Monday, December 17, 2007

MBA vs. Masters in Finance

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have an MBA degree from a non-top tier US business school. After realizing how important the school label is for getting hired into a top investment bank or a consulting firm, I had to make a choice. Which B-school do I apply to? Should I apply to another MBA program, or a M.Sc. program that specializes in Finance?

First, if you have an MBA degree from a US Business school, you typically cannot apply for another MBA program within the US. That's pretty intuitive. I was told that U.K. business schools actually do not care if you have a previous MBA degree, but I decided against applying to any MBA program at all, for the following reasons (in no particular order):

1) I don't think I value the MBA education from a top school after my current MBA degree. the curriculum is the same among MBA schools, and the only difference is the quality of faculty and student body.

2) Getting a second MBA is a very loser thing to do.

3) Full time Finance programs are typically one year long, whereas MBA programs are 2 years long. There's a big financial difference.

So ended up applying to Finance programs only...

2 comments:

GS said...

Hi,

Its GS again - I have a very similar background to yours, I also have an MBA from a non top tier business school and a job that revolves around finance but isn't really in depth finance. Any tips that you can share on writing a personal statement should be helpful!

Thanks
GS

Unknown said...

Hi Guys,

I have BSBA Finance and MBA Finance from Top 50 B-School in U.S. I graduated recently and getting hired is extremely hard for even experienced finance guys ( 7 years in finance with Telecom, Private Equity and BPO ITES sector).

So I decided while looking for a job, I should hedge myself by looking at another Masters program with specialized in Finance. Obviously, not having engineering background does not help with MS Fin Engineering programs.

So, I applied to only 3 schools since I think I would probably get a free ride or some sort of financial aid ( like I got from my B-School). Undergrad GPA 3.9 with 7 years of experience helped definitely. My B-School average GMAT is 676.

Now, I got dinged at Cambridge MS Finance program, no explanation given but I think it is very hard sell to MS Finance program right after an MBA- Finance concentration. Otherwise, I don't think there is any reason to ding guys like me.

Ironically, I got accepted at Manchester B-School MS Finance program, does anyone really know how good the program is? Obvioulsy, I would understand it is not as good/reputed at LSE/Oxford/Cambridge...but overall FT ranks MBA at 32 in the world...

Any suggestions?