lsuguy7 wrote:
I think the MFin cost a lot of money for a one year degree and I don't think you're going to get the wow factor out of it that you will get from a top notch MBA. If you don't care at all about "fit" at the school and you just want the higher ranked - I'd say Vandy has an edge over Tulane as it has more of a national name. Also I think the Vandy program is shorter, so you get into the work world a little faster.
Like I said before knowing where you want to work is a big deal, if you want to work in Louisiana or Texas - I think Tulane gives you a better chance. If not not go with Vandy if you can't get into LBS or Princeton.
I don't agree with the Wow factor completely, if you want to work in heavy quantitative trading positions an MFin or MS would give more opportunities than an MBA. I agree though that it depends on what you want to work with.
Princeton has a very small intake - 40 - and is a very prestigious institution, so competition will be tough there.
https://www.princeton.edu/bcf/graduate/faq/The LBS MFin (the other I researched) is a very good program and from what I talked to past students placements were very good (but remember that this was before this whole credit crunch).
https://www.london.edu/mif.htmlI'd say that Princeton is a Long-Shot (it is for everybody in the world, it's like Stanford's MBA). I think you're GMAT is ok (for LBS I heard that 34v and 46q are the limit), if your past school is tough in grading, it would be better to use your ranking in the class, rather than the GPA itself.
In your situation, I'd try Princeton, LBS, LSE and other schools (I think UC Berkeley has an excelent Masters in Financial Engineering). You already have Tulane in your pocket, so why not to try?
The big problem here is that unlike MBAs these MFins usually do not disclosure as much info about admitted students, so it's harder to trace a strategy.