Hi all,
I'm graduating high school this year and now I'm picking from BBA at ESADE, Accounting at Durham, Acc&Fin at Cass (same progamme at Manchester and Nottingham).
Which one do you think is best for landing a job in BB IB or VC?
When it comes to ESADE, my thinking is mainly that BB in Spain is very stagnant, and now I'm generally afraid that Spain will become a new Greece after the whole coronavirus fallout.
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Actually you have a point that right now choosing spanish unis will not be the best election, due to whats going on. If I were you I would try to study in the UK, being Durham my 1st election. Anyways ESADE is a great university.
Yeah... thing is I'll be studying Accounting at Durham, which doesn't seem to be targeted by investment banks of any sort. And then, Durham is a top ranked school (4th in UK) only because of their humanitarian degrees and not Finance and Economics...
ESADE and Durham are both good choices. I have friends who have gone to both and career wise they have all done well. The lifestyle however is not comparable. Barcelona is an incredible city for students.
Does the guy who went to ESADE live in Spain now? Thing is, I'd love to stay in Spain, but if employment there is so grimm, then I'd go to UK right away
a couple are working in MBB in Spain, a couple in BB/EB in London and one in tech in Ireland
As an international student you will struggle a lot to enter into IB in Spain, and yes, there are very very few places there and does that are ready they prefer national students with top grades from targets.
Being international, from a non-target or not having top grades makes it so so so hard in that country.
Thanks, are there any decent (international-student-with-fluent-Spanish-tolerant) PE or VC shops in Barcelona area though?
In Spain most PEs are in Madrid, in BCN there are a few but they are kind of small and usually dont hire FT, even if you are allowed for internships.
The problem in Spain is that everyone expects you to speak spanish at a native level or pretty close to it, which means that either you get that level and you can actually break into the ecosystem, or you cant ever enter into it (except asking for a exchange in your bank)
In my Opinion: Durham=Notts>Cass=ESADE>Manchester.
Durham even with an Accounting degree?
Course doesn’t matter. And IB is mostly accounting to which you apply one financial concept that is time value of money. You don’t give a single fuck about arbitrage, derivatives and all that bullshit that you’d learn doing a finance degree.
Cass > Durham > ESADE
Cass would put you in London with better networking. If you do well there, there's a direct path to IBD.
Durham is a great Uni for law/humanities, but weak in finance and fairly remote for LDN job networking. In the UK, specific majors really drive recruiting. Accounting is going to lead to an accounting job post-school, not IBD. You'll need to not only do well, but recruit against others w/ finance majors that are designed to get jobs in IBD. Who's going to train you for interviews? You'll have to do your own prep, networking as well as do well in your own major. The deck is stacked against you in several ways doing accounting at Durham.
ESADE, great Uni, but Spain in a recession (for who knows how long) seems to be a tough bet.
Durham is a semi-target in the UK, similar to Bristol, Bath, Warwick. Cass is a good university but I would not put it above Durham.
No one cares about your subject in the UK. You have plenty of humanities, engineering students going into IB from both targets and semi-targets.
Had a good ride at Durham. Everything worked out very well in the end. Pick your college at Durham carefully, they’re all pretty different and it really impacts fresher life.
Hi! What course did you study? I got admitted to Trevelyan College by the way
I studied Economics. Trev’s is good if I recall, fun bar. There’s videos of all the different colleges online if you look around.
Hi mate. I studied in Cass and have mates graduating from Cass the BSc Investment and Financial Risk Management. my suggestion would be to go for this particular course in Cass as it is probably the hardest couse. about other unis can't tell. best luck.
Hey there! Well, I can't change the course I'm being admitted to, so I can only go with Acc&Fin. I checked out the course structure and it seems like we have around 5 modules more, but I guess the number of modules doesn't define complexity
when I studied in Cass after first year you are able to switch tto a different course. highly would recommend to consider to go to IFRM or Banking. But acc and Fin is also great
Why are you all assuming that if he goes to ESADE he has to work / intern in Spain? That's just nonsense. I know quite a few people who went to ESADE and are working in London in IBD. ESADE is a semi target in the City and is by far the best university out of the ones you list. Is Spain being hit by Cov-19 right now? Sure, but so will the UK in a couple weeks. Don't base your decision off of that.
IBD in Spain will most likely not be doable since there are incredibly few spots and most recruit from ICADE but it should be perfectly possible for you to intern at Big4 TAS / Duff&Phelps in Madrid for your first internship and then do IBD in London.
Not to mention that you will have the chance to master your Spanish and study abroad, which adds value to your profile regardless of what you do after your undergrad. ESADE for its BBA allows you to study a semester abroad in top business schools (HEC, LSE, schools in the US) and do a second semester of FT internships.
Life in Barcelona is absolutely amazing both as a local and as an international student. If you have any questions about that feel free to message me.
Thank you for your answer! Well, ESADE will be a bit more of a hit on my parent's pocket (although I must say after Brexit EU students might lose the discount they now enjoy). But for me, it would make more sense to stay in Spain after studies - it would just feel like less a waste of money but... ESADE has some good selling points like an exchange at f**g Wharton
I would recommend you reach out on LinkedIn to some former students from each of these universities who currently work in IBD. Staying in Spain afterwards would not make much sense, as salaries are just much lower. ESADE should still help get a job in London or in your home country.
Do take living costs into consideration, as one can live in Barcelona with around 1.000 euros a month.
It makes no sense to attend ESADE if you really wanna work in London. Durham is not a real target, but at least it is more target than ESADE at the undergrad level. COL may be slightly lower in Durham. There are no much things to do in Durham but you can always commute to Newcastle if you wanna have fun.
Never really felt that student life was tame or lacking in Durham. Nightlife was great and cheap. Sport really good and inclusive for all levels. Plenty of clubs etc. Went up to Newcastle only a handful of times, didn’t need to.
After the current global crises, there will hardly be any major differentiation between these B Schools. Ask yourself how will you differentiate yourself based on a brand when the fact is that all brands will have similar value and appeal in the marketplace.
How's Cass Business School for MSc Management (with finance electives) to get into a career in finance in London?
Hi mate, I also received an offer from cass lately, i am kinda worring whether the pandemic could be contained right before September...
From the brands name I would say ESADE, but the placement there is not so good as I would expect from the brand recent years. Anyway, if you would go for ESADE you would have at least nice weather and chicks haha
I would say ESADE - I went to ESADE and am currently in London working at a BB with many people from my class that joined different banks in the city as well. Yes, the university is in Spain but does not mean you have to work in Spain. There are career days in which the banks send London based employees for presentations and networking events, as well as random events in which Madrid employees are sent.
Yeah, should have given an update to the thread:
I decided to join BBA at ESADE. Really like it here, let's see how it goes but I'm already attending all banking related career events.
Thanks to everyone for their advice
Hello, sorry to message after like 2 years on this post. Although you will probably not see this message, I just to say that i'm nearly in the exact same predicament as you once were when you put up this post and I just wanted to get some advice and guidance since I assume you're in your last year of study. Thanks alot.
Hey, Im facing kind of a similar situation would you say that this still applies now that the pandemic is over.
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