MBA specification - U.S. schools that are strong in Finance?

reshinrr

Hey there,

I'm currently working as a financial advisor for M&A and is pursuiting a two-year full-time MBA program beginning next fall in U.S.

I have done quite some homework (either by checking the school's websites or consulting some local agencies) in choosing the target school, one that is strong in Finance specification and is renowned in mainland due to the reason that I plan to land a job in PE/VC in China after graduation.

Right now I have a list of such schools, say Booth, Haas and Anderson (I do know that Wharton and NYU are well-known for their finance courses and their advantageous geographical locations, while I do have some other concerns.), but I do would like to ask for a second opinion here.

1/ Of the sweet16 in U.S., how many of them are traditionally regarded as finance-strong in MBA programs? Is there some kinda a ranking? (US News listed rankings for MBA programs and Master for Finance programs, but is there one working as a combination of the two?)

2/ Virtullay all b-schools offer courses in finance, even PE/VC detailed courses. How many of the S16 are competitive if I am to return to mainland, looking for a PE/VC job?

I have found a contradiction during my research:
Say, even though some people take UCLA MBA program as being 'finance-strong', others argue that the school is not doing so well in terms of placement for MBA students with finance specification.
And SOM seems to be pretty prolific in general finance courses, even in investment management and portfolio management courses. Very few people will mention its name when talking about b-schools that excel in finance specification.

Even though by now I've pretty much finalized my target school list, all your voices will be welcomed and appreciated!

felix123

1、板上有us news mba specialties的排名贴。搜搜看。
2、看学校的employment report，就可以清楚知道job placement的情况。
3、你的list为什么没有cbs？
4、能不能写中文？你的意思可以得到更准确的反应，大家看起来也更快。

reshinrr

felix123 发表于 2015-3-18 17:48
1、板上有us news mba specialties的排名贴。搜搜看。
2、看学校的employment report，就可以清楚知道job p ...

多谢Felix的回复
1. 2015年的排名表格我搜到了，之前用的几个关键词不大对，没有找到这个帖子，非常感谢。
2. 我不知你所指的是不是每所学校的就业雇主名单，如果是的话，目标院校的我都已经看过。但是由于我没有留美的打算，因此最最关心的其实是毕业后回国的就业情况，但是这方面资源并不好寻找。打听到的几个在目标企业中任职的资深校友，因为样本太小有的太特殊，很难总结出什么规律。
3. CBS的实力名声当然毋庸置疑，但是从软件的角度来说我更倾向于西海岸的风格。并且，自己较长期的CG是能做一些创业，也比较欣赏LA那种看似简单却实用的创业风格和精神。也正因为如此，才会把这两家西海岸的学校作为自己的目标。
4. 第一个问题多谢你的帮忙。第二个问题其实想表达的意思也很简单：有些学校虽然finance方向比较有名，但最终的就业似乎又不是那么乐观（当然我最主要考虑的是回国就业的问题）；有些S16学校虽然在finance方向排名上不是很靠前（比如Yale和Cornell），但在国内的PE圈还是有一定活跃的资深校友的。所以将finance排名和回国就业的现实角度考量，哪几所学校是大家心目中比较值得推荐的？

非常感谢

purplecici

reshinrr 发表于 2015-3-18 18:20
多谢Felix的回复
1. 2015年的排名表格我搜到了，之前用的几个关键词不大对，没有找到这个帖子，非常感谢 ...

我个人的看法哦，国内的PE其实最看重的还是brand，如果你是H/S/W的，基本各家PE都会buy in的。你选的学校里面Booth很strong，Anderson感觉还是在美国西岸这边的势力更大一些，Haas什么都好但是class size小，整体的alum base就小，在国内的也少。

再加一点私货，不知道lz现在人在哪里，我觉得想找国内的PE的话，可以提前行动起来，有很多方法的，比如1）LinkedIn上看一些target PE招的都是哪些学校的MBA，试着以Prospect学生的身份和他们networking起来；2）lz本身就在金融行业，肯定有很多朋友在PE，多参加一些圈子里的活动，多认识一些人，这样他们有招聘意向的话，也容易想到你。

llpbrace

USnews排名的methodology不太适合我们。如果lz看specialties排名的话会发现一些逗比学校也能排在前面的。 如果只是谈就业的话，前二十除了HSW有光环，其他Finance就业好的学校有booth, CBS, Stern, Ross, Kenan-Flagler,mcCombs. 当然其他学校有的也有很好的finance的就业率，但是可能其他方面更强。比如kellogg的consulting, duke的general management等等。。

reshinrr

purplecici 发表于 2015-3-18 23:23
我个人的看法哦，国内的PE其实最看重的还是brand，如果你是H/S/W的，基本各家PE都会buy in的。你选的学校 ...

purplecici,

多谢你的分享。

诚如你所说，MBA的牌子对进国内PE很重要，当然是越top的优势越大不会错。可是也是实事求是的说，在MBA的定位方面，自己并非一定要削尖了脑袋往M7里去。关于西海岸的学校和Booth的看法多谢分享~

另外关于你所提到的提前行动起来的问题，其实现在工作上和PE接触的机会是每天都有，但限于level，很难和他们有太多深入接触的机会。虽然也有很多前同事纷纷跳槽到了PE，但多为国字头PE和某些没有MBA学历要求的本土中小PE。而我自己的偏向还是加入外资PE，哪怕是中小型的外资PE，但这类型往往都有MBA的学历要求。再加上自己其实一直有读书的打算，所以即使现在就能到PE去的话，也还是会选择去北美读MBA。

总之~多谢分享~

purplecici

reshinrr 发表于 2015-3-19 00:43
purplecici,

多谢你的分享。

我说的提前行动是在你要申请MBA基础上，针对target PE早些开始networking。good luck！            

reshinrr

purplecici 发表于 2015-3-18 23:23
我个人的看法哦，国内的PE其实最看重的还是brand，如果你是H/S/W的，基本各家PE都会buy in的。你选的学校 ...

嗯呢 确实单纯看方向的排行榜会有这种问题
可能也只是做其中的一个参考吧
多谢~

bigjoe

回国牌子很重要。。。Anderson号称金融很强但如果回国的话，不会比Kellogg，Yale好，甚至和Cornell比都很难说。

JonFrank

Hey there,
Good questions you ask!

A fe thoughts on this: First, probably you can get an excellent finance job from ANY of the S16 schools, even the non-traditionally very strong ones. So take that as your first thought.

Next, when you consider where to go there are two things that are of very important to look at:
1. The companies which recruit from school X
2: The location of school X.

I mean just the fact that the NY schools are in NY is in itself alone enough to make them very strong in finance. The fact of the matter is that people tend to end up working in the region where they graduate from, so the NE is a quite good destination.

Otherwise, the most famous finance programs are: HBS, Wharton, Booth, Columbia, NYU, Sloan, Johnson, UNC and Tepper, and Haas on theWest coast and Anderson too.

I hope this helps,
Jon