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anujok
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LBS MFA or Cornell MFE 01 Apr 2019, 13:15
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Hey there,

It's about the time that I have to submit deposit for two school and I hope that someone can give me any advice in which program to take.

My current goal is to find a job in IBD in Hong Kong. Heard that IBD does not recruit students pursuing a master's degree and it's extremely hard for international student to find a job in London.

The consensus is that LBS MFA is a target for IBD which made me inclined towards it. But what i'm also wondering is that if the brand of Cornell is good enough, should I think that Cornell can opens door for IBD as well and could also give me opportunity to find quant related jobs.

Please help!!
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billionaire
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LBS MFA or Cornell MFE 02 Apr 2019, 10:19
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anujok
Hey there,

It's about the time that I have to submit deposit for two school and I hope that someone can give me any advice in which program to take.

My current goal is to find a job in IBD in Hong Kong. Heard that IBD does not recruit students pursuing a master's degree and it's extremely hard for international student to find a job in London.

The consensus is that LBS MFA is a target for IBD which made me inclined towards it. But what i'm also wondering is that if the brand of Cornell is good enough, should I think that Cornell can opens door for IBD as well and could also give me opportunity to find quant related jobs.

Please help!!
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Hello anujok

First of all congrats on admission to these two awesome schools and in awesome specialization from my perspective, as myself being a quant ;)

Both Cornell and LBS are schools I would choose for my education, anytime.

From my view both schools will secure you a quant job.

And I don't see why you would not find job in London or NY first, it is not like you must go to Hong Kong immediately upon graduation ?

Investment banking is still much more developed in London and NY than Hong Kong, and having job there first will only increase your chances for landing higher position later in Hong Kong branch, which I assume is your ultimate goal. :idea:

I would not give preference to Hong Kong before London and New York, but we are all different ;)


I went through both curriculum's and I assume you referring to Financial Engineering Concentration and Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan (CFEM) option...I can notice that Cornell MFE, which is actually Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan (CFEM) is much more Quant based program, more serious and rigorous.

https://www.orie.cornell.edu/sites/defa ... _FINAL.pdf


Here it is what interest you the most, placement statistics :

https://www.orie.cornell.edu/orie/cfem/ ... statistics


I dont see why you would not go after Cornell, directly to Wall Street :cool:

Cornell is Ivy League, if I need to state the obvious. :cool:


Traditionally Hong Kong companies maybe are still biased toward British education, due historical reasons.

However, you will need to double check this.

Since this seems so important to you, I would contact HR people from Hong Kong companies you would like to work for upon graduation and ask them what is more desirable for them LBS MFA or Cornell MFE/CFEM :idea:

Then you would have your answer.



My vote clearly goes to Cornell MFE/CFEM :geek: :cool:

Having said that, you cannot go wrong with LBS MFA either, just Cornell MFE/CFEM is much more Quant tailored :geek:
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LBS MFA or Cornell MFE 02 Apr 2019, 14:07
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Hi billionaire,

First of all, I greatly appreciate every word of your suggestion!!

The reason that I am targeting Hong Kong after graduation is that 1. In the US, BB banks usually do not recruit from masters program, they take undergrats and then MBAs. 2. I 've heard that its so hard for international students to find a job in London right now. Therefore, targeting hk seems to me a reasonable bet.

As for program content, Cornell is indeed more quant and is tailored for finding a quant job whereas LBS is a totally different story. The only reason that I'm still seriously considering LBS is that this program in the past has placed students very well for IBD in Hong Kong, whereas when asking student studying at Cornell MFE, " I dont know anyone who is recruiting for IBD" is what I heard. I am not sure if I can succeed in finding a quant job since I barely have any programming background and have to do tons of extra work to catch up.