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International Student - Value of MiF in UK

i have contacted ard 10 alumni who have went abroad(uk & europe) for their MiF and obtained their respective reviews on their MiF program..

Replies..

GUY A (LSE) - Comon dude... its only a 10mth program.. what do you expect to get out of it? Honestly, the program is of average standard.. You pay for the BRAND name. Don;t listen to the others who boost about how prestige the program is.. The Undergrad is top-notch.. but the Master is a money making machine.. Placements is bad - less than 10% of my class got an offer and those who have gotten are the ones who have good track records. Even EU students hardly get any offer unless they have prior experiences.

Guy B (Imperial) - Pretty good.. learn lots of quantitative stuffs.. But the intake for the program is large and hence placement is competitive.. Due to visa restrictions, I don;t think any international students got a job offer. Minority of EU- students have gotten a offer before grad. To be honest, unless u really have the money, you should get some work experiences and go for a MBA. I graduated near the top of my class in the program and yet I have to return back here..

Guy C ( Oxford/master in financial economics) - it definitely adds prestige to your CV and has plenty of networking events. However, placement for international student is only a handful( 3 in fact for my year). It is important to have a some solid work experience before coming here as even majority of EU-students have to return back to their home country. I was lucky to get an analyst position at FO but it was only after making like 20+ attempts and after persistent cold calling

Do you guys agree?
I frequently see how people in forums say how good the programs at LSE are, how most of their friends got placed in FO at BB. This is really shocking...

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

dahon

Sry.. I've forgotten to include the reason for such post.

I'm actually planning to apply to those school later this year but was thinking whether is worthwhile to do so. I'm currently working at BIG 4 (advisory - 3 mths) and thought that i can get career boast ( in status and monetary term) if I obtain a MiF. While MiF does help your career, the cost-benefit trade-off is questionable. All my mentors have told me to pursue an MBA instead.

What do you guys think?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2

sj27

I think people who think studying in the UK is a fast-track to a job there are likely to be disappointed.

Reply 3

dahon

I;m gutted... I was so positive a few months ago when i told my parents i wanted to further my studies. Really cannot see any justification for spending 100k on a master program that is vague.. But then.. i don;t understand why are there so many raves about these programs.. All the alumni i;ve spoken to said these programs are a pure disappointment.. I;m seriously confused atm.. If i had not made any contacts with my school alumni, but instead choose to take the words of the people in forum boosting how good the MiF' program are and attend one of those schools, I think i may well feel cheated.. hahah.

I would like to hear the opinions(honest ones) of others.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4

sj27

Well if you really want to see the value, the best way - by which I mean the most objective way - is to do a search on LinkedIn for the programs you are interested in, and see what jobs the alumni are doing. It'll be a bit more work than a post on a forum or an email copied to a few people, but if you want to do it properly then that's what you should do.

I did get the overriding impression from the (selective?) answers you posted that what you want to know is if you can easily get a job in the UK after completing it, to which the answer for an international student is probably no. Also remember that a degree is a screening tool, not a guarantee of anything - all it will do is get you an interview.

Also decide what you actually want to do,because an MBA is a different beast and generally suggests you are actually interested in doing something different to what a finance masters will give you. It is far more generalist, requires less academically than an MiF but requires more in the way of group projects etc, and requires more experience.