Update on Lawyers help a mom out re: MBA/JD thread- need more advice- MF (Master of Finance)

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for your replies to this original thread:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/449937.page

He is grateful for the advice, is listening and you have been a tremendous help.

We have a few more questions and would again appreciate any help or feedback you could provide.

To sum it up, I am a single uneducated mom of a bright son and he is looking for guidance for a masters program. He is considering a JD/MBA, he is also considering a MF (Masters of Finance) with an interest in GSCOM or the JD/MBA with an interest in Real Estate and Economics. I do not know enough to guide him.

If you have time, please read the first thread and then let us know if you have any suggestions-

Thank you for your kindness xoxo

[Anonymous]

Your son is an undergraduate trying to get into finance right? Before he runs off and get a masters, just pick up a few books and read it. His best bet is STILL to get an internship and go straight to finance. A masters just gives him another shot at recruiting. His main focus should be if he does do a masters, what companies/finance firms comes to his school to recruit.

Pick up some vault guides..all the savvy undergraduates know them:
http://www.vault.com/category.aspx?id=99027

Read the vault guide to investment banking

Career launcher: Finance

Look at the forums Wall Street Oasis and see what people are doing.

Wall Street has a system for hiring people into their ranks. First is undergraduates from elite schools. Second is MBAs and maybe some masters from elite schools. So figure out the system.

[Anonymous]

Your son seems to be sort of all over the place. He seems to have an interest in supply chain/ops management (consultant), finance (banker), and real estate (developer). I'd recommend that he get some work experience to make up his mind. Plus, the standard tracks in these fields lead to grad school being paid by his employer.

On the JD/MBA question, I think you got good answers from the previous thread. You really don't get an advantage in business with the JD nor do you get a head start in law with the MBA. He shouldn't go to law school unless he wants to be a lawyer.

A Masters in Finance would not cover the topics of global supply chain/operations management (GSCOM). This is a funky degree. If he was working in finance already, he could do this as an alternative to an MBA so he could get back working after just 1 year. It might not be a bad program to pair up with a math/compsci degree to get in the door as a quant. But, there are many schools that offer this program where the vast majority of students end up working on the retail side - stock brokers or certified financial planners - who make far less money and are way down the corporate totem pole.

If he has an interest in supply chain/ops management, then he can go the usual consulting route. The big consulting firms take a steady supply of recent college grads. After a couple years, they send them to business school.

If he wants to do real estate development, he can choose law school or business school. In business school, he'll meet his investors. Law school will teach him the transaction side of things, but it is less likely to connect him with the people who have money to put into his deals.

[Anonymous]

OP: Here is the reasoning he has supplied me with throughout this process

Having majors in Economics and Finance pair well together to understand not only the investment end of money but also the scarcity and distribution of goods on a more corporate (microecon) scale if working with Real Estate, Helps to identify market trends inside of a very fast paced marketplace. A JD/MBA would be so that he could eventually take up on his own terms both the deal closing and business practice ends of a real estate market

Having majors in Economics and finance pair well together on a more global (macroecon) scale if working with GSCOM, which helps to not only set up good lean six sigma practices and distribution chains but also maximize profits and invest appropriately in a changing market

Finance is a main course but serves as a supplement for these tracks, I do not believe that he is especially interested in investment banking per se.

Hope this adds some clarity into the possible decisions

[Anonymous]

To me, sounds like your son fed you a stream of gibberish wrapped up in glamorous sounding names. The question to ask him is: what type of job does he want to do? Based on the job, get the requirements and understand how to get that job.

All this I will learn this or that serves him, you don't need a masters for that. You can pick up a book. Figure out what the job wants. Everything else can be learnt on the job. I worked as a consultant once and they put me through he six sigma course. I did not have to do a masters for that.

What exactly is deal making in real estate? He wants to be a real estate professional? You have enough money to fund him for some real estate investments company?

All those various fields of study lends to (six sigma ops = operations consulting), finance = wall street, law = law school.

[Anonymous]

OP I disagree with the above poster. Your kid sounds like a hard worker with lofty goals. He will figure it out if he has made it this far. I imagine you don't have a ton of money as a single mom. I agree with others that some experience will serve him well and point him in the right direction. The right fit for a job or internship will have resources to help him narrow down his choices. Funding to help subsidize his education is a possibility.

[Anonymous]

A lot of the responses you got depend on where your son is going to school. Unfortunately, Wall Street and McKinsey/Bain are pretty elitist in their orientation. When PPs write about the usual routes into those firms, it may be well trod in the most selective colleges, but much less common at other schools. In the top tier schools, piling on multiple majors and multiple terminal degrees can be taken as a negative. There is a bias toward going deeper in a single field rather than meeting the minimum requirements in multiple fields. At other schools the piling on may be what you need to stand out from the rest of the class.

As lots of PPs note, the best way to sort this out is for your son to try to get one of these jobs. Studying is not nearly the same as working. The kinds of summer internships he gets will be highly instructive of his options. It may also give him a better idea of what kind of job he wants to do.

[Anonymous]

He needs to get some internships, mentors and network network network. He needs to do it - not his mom.

Everything he is interested in is relationship based. He needs his degree and grades as the ticket in the door to the interviews.

I would recommend and internship this spring where he does some modeling work and see if he likes data analytics. This will help him see what type of finance he may want to do.