Vanderbilt, WUSTL, or Duke for IB
I have been accepted to both the Vanderbilt and WUSTL msf programs as well as the Duke MMS program to begin this summer. I am interested in working in IB after graduation, preferably in New York, and I'm wondering which program might give me a leg up. I've heard that a school's prestige plays a good role in the hiring process, which leads me to believe Duke might be the best option despite not being a straight finance program.
I'm also wondering if anyone thinks that getting an MMS might make my choice to get an MBA in a few years seem redundant and hinder admission chances. Thanks for any and all help.
I'm still waiting to hear back from Columbia's Financial Economics program, which would play a big part in my decision.
I've considered the option of doing the Duke MMS this year and potentially the Princeton or MIT M.fin next year. Does that sound solid?
Of those programs, Vandy is the most well developed. It places quite a few people in BBs every year.
WUSTL isn't bad; their placement statistics are linked on msfhq.com. I would recommend that site for getting a better understanding of the programs.
Duke's program is new, so there is not much data to go by. You'd be competing with Duke undergrads for jobs, and Duke undergrad is generally considered more of a target than Fuqua is among b-schools.
But, absolutely forget doing the Duke MMS and then a MFin the year after. It would be a massive waste of money. One master's degree is more than enough for IBD, unless of course you want to do a MBA down the line to switch careers.
What is your background? I might be able to help you out. I am in one of those aforementioned programs.
Same dilemma for me. I am choosing between Duke, Vandy and Columbia upon hearing from them. I have offers from Tufts for their MIB and Ivey for their MSc in Management.
Still waiting on HEC Paris as well.
Considering from everywhere I heard, brandname is everything when considering IBD or MBB.
Columbia > Duke > Vandy > Tufts > Ivey,
HEC Paris somewhere in between. Still confused as to why I havent heard back from Columbia yet!
humble_dude: Background: Small liberal arts college, major: Econ/Applied Math. Research experience, but little finance experience. knowledgeable with a few programming languages and statistical software packages. plenty of ta experience, Gmat: 99th percentile overall. Graduated last May and since then have traveled and worked non-finance. Is there any other background info you'd find useful?
FinancialNoviceII: The brand name idea is what I was rolling with also. I'm pretty interested in the Columbia program because it's got brandname and finance focus. Plus I figured the two years would give me more time for additional internships.
Placement: WUSTL MSF, Duke MMS, or Vandy MSF (Originally Posted: 08/01/2011)
I want to know which of these programs gives its students the greatest likelihood of obtaining an FO IBD offer. WUSTL's MSF has much higher admission standards than Duke's MMS and slightly higher than Vandy's MSF. Given the selectivity of WUSTL's MSF, I am inclined to think that WUSTL's recruiting is the best of the three (for IBD). Is this correct?
Duke has the best OCR. Vandy and WUSTL are about on par for OCR and placements, but with some difference in geographic breakdown. It will be interesting to see how the placements are at WUSTL with the new bifurcated MSF program.
Thanks! How is WUSTL's OCR compared to that of Claremont Mckenna? Claremont looks great! I really like CMC's small class size.
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