Need help: Msc in Finance at HEC Paris or Bocconi

Hi all,

I am facing a decision to pick a master's in finance program and would really appreciate your experience and insights. In short about me, I am Croatian with a non-target bachelor's degree in Economics with high GPA, 9 months M&A internship in UniCredit CEE team in Vienna and student exchange at NUS in Singapore. My ambition with the Master program is to first land a summer internship in IBD in London, and then hopefully an FT role.

I got admitted to HEC Paris Master in International Finance (#1 in FT ranking) and Bocconi Msc in Finance which I both see as very good and well-regarded programs and the choice is not clear-cut.

Below are some pros and cons of the programs from my current point of view based on inputs I received so far:

HEC Paris MiF
+ international reputation and top rankings
+ exclusivity (class size of 50-100)
+ top-notch student cohort ("like Harvard MBA adjusted for age")
+ supposedly very good placement in London (50% of class) with focus on IBD
- costs (around EUR 35k altogether)
- short 10-month program (more risky - one shot for summer internship, less time to prepare etc.)

Bocconi MSF
+ arguably best London IBD placement of all continental Europe schools
+ large alumni network in London (representation in all big banks, and in large numbers)
+ 2-year program is less risky
+ affordable (full scholarships available, total costs around EUR 10k)
+/- less international, but very good reputation in Europe
- massive and very competitive (class size of 250)

What do you guys think? I would really appreciate your comments and if possible, challenging my current view.

Thanks a lot!

 

Reg. the 10-months duration of the HEC program: Courses are September - June, most students actually then do a SA, write their master thesis afterwards and join either the following january (early start) or summer on a FT basis (making it effectively a 2-year program). Placement IMHO is definitely better from HEC than from Bocconi

 
ILikeDistressedStuff:

Reg. the 10-months duration of the HEC program: Courses are September - June, most students actually then do a SA, write their master thesis afterwards and join either the following january (early start) or summer on a FT basis (making it effectively a 2-year program). Placement IMHO is definitely better from HEC than from Bocconi

This
 
Best Response

I am finishing up my MSc. Finance at Bocconi, so here's what I can tell you about the program based on what you have written.

  1. "Best London IBD placement" - not sure if that's 100% true, but the majority of people I know in the program have gotten at least a banking internship since the first year. You may not get an SA internship after the first year, you may have to complete a longer off-cycle internship, but most likely you will get at least an internship.

  2. Correct about alumni network, however my experience has been that the network caters to Italians a lot more, which is understandable. This is not to say that if you're German or whatever, that the alumni network can't help you at all, but it is geared much more towards helping the Italian-majority student body.

  3. less risky - sure, I guess.

  4. Affordable - I'm not sure if you're counting scholarships or whatever in the "total cost of 10k", but for my MSc. Finance it costs 12K per year, so 24K euros in total. Room/ board averages around 600-750 per month for your own room (with housemates, not roommates), and most other costs are pretty normal for an average metropolitan city in Europe. Night clubs and the like are pretty expensive.

  5. Definitely, it's not as international as other schools I'd say... probably about 70%/30%. Other thing is what I like to call the "Milanese factor"... a lot of the students are not only Italian, but from Milan or surrounding areas, and are cold/ not very easy to befriend. They normally like to stick together with their childhood friend groups, and many of them go to their respective home towns on weekends. That being said, there will be some very chill international kids, and some pretty awesome warm-blooded Italians from outside of Milan. Lots of erasmus kids you can get to know as well.

  6. Extremely competitive. The MSc FInance students have a reputation for being overly competitive... some to the point of crying over grades (yes, this is in fact true). Majority of professors are not helpful, some will even demean/ make fun of you for asking questions they think are too "elementary". Some of the core classes in the first year require a lot of hard work and studying, to the point where the majority of students (including me) have to take at least 2.5-3 years to finish the degree due to the workload. Be prepared to compete with students who literally have 0 lives from September to January and Feb-June, who sit in the library almost every day studying, and who will have all course material memorized by the time of the exam. That being said, along the way you learn a lot about yourself, how to prioritize, and how to live a balanced life (hopefully).

 

both are pretty good. I think everyone who studied in italy and is working in IBD in LDN is from Bocconi. Crazy But the HEC programme is obviously also very good. I think it really comes down to your preferrences (1y vs 2 yr etc) as stated before 1yr programmes normally will let you do an internship at the end, where you can get a FT offer as well at the end. but congratz both programs are very good and have a stellar placement for outside the UK.

Make Donald Drumpf again
 

Thanks guys, I finally decided to enroll in HEC Paris MiF. My decision was based on my preference of studying at a business school, unique progam, strength of alumni network and HEC placement ability. Even though Bocconi is surely an excellent program, I believe it is weaker in these areas.

 

Dobar dan,

I ja sam hrvatski student koji je zavrsio bachlor(na Bocconiju) i pokusavam se odluciti dali ici na Master na Bocconi ili na HEC. Gledajuci da ste imali vrlo slicni problem kao i ja, ne mogu zamislit bolju osobu da pitam. Jeli ste zadovoljni svojom odlukom? Kad biste se mogli vratiti nazad u vrijeme jel bi i dalje otisli na HEC?

 

Hej ciao. Yeap, super happy with my decision x years ago, 100% would do the same again, but I have to say that I would probably be equally happy if I went to Bocconi. Having done 5+ years in banking now, I can say that its a thing of nuance - both schools are top notch, are top in terms of representation in London IBD/trading/PE and will be very close in terms of placement stats depending on the firm. Now speaking of my experience: all my assumptions about HEC were confirmed, the school absolutely delivered and worth the investment. Excellent program with good balance of theory and practice: mix of top researchers, ex bankers, PE guys in the faculty. Really strong graduate class that become friends for life, a couple of genius people. Everyone got to where they wanted to be (and more) mainly bulge bracket IBD/trading or directly to PE. 80-90% ended up in London (so actually many more than I had thought): even if this was pre Brexit, I haven't noticed trend change in hiring of internationals in London. I fairly easily landed summer interviews at Citi and MS IBD, got through super days and got offers from both by late October/early Nov. Took a summer offer from MS, joined Utilities IBD team, landed a full time analyst role and did 5 years there up until senior associate. HEC was most represented of all schools in my IBD summer analyst class at MS (this was in 2018) with 10-15 out of 70-80 and continued to be well represented in subsequent years. HEC graduates were also some of the best trained and most technical coming into the summer program, which meant almost all converted to full time (90%). That said, Bocconians were on par or a close second, far ahead of the rest (I think this technical training is something where both schools stand out). I managed to pay back the 40k loans in 1-2 years without too much stress, so that was all good as well. As I said, both schools are top notch and wouldn't favour an HEC candidate over a Bocconi one.. so, whichever way you go in the end, you can get to where you want to be, more important to put in the work in interview prep and presenting yourself as a strong candidate. Sretno!!

 

Commodi sed unde cupiditate exercitationem odit veniam. Et cumque ea veritatis quia nihil quas et. Ipsum aliquam ipsum incidunt omnis. Et velit quaerat assumenda.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”