Financial Times MSc Finance Rankings 2014

The Financial Times published the 2014 Pre-Experience and Post-Experience rankings for MSc Finance programs.

Here are the links for anyone who might be interested:
ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-finance-pre-experience-2014">Masters in Finance Pre-experience 2014 Rankings
ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-finance-post-experience-2014">Masters in Finance Post-experience 2014 Rankings

Quick summary:

Pre-Experience MSc Finance
HEC Paris' MSc in International Finance is again ranked as the #1 program.
MIT's Sloan MFin graduates have the highest annual salary today (~$106.000).
University of St. Gallen's and Oxford's programs are ranked 6th and 7th respectively.
Bocconi and ESCP tie at the 8th place.
Other UK universities, such as Warwick, Imperial and Cass are at 15th-17th places.

Post-Experience MSc Finance
LBS Masters in Finance is again ranked as the top program for post-experience Masters.
MFin at Cambridge-Judge Business school came second.

 

Amen brother. My guess is that LSE simply doesn't give a crap about appearing on these silly rankings and they don't submit their data. This list is a reason why so many kids in Europe take crappy decisions when choosing their masters programme. e.g. According to these rankings, the sole acquisition of an MSc in Finance from Rotterdam School of Management appears to guarantee employment and a fat salary. However, I checked out graduates of this programme from my country on Linkedin and most of them have not landed kickass jobs or work in stuff like "Accounts Payable". This programme is tailor-made for Dutch/Germanic individuals and these FT rankings are complete garbage.

 

Nonsense... Graduated from there and landed a job at a BB, just as many of my classmates.

Nevertheless, no top school would ever guarantee a kickass job with a big fat pay, they would just help your cv have better chances.

 

I believe either they do not want to participate in these rankings or they do not have some business school accreditations. (According to the methodology used for the rankings, which can be found here, "To be eligible to participate, a school should be accredited by AACSB or Equis".)

Either way, I don't think anyone questions the fact that LSE's MSc Finance program is one of the top and most selective programs in the world, whether on not it appears in these rankings.

 

FT does some of the crappiest rankings with some really useless factors in their methodologies that have nothing to do with the quality of programs. E.g. percentage of international students/faculty/board, percentage of female students/faculty/board, number of doctorates produced. Do not bother with them.

 

This ranking is a complete joke, a private school from my country is placed higher than RSM and HEC Lausanne, in spite of the fact that it just sends kids to parents' companies where they get sweet salaries...

 

I am with you on this one. The notion that if someone with no good extra extracurriculars, internships, and a decent undergrad degree can simply walk into this program and walk out with a BB offer is that is completely messed up. Also the program plays out quite differently for internationals/Germanics and that is not brought up at this list.

 

Graduated from it. Honestly, the program did not live up to my expectations, but together with EC, CFA candidacy, previous experiences, etc helped me land into a BB. So in the end, it was all good.

Also the cost benefit is great, as it is 10x cheaper than other top schools.

Plus their career center is very well connected and there are plenty of recruiting events

 
greenbackboogie:

i will study msc finance this september at durham, and they already decreased.. ( i declined strathclyde's offer )

yeah story of my life :/

Duke ? I didn't know they had a Msc in Finance
 

Another thing to mention is that this kind of ranking favors "generalist" universities, basically universities that teach everything.

The LSE is unique in that it only teaches social sciences, and thus with the ranking methodology, it's heavily disadvantaged. If you look at how for example QS University builds their rankings, they take a much more precise look and rank universities according to faculty, subjetc.

If you look at the "Accounting and Finance" subject, according to QS, LSE is number 3 in the world behind Harvard and Oxford.

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-r…

It's a shame really that a ranking like the Financial Times's one is so popular because I know a few people that heavily based their decision on where they went to do their master on it.

 

Oh yeah could you explain why ?

This ranking may be not perfect but it's quite relevant of the quality and careers made by their alumnis.

Plus the proportion of females/foreign teachers on the board and such have a very low coefficient so it doesn't really impact the ranking.

You guys really should learn how rankings are made before talking sh*t

 
bengigi:

Lol I would never go to one of the French or Spanish schools...

Yea that's probably because you don't know what you're talking about. HEC Paris and the Spanish business schools IE, IESE, and Esade are damn good and definitely better than any German, Dutch, Belgium business schools (also better than most UK, with the exception of a few obviously).

 
bengigi:

Lol I would never go to one of the French or Spanish schools...

Inclusion of Grenoble and Skema in top 10 confirms how worthless this ranking is for front-office recruiting. The good thing is a strong majority of competitive applicants go by these rankings, making it easier for those who actually have a clue.

 

I forget specifically what their criteria is, but they have a program length criteria as well as number of students in a class. So you need at least say 15 students in a program, for at least 5 years or whatever to be eligible. Since Euro programs have been around for a while they are all on the list while American programs are newer and don't make the cut.

