GPA is 4.2/5.0, expected to get above 4.5 (A) after this last semester. No relevant internships, but I have worked part-time as a Sales and market assistant in a pharmaceutical company since my first year. (Think Pfizer, Roche, Abbot). Also worked as a Teaching assistant this year, leading seminar groups with first-year students teaching Mathematics and Accounting. Attended summer school at Fudan university in Shanghai last summer, was nominated by my school. Attending the summer course Alternative Investments at LSE this summer.

I have an offer at my current school. This is for a MSc in Business with specialisation in Finance. I also received an offer from LSE for their General Course. This is a study-abroad program, most students take it as part of their bachelor, but some students take it after the bachelor.

I bet you guys will have some questions. Why not just start working instead of master?

There is a surplus of Business and Economics students in my country, therefor getting a job without a master is basically impossible. You may get a job in accounting with a bachelor in accounting, but you will be expected to take a master in auditing later, often with some support from the company. To get a job in IB (my goal), you must have a master and be like freaking Jesus. If you take the master here, you might be able to get an analyst position if you are in the top of your class (if we count every school, thats probably like 1000, with like 3-4 banks recruting). My impression is that those that take the master abroad, at good schools like LSE, LBS, CASS, Imperial and Oxford usually gets an offer long before graduating.

I got two plans, and I would like your opinion on both of them.

Plan A: Take the offer at my current school, work hard as fuck and maybe have an IB offer when graduating in 2019.

Plan B: Take the offer at LSE, take some quantitative and language courses and take the GMAT. Hopefully with a good score. Apply for MSc in Finance at schools like LSE, LBS, Imperial and Oxford. Graduate in 2019 with both The General Course from LSE and a MSc in Finance from a target school on my CV. Then hopefully get a job offer in London or my home country.

Ideally I should have applied for masters in UK this year, but I kind of figured out that a bit late.

2 Comments
 

My approach would be: do the General Course, leverage the network at LSE to land a summer gig in London, take the GMAT while applying for Master's during the end of the year, then start a one-year Master's at a target. If all goes according to plan and you do well during the summer internship you'd have a return offer waiting for you after your Master's. If not, you could use your significantly improved resume to get one up over domestic contestants in your home country.

 

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