Cass Business School vs Edinburgh Business School
I've got offers from both the University of Edinburgh for their Msc Finance course and from CASS business school for their MSc Corporate Finance course. I'm currently leaning towards Edinburgh because I like the course better and UEBS is affiliated with a more prestigious university. On the other side, CASS is located in London which could be great for networking events and stuff like that and is "highly" regarded on FT Rankings. However, I came across mixed reviews on some forums concerning CASS's academic standards and lenient admission policies. Right now I am having a hard time figuring out which one to pick and I would deeply appreciate if someone could share her/his view on this choice.
I should point out that my ultimate career goal would working in IB after graduation. I do not really care about BBs (I do realize that for those firms my chances would be slim coming from both the aforementioned business schools) as long as it is IB and/or corporate finance related. Thank you :)
Cass
Sure, Edinburgh is the better Uni, but for postgrad semi-targets like Edinburgh become reaches.
Cass does have issues, lax admits and high tuition, but it's in the city and facilitates networking. It's also know to be a 'finance' postgrad school vs Edinburgh that has strengths in other areas.
If you go to Edinburgh, you'll surely have a lovely time but how will you recruit? You're 100% reliant on the whims of on-campus recruiting when most firms are there for the undergrads. At Cass at least the firms show up for the postgrads and being in the city means you can network easily.
Edinburgh is the more prestigious one, and I would choose it but for undergrad. For MSc, Cass is the clear choice. There are numerous people who complete their undergrad at a non-target and leverage Cass to get a job in the city. Also, as you mentioned, the opportunity to network, go to events and just get a feel for the city is much better. Even going for an interview from Edinburgh to London would be a drag.. Also, Edinburgh living standards are pretty high, too so you won't save much money compared to London.
First things first, thank you for taking some of your time to answer my question. I don’t mean to seem pedantic, but I’m an international student (Italian) and the main reason why I’m pursuing a Msc degree is that I would like to give my degree an international breath. Besides, I would love to leverage CASS to work in London but my perception is that I would be at a disadvantage for UK recruiting given the fact that I have no relevant IB work experience (in Italy work experience is a factor but not a decisive one) and that CASS is not on par with the likes of LBS,LSE etc. Moreover, I know an IB recruiter for Italy from a French MM and she and her boss basically told me that they never heard of CASS (the boss also worked in Germany) while they have a general good perception of traditional UK universities (they wouldn’t know how to rank a Durham, Edinburgh or KCL), however this could be firm specific. To your knowledge, what do you think of CASS’s reputation outside London, mainly EU? Thank you again for you time.
For Italian recruitment I would say most people won't have heard of either. They may have heard of Edinburgh as a city, but will likely not have an opinion on the university. For London IB, CASS may have the edge and even if you come without experience, there are plenty of boutiques, MMs and internship opportunities to target before you head for FT recruitment. Have a scan on LinkedIn to see where CASS alumni have landed - I know some and they've ended up at very respectable MMs or AMs.
I would be very cautious about the affiliation between the business school and the university as they are not often known seen the same e.g. KCL>KBS, ICL>ICBS, WBS>Warwick and Oxford>SBS.
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