Which one to Choose....Boston College v/s Ohio State MS Finance....?

Hi Friends and Experts,
Greetings!!!

I am happy to announce that I got admitted to Boston College MSF and Ohio State SMG for Fall 2023 intake. Boston has offered me a scholarship of $15k and an assistantship of $6780 (working 12hrs a week) for the duration of the program, while I got a scholarship only from Ohio amounting to $20k. Accounting for the remaining tuition, living expenses, and other costs, I will have to take a loan of 60K+ for Boston and 50K+ for Ohio. I am in huge dilemma on choosing between these two programs.

I am concerned about whether I will be able to get a job to repay the loan within 3 years. Will I get a job that pays 80K even if I go into corporate finance roles or as a Financial Analyst, though my dream is to work in Private Equity? Will I even get a job in the first place? Being an International Student with no hardcore finance experience, I am really concerned about getting a decent-paying job, especially because of the loan.
Further, I am also worried about the student visa, because I come from Nepal, and in my view taking a loan of over 60K would suggest my intent to stay back in USA. The pay is very less in Nepal, I won't be able to pay back the loan anytime soon, and the Embassy know that. How much will the loan affect on the student visa? (I don't have any source of finance other than Mpower or Prodigy loan). On the top of it, I will have to pay a non refundable deposit of $2500 before getting an I-20 from Boston, while $500 in the Ohio State.

Further, the program says that the length is 10 months but we can complete it within 12, what is the actual length? And can we do an internship before completing the program in Boston MSF?

Meanwhile, I could not find in detail on the structure of the program and the detailed employment statistics of the MSF graduates on the website of Boston, while its so explicitly mentioned in case of Ohio. I could find a lot more alumni in top companies in the Linkedin for SMF from Ohio than from the Boston. Also, I don't know if I will be able to specialize in one core area with Boston MSF as compared with Ohio MSF.

Also, do the employers come to the campus where we can network physically with the industry professionals in both, and is there any advantage to being in Boston? How will becoming a Financial Analyst in the Boston area be different from being a Financial Analyst in places like Ohio in terms of salary and career growth?

All in all, in your opinion, which program should I choose, taking into consideration my status as a international student, career prospects and degree reputation, ease of finding jobs and internships and all the factors above?

Thank you so much.

Best,
Mck2023

Hi. Congratulations on your admits. Sorry I have missed your post when it went live.

Do both of these programs offer stem OPT with a three-year work permit after graduation? I would absolutely choose only one of those.

My guess would be is that neither of these universities is in the top 10 for masters in finance/ etc. let me know if I am mistaken and these are big powerhouse brands. Full disclosure - I’m not super versed in MFin rankings.

But what I can tell you is that not having relevant work experience or well recognized brands on the resume is going to suck. Having one of them is very helpful in finding a job….

Think about it this way, the masters degree kind of gives you a license to hunt and a license to send out your résumé and be qualified for a number of positions. It does not however entitle you to a job and you will be competing with many other people who are trying to get jobs to. Some of those people will be just like you but some of them will have relevant work experience, some of them will have awesome brands And have awesome work experience. Think about being in the shoes of a recruiter, who would you hire? Someone with relevant work experience who would likely easily transition into the job and potentially has been doing a very similar job before or would you hire someone who has never done this job before? Why would you hire a clueless person? Simply because they went to one of these institutions? Maybe but what if a person has gone to an institution and has relevant work experience? C, you would be at a disadvantage even if there’s a whole lot of employers coming on campus, You would not be their first pick. However, I doubt they’ll be a whole bunch of employers rushing to the campus so most likely you would be gunning for entry-level positions that people out of college would pursue and you would have an upper hand in that recruiting unless you will be perceived overqualified or poor fit. You are also in international Applicant so companies have to deal with that which does not make you super attractive either.

Do you like the picture so far? 😂 I know it’s bad. But you have to have a real picture. I don’t want to tell you that things will be easy because you need to have the right expectations. You will be fighting adversity and you will be facing a lot of it.

On the positive side, what you are getting is a three-year work permit to work in the US. That is huge. That is a pretty unique opportunity unless you have it really good back home. Many of us have very little to lose and in some cases allowed to run away from so we gladly abandoned what we had and moved to the US despite adversity and despite the bad odds. Many of us succeeding beyond even our own expectations.

You also need to minimize the noise. I think all the visa issues and questions are kind of noise at this point in time so I would ignore them. I don’t think it matters where you’re coming from as long as you’re going to a legitimate institution. It doesn’t matter how much money you make or made. You will have three years of optional practical training, I assume at least under the stem OPT.

