MSc Finance vs. MSc Finance and Accounting

Hey,

I'd like to get an insight from current or past students of these programmes - Do you think employers perceived these two degrees differently during the application process?

Moreover, I've noticed that most of the core modules are the same, however the Finance programme is characterised as more quantitative, is this true to what extent? How do the business undergraduates cope in general? Thank you in advance!

Reply 1

alleycat393

The uni can put you in touch with past or current students and give you an idea of where their grads end up. If the core modules are similar it'll depend on what options are available to you. If you meet the entry requirements you should be fine.

Imperial College London

London

Reply 2

earthhero123

I'm not sure about employers perceived but i guess they are the same.

They are generally similar but Finance is a lot more quant than F/A.

In Finance, you have to do some calculus, statistics and some derivations(But not as much as RMFE where they go much deeper into derivation and pricing derivatives).

In f/a you have to do more on corporate finance, accounting and financial ratio.
The different in core modules(The content of derivatives modules in finance and f/a are different despite they have the same name)

For Finance: Mathematical finance (Some stochastic calculus, some use of matrix and option pricing in discrete time)
+ derivatives(for finance)
+ Empirical finance ( Application of maths models for real world eg. GARCH, ARCH, AR, MA,)

For F/a Advance corporate finance(Deeper than corporate finance for MSc Finance)
+Derivatives(for F/a which involve less maths)
+ corporate strategy

The electives are different too. I guess Finance have to choose 1 quant elective and the electives for f/a are less quant and more general.

Might be just 2/3 modules different but it could mean a lot for some students in term of difficulty.

If you are good at maths(Calculus, statistics and know some knowledge in financial market) , you will be fine for finance course.

But i think you might be more suitable for f/a because you did business for UG.

All in all,it depends on your career goal. Finance is more on financial market side whereas F/a is a more on corporate or IB side.

P.S. I think it is harder to get an offer from MSc Finance compared with MSc F/A.

Hope it helps and good luck!

Reply 3

Oilfreak1

I share the maths for finance module with the MSc finance students, to the best of my knowledge MSc f/a students don't do this module.

Particularly when you get to continuous time maths it gets very.. abstract? If you don't have the quantitative background F/A is more suited to you.

Wrt job prospects, I don't really know. HNA group is doing on campus interviews this monday at the business school, for everyone. I'm not sure if employers at large differentiate, ICBS is ICBS. While my particular course has recieved interest throughout the year from natural resources divisions and im sure other courses get special attention from other divisions by and large I think all most employers care about is that you have a quantitative masters from a target.