[Program Fitting]Finance IU and Vandy

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=74702.15&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools
Q:
"While Vandy does have almost 2 levels more sophisticated courses than Kelley, Vandy goes to experiencial and higher academic finance. "
Can you expound on this? I am also choosing between Vandy and IU for finance and would like to get a better understanding of what you mean. Thanks

A:
When you compare both programs and match the courses one by one, you'll see Vandy is slightly more complete while Kelley is a bit speed up and focus more on Investment banking (yellow ones match almost perfectly, red ones are absent). The program logic when you see the course number sequence, Vandy builds quite from the ground and Kelley also solids on the fundamentals while rushs a bit to IB.
Both have very long course lists while Kelley is slightly shorter. Vandy goes more on academic and Kelley goes more on hottest topics of IB. So you can see the general ranking Kelley is higher but Vandy is more a standard in Finance.

(please see the original link, the format here is unclear.)
Vandy
Investments
Corporate Valuation
Corporate Financial Policy
International Financial Markets and Instruments
International Corporate Finance
Equities Markets
Bond Markets
Derivatives Markets
Financial Institutions
Real Estate Financial Analysis
Real Estate Investment & Development
Real Estate Finance and Capital Markets
Mergers and Acquisitions
Venture Capital/Private Equity
Risk Management
Financial Data Analysis
Derivative Securities Valuation
Active Portfolio Management
Special Topics, Corporate Governance
Special Topics in Accounting: Federal Income Taxation of Mergers and Acquisitions
Asset Pricing Theory
Corporate Finance Theory
Empirical Methods in Finance A
Empirical Methods in Finance B
Advanced Finance Theory
Independent Study in Finance
Research Seminar in Corporate Finance
Stochastic Processes

no banking
--

Kelley, IU
BUS-F 506 Commercial and Investment Banking
BUS-F 520 Asset Valuation and Strategy
BUS-F 546 Corporate Financial Strategy
BUS-F 570 International Financial Markets
BUS-F 571 International Corporate Finance
BUS-F 529 Equity Markets
BUS-F 528 Fixed Income Investments
　
BUS-F 505 Financial Intermediation
BUS-R 590 Independent Study in Real Estate
BUS-R 510 Real Estate Investment
BUS-R 530 Real Estate Finance
　
BUS-F 517 Venture Capital & Entrepreneurial Finance
BUS-F 525 Corporate Financial Risk Management
　
BUS-F 526 Derivative Securities
BUS-F 550 Applied Portfolio Selection
BUS-F 548 Corporate Governance and Restructuring
BUS-F 540 The Firm in the Capital Markets
BUS-F 508 Real Options in Capital Budgeting
　
BUS-F 507 Short-Term Financial Management
BUS-F 560 Special Topics in Finance
BUS-F 551 Special Projects in Investments
BUS-F 590 Independent Study in Finance
BUS-F 590 Independent Study in Finance
　
BUS-F 553 Special Projects in Investment Banking
BUS-F 554 Special Topics in Investment Banking
BUS-F 535 Security Trading and Market Making

no M&A
no derivatives

[Program Fitting]选校的矛盾，请大家说说意见呀！

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=13&id=315888&star=1#2858190
Q:
个人背景：大四即将毕业。专业电子，辅修商科。生活在business环境，有实习但没有全职工作经历。目标回国，从事公司理财或个人理财。打算今年秋出国，现在选校焦点集中在两所学校上，想问问大家的意见。UCSD MBA 2年（2万奖每年）和USF旧金山大学 金融分析 1年（6千奖）。UCSD MBA刚办几年，校友资源比较少，而且自己没有全职工作经验，不知道能否吸收。USF实在不知道这个学校到底如何，在国内貌似名声不大好。但有亲戚在那比较方便。以后可以考CFA，或者回国工作几年再申请top的MBA。但不知道USF还值得花那么多钱去读。大家的意见呢？Thank you！

A:
the study itself is a huge risk before your real work experience
since it'll be too late when you work a couple of years afterward and figure out you're in the wrong way
go to work first will be more realistic
you won't learn much now anyway
no much meaning to choose between them

[Career Explorer]美国top20的MBA，毕业后想从事金融行业，难度有多大呢？

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=13&id=315958&star=1#2858174
Q:
以下是引用lecherous在2008-4-7 21:33:00的发言：
估计很多CDer都有这样的疑问，不好意思又挑起了一下。说实话，出国读个MBA，其实跟博士完全是两码事，前者是去花钱，一百多万；后者是去赚钱，一百多万。不得不慎重。
假定一个没有金融背景的人，只在比较有名的500强外企做过几年工程师，在美国读了个top30MBA，今后从事金融业的机会大么？
进IB如何？不是说什么GS，MS，ML等超级大牛，而是二三流的银行/证券公司的IB部门。
那么如果又换一下，如果是top10呢？二三流的IB还是很难进吗？

A:
need to find out why an engineer wants to do finance
these are 2 different planets
you must find out the passion deep in your blood
or you'll lose both of them
it needs to be something in your personality, characteristics, and your professional background
find out your irreplaceables
do you keep your account everyday?
do you invest by yourself and make money? how do you manage your portfolio?
can you excel at numbers? can you speak to those numbers and listen to them?
do you know the specific trends in the industries? how do you know and why?
which stocks will surge in next 3 months? which ones will free fall?
how do you crunch those surging ones to balance the free fall ones?
what will you do if your finance door is close?
and the last thing
why and how can you get in top 30 or even top 10 if you don't know yourself well enough?
need to find out all these answers
MBA is terminal degree
it's the end when you finish it
Ph.D serves for totally different purposes
but there's 99% no overlap

[Career Explorer]各位大侠们，这年龄还值得出国吗???????????????

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=13&id=315999&star=1#2858132
Q:
32了，明年入学的时候都33了
现在的情况是，收入税前20万左右，有房无女朋友（刚分）
家里高压让尽快找女朋友，GMAT刚准备一个多月，如无意外 TOP 20 很有希望
这种情况下还值得折腾吗，各位神仙给给意见啊。复习的时候突然开始很怀疑这个选择

A:
it's still a decent age
and you might find a good gf abroad
but you can't know about top 20 only after a month of GMAT
score is only 20%
while it's very true like Littleca said
what's your MBA motivation and why it's relevant to your career