University of St. Gallen Master in Banking and Finance

solid school, maybe its just the app fee?

It stated explicitly on their website that if one has a GMAt above 650, enrollment is guaranteed as long as other supporting documents are in order. Does that mean I am in already, pending enrollment fee of CHF 250?? It just seems a little bizarre.

http://www.studium.unisg.ch/org/lehre/soe.nsf/wwwPubInhalteEng/Internat…

The other requirements seem rather basic, especially if you've done an undergrad in Economics or Business and have a decent GPA. That pretty much covers their requirements. For some reason i expected a bit more competitive application selection process. I've applied to Bocconi Finance program and RSM, and their process seems competitive. I am just a little confused I guess.

I am from Europe and I can confirm that european schools mostly look at your grades, test scores and where you have gone to school. Although I don't know that much about St. Gallen, I think that they are one of the best schools in Europe. I think if you would want to work in Frankfurt or Zurich, there's simply no better place to be at.

I've got a buddy who got his MBA at St. Gallen. Of course, he was an American living in Germany with a German wife. As far as I know, a good school as long as you want to stay in Europe.

St Gallen is definitely a top school in Europe for anything finance related.

St. Gallen postgraduates are not that competitive to get in. If you have a 650 GMAT you are automatically accepted as long as there are places available (since there is a % cap in international students more places "open" as more domestic students enrol).

However, there are many Asian and Latin American students with GMATs of 600 or even lower. This is because the university has a policy of considering these people in order to foster diversity (otherwise all the internationals would be Germans and Austrians).

St. Gallen is the Harvard of the German speaking world, but for some reason it's unknown anywhere else in Europe (Netherlands, Spain, etc) and even in London there is a lot of people who have never heard of it. Hence, if you don't speak German or intend to work in German speaking Europe, it may not be a great idea to study in St. Gallen.

LSE might be a better option if you want to break into banking in UK, US etc

I recently graduated from CEMS (see cems.org) which was ranked as the beste Master of Management by FT in 2009 and I know many people going into IB as a result. Now I am in the Msc Finance/Investments at the Rotterdam School of Management which you might want to check out as well. Finally HEC is always an option as well as Cologne

The RSM itself has ranked consistently among the top 10 of best european business schools. Furthermore the Finance msc is together with CEMS probably the best masters offered at the RSM. I know that RSM has strong ties with several IB´s and the strong performing students do get into IB, most often in London or an Amsterdam office...might wanna check with the international office as well ([email protected])

Thanks!!!! Anyone else with knowledge of St. Gallen Banking and finance program, please let me know. I am debating whether to even pay the chf 250 enrollment fee needed to process my application. What do people think??

Go for it, its one more open option.

St. Gallen is undoubtedly number 1 for most matters concerning Masters degrees in the GERMAN speaking parts of the world. The english program is likely to be reputable too but I have the feeling it really hangs onto the reputation for the schools main and german programme.

Plus you should also consider culture... the Swiss (especially at St. Gallen) really have a sort of germanic mentality that, depending where you come from, you might not enjoy.

Best of luck

it's a good school, and one of the few that actually properly puts their MBA students to the test. Not sure if they do this for MSc's as well but I think anyone doing this kind of post grad course should be able to with-stand a 90 minute viva right? http://stgallenmba.ch/studentblog/2012/second-half-of-the-mba-journey-i…

Just how hard is it for an International to get a job from the Master in Banking & Finance program at St. Gallen's? The reason I'm keen on this program is 1) Relatively Inexpensive 2) Switzerland is a haven for Asset Managers/HFs 3) Great specialized curriculum.

I'm extremely interested in Global Macro Investing. My goal is to get a position at the global macro research desk of a bank/hedge fund/asset manager.

I'm seriously considering doing an MIM or MSF to that end, primarily because such roles are impossible to find in my home country (India).

With the weak job market in EU/US, things get all the more harder for Internationals, so I'm skeptical about spending a ton of money. I'm fairly confident of getting admits to schools such as LBS/LSE/HEC/St Gallen. Infact, a senior from my school in India got a 50%+ scholarship at HEC. However, at this point of time I wouldn't spend that kind of money on anything but an M7 MBA, so unless I get a decent scholarship at LBS/LSE/HEC, its a tough call. I have friends (Indians) at LBS/LSE/Oxford struggling to get jobs, so spending a lot of money on those programs seems unjustified.

I'd highly appreciate if somebody could throw some light on the recruiting scene for Internationals in Europe from St Gallen.

tentop:

I am a bit confused right now. I just completed the online application for University of St. Gallen and apparently it is not much of an application. Basically at the end of the application process, it asked me to send in the required documents and enrollment fee in order to complete my enrollment process. Does that mean the program is non competitive? So it is just a matter of completing the application form, having a GMAT above 650 (i have a Gmat score of 700) and paying the enrollment fee? I was under the impression that the program is well reputed in Europe, hence would expect a more tedious application selection process.

Am i getting this all wrong people? Help me out here.

Thanks!!!

Dear Tentop,

my name is Ninett and I am an admissions officer at the University of St.Gallen.

Just to point out a view things: Admission to the Master in Banking and Finance is not that easy. There is a selection process for every applicant. The GMAT of 680 (GRE 160)!! are the minimum eligibility requirements to apply for the program. Also note further application requirements: -Grade average at Bachelor's Level -Motivation letter -Extracurricular activities

Please watch out that you have a look at the special admission requirements for the correct Master program: http://www.unisg.ch/Studium/ZulassungUndAnmeldung/ZulMasterStufe/MBF/MB…

If there are further questions please don't hesitate to contact the admissions office of the University of St.Gallen directly: [email protected]

Regards Ninett

the german/HSG system is different from UK/US in the sense that getting in is easy but getting through is difficult(i.e. you have to do fuckloads of work, 1/3 of the undergrad class fails the 1st exam and leaves after 6months in HSG), whilst in the UK getting in is hard and getting through is very easy.

I am interested to join the English-language Master's in Banking and Finance (MBF) course conducted by the University of St Gallen. In this reference i have observed that the specific admission criteria awards 45 points to a candidate scoring 730 marks in the GMAT exam (i beg to inform that I fulfill this criteria). Further it states that : Art. 7. 1 The Admission Committee shall select applicants in accordance with the admission criteria stipulated in the above Section IV. The points to be awarded shall be added up. a) Applicants who score a minimum of 70 points pursuant to the criteria listed in the above Art. 4 (a) and (b) shall be admitted directly.

Now my principle query is that i have scored aggregate 63.7% in my graduate exams( Bachelor of Commerce with Honours,University of Delhi) in which all papers were directly related with business studies, economics and accountancy , and I was wondering how the same translates into the Swiss 6 point academic scale?. As per the of a Thai university a greater than 60% in Indian measurement corresponds to a 3.5 grade on the US scale which in turn translates to a 5.5 score on the Swiss scale. This would mean that i shall be entitled to 25 points on the criteria 4 (b). I just wanted corroboration of the same for your end as to whether the University of St Gallen (USG) accepts these conversion figures or not. If the USG has some other basis for conversion then please be kind enough to inform me the same.

I think you should just contact the admissions office how they convert your Indian GPA into their Swiss one.

i apologize if i've broken any rules of the forum... i have already written twice to the admissions office, they are yet to respond ... as there are very few places where st gallen is discussed on the net...just thought someone here might be able to throw some light on it... although everything about the MBF brochure is tempting ..what with CHF 97000 avg pay packet and full employment.. i wonder if english speakers have the same avenues as those speaking german