MSF or MAS?
Hello,
I'll spare everyone my life's story and start at the point where I ended up at Purdue, on course to graduate at the end of this year with a 3.5. I made a ton of bad decisions along the way, and have been pulling a 3.8+ discounting my freshman year, but I doubt anyone will look at that.
My degree is basically Accounting/Finance. I want to work either in Equity Research or in some type of portfolio management role at a MF/HF. I just finished an internship at a commodity trading firm in Chicago (though my role was mostly in mutual fund research), work during the school year, am active in multiple student professional organizations, have strong recommendations coming from professors, and may be acting as a research assistant for a professor this coming semester. I haven't taken the GMAT yet; but I'm actively studying and historically speaking, standardized tests are a bizarre innate talent of mine.
My current plan is to get an MSF (ideally Vandy) and try for an ER role. Is this remotely realistic, or is my background just too flaky? My GPA is mediocre and I know Purdue isn't a top finance school. My alternative is to try for an MAS at UIUC, I do enjoy accounting and could see myself working for a Big 4 in Tax. Any advice is appreciated.
Assuming you get a 700+ on the GMAT you'll get most of the MSF or MAcc programs. With the MAcc make sure you get it in an area in which you want to work.
My girlfriend just got her MAcc and they are SUPER regional. If you want Chicago, go to Illinois or Notre Dame. If you want LA, go to USC. Texas, UT. Etc.
The MSF is a bit different. At my school (a very decent MSF program) the students had a real bear getting placed this last year. There were a core group of super successful people with Wall Street firms and then the rest were pretty much settling on either a bad corp finance role or nothing at all.
When I looked at MBA/MSF programs (one of which I'm enrolled in now) I liked WUSTL and Vandy a lot, except for the locations. The MSF programs at Vandy and WUSTL are excellent from what I learned of them (disclosure: I was admitted to WUSTL, didn't apply to Vandy)
In the end: what do you really want? If you want accounting, get the MAcc and a CPA and try to get a Big 4. If you want ER get the MSF, work your ass off and roll the dice.
3.5 isn't terrible. You have some solid experience, so just crush the GMAT and the essays and you'll be fine
From my experience the Macc programs are not very regional except at the lesser known programs. At the top 10-15 programs like UT-Austin UIUC and USC you can pretty much work in any city at any of the Big4.
This is just not true - I have nearly firsthand experience through my girlfriend who just completed her MAcc at a top 15. Half of her class wanted to go to other cities and it's not that easy - most ended up settling on the local offices of both Big4 and McGladrey/Grant Thornton/etc. While limited Big4 recruiting can occur at remote offices (the first rounds can happen in NYC for, say, Los Angeles) the follow up rounds cannot. And each Big4 office tends to run like its own mini-corporation, focusing on firms locally so they hire locally for the most part.
It's true you CAN go elsewhere but USC places best in Southern California, Illinois best in Chicago (same with ND), etc. Texas is the sole exception I've heard of where they tend to have more mobility than average.
Just wanted to clarify that before someone jumped all over that UIUC MAcc with hopes of ending up in Atlanta.
Thanks for the input. As for what I want to do, I'd prefer to work in finance but I wasn't sure my qualifications would get me anywhere. I didn't think the 3.5 was awful on its own, but I'm not coming from a target school or even a school many people consider for finance with Kelley in the same state.
3.5 at Purdue is solid. Get a 700 and you will get admitted at just about all major programs, no doubt. Get a 650 and you will still get a lot of admits. Decide where you want to work and get your ducks in a row now, before you start the degree.
Also, Purdue has an MSF program. You might want to talk with the director there to get a feel whether an MSF or a MAcc is right for you.
I'm in a MAcc program at Oklahoma State University. They certainly aren't well recognized across the country, but they do get a lot of attention from public accounting firms. The Big 4 all heavily recruit on campus as do many of the regional firms. Many of the partners in the Tulsa and OKC markets for the Big 4 are OSU alums, so they like to hire new grads. In one of my summer classes, about have of the 36 students all had FT offers with Big 4 firms starting in August/September this year. If you get into a Big 4 firm, you can easily move around the country or outside the country for that matter. A partner from PwC in Tulsa told us this summer if you do your job, he'll go out of his way to get you placed anywhere you want. The point of this was that you may have to start regionally out of a MAcc program, but you can move around quite easily after that.
Sorry to bump a thread that's been dead for a few days, but I've only recently discovered this site and am a bit flooded with information.
Hello, let me first say thank you for maintaining your website. It was a great resource when I was researching programs. I am aware of Purdue's MSF. However, what I heard from a friend who's a PhD student is that Purdue's MSF (and the faculty, and thus the doctoral program as well) has a strong corporate slant, not really suited to my interests.Is it fair to say that with a MSF and my limited background that any ER work I get would be with a boutique/MM? I know I still have a lot of research to do, but I would like to at least make sure I'm looking for the right information.
oO what club are you in
i go to purdue also
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