Hey
the title pretty much says it.
Brief introduction: I'm Italian and grew up bilingual (Italian - German). I am currently doing my BSc at Bocconi. Here I have a pretty high GPA (29.9, think 4.0) and thus I'll 99% get admission and a full tuition waiver for the Bocconi master. I have internship experience in Consulting (Big 4 in Germany) and I am member of some extracurricular clubs. I will probably score >740 at my GMAT. So summing up I'd say I have a decent shot at all the mentioned programs.
Now to my goals: I want to work in MBB and then probably shift to either PE or VC (hence finance and not management + I'm genuinely more keen on finance). However, I don't want to launch my career in Milan but rather either in London or in the DACH region. Hence I'm a bit uncertain about the Bocconi MSc (true, it places well into IB in London - but what about MBB?). The placement for DACH isn't too good, even though I'm perfectly bilingual and have work experience in Germany I have been told MBBs are rather reluctant to hire people who didn't study in the region or at Oxbridge/LSE. The program still is very appealing due to the full waiver and the program is probably the most rigorous of the ones mentioned (tough quantitative part and two years) + it gives me one more year compared to the UK ones to secure valuable internships (maybe a summer internship in consulting and one in IB - so I could also see if IB would be something for me as well).
The UK masters have the best placement no doubt - I could probably start working in both London or DACH. Nevertheless the costs are horrendous (around 50k €)
- is it worth it? Considering I'd have to take up a student loan? LSE doesn't offer merit scholarships, what about Oxford? I wasn't able to find data for the MFE specifically.
Last but not least St Gallen - it costs significantly less and I'd have a good shot for a scholarship as well. It places very well into Zurich, a bit less into Germany (LSE is better). The program offers also the possibility to do the CEMS DD (one of the few finance programs to do so) - which makes it more attractive for consulting. However, is the life in St Gallen really that bad as they tell?
PS: I didn't consider HEC since for London it't pretty similar to Bocconi (where I have a full waiver) and for DACH it's even worse. Plus I don't speak French.
I hope you can help me