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MFE or MBA as a long term career choice?

MFE or MBA?

  • MFE

    Votes: 16 51.6%

  • MBA

    Votes: 15 48.4%
  • Total voters
    31

QuantonTheBay

Joined
4/3/14
Messages
3
Points
11
Hey all,

I recently took the GRE and scored a 166 V and 166 Q which places me in around the 95th percentile and also have a 3.5 UG GPA. I am currently working in software sales and I am less than a year out of college. What I would like to know is, generally speaking, if I want to maximize my earning potential (ROI), which would be a better route to tak: Get an MFE and work towards getting into a HF or Quant role with a bank or getting an MBA and pursuing investment banking or corporate finance? I am talking about top 15 programs in each case.

I also want to know if putting my GRE score resume would be a good idea to do? Would potential employers see it as someone who is in a high risk position to quit after a few years to go to grad or b-school? Does it give off a snobby vibe? In general, in what fields is putting a standardized test score viable?

Thanks in advance!
 
MBA's aren't worth it if your not in the M7 at least. Some people on gmatclub say you need to be in the top 5 or even top 3. MBA presents more of an opp. cost since you already have 3-5 years of exp already. It's sort of for people that can't get promoted or want to switch fields or get sponsored by their company to go for free (obv. there are other reasons).

In terms of your ceiling cap, HF have essentially no ceiling. If your a executive at a BB IB - or even a decent IB - there's also no ceiling. It just depends on how good you are tbh.

Other things to keep in mind... you can get into IB/ST with an MFE/Master of Finance degree and v.v for MBA getting a quant job. Also, your 166/166 combined puts you at around the 99 percentile (you score converts to a 760 on the GMAT which is 99 percentile). Not that the score matters that much but just letting you know your above 95 percentile lol. Potential employers know people often switch jobs nowadays. (This is my opinion) If your score is high you can put it on your resume and it should help.

Do some more research on other forums more related to MBA programs.
 
Finance, if you were me, would you go and get an MFE, since I basically stand a better chance to get into a top schools with my scores? What about job prospects for MFE vs MBA? Is a MFE degree more narrowly focused, and thus more "riskier"?

On a related note, and maybe this is a stupid question, but in general, who makes more money, someone working as a quant or someone working in a traditional IB role (Associates, VP, etc)?
 
Another follow up is whether or not you have a strong technical background. I've been told by some that if you have sufficient work experience in finance technology as a programmer, and strong undergraduate credentials, getting an MBA with a specialization in finance/quant finance from a top 15 school would make more sense because the technical aspects you learn in the MFE program are things you may have already learned on the job/in undergraduate.
 
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MFE graduates nowadays require very strong technical skills (aka programming) to get good jobs. You can't just learn Black-Scholes and some other theory and expect to get six-figure jobs. The jobs are much narrower but some people with strong tech skills can parlay it into jobs with tech firms. I heard of MFE grads who join big-data, tech firms instead of wall street type jobs.
MBA is a more general degree which means more job opportunities but it can also means you can end up without jobs or getting something irrelevant. MBA grads outnumber MFE grads by several orders.
 
Andy, should I begin to learn C++ and other programming languages on my own if I decide to attend a MFE program? Also, I know that there are a lot of MBA grads, but isn't getting one from a top 15 still better than getting a MFE from a top 15 program, career-wise?
 
To be honest a Q166 isn't anything to brag about. Everyone I know from the MFE program at my school (ranked nationally #15) has either Q165 or higher. An MFE will teach you C++ but unless it's from CMU I doubt you'll be good enough to pass programming interviews. You'll need to do programming projects on your own outside school. GRE on your resume is good--in this case it tells an employer that your score isn't too low. For MBA you'll need a top 10 or better for good companies and for MFE you'll need top 15 or better with superior programming skills.

The person that makes the most money is the person who is best at their job. If your salesmanship skills are stronger than your math/programming skills go the IB route. Otherwise, if you go the MFE route prepare to fight with tens of thousands of Indian and Chinese students that will study harder and learn everything more thoroughly than you. A country where students put themselves on IV drips so eating doesn't get in the way of studying produces people with insane dedication to learning. These people will wreck that nice grading curve that the rest of us are hoping for and make your classes incredibly difficult to pass. I speak from experience :)
 
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