Hello,
I am planning to take a Master’s Degree in UK (from one of Russell Group Universities) to get a job after finishing the course.
I’m from outside UK (a non-English speaking country) I need after study visa to find a job in London. I have 3 years of work experience in Finance and passed CFA level 1.
I have no idea what Course should I take ( MBA, MSc Finance, MSc Economics) as I also plan to go through the CFA program as well. I need a Master’s Degree as an escalator of my career to get a job abroad and to improve my English speaking.
Could you please advise me on what course is suitable for a person who passed CFA level 1?
The MSc in Finance will cover more of the CFA curriculum in more depth than the MSc Economics. The MBA will be essentially useless to prepare you for the exams but may be useful for networking if at a prominent institution.
I would choose MSc finance > economics >>>MBA
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Thank you Tickersu for your reply. I also think that MSc in Finance will help me to achieve CFA easier and it will be more broad than CFA program. However, I want to get something it doesn’t much similar like CFA Curriculum. I think MSc of Economic would give me better option.
As you say, MBA would be useful for networking and for managerial level. I am still at mid-level career, it would be better for me to take MSc other than MBA.
Thank for your answer again. Hv a nice day!
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I completed an MS in Finance and felt it was more broad, for the most parts. In other words, when there was a topic that I studied in both, the MS was in deeper detail with more rigor. There were a few new topics in the CFA L2 curriculum not covered in the MS, but that may vary depending on program. The foundation was sufficiently strong. If you complete the MSc in Economics or Finance, I highly recommend to take elective or even additional coursework in (ideally from the Statistics Department):
R programming and python programming
Mathematical Statistics
Regression Analysis
Time Series Forecasting
Non-parametric statistics
Most Finance and Economics programs would be fine to count at least some of those as coursework toward the degree. I suggest this consideration because the CFA curriculum is mediocre at statistics, and in the real-world, being somewhat adept in this realm can make you much more marketable and your work will be higher quality.
I really regret not asking for advice a few years back when I was picking what Master’s Degree to choose. I jumped into an MBA program without really thinking it through. It’s only after getting in that I realized it wasn’t giving me what I needed. I had a few buddies doing MSc Economics and compared to them, my program felt lacking. At that time, I also had the first CFA level, but did not think about the second, but I was offered an interesting job that required CFA level 2.
With no time to switch things up, I buckled down and hit the books to prepare for level 2. Most of my studying was through materials I found online, like https://edubirdie.com/docs/cfa-institute/cfa-level-ii-quantitative-methods, unfortunately, there are not many detailed and informative notes on the Internet, but if you make an effort, you can find a lot. Why didn’t I take an exam prep course? Well, life was kind of a mess at the time. Juggling studies, personal life, and the thought of adding a course was just too much. So, I stuck with self-study