Notts or Leeds to break into FO IB

Original post by popsmokethewoo

Finance, Accounting and Management Bsc at Notts
or
Banking and Finance Bsc at Leeds

I read alot on tsr or people saying notts is so much better bc its a strong semi target unlike leeds which is a low target at most

Currently have an offer at Leeds rn, with an option to go to Notts for clearing. Leeds looks like they have the better modules and has a Chartered Banker (CBI) qualification alongside your degree after graduation. But would this be an edge up against the semi-targets/targets?

Please help what do I choose

Go with nottingham

Reply 2

anonuser99

18

Nottingham.

That chartered banking whatever is completely irrelevant.

I'd go with Notts personally. Notts is a strong semi-target, Leeds is a very low semi-target/non-target. Although your uni choice shouldn't 100% be about career prospects, depends on other things too.

The chartered thing doesn't mean anything, unis really need to stop selling all the silly business school accreditation things at open days. They don't mean anything unless you want to become an accountant.

Reply 4

dior21999

10

How does Nottingham compare with Manchester and Bristol

Original post by dior21999

How does Nottingham compare with Manchester and Bristol

From what I've experienced, Bristol and Nottingham are pretty similar in terms of IB prospects, I'd probably give the slightest edge to Notts but that's just from my personal experience and I wouldn't base my uni decision off this difference, it's negligible and more about the actual candidate + work experience than the difference between the unis.

I think most would agree that Bristol and Nottingham > Manchester. Manchester is a weaker semi-target. It has the benefit of having a large student population so has lots of firms visiting but I think Bristol and Nottingham are a bit better for IB recruiting

Reply 6

mnxnxnxn

4

Can’t quite understand what makes Nottingham a semi target. Their business school is not ranked very high and entry requirements are lower than say Manchester. Their courses are often in clearing as well. Genuinely asking because I’m not from the UK

Original post by mnxnxnxn

Can’t quite understand what makes Nottingham a semi target. Their business school is not ranked very high and entry requirements are lower than say Manchester. Their courses are often in clearing as well. Genuinely asking because I’m not from the UK

It's not about their business school, at a university like Nottingham, their School of Economics is quite strong which is where most of the IB applicants come from, not the business school. The grade requirements are A*AA which are definitely higher than Manchester and there aren't usually clearing spaces for economics.

Therefore you combine a cohort of students where most have gotten A*AA of above, with a strong economics department, and consider that lots of economics students apply for IB....... This gets you a semi-target. Everyone knows business school's are increasingly a bad place to study at for IB entry, more and more are coming from STEM and the humanities which is good

Reply 8

mnxnxnxn

4

Original post by BenRyan99

It's not about their business school, at a university like Nottingham, their School of Economics is quite strong which is where most of the IB applicants come from, not the business school. The grade requirements are A*AA which are definitely higher than Manchester and there aren't usually clearing spaces for economics.

Therefore you combine a cohort of students where most have gotten A*AA of above, with a strong economics department, and consider that lots of economics students apply for IB....... This gets you a semi-target. Everyone knows business school's are increasingly a bad place to study at for IB entry, more and more are coming from STEM and the humanities which is good

Why would somebody who studied history be better suited for IB than somebody who studied a finance/accounting/other business related subject? Makes no sense

Original post by mnxnxnxn

Why would somebody who studied history be better suited for IB than somebody who studied a finance/accounting/other business related subject? Makes no sense

The issue is that you're thinking about this from an individualistic point of view, whereas IB recruiting is more about hiring the right people for that division or team. Yes maybe a finance degree might be better prep than a history degree but a team of business school grads is likely not as good as a team of grads from diverse backgrounds (e.g. STEM, humanities, arts and business).

To give you a real life example in a place where I used to work, there were about 19-20 of us in a team and 13 or 14/20 had done Cambridge's BA Economics course. Therefore if there was something weird going on in the economy it was an issue because there was no diversity of thought, if it wasn't taught on that Cambridge course, people were much less likely to know it. We might have been a stronger team if we had two people from each of the top10 Econ courses for example.The same logic applies to degree subjects during graduate recruiting, a diversity of subjects leads to greater problem solving skills for a team as a whole.

