The University of Rochester Master in Finance program is a strong option for those interested in a great branded business school. With the addition of their New York City campus, Rochester really has a lot of good things going for them.
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Two things really stick out at me. The first is the academics. It is a highly regarded school for MBA-Finance (and PHD’s as well) students, and we have access to most of the same teachers as they do for our program. There is no doubt we get an outstanding education.
The second thing that really jumps out is the tilt towards foreign students. They really increased the program size this year to approximately 120 students, of which 100+ are international, mostly from China and India. I believe so far I’ve met maybe 4 other Americans.
As for the job search/recruiting, where they lack in OCR and location, they make up for with a fantastic career management department (the new guy in charge Bob Park was a former headhunter and has really changed the culture around there) that provides solid one on one attention when needed. They also have a bunch of us going to the “In a New York Minute” interview event in NYC where some coveted landing spots such as Morgan Stanley and Oppenheimer will be interviewing master in finance students for IB analyst positions.
The program is still very much a work in progress, but I like the direction its heading and hope that with the networking opportunities provided I can have a good career out of it. Hope some of this helps.
I chose my UG institution based on cost; at the time I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I accepted an offer to Canisius College in Buffalo, NY (they gave me a fulle tuition scholarship). After a lot of career research, I decided I wanted to into finance, but needless to say, recruiting was non-existent and job opportunities outside of the Upstate NY area were slim. To beef up my resume and add a more marquee brand to my name I decided to pursue a master in finance.
Rochester ended up winning out for me because I did not get into my top choice (MIT) and they gave me a pretty big scholarship to attend. Although not as powerful as their MBA program, I figured I could make up for their lack of ideal location by intense networking and frequent trips to their NYC area events.
I would recommend a master in finance specifically to students like myself who want to break into the finance industry, but do not have a large/influential alumni base or degree pedigree to match up with industry expectations. I would recommend Rochester to those who want to get a degree that will prepare them to excel in finance at the next level and aren’t afraid to be far away from major financial hubs (although NYC isn’t really that far away).
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This adds some great color. Hope this helps anyone who is considering the Rochester program.
Here is a link to the University of Rochester Master in Finance program
