MFA LBS vs HEC Paris MiM Grande Ecole
Hi everyone,
I was admitted to the Esade Mfin,LBS MFA program and HEC Paris MIM GE and am having a hard time deciding where to go. I ruled out Esade and am currently hesitating between HEC and LBS.
In the long run, I aim to join an asset management and will be looking to work in S&T after graduation. However, after speaking with some experienced professionals in S&T and considering how much restrictions and the department is facing, I might also be interested in investment banking.
About my background, I'm not from the EU. I did my undergrad and masters in engineering in France, I speak french fluently and did a summer internship in CB at a middle eastern regional(not dubai) office of a BB (I don't think highly of this experience considering that I couldn't even leverage it to get an interview for another summer analyst at the HK/ London offices of the same bank despite recommendations ).
I would like to work in London after graduation so I think that favours LBS . however, as I need sponsorship, t will be harder for me to get an internship than for EU and UK nationals. HEC seems safer as it will open opportunities in France (where sponsorship is easier) and London.
I also think the length of the program and the gap year at HEC Paris will help decide whether I want to go to IB or S&T.
However, I do not know how strong is HEC Paris in London compared to LBS. Can anyone weigh in on this?
Would love to hear your overall opinion.
thanks!
HEC Paris is top-notch, having good grades in your masters + some sort of experience (CB would be enough) can help you to land an IB gig.
If you speak good french, you will have chances of doing part time internships in Paris, take that into account as BNP and the likes do offer those and its something most students cant get due to their french level, so you would be ahead.
In any case, if you know you want IB, please try to get some M&A exposure through some boutique internship, once you get there with those 2 internships under your belt you will have really good chances.
Thanks ! can I pm you?
Sure
Good advice overall, just wanted to add that I disagree on the part-time internship part. This is quite known in lower ranked business schools in France, but very very rarely seen this at the top schools. My advice would rather be to do the gap year inbetween year 1 and 2 of the MiM. It's what most people do, it gives you the opportunity to do multiple internships and "work your way up" from CB.
From my class actually some colleagues did that part time, even if they almost slept nothing or had to skip some classes (due to the bad connections from HEC to Paris), but yes, doing the gap year and getting 2 full time off cycles is also great
If you wanna work in London LBS, though HEC is a top school and could work as well. May I ask why you didn't apply to HEC international finance programme?
HEC is very strong and respected, but in London (and Europe, minus France) LBS is seen as better than HEC in both IB and MC circles. I would suggest picking LBS over HEC is the goal is to land a job in London
Hey man, first of all congrats on the two offers. I think you are correct in ruling ESADE out, that school has been on a downwards trends for a couple of years and I think that in Spain the best schools are ICADE for Spanish Speakers and IE for foreigners. I'm slightly confused as to why you didn't apply for the MFIN at HEC, I think that would have been your best bet as it has very good London placement and you could easily interact with the large French alumni base given you are fluent.
Regardless, I think I would go with LBS here for a couple of reasons. The first is that if you want to end up in London then there's nowhere better to be than in London for Networking. Secondly, I think that even though I have seen HEC MIMs in Finance (and quite a few) recruiting from there will just be exponentially harder than from the MFIN. The reasons for this are that when you have such a strong MFIN program "in house", and with you wanting to go into IB, people will always be skeptical about why you didn't attend that program. I understand that you probably have some very valid reasons for doing so but don't discount the fact that you'll constantly be asked to prove your technical knowledge in interviews (know of lots of first hand experiences like this) because your MIM is less finance focused. The other important part of this is that you will literally be competing with the entire (essentially) MFIN and MBA programs at HEC for spots while you'll be at the MIM and let me tell you, I can guarantee you that the careers office will rather place those guys over MIM kids in IB (think about it, if MIM and MFIN got equal placement while the MIM also offers a "junior MBA" degree people would stop doing the MFIN).
So that's why I would rule out the MIM at HEC. I also attended a target where both MFIN and MIM are highly ranked and it's just a completely different level. LBS I think has a slightly better brand among londoners, you'll actually be in the MFIN and there still plenty of French speaking alumni (and possibly from your home country) that can properly walk you through everything. On the visa issue I know for London it really varies what country you're actually from so your best bet is to call up your London embassy and ask, I can't stress this enough. While a Bank will take care of all of this if they grant you an offer you want to know what to expect.
TL;DR: I think LBS' MFA has enough pull to land you a job also in Paris while I think you'd have to be a real outlier candidate at the HEC MIM to get into London. Happy to chat over PM if need to be, best of luck!
This is so so wrong. Please discard everything this person has written on HEC. /!\ 1/ In France, the MiM is much more prestigious than the MFIN...Case in point, most of the French megafund investors you will encounter in Private Equity come from the MiM and not the MFIN 2/ If you attend the MiM, you can still choose to attend the MFIN as a double degree in your second year of Masters so the MiM gives you more optionality 3/ The key decision criterion should be the trade-off between attending a shorter one-year program (MFIN) vs a two-year program
In France yes, in London no. He said he wants to be in S&T in London so I don’t see why he’d bother with a MIM seeing as a) a MIM is completely useless in S&T (trust me, I’ve interviewed those candidates) b) the optionality value of doing in 2 years what he could do in 1 seems like a waste of time for me. Especially when you consider that you (I’m not sure about this so maybe you can elaborate) would start with the MIM program first and not the MFIN which would not help him at all with getting an internship. I just fail to see why a bank would offer an S&T internship spot to a candidate that does not have relevant experience, does not come from a MIF or an Oxbridge Undergrad AND needs a visa. Seems like too much hassle, if he came from a highly relevant program like LBS’ then the visa seems less of an issue, even though I think it remains the main one.
If he wants to do a MIM then he should go do a MIM. I’m simply arguing that it won’t help him land an S&T London job. Having said that I think your points are pertinent, he just has a more unique situation that imho doesn’t won’t be helped by the option value of the 2yr program at HEC
My top choice would also be LBS MFA although both options are good
There are no bad choices here, but I suggest HEC
We’re about to have a global slowdown, could be short, could be long, who knows and there’s brexit too. Going to HEC, being fluent in French and being able to work in the EU makes HEC the safe choice. You can still push for London jobs after HEC, but it will be easier for you to land the type of job you want in France post-HEC VS the type of jobs you want in London post-LBS due to visa restrictions / recession /brexit.
What happens if you pick LBS, graduate and then can’t find what you’re looking w/ visa sponsorship in London? It will be harder to transition to France vs being a HEC grad.
Given your first job out of grad school is the most important, I suggest following the path of least resistance with the greatest options.
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