Often on this board, people ask whether they should go for the MSF or MBA. I was just thinking, why not get both? Many of you will probably say that it's too expensive (both in terms of time and money). However, there are plenty of one-year masters degree programs, so you could probably get both degrees in two years (I'm guessing two years of tuition would be about the same either way).
What are your thoughts? Pros vs. cons? For which careers would the MSF plus the MBA be more useful than just one or the other?
What about other combinations? Such as, pairing a masters in stats with an MBA or MSF (obviously you could substitute stats for math, or even computer science)? For which finance careers would this be a powerful combination? Are there any other pairs one should consider?
By the way, I'm not necessarily talking about getting both degrees back-to-back (although obviously one could do that too). For example, maybe get the MSF first, work for a few years, then go back for a one-year MBA.
Ha, I am looking at doing that right now.
I don't think there are any negatives, per say, but you will have to explain why the second masters to adcoms and employers. Both are useful and different degrees.
Well, the way I understand it is for high finance an MBA is more for networking. A couple guys I've discussed it with (both top programs) said they breezed through it in the top 10% of their class having a good time. Of course, they came from BB IB Analyst programs and they said some other people tended to struggle if they didn't have that kind of experience.
One-year MBA might be a good thing to do after MSF and few years of work ex.What concerns me is that people say INSEAD has the only good 1-year program.May be Kellogg too.
Doesn't LBS have a 15 month one?
I know someone doing a 3-year one at Carnegie Mellon. I know you can do both at NYU (at the same time) as well but have to apply separately.
IMO, I would do them separately (not at the same time), since you want to spend your time at your MBA program networking, not pouring through stochastic calculus / etc.
Good point.
I'm sure most of you guys already know this, but just to be clear I'm not only talking about IB careers. One thing I've noticed on this forum, is that people assume you're usually talking about IB jobs, unless you specificy otherwise. I had in mind several different finance jobs, such as IB, AM, trading, etc. It'd be interesting to hear what you guys think the best combination(s) would be for the respective finance careers.
A lot of MBA programs offer a dual degree option so you can do both degrees in the same 2 years as the FT MBA. If you do a MSF and then an MBA you will effectively be doing 3 years total. If you are cool with that then fine. If not then you will have to do an MBA part time which will defeat the whole purpose or find a 1 year program which is a limited pool.
I originally applied and got accepted to a joint MBA/MPP program. However, as I talked to people I found that most people thought that MPP was at best a joke or at worst showed that I was uncommitted to a career in finance. The advice I heard over and over and over again was to get a down and dirty finance focused MBA, show up for work and kick some ass for a few years. The consensus advice that I received was that if I wanted to do something other than straight stick banking in addition to finance, I should make sure that I had distinguished myself before setting out into the public sector.
Hope this helps.
I am doing a dual MFE/MBA degree at a good program - it's excellent! Send me a PM if anyone has any questions.
Just a quick note for everyone else.
Main advantage of the dual MFE / MBA program: - Only slightly longer than MBA program. - The degrees compensate each others real well, as the individual programs address the major shortcomings of each others. You come out as a strong quant MBA / MFE with fundamental analysis and soft skills . - Very highly marketable (personal experience).
Honestly can't think of much downside. You have to take a slightly heavier course load, that's it.
Cost? Does it cost the same amount of $$$ for a joint? How much longer in general are we talking about?
Same $ per time unit. Depends on how long it takes, usually not much more.
I've thought of doing both but I don't want to/think it's a good idea to get them from the same school. Why not brand yourself with two extra alumni networks rather than just one? If you're a top MSF candidate, it's unlikely you'll be an unattractive MBA candidate later on. If you're NOT a top MSF candidate then you won't want to be stuck at the same shitty non-target program for both degrees, and can go for a high GPA in the first program to move up for the second.
Also, if I were to get both, I'd follow the same train of logic as siux, in that you can get the degrees to better round/complement your skill sets. For example an MFin or MSc after undergrad for the more technical and quantitative base and an MBA in Management a handful of years later to rebrand yourself for even higher finance/executive positions.
Other than cost, one (negligible) down side would be that you'll probably have to take the GMAT again if you take too long in between programs (because your scores expire after 5 years).
MFE is generally designed as a quick & dirty way into high finance for people with strong technical backgrounds, while MBA is for people with existing job experience to pick up management & "big picture" skills. So, ex-ante, I am not sure which group of people would optimally get the degrees separately.
So, given limited time / money, I am not convinced it makes sense for most people to take the degrees separately. If you are climbing straight up the career ladder and are doing what you really wanted to do, why would you stop and go back to school? In my opinion, the opportunity cost of not working for more than a whole year far outweighs the marginal benefit of an additional degree. This is more true in S&T than IB, since raw skills matter more. But then for IB, I think you're better off as a strong technical undergrad + solid MBA - I don't think MFE helps much.
An interesting alternative is to get the MBA, get a job, and then do MFE part time, or vice versa. With that said, I do have lots of MFE classmates with other grad degrees, some of which are MBAs. But I think their decision for separating MBA and MFE degrees is based on ex-post reasons - I mean, who can reliably plan that far in advance anyway?
Or how about an MSF/MBA + MAcc? Would this be overkill on the accounting side, or would this actually work out quite nicely. I'm thinking about someone interested in doing fundamental analysis for a hedge fund, mutual fund, etc.
I think an MBA/MSF is fine. A Macc would be more for Big 4 accounting.
OR since your collecting degrees get the MBA/MSF+Macc+JD+Ph.D= what employer could ever turn you down?
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