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JH wrote:
Hi, Marquis. recently I’ve discovered your web site and read three of your blogs after registration. It was very informative and useful for me. Thank you! Taking advantage of opportunity to contact you, I would like you to ask you some questions. I know, you receive tonnes of emails every day and answering to all of them is a very time-consuming.
I am 22 years old. I graduated form Bachelor’s in Economics with 85 percentile. During my undergraduate studies I volunteered for NGO for almost 2 years. Therefore I had several extracurricular activities and showed some leadership skills. For a half year I’ve been working at investment department of a large local organisation. I have solid quant and accounting skills. I want to do my MBA in my early years of my career. Therefore I intend to apply for 2012 intake. My post-MBA plan is doing career in investment banking.
So, my questions are:
In my case, would you rather recommend me to apply for MBA or Msc in Finance?
– If your advice is MBA, in which parts of application should I pay the most attention in order to break into Top 20 US MBA programs?
– If your advice is Msc in Finance, would you recommend me European programs, because Master’s is less popular among top US recruiting companies than European ones?
Thank you!
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My response:
JH,
I hope this message finds you doing well. Thanks for checking out my website and coming to me with your question. I’ve had several people ask me questions similar to your before, so I’m going to give you my high-level thoughts below. If you need more details, I’d recommend that you check out some of my archived blog entries from the past few years.
To answer your question about an MBA vs. a MSc in Finance, my recommendation would be to go for the MBA, but I admit that I’m biased because the MBA degree helped me to totally change the direction of my career. My reasons for preferring the MBA include:
- The MBA would provide a more well-rounded business education than the finance focus of the MSc program
- The MBA would provide the flexibility to change directions in your career if you decide to step away from the i-banking/finance arena (there’s no guarantee that you’ll enjoy finance enough to stick with it for the rest of your life)
- In an MBA program, you’d more likely be surrounded by people with a more diverse set of interests and backgrounds, which could be useful for your overall development as a busienss professional
- Since you already have a good quamt foundation, you’d probably get more “bang for your buck” impact from an MBA curriculum
If you truly think that your career will stay along the investment banking path, then the MSc could be the right track for you, but, based on what I know of these programs, the MBA would be the better option if I were in your shoes.
If you choose to apply to MBA programs, then you should focus on the following to increase your chances of success:
- Your overall MBA application story
- Strong performance on the GMAT
- Securing the right set of people to write your recommendations
- Determining the list of schools that would be the best fit for you
I’ve written many, many entries that dive deep on the individual pieces of the MBA application in the past, so I’d suggest that you look through my archived entries for more information on these items.
I hope the comments above are helpful as you think through the MBA vs. MSc-Finance decision. Just remember that what I’ve written in this reply is just my own opinion. It would probably be helpful for you to reach out to a few others for input before making your final decision.
Good luck!
Marquis
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