Ultimately it will be up to you to make this work. No school promotion and effort can make you more attractive to employers than you can by working on your own. Having greater chances of finding a job are not the same as finding a job, it’s just greater chances. so what can you bring to the table to your employer to impress them for a potential financial analyst? What could make you stand out? Have you been taking a whole bunch of finance classes? Already? Have you been doing spreadsheet modeling and potentially offering your services on fiverr? Have you volunteered to help with financial things? Have you competed in some private equity competitions? Or perhaps have a blog that you publish? If the answer is no and you are planning to go to the university, attend classes, get some grades, graduate and try to look for a job, I would say it’s not worth it. I mean you’ll probably find some kind of a job and do some thing once you get desperate enough but success only follows those who put in hard work. If you’re constantly thinking about finance, living in finance and doing things related to your field, then you’ll succeed but if you’re waiting for this grand experience to be crowned as a finance guru after graduating from some Ohio University, you’re a goner 😇

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I would say that having an assistant ship is a huge plus and a huge bonus. I have overlooked it originally in my first post.

If you have an assistant ship, that means you’ll be working with a professor almost likely a few of them over the course of the program and that will give you an opportunity to network with them. Some of them are fairly useful and some are very useless. However, if you play your cards right and you impress them, you have a chance of having them recommend you for a job to a company and that will be pretty substantial.

I think that’s more important than location or which school, etc.

Ps. Sorry I missed that point

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Hi bb
Thank you so much for prompt and the detailed response.

Great perspective, yet really made me low.

As you said, I don't have good relevant experience and no blogging or modeling on Fiverr or Upwork. I could not because I come from a remote part of Nepal (which itself is listed as the least developed nation), there is no nay international financial services firm even in the Capital, not even a branch of Big 4 [ though it is not relevant to the employer.]

But I need to decide and plan the action ahead. What shall I do moving forward? Shall I decide between two....or shall I apply to another program (maybe Top 50 MBA Programs, Iowa State Ivy MBA, or Alliance Manchester MBA) I do have a 700 on GMAT, a 3.7 GPA (dean's list) from a university in Nepal, and 4+ years of post-grad work experience. Will this help? But time is limited for me...need time for visa processing.

I mean, in this situation, what would be the ideal thing that I should do? What would you do, if you were in my place (I know you would never be in such a situation; you are a genius, but still, hypothetically)?

Please give your perspective. What shall I do moving forward?

Yes, both programs are STEM. Ohio is 9 month and Boston is 12 months program, and I am happy to get an Analyst role.

(Also, can you please suggest me where can I find the experts in the MS Fiannce within the GMATClub?)

Thank you so much bb!!!

I personally think Boston College is the better brand in the USA, but that would also depend on where you are. If you went to work in Chicago, OSU would be king.

My thoughts are this. You are international and will need to hustle to find a job. OSU is a good brand, but the issue is Columbus really isn't a big city (although I like it) and you aren't really close to any major city either. BC will be very close to Boston and from Boston you can get to NYC quickly and cheaply (Bus, Amtrak, Flights).

The assistantship will look good on the resume, BC is older than OSU and it started as a PT program for working professionals so your network will be established and in the Boston area. As long as both programs are STEM, I think BC is the winner.

Now putting that aside, the job market in the US is starting to soften, especially in banking. M&A is down, banks are laying off and what has happened with Credit Suisse, SVP and Signature is causing a lot of uncertainty. I would expect further softening a year from now, if not an outright recession.

F500 jobs are going to pay like $50-60K a year in a major city area. I do not think you should expect $80K. Maybe you can get that, but look at the salary data the programs have.

https://fisher.osu.edu/graduate/smf/smf-career-outcomes
https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/carro ... in_finance

Scroll down on the BC page and they provide guidance for international students.

IMO - I think BC is better, location is better, but it is not going to be super easy to find a gig and prepare to make less than $80K. Long term, think it is a good investment (has been for me), but could be rocky in the hear and now. Good luck.
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I want to set your expectations, not tell you that it is impossible…. I also do not understand how being a remote part of a country prevents you from doing work on excel or pursuing your dreams. But it doesn’t really matter so don’t worry about answering the question, the pointer trait to bring up is that you cannot expect going to a masters program to change your habits or do you have a person who will constantly push you and force you to do things. You will not have a class about résumé writing and they will not have a class about how to interview and you will not have a class about how to be a self starter and how to hustle…

I also think it is worthwhile and it has worked out for me as well but it is up to you and lady luck for things to happen and those who are busy and engaged and I constantly doing something, those are the ones who tend to be lucky.

PS. But if you’re feeling helpless now, don’t feel like you will certainly be super empowered when being a poor student in a foreign country. If anything, you will only be less confident and less comfortable because he will be way out of your comfort zone.

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