Brandeis MA in international economics and finance (full tuition) or Vandy MSF
Brandeis MA in international economics and finance (full tuition) versus Vandy MSF.
Average GMAT (722) and class profile in Brandeis are really great, but i still have some doubt about the program. Brandeis is not that far from Vandy in terms of MSF rankings. However, Vandy's business school reputation is much better.
I am staying on the east cost and considering consulting/vc&pe. Any good suggestions?
Honestly, Vanderbilt. I'd ping admissions and see if you can shake $5-10k out of them. It's the way better program.
Any fool can tell you that Vanderbilt / Owens has a much better reputation, and yes that's a long term thing.
but Nashville isn't a heavy scene for your goal industries, so you'd be heavily using campus interview, or else do a lot of legwork. For consulting you should be interviewing like now, so you're basically done as you're still choosing schools. VC PE stuff I have to lean towards Brandeis' location. Boston is fortunately very active with private capital.
What are your other options?
did you take calculus in your undergrad?
I didn't take that many quant courses. Calc 1&2, Statistics, Physics, Data analytics, Statistical programming in R and Python, 3 Econ courses.
1) There are no really valuable MSF rankings.
2) Vanderbilt has placements in all the spaces you want to be, on the East Coast. Additionally, getting into PE usually required a stint in banking, which Vanderbilt places well into.
3) Outside of the MSF, Vanderbilt has a far better reputation and alumni network than Brandies.
If you can get some money out of Vanderbilt, I would without a doubt go there. It is far and away a better school. Only situation I would MAYBE recommend Brandies over Vanderbilt would be if you live in Boston, have no desire to leave Boston, want PWM or Corporation finance and have cost as your primary concern. Since these we not mentioned, my recommendation to go to Vanderbilt stands.
'VCPE Requires banking and Vanderbilt places well?' You sure about this ridiculous junk?
It's 2 years IB before PE / buy side, and you can't get your facts straight?
Not all banking are equal, but hey, you can still call yourself a banker for cashing $5 checks all day!
I actually really agree with this. I was trolling on those other msf threads but that wsorookie guy is undoubtedly whattherock. How good are MSF programs when it comes to putting people in consulting? I had thought a MMS would be better?
haha whatever happened to that whattherock guy. He is definitely him!
a collective reply to BillBelichick37 (what's the thrill?) and @Isabella-Ray" (don't seem to think straight?)
no time for your witch hunt debates, but MSF is not a gold weapon for every industry. you'll find a guy or girl successfully sneak into traditional IB/consulting realms, but majority of campus hiring comes from undergrad + MBAs, period.
MMS is marginally helpful, but guess what, I too have friends from MMS that got to MBB/BBs.
No dispute about Vandy's brand being better than Brandeis, but sometimes people are pretty delusional to assume that a quick master's degree changes everything! (e.g. you got respect, you got deep knowledge, blah blah blah!)
Yep. You also did a top MSF + top 10 mba for the prestige! How's your Harvard Extension MBA?
Thank you guys for all of your comments. It seems that everyone on this forum treats official MSF rankings differently.
Last week i attended a session held by Marc Cosentino, who wrote Case In Point, at Brandeis. Faculty also seems to be top notch, but i have no idea why Brandeis placements are so poor. Brandeis also lacks diversity, I believe that 90% of students are from China. Nevertheless, many of them completed IB internships at GS, WF, and JPM back home.
Based on my research, looks like MIT's MSF is the only 1-year program that might meet my goals in the US. However, getting into MIT is a low probability bet. Duke's MQM or MMS could be an option, but it seems that their placement statistics is not strong enough.
Vandy has a strong undergraduate brand, but i am not sure about their grad school despite their good placement report. Washington University in St Louis has higher rankings for both undergraduate and MBA studies. But, their MSF is ranked even lower than Vandy's program.
Choosing Brandeis over Vanderbilt lol. You've got to be kidding. Good luck with that.
Actually, i was attending this session illegally) I have a friend who studies at Brandeis and i just wanted to get some idea about student body and IBS itself. I know that you guys hate hypothetical situations, but i haven't even been accepted yet. My main goal was to understand whether it is even worth applying because i am sure that i will get a full ride at Brandeis.
After attending a non-target school, i am certain that down the road the brand of the school plays a tremendous role. As i didn't grow up in the US, i was curios how big is the gap between Vandy (15 US News Rankings/3rd MSF) and Brandeis (30 US rankings/6 MSF).
A friend of mine told me pretty much the same thing and he even said that Vandy is on par with Duke in terms of prestige.
Vanderbilt is a semi target for both UG and MBA. Brandeis isn't.
And MSF rankings are junk. Vanderbilt is one of the best programs in the country, surpassed only by MIT. Brandeis isn't even on the radar in comparison.
If you want to go to school for free and don't care about placements, sure, choose IBS. But they are light years away from Vandy.
All i care is placement. Money is not a big issue. Thank you for the insights.
Doesn't Vandy have insane placements with top MM (Wells, SunTrust, etc.) shops and still a decent amount of people going to BB IBD? I think the south is legitimately downplayed on here too.
I really wish you would make a MSF rankings for WSO's audience of eager-beaver FO hopefuls. Really blows that CMC doesn't accept outsiders.
Yea, as i said, i haven't been living in the US all my life, so i had no clue how good is Vandy. Vanderbilt is on par with Duke, but back in Russia Duke is a well known university while Vanderbilt is not. All i care is a brand of the parent institution, Vandy's career report did not tell me much because students in the incoming class might be either sponsored or willing to go back to their home country after completion of the program.
My main goal is to get a rebranding through attending a quick 1-year masters degree in either management or finance. However, there are just a few programs in the US that meet this criteria. MIT MSF, Vandy MSF, Duke MMS/MQM, Emory 1-year MBA, UVA Masters in Global Commerce, WUSTL MSF, Northwestern 1-year MBA, and some European programs.
MIT's MSF is on top of my list because you simply don't need an MBA after finishing the program. While at MIT you can cross register at Harvard Business School and take classes in strategy or venture capital with MBA students. Moreover, every single finance professor in Sloan is outstanding and i am still not sure why Princeton with its small (25 students) class is ranked above MIT. MIT's MSF can be customized and tailored in order to meet any career goals, i wish there would be more programs like this.
I don't want to rank them because each situation is unique. That being said, it is something I've thought of and discussed before. It might happen.
yeah Vandy could make a good bet for Charlotte, but guess who else are there? UNC and Duke. Also add NC State for proximity
Guys, what does Vanderbilt mean by "expecting" those admitted to at least have taken calculus? @TNA" They don't reply to emails anymore(don't know why). What if those accepted haven't taken calculus?
Then take calculus for derivatives. You can't figure that out?
Just call them.
Do Vanderbilt accept GRE score, Will it deter my chances If don't apply through a gmat score ? I'm expecting my GRE to be around 330.
Absolutely doesn't matter with which score you apply as long as this score is solid.
They do. But in application portal it says GMAT preferred. I am applying with GRE and I don't think it matters much if you can really score 330.
Yea, you are probably right, because the class size is small and adcom wants to have a good sample size of gmat test takers in order to post stats.
I got into Brandeis for the MA and also into Vandy and chose Vandy and i would say the MSF at Owen benefits from the MBA recruiting so placement wise that is a much better pick. Your industries i would say are a bit more niche for the Owen community, MSF IB recruiting and AM and the likes should not be any roadblocks, MBB recruits on campus. VC&PE you might need to tap into the MBA alum network or the broader Vandy network and i am sure you should easily find folks in that space, ex Carlyle CFO was an Owen alum. Good luck to you. Ping me if need be.
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