Post experience MFin vs. MBA for international mobility

Question

I'm considering between post-experience MFin program (LBS, Cambridge Judge) or MBA.

My goal : 
To start a career outside my home country, hopefully at least with the same level of seniority as my current career (not as a fresh graduate), likely to stay within finance (investment or financial advisory).

My profile: 
31 years old male from a developing country in SE asia
Bachelor in accounting (regular local univ) and Master in accounting (top univ in my country)
Around 2.5 years experience at big 4 audit and 8 months (so far) at a big 4 M&A advisory (started my career very late at 27)
very low undergraduate GPA due to running family business at the same time, 3.8 GPA for my master in accounting
I'm a CPA in my country and have passed CFA level 2 exam
GMAT: kaplan full length mock exam 660 (Q48) with ~3 weeks of practice, will take actual exam in early 2021, aiming for 700

From what I've read it seems MBA is better, but I'm not sure if my profile is competitive for a top-20 program in US/Europe.
I think post-experience MFin might be less competitive to get into, and the cost is somewhat cheaper considering it's less than 2 years.
Should I go for post-experience MFin or MBA?

Thanks and best regards,

MiMEssay · Answer

Hey  sgzio23 ,

Starting with your academics, even though your UG GPA is on the lower end, you needn’t worry about that as your most recent degree would be taken into consideration while adcoms proceed with decision-making. On the basis of that, your GPA of 3.8 is quite impressive and showcases your academic prowess. Moreover, having pursued a master in accounting from a top university further bolsters your profile, given your inclination towards finance.
Coming onto your work experience, you have relevant work experience of more than 3 years in two big 4 companies. Having relevant experience strengthens your profile by showcasing the clarity of goals and also a progression of your skill set in the domain. While having big brand names bolsters your profile by adding the elements of prestige as getting into these companies speaks for itself, talking about the roles and responsibilities you undertook, the projects you led and the impact you created during this stint would allow you to showcase your strengths and stand out from the similarly qualified competition.

It is great to see that you have also completed CFA level 1 as it not only shows a clear inclination towards the field of finance but also authenticates your superior academic skills.

Given your school choices, your GMAT score needs to be at least 700 with at the very least a 48 in the quant section. That said, I’d encourage you to score as high as you can.

Further, on the note of extracurriculars, you must be cognizant of the fact that schools seek applicants having a holistic profile . Extracurriculars are a great way to showcase your skills like leadership, networking, communication skills, etc. Thus, you must get your hands on some extracurricular engagements/initiatives to strengthen your profile. I am sure that 3 years of work experience and your 2 years of Masters would have provided you with many opportunities to build on this front so digging deep into this aspect would help you display your holistic development. But in case you don’t have such experiences in your profile, you can take up some volunteering activities or relevant certifications to showcase your proactive nature.

Coming on to your query of MBA or MFin, to shed light on this, I would like to first explain the difference between the two. Firstly, an MBA is considered to be a managers degree and applicants are quite often encouraged to apply to this program with a minimum of 4-5 years of work experience. On the other hand, a Master in Finance only requires you to have relevant experience in the field, on the basis of which, it is often clubbed under early career masters degrees. Having said this, you currently stand at a work experience of 3 years which most certainly equips you with the prerequisites of pursuing an MFin, but would limit your chances of acceptance into an MBA program. While there is no hard and fast rule with the minimum work experience limit for an MBA, you will be competing against applicants who’d possess almost double the work experience as you.

On this note, yes, targeting an MFin would be less competitive than targeting an MBA. As for an MBA, since you do have big brand names on your profile, coupled with a strong academic background, crafting an application that depicts the intensity of your experiences so far and outweighs years of work experiences by highlighting your skills and strengths, can be a great way to stand at par with your competition.

Thus, I would say, your chances of getting accepted into either of these programs would boil down to the application you present to the adcoms.
As for settling for one of the programs, in my opinion, given your passion for finance, both degrees would give you impressive ROIs. The only difference is that an MBA opens up a wide variety of career options, including finance, whereas an MFin will be restricted to the field of finance alone.

Given your school choices, all of the three schools fall under the dream category, which means that these schools have an acceptance rate of 8-15%, translating your chances of getting accepted to 50%. Thus, while applying to business schools, a better strategy is to hedge your bets wisely and apply to a mixed bunch of schools from the dream, competitive and safe category.

That said, here are a few more school options you can consider:

Dream: Michigan Ross, Princeton, NYU stern etc
Competitive: Duke, Baruch, Imperial college London etc

All said and done, while you have a good profile, your applications hold around 30% weightage in the decision making process as it allows the admission committee to peer into your personality and strength of your candidature and at the same time gives you the opportunity to highlight your strengths while smoothing over any flaws. Hence, it is imperative that you craft an application worthy of your profile.

If you wish to gain more clarity as to how you need to go about further on, I would suggest you to book a free consultation call where our expert consultants would go through your entire profile and solve any arising doubts while providing you with a clear estimate of where you stand amongst your competition.

Link for the FREE Consultation Call-

https://www.mim-essay.com/book-an-appointment-form/

Hope this helped!

MSFHQ · Answer

Look at a reputable MBA program. The MSF is still pretty niche and it is going to be hard for you to transition as you'd like with a MSF and the short timeline most programs have. You have an OK profile, but not a particularly strong profile. Do well on the GMAT and target 15-30 ranked US MBA programs. Maybe you can stretch a little higher (10-15). If your goal is to study in Europe, look at similar tiered programs.

Post experience MFin vs. MBA for international mobility

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