Hey, I am Indian student, in my sophomore year.
Currently also pursuing CFA, FRM with my undergrad.
I was looking at various Masters programs for getting into IB in the US.
My shortlists are;
MIT Msc Finance, John Hopkins Msc Finance , Princeton Uni.
Are these programs, target for IB? Also, if not, which other masters programs are good enough for getting into IB?
Thanks, appreciate any help.
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I would recommend ask the schools about job reports for the programs you are interested in. Most schools have a detailed PDF about the average pay scale after employment per program and the companies that come to recruit along with the % of students placed in those companies from the program you are interested in. Also, ask for how many international students accepted a job offer in IB in the US after graduation.
My suggestion would be to work in India for a few years and then transition to the US for MBA.
Hey thanks for the detailed answer man, appreciate it. I have seen the Placement report PDFs for some schools. Found 2 issues with those reports:- 1. They have finance as a major sub head. It did not show many people went into IB, FP&A, Corp Fin. It just shows the number of students placed in finance. 2. Some placement reports show the diversity of the program, but not where those international students were placed. Again, this is for the few programs I shortlisted.
My concern with the MBA route was, that as Indian I may get good finance experience, but it might not necessarily be related to IB. So , would that experience with my FRM & CFA, make my profile strong enough to compete against the domestic candidates who have strong experience in US front end IB roles? Thanks for the time buddy.
John Hopkins - Don't even consider it. Weird program length and doesn't place well into IB.
MIT - Great program, very quant focused. Place some into IB.
Princeton - Also very quant focused, and a very small class size. Extremely difficult to get into the program. No idea on placements, but I don't think students in that program are going for IB.
I would recommend reading up on some previous threads here on MSF palcements / rankings. This will help a lot and give you a better sense of which schools you are competitive for and should apply to.
To give you a short answer, I would suggest you look into Vanderbilt. Great IB placements, not super quant focused and you can tailor your courses towards IB, and they always have foreign / Asian students in the program.
Other programs would be UT Austin, USC, Villanova, WUSTL. Placements aren't nearly as good, but still possible from those schools.
Also, no placement report is going to breakdown IB placement by student type.
Hey, thanks for the inputs Brodie. Super helpful. One doubt I had was, that these programs you mentioned, are these early career programs? Because currently I am an undergrad. I plan to get a masters directly after completing my undergrad for the reason being that the FO IB oppurtunities in India are marginally low, and reserved for tier 1 MBA grads (IIM ABC).
So, assuming I am able to get into the programs you mentioned which place well for IB , would my lack of FO experience in IB put me at a disadvantage.
Few things to consider: 1. If you're going to target IB, dont' waste your time with a Mfin. Go for either the MBA or JD/Law. 2. Indian and Chinese men have the odds significantly stacked against them because they don't qualify for any diversity recruiting and there is a natural cultural divide. 3. Visa is a major hurdle and 80% of companies won't sponsor. That's not just limited to banking. In general, most firms don't sponsor. 4. Grad school is ridiculously expensive. If you can make the career change work, it might be worth it. Otherwise, note that about 75%+ of Asian MBA students return to decent careers in their home countries.
These are just facts to keep you grounded. Follow your dream though.
Hey, thanks for the giving the real picture.
My major concern with going with the MBA route is, that I won't be having Solid Pre MBA FO experience(FO IB Jobs in India are veryyy limited and restricted for 3 MBA School grads only, UG are not even considered). So, optimistically assuming I get into MBA business schools">M7 down the line, would BO experience hold me back at the time of placements ?
MBAs don't qualify under STEM visas. That's why I was looking at MS F programs. Agreed that very few MFin programs qualify for STEM AND PLACE in IB. Most MFin programs that qualify for STEM are MFE and don't place in IB. So the intersection is quite small.
These were my reasons. Do you have any other suggestive path?
Also, thanks again for taking the time out. Really helpful.
My comments are based on first hand experience, as an MBA who graduated within the last few years. It is extremely difficult to get into an MBA business schools">M7, but note that if you work hard any school in the top 20 will give you ample opportunity to get into IB. But I'm definitely not exaggerating how difficult it is for Asian men. It's both harder to get into a good school and harder to get a great job. Asian women do qualify for women's recruiting. My year BCS took 4 women and no men were even invited to a super day.
The problem with the Mfin is if you do get an I gig, you'll likely be slotted in as an analyst. The other option if you want to take the STEM route is to do a PHD. Lots of quant funds and research roles that pay well for those.
Don't get so fixated on the PE route. IB pays pretty comparably nowadays and at the higher levels if you make good connections and have relationships you'll have options to do what you want.
If you end up with a heavy finance background with Mfin + CFA, an MBA might not even be worth. Look into a law degree. I routinely saw law students at our MBA recruiting events/super days.
Good luck.
Honestly, none of them. Canucklehead's comment was pretty spot on - do MBA or JD instead. Master's programs are generally a big no no for analyst recruiting. I know this sounds harsh but as a fellow international student I hate to see people come over to these ridiculously expensive master's programs only to realize later on that they were fed false hopes.
Thanks for the inputs buddy. After alot of research, I have decided to go for an MBA after getting 3-4 years work ex in India. The only problem with this route is, that the work ex may not be considered extremely relevant when recruiting post my MBA in the states. Here are a few options I have w.r.t the profiles, could you rank them in order of relevance for getting a FO assoc position after my MBA : - 1. Big 4 Audit or Assurance 2. Big 4 TAS (Long shot, still worth a try. They mainly recruit MBAs) 4. Indian boutique FO role, but obviously little to no global experience 5. US BB (GS/MS/JP/CS/Citi) BO or MO role, again a long shot. But I've been networking like crazy, even though it's not very effective here. 6. MBB consulting MO / BO role.
Thanks for the help. Really appreciate the inputs.
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