I was lurking around in this forum to get a clue where should I post these questions but finally I didn't find any other section related to Master in Science programs so eventually I am posting here. I am deeply sorry if there are any other special section for my question and I couldn't find it. Basically, I am trying to figure out which MSc in Finance program I should choose to find the best possible opportunities to place a decent opening career job in a major financial market, specially in London or NY.
I am Iranian and I continued my higher education very late due to personal issues and currently I am 31 years old, just graduated form University of Turin in Business & Management course in bachelor level which was held entirely in English. I graduated with the average score of 27.48 out of 30 which with a simple math I concluded it might be equivalent to the GPA of 3.664 out of 4.0 in the most common scale. Prior to this date, I was assuming that landing a good job in well-known financial markets is mostly based upon your knowledge, how well you did your attended programs, your internships and how well you could present your abilities and generally sell yourself in your interviews but I completely have underestimated the fact that finding a good internships is very well connected to the brand name of your university and the fact that most major financial institutions are sending their recruiting teams to "target schools" to fill their opening positions.
Actually I've guaranteed my place for Quantitative Finance program at University of Turin which is going to start this fall and I thought I will do fine if I graduate from this program with very high GPA but after spending some time reading opinion of other people (mostly currently working in financial sector) on different forums on the internet, I realised I was too optimistic as this program that I'm going to attend even doesn't include any obligatory internship which seems to be so critical to land a good job. So despite the fact that I don't want to loose more time as I am relatively old enough but I concluded that I must forget about attending this course and prepare myself in these months for GMAT and apply for a top and recognised business school.
First of all I wanted to have your opinion on the whole matter. Then, do you think the fact that I am a late-starter and let's say when I graduate from university I will be 34 years old, hugely influences and limits my chances to break into the industry? By the way, I am interested into doing Investment Banking or Sales & Trading (not sure yet which is my most favourite). Then, are my assumptions correct about incompetency of Quantitative Finance degree from University of Turin to find decent internships/jobs in London or NY? Or do you think with my age I should go for it? If I do so, to be realistic and generally speaking, will I have any chance to land a good job in London?
If the case is to change my program then due to high tuition fees of UK schools (LSE, Imperial, LBS, Warwich, etc.) and the fact that they don't have full waiver/scholarships, I cannot afford them and so I was thinking about Bocconi, SSE or ESCP which they have merit-based scholarships. Between aforementioned schools which one do you think is the best one in terms of opening career opportunities? Are there significant differences between these 3 at all? Are there any better European school which I didn't consider beside those in the UK?
I do have to mention that I don't have any work experience in the financial sector, I do have work experience in teaching/training, IT, construction/building material and import and export industries though. Saying that and by information I got from different posts on this forum, it seems to me that a 2-year program which makes it possible for me to attend 2 summer internships will do me the best, right?
At the end I hope I didn't miss any detail and I do much appreciate your time and advices in advance
Ben
P.S. If knowing languages makes any different for application process, I do speak Persian/Farsi, English and Italian, although I'm not fluent yet in Italian.
