How many Top School MBA's out here pursuing CFA Charter why, actually, school

simeezee

Just curious to know how many MBA’s from Top 5-8 b-schools (Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, MIT-Sloan, Columbia, UChicago, Tuck etc..) are actually pursuing CFA charter. It would be even more interesting to know why they would want a CFA charter after a top school MBA.

tarik64

CFA will help getting in, along with a good GMAT and recommendations. Very do-able!

CPATrader

taking this thread on a little tangent…
I have a Master’s degree in Information Technology and 5 years working in IT for a not so well know company and a start up. I passed Level 1 in June and now going to L2 and L3.
How realistically does this improve my chance of getting into a top 10 mba school. I am 31 now and dont have any special acads to talk about.
thoughts ?

ruchita

OK, here’s my 2 cents. I have an MBA from a top ten school (rhymes with University of Bicago). I am going back after 8 years to get CFA. The reason is because I have switched from trading (market making) for a bank to Investment Management. Having a CFA and an MBA is great for IM…..heck just a CFA is great for IM. IF you want to work for a Bank, its really not needed and you need an MBA from a top school. My MBA program was VERY quant and finance driven, so almost all the CFA concepts I had done before, so why not just get the Charter? There it is. BTW, just passed L2 and on to L3. Basically, if you want to do IM you need……NEED…….a CFA. (Well its very very helpful)

sgupta0827

Sunnyrollen,
I don’t trade (for a job). I do securities valuation. For Risk Management, more quantitative backgrounds are what impress. Also there are different credentials for that. As for trading, its very hard to get hired into trading department. I think in the program I went to, only a handful are in trading roles.
If you pass the three CFA exams prior to B-school, then you will probably get shortlisted more all things being equal. Of course, if you have the charter, thats much better, but then you have to have the requisite work experience.
I do know that just because you go to a top MBA school doesn’t mean you know finance very well. It depends on your specialization and I don’t think you’ll cover quant and deriv’s as much in depth.
Investment Bankers don’t need / desire CFA’s because it’s just a different skill set. CFA is more geared for either investment management (i.e. Pensions, PWM) or equity research. (I’m not trying to step on any toes, maybe I left something out).

LorrinCFA

BS.
If u got a top MBA, who cares if you have a CFA.
u can work in the top IB or MCs with the top MBA. but u can’t go in there with however number of CFA titles.
and ask around, how many investment bankers have CFA? they call it a waste of time and useless. u rather spend that insane amount of time networking in a bar.

rgonzalez

Sorry - didn’t see the ‘5-8” part - just though you meant top tier…

justin88

Thanks, sunnyrollen, I just wanted to tread lightly since he asked for a specific subset. Best of luck if you go to Darden - it was a great time and I learned a lot.
For all of those people who are doing the CFA (or parts) before business school, I think that is a great idea. I am sure it helps some with admissions. Also, the work in some classes will come easily to you which means: less time studying, more time recruiting, ability to take harder/more interesting classes, better participation and group work, etc.

Bad5shah

A top 25 Finance professor I know tells all his students they must get their CFA after their MBA if they want to be in this industry.

jmh530

Heard from two individuals it does. One went to Columbia and said having CFA can compensate for lower GMAT score (he only passed L1, and was speaking hypothetically). Another guy got into top international MBA in spain ESADE? I beilieve and he had 600 GMAT and had CFA, got in with no problems. My profs. at school also indicated that CFA would help to get into top school.
Will you get in just cuz you have CFA no. Will it help? certaintly. You just might need to present what you got out of it (I’m not talking SML or Pension Liability). However, this all can be biased as having CFA might have correlation with other traits that help to get into top B-School.
Lastly, if there are people from top MBA finding it useful to get CFA, it must be somewhat valuable if you have one going into school.