Best Finance School For North American International Students (1 Viewer)

[jw28]

Hi All,

I am a potential masters student from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I have an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from a distinguished western Canadian school, graduating with a B+, 3.4 GPA (i guess equivalent to a D or in between a D and HD grade in Australia). GMAT: 680 GRE_QUANT: 790

I intended on applying to American schools for a masters degree in either Finance, or Quantitative Finance; however, the price of schooling in the US at the top schools in a little out of my price range (100k USD for 1 year!! NO WAY!!). I also DO NOT want to stay in Canada for my graduate degree, thus I have been trying to find out information about Australian business schools. Its not like Australia is my last resort choice, but it seems as if they provide the best bang for buck education internationally.

I have settled on the following programs in order of preference:

UNSW: MComm(Banking, Econometrics)
UMelb: MMgmt(Finance) - but i would rather be in sydney
USyd: MComm(Banking)
UTS: Quantitative Finance
ANU: MFinance - my backup, if i get rejected from the above schools.

My question is, which school will provide me with a combination of:
- Exceptional education
- Industry contacts
- Helping place international students in internships/jobs
- International prestige (so i dont look like an idiot when i go home with a degree from a school nobody has heard of)

I must also mention, I DO intend on staying in Australia after the completion of this graduate degree for a few years to gain work experience in an iBanking, hedge fund, equities management capacity, or trading on the ASX. I am also open to going to Hong Kong or Singapore for work experience following graduation.

I have done TONS of research, but there is only so much you can gain from biased perspectives on the schools website. SO! Can somebody help me choose a school, that will provide me with an excellent education, and set me up for a iBanking/HF/Risk Mgmt/Quant Trading/etc... type of job for an international student?

CHEERS!

 

[lambchop]

If you are looking at Australia's best and unis that will actually be seen as prestigious overseas I would go, Australian National Uni, Uni of Melb, Syd Uni or UNSW probably in that order too. That is just my opinion though. It can be hard with Australian unis because overseas nobody has heard of most of them except maybe of the first 3 on that list esp, the first. It is just because most people in your area do not come here for uni. In Asia though many of our unis have been heard of.

 

[moke]

I know you aren't looking at an MBA but the world MBA rankings list is a good indicator of university prestige and quality. Currently UNSW is the top ranked Australian MBA there is (about #40 or #15 if you exclude US). But seriously you can't go wrong with any of those university choices. Though you should know that Canberra (where ANU is) is a very slow town and if you are looking to experience a bit more of Australia then its probably not the best choice.

 

[108796]

ANU is FUCKING AWESOME

We have the most fun here. It has a young population... lots of uni kids

Its a slow town though, yeh, but Sydney is only a 3 hour drive, and Melbourne, 7.

ANU also has fucking AWESOME lecturers. Seriously, the quality of education that I get in my undergraduate degree is 80% fantastic, 10% good, 5% satisfactory, 5% poor.

Plus the MCC building, which I assume you'll be having most of your lectures since you're in finance, is top notch. Big theatre, great sound system, really good classroom technology. Also the tutorial rooms for finance are in the ARDNT building - its also a really nice building too.

ANU is the bomb.

EDIT: ANU has also been overall the top ranked university in Australia for the past decade, so it definitely has prestige. Especially in post-grad research...

To OP: I'm going on exchange to Canada next year, and I'm considering McGill and Queens in that order. Unfortunately, relations with UBC are on hold at the moment. In terms of links with the financial world, and in comparison to the other choices (uToronto, uOttawa, Simon Fraser, uAlberta, uDalhousie), do you think that these two are the best choices?

 

[moke]

sorry i should have clarified. i know ANU is the top Australian uni but this guy has "exceptional education" as just one of his criteria. is going to uni in canberra going to provide him with the industry contacts and job opportunities that UNSW or USYD will offer? i wouldnt know but id be interested to find out. and for the record i really like canberra!

 

[jw28]

@moke: Thanks for your advice. It is a tough choice, because while ANU is a top ranked Uni, and perhaps the school with the most international prestige, it is in the slow city of Canberra. While normally I wouldnt care about location, i think it is paramount that I study in Sydney, since I do wish to remain for a few years to work and gain experience in Australia.

@dark.deceptionz: For finance, HANDS DOWN, the best business school in Canada is U of Toronto. By far the best. Second would be the university of western ontario. Thid would probably be queens. HOWEVER, the 3 schools i listed are in Ontario, and Ontario sucks...at least in my opinion.

My girlfriend graduated from McGill, and it is considered one of Canada's "Elite" schools. I went to Montreal for her graduation, and let me tell you, the city is amazing. It is electric, and a great place if you are student. Montreal is my favourite Canadian city. Only Problem, its COLD AS HELL in the winter. You could also attend my alma mater, UBC. It has international prestige, and the weather here is fairly mild throughout the year. Vancouver is a young city though, and doesnt have the history of Toronto or Montreal. There is also Simon Fraser Uni (SFU). This is a very good school locally. Although I dont know much about the schools in Australia, I presume that SFU to UBC is comparable to MacQuarie to UNSW. Both great schools, but the other alternative is just slightly better.

Any more questions feel free to ask

 

[108796]

thanks mate

ill tell you right now, UBC would be a preference for me, but relations between ANU and UBC are on hold atm, so no can go

i'll check out toronto, however, i meant FINANCE, not business... there is no way im doing any accounting business shit.

would you reorder any of these based on finance, and not business/accounting/management. i'm looking for actual finance courses like fixed income analysis, applied investments, international finance etc, not something like financial accounting

i had a look at queens, and they have a LOT of business (i.e. accounting/management), but very little finance. if UoT has more finance, i will definitely consider it. i will be doing research on the faculty websites, but would like to hear your opinions first

thanks for your time

 

[atreus]

Most people I have spoken to were tossing up between UNSW's and Macquarie Uni's Master of Applied Finance, if you were looking for Sydney. There is already a BOS thread comparing UNSW's and Macquarie's master's programs, but from what I've heard, Macquarie's is big on industry partnerships, has very good staff, heaps of electives and is offered in Singapore, Tokyo, as well.

