Need advice to get into quant (vs MBA)

[Danal]

Hi guys,

I am 25 (almost 26), working in the Telco Industry for 3 years now and I am considering doing an MBA in one of the top european business school this fall/winter 13' (I didn't apply to US schools for private reasons). I wanted to do a career switch from industry to consulting but now that I am discovering the quant perspectives I am not sure that an MBA will be the best fit for me. I have an engineering background with strong math/programming skills.

I don't want to loose the opportunity of doing an MBA, however I'm always questioning myself about doing an MFE instead.

What do you think about doing a part-time/online MFE during my MBA ? That will probably be a bit too much in terms of workload... Also, as I don't have experience in Finance I'm not sure that a part-time or online MFE will really open me the door to the quant world. Another alternative could be to do a CQF or to study in books but this will have cons in terms of networking and placement.

I also need to consider the cost of such programs. An MFE even part-time/online will be about 50,000$ and a CQF will be about 12,000$ which can be quite expensive considering the low career perspective that I red in other posts.

I know that's a lot of questions but any suggestion from someone with similar bckrg or with the same problem in choosing between MBA and MFE would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
D.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

There are hybrid MBA/MFE programs at CMU, NYU.

 

[Danal]

I know but I cannot go for 2 years in US for private reasons. The max I can do is 1 year.
Any suggestion for a good part-time MFE in Paris / Barcelona ?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Right, you can't do US-based programs. I'm not familiar with European programs but from what I can tell, unless you have residency, finding work after graduation is quite tough there.

 

[Juan Pablo]

You can apply to MIT's Mfin Program. It is truly a very flexible program at Sloan (MIT's Business School). You can take any course from Sloan (so you can tailor it to be similar to an MBA) and maximum 2 courses from other departments at MIT. It has cross-registration with Harvard Business and Law Schools and it is a one year program. Given your profile I believe it a good match. The only problem would be that tuition is quite expensive.

In Europe I believe you can apply to Imperial's Master of Finance at its business school and Cambridge's Master in Finance (even though it would be extremely hard to get in without any experience in finance).

Good luck!