The ranking isn't valid for US programs, but simply something to look at as a data point.

 
user:
bengigi:

Lol I would never go to one of the French or Spanish schools...

Yea that's probably because you don't know what you're talking about. HEC Paris and the Spanish business schools IE, IESE, and Esade are damn good and definitely better than any German, Dutch, Belgium business schools (also better than most UK, with the exception of a few obviously).

Yeah HEC Paris is good but I still wouldn't go there for other reasons... Never said I was a fan of the German, Dutch and Belgian schools.

 
bengigi:
user:
bengigi:

Lol I would never go to one of the French or Spanish schools...

Yea that's probably because you don't know what you're talking about. HEC Paris and the Spanish business schools IE, IESE, and Esade are damn good and definitely better than any German, Dutch, Belgium business schools (also better than most UK, with the exception of a few obviously).

Yeah HEC Paris is good but I still wouldn't go there for other reasons...
Never said I was a fan of the German, Dutch and Belgian schools.

Actually, the 3 Spanish business schools I named almost always score higher in MBA rankings than does HEC. IE and Iese are often top 10/15 of the world, Esade often top 20. It's really ignorant to directly relate a country's economic status or whatever to the quality of their business schools.

 
Best Response
user:
bengigi:
user:
bengigi:

Lol I would never go to one of the French or Spanish schools...

Yea that's probably because you don't know what you're talking about. HEC Paris and the Spanish business schools IE, IESE, and Esade are damn good and definitely better than any German, Dutch, Belgium business schools (also better than most UK, with the exception of a few obviously).

Yeah HEC Paris is good but I still wouldn't go there for other reasons...
Never said I was a fan of the German, Dutch and Belgian schools.

Actually, the 3 Spanish business schools I named almost always score higher in MBA rankings than does HEC. IE and Iese are often top 10/15 of the world, Esade often top 20. It's really ignorant to directly relate a country's economic status or whatever to the quality of their business schools.

Cool story. Not sure why you're so butthurt though...

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

 

LSE is not on here because LSE does not have a complete business school (they do have accounting and finance and some management department though). This is also the reason they don't offer an MBA program.

Obviously LSE would be nr 1 here. Their placement is beyond real. Top target for the IB in London, the industry is filled with LSE grads more than any other school. This includes people who studied 'Political Economy' or 'International Relations' at LSE. Only imagine where their MSc Finance students end up..

I know a guy who turned down HEC for LSE. HEC was super offended they were turned down and started cracking down on LSE saying their program was quantitative and theoretical. Hilarious to read that email.

 

FT Rankings are not reliable. They ranked HEC 1st and MIT 8th or 9th(forgot but ranked it in low t10s). Secondly, they don't rank some programs at all that are pretty good. CMC is unknown outside US so maybe that's why. USC is new, not record, and UIUC is not that strong but deserves to be somewhere in the rankings. Again, do not rely on FT rankings.

 

I agree with the guy above. Vandy and WUSTL should be in T10s. The T10 eu schools in FT are not even that good. St Gallen lies about their placement all the time. MIT deserves 1st spot followed by Oxford MFE and LSE. HEC is not even that strong program! smdh!!

 

Pretty poor list IMO. I've always thought the top programs in the US were Claremont, WUSTL, UIUC, Vanderbilt etc. However one of that list made it.

Ant, what'd you make of it? I posted a thread about Brandeis' vague placements (great names but little detail as to placement rate) a while back and questioned it really. Is it actually that good of a program to rank in the top 15 worldwide?

 

I think the FT list is junk, but it is a start. MSF programs need more attention. As more people know about it and more companies see the value in the degree, more people will be drawn to it. More applicants, more selectivity. The FT list is a good start. Now I just hope BW, WSJ, USN, etc will start a ranking.

 

And like I've said before, this list ignores the fact that Rankings take second place to geographic location. Other than MIT and Princeton, the best program is the one closest to where you want to work.

 
ANT:
And like I've said before, this list ignores the fact that Rankings take second place to geographic location. Other than MIT and Princeton, the best program is the one closest to where you want to work.

Interesting stuff. I was looking through the forum and I found threads about specific MMS vs MSF programs, but could someone elaborate the highlights of each? I think I'm personally leaning more toward the MMS as it gives a wider net into business (consulting, finance, accounting, etc). I would really like to hear some people's opinions about the differences between the two degrees. Also, you mentioned the best programs are the ones closest to where you want to work. What are the best programs for people in the Tri-State (w/ 1/2 years experience)?

 

FT MBA Rankings are a joke. Why would the MSF rankings be any different. I believe the FT MBA Rankings. Incorporate the percentage of female professors into their rankings. Who the fuck would go to an MBA program just because the program had a lot female (or male) profs?

 

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