MSc Finance or MSc Management?

I'd like to go into IB, trading or broking. I've gathered from my research that particularly for IB, it's almost essential that I go to a target school (i.e. Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, UCL, Warwick).

Both MSc Finance and MSc Management appeal, and the MSc in Finance is obviously more relevant, but is the MSc in Finance preferred over the MSc in Management for IB?

Also, am I right to assume that MSc Finance is more competitive than MSc Management?

I currently study Civil Engineering (second year) at a middle ranked University, predicted a solid first class honours (averaging 77%), am president of the Investments Society, and have secured a 6 week internship in Investment Management this summer. I'm thinking of applying to the following programmes, is this a suitable selection?

MPhil Finance - Cambridge
MSc Management Sciences (Operational Research) - LSE
MSc Finance - Imperial
MSc Financial Computing - UCL
MSc Finance - Warwick
MSc Finance - Bath
MSc Finance and Investments - Bristol

I'm only considering Bath and Bristol in case I get rejected by the first five.

Thoughts?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1

Maggieffc

Not bothering with Oxford?

And the obvious number one choice has to be the MiM at LBS. Pretty much seems to be a finance course under a different name to differentiate it from their post-experience M.Fin. Their employment report is the best I've ever seen.

King's also offer a relevant looking Msc Management. Cass' courses seem pretty easy to get onto and may be a better bet than Bristol and Bath.

As to your other questions, I have no idea and am also very interested to find out the answers.

Reply 2

Ilustrius

Original post by Maggieffc

Kings College require applicants to have studied a social science undergraduate (and it's not reputable for the sort of work I'm looking for anyway).
Oxford, LBS and CASS all require the GMAT. I don't have the time to prepare for this considering I'm having to work very hard to achieve a first, and I'll be pretty much fully booked during the summer doing an internship and dissertation work.

Reply 3

Ilustrius

Original post by Maggieffc

Are you sure about that? There is only one finance course out of something like 10 throughout the degree, does that constitute "pretty much seems to be a finance course under a different name"?

Reply 4

Maggieffc

Hmmm maybe. There is only one core finance course. But the rest of it does seem to be weighted toward the finance side of it, rather than the management science side that other Management courses are.

For instance, MiM:

Financial Tools
Accounting
Economics (micro and macro)
Markets and Marketing
Strategy
Individuals and Organisations
Statistics and Decision Analysis
Business and Society

LSE MiM:

Managerial Economics*
Organisational Behaviour*
Foundations of Management
Quantitative Analysis in Management* †
Qualitative Analysis in Management*

† Students who have already taken statistics at university level covering quantitative analysis can choose a half unit course from:

Techniques of Operational Research*
Quantitative Analysis II: the Generalised Linear Model*
Quantitative Analysis III: Applied Multivariate Analysis*

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

Ilustrius

Original post by Maggieffc

MiM:

Financial Tools
Accounting
Economics (micro and macro)
Markets and Marketing
Strategy
Individuals and Organisations
Statistics and Decision Analysis
Business and Society

MFin:

Investments
Corporate Finance
Quantitative Finance
Financial Engineering and Risk Management
Advanced Corporate Finance
Behavioral Finance
International Finance
Hedge Funds

The MiM is not in the slightest bit similar to the MFin ..

Reply 6

Maggieffc

Yeh fair point. Still, the main point was that the content of the MiM was more relevant to finance than a lot of other management courses. Perhaps a slight exaggeration to say it's a finance course under a different name, but you get my drift...

Reply 7

Ilustrius

Original post by Maggieffc

Yeh fair point. Still, the main point was that the content of the MiM was more relevant to finance than a lot of other masters courses. Perhaps a slight exaggeration to say it's a finance course under a different name, but you get my drift...

It doesn't appear any more finance focused than other MSc Management courses. It has just the one module in finance, how can you justify that?

You even do two at Warwick: Financial Analysis for Management and Corporate Finance.

Regardless, I won't be applying for LBS because I won't do the GMAT.

Reply 8

Maggieffc

Original post by Ilustrius

I said a lot of, not all. Anyway, I might well be wrong. I just suggested it as a good option, because, from my limited research, it seemed more relevant than many others out there. But clearly not if the GMAT is an issue.

Reply 9

Ilustrius

Original post by Maggieffc

No worries. To be honest, I'd love to be able to apply to LBS because the prospects after graduation look amazing for MiM graduates.

You might be a little confused, because a lot of MiM graduates end up as financial analysts (i.e. IBers) anyway, despite most MSc Management graduates not going into IB.

Are you doing MSc Finance? Or MSc Management? Or..?

EDIT: And to throw something extra in for the sake of it, with regards to my academic performance, I've scored a first in every semester of uni so far.

And I also came 2nd in my Statistics and Computational Methods module in a class of about 120, in my first semester of year 2.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 10

Maggieffc

Original post by Ilustrius

Neither. I'm in my second year of PPE at UEA. On about 74% at the minute with things going well so aiming to get a decent first and do a masters at a target and get into IB. So quite similar to you by the sound of it.