MSF Choices and Preparation

Hello,
I am a rising senior trying to break into investment banking. Currently I am preparing for full time 2016 but am considering MSF as plan B in case of not landing an IB offer. I am looking for program in the states that has good placement in IBD especially NY, SF area.

My stats:
1.Go to non-target public school(rank top 50 nationally) in West Coast
2.GPA 3.4-3.5
3.One IB summer intern in a very small boutique, might do another one in senior year.
4.International student
5.Haven't take GMAT yet.(Aiming for 720 up?)

Some options:
UVA-MS Commerce
BC- MSF
Claremont McKenna - Master of Arts in Finance
Columbia - MS in Financial Economics
Duke- Master in Management Studies
Georgetown -MSF online(maybe not?)
MIT-MSF
Norte Dame - MSF
Princeton - MSF
Vanderbilt - MSF
Villanova - MSF
WUSTL - MSF

Any idea or any other option that can be considered? or even MFE or MEcon?
When is a better time to take it?
Do they generally accept 1 year deferral?(would like to know because I might need to complete military service before doing master program)

Thanks.

 

a 3.5 ish GPA with a top 50 school should be close enough to FT offers already.

I dont think it's useful yet to say which programs are stronger...... they're mostly equivalent except MIT Sloan, CBS, Princeton (MFE-based) and Duke Fuqua as a standout. Put in CMC if you want too, I just don't know~

They're pretty much geared for either NYC or California, because you don't have any Texas (Rice, UTAustin, SMU) schools listed.

You probably don't have time to apply through all of them anyways, so get a few job offers and school offers, and let's talk from there, OK? best of luck.

 

Look if you want to do BB/EB banking, quit focusing on FT recruiting because it's basically over unless you're well connected and concentrate on the GMAT. The sooner you get into a master's program, the sooner you can sell yourself for SA recruiting in the winter which makes getting into banking infinitely easier.

Not the answer you wanted I'm sure, but as a current MSF that is dealing with all BBs basically forgoing on FT recruiting due to almost 100% summer conversions, it's your best shot.

 

I'm not sure about your school, mine seems to have a decent amount of ocr for full time ib spots (no BB's but some solid shops) so I would imagine there is still time to find something. I'm also going for ib full time and figure that you could always take the GMAT and apply to Mfin or Mcomm or Mim programs once most recruiting will wrap up in a few months.

 
Most Helpful

For anyone looking at Georgetown's MSF program, as an alumni of their fourth cohort, I can say that this program is really quite a scam. As an example, you will not have access to Georgetown's career services office, nor will you have access to the McDonough School of Business career services office. Instead, you will have one man whose part-time job is to teach you how to use LinkedIn. The MSF career services office routinely asked me, a student, to help my fellow classmates find jobs at my firm. Networking is a big part of business school, and I think it's great to help each other out, but this was the extent of career services provided to most people. Occasionally they will look over your cover letters for typos.

They will continuously remind you how lucky you are to have a Georgetown degree and access to Georgetown facilities, but you're not paying for a Georgetown education. You'll remain separate from the school, and even the rest of the business school.

Georgetown as a whole is great, but the MSF program director is not an educator- he's a business man who didn't make it in business, and is concerned with his career and the media generated by his program. He's not in it for the students. This program is a profit-generating machine that feeds on people who look up to Georgetown the institution. I can't speak to any other MSF programs, but I can confidently say you will regret spending your money here.

 

While you're replying to a very old post, I totally agree.  

There are MSFs out there (US and UK) that are total cash cows. Their purposes are to rake in money for the Uni and do as little as possible for the students. G'town is not the only one, for any future MSF applicants who read this thread, there are a lot more and you need to do your homework to find which you should avoid. Just because the parent is prestigious does not mean a MSF from that Uni is worth your time and money. 

 

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