And I think you can choose to study at the North Ryde campus or at the MAF Centre in the city. The only thing is, you need to have 2 years of experience in the industry, but they can waive that if your marks are strong enough.

The MAFC page seems to be down atm, but you can take a look at the info on Mac Uni's main site.

MAppFin - Master of Applied Finance - Faculty of Business and Economics - Macquarie University

 

[velox]

Firstly you need to make up your mind about what you want to work as. The jobs you listed are fundamentally different and it's hard to recommend a degree program when your aims for employment are so broad.

I.e. A UTS quant finance would be well recognised by quants, whereas as UTS MFin is not really worth it at all for ibanking (assuming they offer one).

And you'll probably find your back up harder to get in than the USyd, UNSW ones. The UNSW/USYD ones you listed will be full of cash cows, so be careful.

 

[jw28]

@dark.deceptionz: for the finance field in Canada, the schools in Toronto are by far the most prestigious and well known for finance. Having said that, if you are looking for a great place to be, I would strongly consider, Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, in that order. McGill is a great school too, and a great city. I strongly recommend studying there.

@Velox: You seem to be a knowledgable person when it comes to the field of finance and careers in finance. I presume you are working iBanker or currently in the field. I listed a fairly broad list of potential career paths mainly due to my quantitative background in computer science. A mix of compsci and finance seems to qualify me for a broad range of jobs, from more quantitative positions like a quant trader and risk mgmt, to less quantitavite positions like iBanking.

Why do you say that ANU would be harder to get into than UNSW or USyd? From what i have reasearched, ANU seems to have the international prestige, however, it doesnt seem to have that strong a Finance department, when comparing faculty members and the cirriculum.

Would you also mind posting "specialties" of the schools i listed? It seems like UTS is a quant school, and the others are...iBanking schools? Also, what do you mean by "be careful" of the cash cows at UNSW/Usyd?

Thanks!

 

[velox]

@dark.deceptionz: for the finance field in Canada, the schools in Toronto are by far the most prestigious and well known for finance. Having said that, if you are looking for a great place to be, I would strongly consider, Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, in that order. McGill is a great school too, and a great city. I strongly recommend studying there.

@Velox: You seem to be a knowledgable person when it comes to the field of finance and careers in finance. I presume you are working iBanker or currently in the field. I listed a fairly broad list of potential career paths mainly due to my quantitative background in computer science. A mix of compsci and finance seems to qualify me for a broad range of jobs, from more quantitative positions like a quant trader and risk mgmt, to less quantitavite positions like iBanking.

Why do you say that ANU would be harder to get into than UNSW or USyd? From what i have reasearched, ANU seems to have the international prestige, however, it doesnt seem to have that strong a Finance department, when comparing faculty members and the cirriculum.

Would you also mind posting "specialties" of the schools i listed? It seems like UTS is a quant school, and the others are...iBanking schools? Also, what do you mean by "be careful" of the cash cows at UNSW/Usyd?

Thanks!

If you are looking at trading or quant developer positions (will need a phd for true quant positions) then probably a masters in hard science will help or maybe the quant finance program at UTS and UNSW. A masters in finance etc will probably shift you more towards the ibanking side, but you can still apply for trading etc.

USyd and UNSW tend to take a lot more students due to their locations and the course entry cut offs are pretty low as it's fee paying. You will probably share your courses with students who are doing a masters just for residency (2 yr masters degrees qualify overseas students for residency). Not to say that is a bad thing, but it will be useless for networking and group presentations may be a little hard.

ANU's degree is actually a Master of Finance so it is a little different to the MComm. The MFin is a 2 yr program and you require a 70% grade + to get the MFin, otherwise you get transferred to the lower 1 yr MFin Management.

Personally I dont know that much about the ANU program. I havent looked at the professors research interests etc, so take my advice with a bag of salt.

Cash Cows: UNSW and USyd commerce masters programs are full of international students, many of which are studying for the sake of residency. There are a few problems with this....

Most bankers get in through undergrad intakes, so im not 100% sure on how it goes with Masters candidates, however I would say it would not be too much difference between UNSW and USyd in terms of employment.

Have a look at Macquarie too, their program overlaps with CFA a heap, that might be a good or bad thing.

 

[phrred]

I'd say the best business schools would be UNSW UMelb and Macq in that order.
ANU is not as strong in business. For undergraduates it is much easier to get into ANU than UNSW or USYD, not sure about post grad

 

[velox]

I'd say the best business schools would be UNSW UMelb and Macq in that order.
ANU is not as strong in business. For undergraduates it is much easier to get into ANU than UNSW or USYD, not sure about post grad

And since when is UAI related to quality of business schools?

Seriously after 4.5 years of uni, you'd expect people to get it right.

 

[phrred]

the quality of fellow students is definitely a factor.
if you go to harvard, you are competing with the best and you mix with the best students in the country. if you go to a shitty state school you are competing with a lot of drop kicks who dont give a shit. which one do u think is better?

 

[phrred]

and I only made that comment because someone said ANU was difficult to get into and I was stating that its not that case in undergrad, dont know about postgrad

 

[velox]

the quality of fellow students is definitely a factor.
if you go to harvard, you are competing with the best and you mix with the best students in the country. if you go to a shitty state school you are competing with a lot of drop kicks who dont give a shit. which one do u think is better?

Really means nothing. The course I am doing requires an 80 uai or something, yet most people quite smart. (95+ in 4u maths etc)