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Birmingham, CASS, Bristol? Best University for IB, finance, investement?

I would like to go into some finance bearing career such as IB one time or another. Now currently I have a place to study accounting and finance at Birmingham University.

My current A level grades are BBB (Maths, Biology, Chemistry)

However do any of you think it would be worth taking a gap year, resitting A-level exams, and reapplying to study in one of the following universities and improve my chances of employability in a investement/financial career? (I've called up and found that the following universities do look at retaking students and I'm quite confident that I will be able to get at least AAB if resitting):

1) Bristol University- Accounting and Fianance (I would need at least AAB)
This seems good as it is something like 7th in the Times University league tables.

2) CASS Business school- Investement and Financial Risk management (At least AAB)
I've been told this is a highly reputable business school and has many links with firms within london so making it easier perhaps to find a placement?!?

Please advise, as I'm totally confused right now so any advice would be helpful.

Reply 1

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

I personally would say Bristol.

Feel it has a better reputation than city, plus the course allows you to take microeconomics and macroeconomics modules which are useful.

Reply 2

millie123

OP

So do you reckon it would be worth taking a gap year to go there instead of birmingham? :confused:

Reply 3

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

millie123

So do you reckon it would be worth taking a gap year to go there instead of birmingham? :confused:

Im not too sure tbh mate, thats a decision you have to make. Weigh up the pros and cons i guess. Personally, if I really had my mind on banking/finance as a career, i would probably take a gap year in order to gain entrance to a more reputable university such as Bristol/Cass, if those are your main choices. But Birmingham is a pretty reputable university...so i dont really know :s-smilie:

Reply 4

stupanico

2

I'd say Bristol if you had the grades.

Reply 5

Cliché

millie123

So do you reckon it would be worth taking a gap year to go there instead of birmingham? :confused:

For Bristol? Yes. For Cass? No. Birmingham is a decent uni and equally good as city.

Bristol is a good uni with a good economics/finance department. I'm gonna apply to the AccFin course at Bristol for 2007. I believe the entry requirements are ABB and not AAB. I'm not positive though.

So all you need is to resit your A-level math and you are in :smile:

Otherwise just stick with Birmingham.

Reply 6

CityMonkey

11

If you are taking a gap year then getting into Bristol instead of B'ham is only an incremental step considering you are taking a whole year. Bristol is alright but there are still better universities to be at. Not to say you won't get in from Bristol but you know what I mean. I think its a tough decision but personally, if I were you I would take the gap year and go for Bristol and spend the year developing myself to prepare for a career in finance.

Reply 7

millie123

OP

LBC213

If you are taking a gap year then getting into Bristol instead of B'ham is only an incremental step considering you are taking a whole year. Bristol is alright but there are still better universities to be at. Not to say you won't get in from Bristol but you know what I mean. I think its a tough decision but personally, if I were you I would take the gap year and go for Bristol and spend the year developing myself to prepare for a career in finance.

Oh definatly, there are a lot of other/better universities, LSE, Warwick etc but most of them won't look at resitting candidates (ive been told at least). If you were taking a gap year how would you prepare yourself for a financial job? Like reading up? or Do you mean get a job?

Medusa

For Bristol? Yes. For Cass? No. Birmingham is a decent uni and equally good as city.

Bristol is a good uni with a good economics/finance department. I'm gonna apply to the AccFin course at Bristol for 2007. I believe the entry requirements are ABB and not AAB. I'm not positive though.

So all you need is to resit your A-level math and you are in
Otherwise just stick with Birmingham.

I'm saying AAB as I'm a resitting candidate so I would have thought they would have wanted higher then the requirements

I need to come out of University with a 1st class honours to do well in comparison to a 2:1. So thats another thing? Is there anyway I can see the proportion of candidates that get a 1st class at the uni's?

For a career in finance, some universites are not recognised at all, would Birmingham fall under any of these categories.

See ive had people saying dont take a gap year, as just for changing university to Bristol, would it be worth it? Its ineffectively 'wasting' a year. If you get a 1st it won't matter.

Then on the otherside its like take a gap year and go to Bristol, getting into a university in the top 20 will make a lot of difference. It's like LSE/Cambridge, a person who goes there would stand a better chance of employability

Man this is gonna be a hard decision. :frown:

Reply 8

CityMonkey

11

I genuinely think this will be a difficult decision to make for sure. Here are my reasons to why I would pick Bristol:

1) Better institutional reputation, and better chances of getting into IB from Bristol than B'ham.

2) You can spend the year for personal development in a number of useful ways. a) you can find some relevant work experience, AFAIK the Big 4 and Rothschild investment bank do structured gap year programmes for people having just finished A-levels. Sign up to milkround.com, they have a huge variety, you will find something for you. b) develop yourself personally: take up a sport, take up a language, do charity work, do expeditions..whatever c) do something finance related in your spare time. Mussy1234 took a gap year and spent the year focussing purely on learning about trading and actually trading. He's built up a big knowledge base in that time which would make him a very attractive proposition to banks come interview time.

3) You can use Bristol as a better springboard into the top unis for Masters degrees. Get a 1st there and Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, Warwick all open up to you. Admittedly a high B'ham 1st would probably get you in too, but then when you add the value you will add to your CV from reason numbers 1 and 2, you stand a better chance of being admitted.

4) Bristol is just generally a nice place to be in, unlike Birmingham. Most places in Birmingham are quite ghettoised, and though the hilly nature of Bristol is very annoying, it will only improve your health :wink:

.

Hope I made it a bit more easier for you :smile:

.