The other point of why business school subjects are increasingly less favoured (don't get me wrong, they still make up a lot of the grad places) is that they're not quantitative enough, hence the rise of STEM recruiting at the detriment of business school subjects.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 10

Original post by mnxnxnxn

Can’t quite understand what makes Nottingham a semi target. Their business school is not ranked very high and entry requirements are lower than say Manchester. Their courses are often in clearing as well. Genuinely asking because I’m not from the UK

IB is all about the Economics Degree. Business school means nothing for IB in comparison really for their candidates. Many comes from an Economics background and they are the best Semi Target
LSE, UCL, Warwick, Oxbridge- are the Targets that all the big IB banks target
Notts, Bristol, Bath, Durham- Semi Targets that not all but quite a few target
those are the Unis u want to apply for

Reply 11

Original post by mnxnxnxn

Why would somebody who studied history be better suited for IB than somebody who studied a finance/accounting/other business related subject? Makes no sense

because those other courses aren't really as related to the job as you think, the idea is to pick people who are clever and will learn the job quickly since there is no real preparation for it. Not to mention relevant accounting modules are p easy to self-teach.

Reply 12

Original post by mnxnxnxn

Why would somebody who studied history be better suited for IB than somebody who studied a finance/accounting/other business related subject? Makes no sense

Humanities as in PPE, Economics etc.and they would be at an advantage simply because they go to that uni even if you did Sociology. Firms like GOldman Sachs go to these UNis to recruit and their career centres are really good, if you do Finance but you don't go to a Semi Target at least ur institution has little to no name and it is very hard

Reply 13

Original post by spyhke

Humanities as in PPE, Economics etc.and they would be at an advantage simply because they go to that uni even if you did Sociology. Firms like GOldman Sachs go to these UNis to recruit and their career centres are really good, if you do Finance but you don't go to a Semi Target at least ur institution has little to no name and it is very hard

econ isn't a humanity i don't think - p sure it's a social science. Fairly sure by humanities people mean stuff like classics, philosophy, HSPS, ppe etc

Reply 14

Original post by leviticus.

econ isn't a humanity i don't think - p sure it's a social science. Fairly sure by humanities people mean stuff like classics, philosophy, HSPS, ppe etc

Im doing Econ at Uni i comes under both humanities and a social science as it is such a broad subject with so many areas involved. and PPE involves Econ also. Plus things such as Geography are actually pretty good and contain economic elements to them hence why there are many Econ and Geo joint courses available

Reply 15

mnxnxnxn

4

Original post by leviticus.

because those other courses aren't really as related to the job as you think, the idea is to pick people who are clever and will learn the job quickly since there is no real preparation for it. Not to mention relevant accounting modules are p easy to self-teach.

„the idea is to pick people who are clever” okay but let’s say a humanities subject at a target uni, say UCL requires A*AA and Economics at Manchester requires AAB with an A in Maths (I’m just taking Manchester as an example, I’m not a student there). One student takes drama, psychology and english literature and lands at UCL and is automatically considered smarter than somebody who took A level Maths and got into Manchester? The more I read about the IB environment, the more ironical it seems...

Reply 16

Original post by mnxnxnxn

„the idea is to pick people who are clever” okay but let’s say a humanities subject at a target uni, say UCL requires A*AA and Economics at Manchester requires AAB with an A in Maths (I’m just taking Manchester as an example, I’m not a student there). One student takes drama, psychology and english literature and lands at UCL and is automatically considered smarter than somebody who took A level Maths and got into Manchester? The more I read about the IB environment, the more ironical it seems...

yh exactly which is why you need to research into it. you realise how many people go into IB from Oxbridge from just doing Classics but Manchester is near impossible really. it cause huge grade inflation for those course specific unis for econ also. such as Warwick which is Now A*A*A. i know someone who went to Kings and did Psychology and got a job at Goldman Sachs. ur subject is irrelevant its the name of the uni that matters more

Reply 17

Original post by mnxnxnxn

„the idea is to pick people who are clever” okay but let’s say a humanities subject at a target uni, say UCL requires A*AA and Economics at Manchester requires AAB with an A in Maths (I’m just taking Manchester as an example, I’m not a student there). One student takes drama, psychology and english literature and lands at UCL and is automatically considered smarter than somebody who took A level Maths and got into Manchester? The more I read about the IB environment, the more ironical it seems...

also IB isnt really any maths behind it. its more of a glorified account in some aspects. ur literally just doing spreadsheets and pitchbooks all days. its little mathematical knowledge so although a maths background is preferred its not that essential as long as you have a general good knowledge of maths and arent completely stupid

Reply 18

Original post by spyhke

Im doing Econ at Uni i comes under both humanities and a social science as it is such a broad subject with so many areas involved. and PPE involves Econ also. Plus things such as Geography are actually pretty good and contain economic elements to them hence why there are many Econ and Geo joint courses available

Many places put humanities and social sciences under one umbrella term but strictly speaking, going by definition, i'm pretty sure econ and geography are social sciences and humanities are the other stuff. Some places definitely combine the two though.

Reply 19