Hi friends,

I need some input from finance professionals and students in sajha. I've been trying to identify good MS in Finance programs to apply to. I have an undergraduate degree in finance (3.89 GPA) from a decent public university and am shooting for a 700+ GMAT score. The Finance programs at Princeton, Berkeley, U of Chicago and MIT seem to be the best in the US. However, all these programs except MIT's are highly quantitative requiring linear algebra, multivariable calculus and advanced statistics as pre-requisites. Since I do not meet these pre-requisites, I have decided to apply to MIT's program as my most ambitious pick. I'm now trying to identify 5-6 other programs that stand out in terms of quality. The most important criteria for me in deciding which colleges to apply to is the placement record of the school for MS in Finance students and particularly the placement record for international students.

Some programs that I've heard good things about are Vanderbilt's, U of Illinois's and Purdue's programs. I would be grateful if some of you could share your experience or knowledge on MS in finance programs. Do you know of schools that have good placement record for international students? Do you know anyone (intl students in particular) who has got into a top program and has received assistantships/ merit-based scholarships that cover most if not all of the tuition expenses?

Mote, this is a second hand info so please take it with a grain of salt.

MFE will not help you land a true quant gig. You might have a fair chance of getting middle office role with MFE. Most quants have either Ph.D in physics or mathematics.

Bidroh - I am not sure that you need any advice. You have got all the ammunition to be able to fairly and competitively present yourself in the job market. If you have been through 4 years of college with certain degree of assurance that you are passionate about finance then you should have no problem formulating a game plan to approach an employer who may be interested in interviewing you - this is in spite of the current job market.

You need to be absolutely certain that this is what you want to do. Here is a couple of comments regarding a buy side analyst that may help you to start thinking about whether this is the right career choice. In finance, you cannot go through the motions of working in a position that requires a cookie cutter decision making or a 9-5 type of work ethic. There will never be one right answer to any one financial problem - the proposed solutions are always followed with myriads of assumptions. There are no standards to follow (unlike the IFRS and GAAP for accountants), just regulation. These assumptions will come from various areas of general knowledge and experience - strategy, accounting, industry sector, regulatory bodies, etc. And this requires a lot of work - research, overtime, conference calls, etc. There are other positions, i.e. credit analyst, risk management which may not be as stringent.

Again, it would be a mistake to get another degree in my opinion. Once you find out what makes you get up in the morning getting a college degree is a waste.