Reply 9

TheAP

9

millie123

I would like to go into some finance bearing career such as IB one time or another. Now currently I have a place to study accounting and finance at Birmingham University.

My current A level grades are BBB (Maths, Biology, Chemistry)

However do any of you think it would be worth taking a gap year, resitting A-level exams, and reapplying to study in one of the following universities and improve my chances of employability in a investement/financial career? (I've called up and found that the following universities do look at retaking students and I'm quite confident that I will be able to get at least AAB if resitting):

1) Bristol University- Accounting and Fianance (I would need at least AAB)
This seems good as it is something like 7th in the Times University league tables.

These rankings are not gospel. Just ask somebody 'in the know'.

I would retake and get better grades...that B in Maths may come back to haunt you.

My biased reasons for Bristol:

Reputation
Employer links-superb for a uni not in london (with exception of Oxbridge).
Course structure
Course flexibility- if you decide to do Accounting/Finance, then so long as you choose macro as your option (instead of Foundations of Business Law), and you do well in your first year (high 2:1 across the board), I see no reason why they wouldn't let you transfer to any of Econ/Econ&Metrics/Econ&Accounting/Econ&Finance, should you realise you do not enjoy accounting.
Good quality teaching - all except one of my first year lecturers were excellent.
Staff Contact-im taking a game theory unit lectured by the Ken Binmore. Hopefully he can put in a good word for me/make a phone call for a postgrad later on. Im looking at LSE/UCL or the states.
the hills- avoids having to pay for the gym :wink:

Reply 10

Cliché

TheAsianProdigy

Course flexibility- if you decide to do Accounting/Finance, then so long as you choose macro as your option (instead of Foundations of Business Law), and you do well in your first year (high 2:1 across the board), I see no reason why they wouldn't let you transfer to any of Econ/Econ&Metrics/Econ&Accounting/Econ&Finance, should you realise you do not enjoy accounting.

Do you think it's really possible to change from AccFin to an Econ degree? Do you know anyone who have done it or have heard of anyone doing it?

Reply 11

love2learn

4

I'm at CASS and got an internship in an IB. But then there are also people from Birmingham and Bristol. I'd say it's worth considering the advantage that being London based gives you. All kinds of networking events and presentations take place at the companies. In the same breath though - if CASS is after AAB why not try for LSE and Warwick too? After all, you get 6 choices! I don't think you will have any problem by being at Birmingham, just make sure that you'll be happy at the Uni you choose.

Reply 12

TheAP

9

No i do not know of anybody who has done it- there are not that many accounting&finance/management students. Of the accounting/finance related degrees, most tend to be Economics and Management or Economics and Finance. I switched from Econ/Accounting. Bristol are really flexible so long as you have suitable first year modules (i.e. micro/micro/qm1/qm2/stats/econometrics) and do well in them, especially the stats/econometrics (high 2:1), I see no reason why not, especially if you have the A-level prerequisites of AAA for econ, or at the very least an A in maths.

But you would need to select/persuade them to let you do macro instead of business law in year 1 (something which you'd need to look into yourself).

Reply 13

jonny_stevens555

Medusa

Do you think it's really possible to change from AccFin to an Econ degree? Do you know anyone who have done it or have heard of anyone doing it?

Quite easy to do at LSE, so I've been told by a recent grad there. I think this is because there's a lot of compulsory economics units in the first year of A&F at LSE.

Reply 14

jonny_stevens555

TheAsianProdigy

No i do not know of anybody who has done it- there are not that many accounting&finance/management students. Of the accounting/finance related degrees, most tend to be Economics and Management or Economics and Finance. I switched from Econ/Accounting. Bristol are really flexible so long as you have suitable first year modules (i.e. micro/micro/qm1/qm2/stats/econometrics) and do well in them, especially the stats/econometrics (high 2:1), I see no reason why not, especially if you have the A-level prerequisites of AAA for econ, or at the very least an A in maths.

But you would need to select/persuade them to let you do macro instead of business law in year 1 (something which you'd need to look into yourself).

Can I ask why you switched from econ/accounting to your new course?
I ask because I was about to apply for Acc&fin but then started read an accounting introductory book and it started to seem ever so slightly dull...

..........

OIZ3AS

I ask because I was about to apply for Acc&fin but then started read an accounting introductory book and it started to seem ever so slightly dull...

I have to say I agree with you. I am planning on applying to both economics and AccFin and accounting does seem to be very boring :frown:

I very much enjoy the finance part though.

Can anyone tell how studying accounting at uni really is like? Is it fun or boring?

Reply 17

Wiseguy.

Very sorry to go off topic but what are my chances of getting into both AccFin BSc & Econs BSc at bristol (see signature)? Does the EFM department at bristol ever give out 2 offers when applying to 2 courses?

Reply 18

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

Medusa

I have to say I agree with you. I am planning on applying to both economics and AccFin and accounting does seem to be very boring :frown:

I very much enjoy the finance part though.

Can anyone tell how studying accounting at uni really is like? Is it fun or boring?

I have talked to couple of people who did Acc & Finance Masters last year, and they hated the accounting part and found it hard, specially managerial and cost accounting. Being brave, i borrowed a book on cost accounting from my uncle who is a chartered accountant. After reading couple of pages, i gave it back. Corporate accounting and financial analysis is more interesting though and highly relevant to finance (if u intend to for example get into corporate finance, M&A, Equity and Dept capital markets).

Reply 19

TheAP

9

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Birmingham, CASS, Bristol? Best University for IB, finance, investement?

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