How to choose a Master in Finance

I already wrote here and here, why I think, prestige alone is worthless. So, what's the optimal strategy for choosing a Master's in Finance?

Here are a few criteria:

• Reputation in Academia and in the Finance Industry
• Total Costs of getting the Degree
• Quality of City and Student Life
• Curriculum, Teaching and Regulations

Carefully evaluating every criteria and you'll make an informed decision.

Reputation in Academia and in the Financial Industry

Ok, I know, I said prestige is not important. However, when applying to PhD programmes or to other high profile jobs, it's still useful to have a renowned name on your CV and it gives a few good points. Prestige helps, but you shouldn't overestimate it effects. 

To check, if your university has reputation in Academia, you need to check some rankings, where research weights a lot. Good rankings are the QS subject ranking, the Tilburg Economics Research Ranking or some other (inter)national rankings. A good role of thumb is if a university is one of the best in a country, there's a high chance it will also be known internationally in Academia. It's just important that the university is visible in the international research community. How high it actually ranks is not that important, since all rankings are somewhat biased and distorted.

To check, if your university is known in the corporate world, most people use the Masters in Finance Financial Times Ranking. I advise you not to use the ranking, as it's highly distorted. For example, you won't find any LSE programmes on the list, nor is it reasonable to place the University of St. Gallen or ESCP over MIT. Moreover, no HR manager on earth cares, if your Finance Master is ranked as 3rd, 7th or 18th in the FT rankings. 

A much better strategy is to check, if graduates are already working at certain firms. You could do so by searching for Linkedin profiles with Google. For example, if you want to check whether there are any St. Gallen graduates working in London at Goldman Sachs, you can type "site:linkedin.com master finance university of st gallen london goldman sachs" (search). As long as you can find some graduates working at your dream employer, everything is ok. Let those kiddies in message boards argue and fight, which university is "better". 

Total Costs of Obtaining the Degree

(Ignore this section if your parents are reasonable rich and you're not on a budget.)

I consider the total costs as the most important point of getting a Master's in Finance. You'll find lots of people on the web and in real life, who are willing to spend 20-50k € for a single year of study, just to put [name of a prestigious university] on their CV. Once, you got the job, nobody cares where you went to school. So why spending so much money for prestige, when you could get degrees almost for free in Europe?

The total costs of getting a Master in Finance include not only the tuition fees and books, but also living expenses, medical insurance and so on. A good source to compare the living expenses of cities is Numbeo. It's a nice tool to get a rough idea, how much it will cost to live in a city for a year or two. 

I want to mention it again, so it sticks in your brain: Prestige comes with high opportunity costs. Instead of paying 20k of tuition, you could buy a pre-owned sports car, a one year world trip, or a small one-roomed flat if you take an additional loan. It is NOT rational to pay a substantial amount of money for private education, especially not if you are from a country, where higher education is free and income taxes are high.

City and Student Life

This is an easy one. You're the best person of assessing, how much you would like to live in a certain city. I prefer cities with over 300k inhabitants, a vibrant night-life and good weather. Moreover it should be safe, the people should talk and understand English and it shouldn't be too expensive to rent central apartments.

I recommend to visit the city for a few days, before you accept an offer. 

Copenhagen - Capital of Denmark

Curriculum, Teaching and Regulations

People often underestimate this point, however I believe it's the second most important point right after the total costs. You'll be studying for a year or two, so you should attend a program, where you learn exactly those things you'd like to learn. It doesn't make sense to study Accounting & Finance at LSE, just because of the brand, when you'd like to learn something about Computational Finance. 

Moreover some universities have very restrictive study and exam regulations, especially french universities. At some universities it's not possible to re-sit an exam, at others you have to attend every single lecture or they kick you out of the programme. Furthermore, you have to check if it's possible to get admitted to PhD programmes - if you want to do research - and whether it's recognized in your country, where you'd like to work. 

To check the regulations, try to get in contact with (former) students, programme coordinators or read some experience reports on the web.