The Johns Hopkins Master in Financeprogram is one of the more popular part time options for students looking to dotheir MSF. With locations in both DC and Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a greatoption for anyone looking to work in tri-state area. I was lucky enough to meetan individual who recently graduated from the program and was happy to providea review. Hope this helps any of you out there considering the program.
1) Whyan MSF in general? Why a JHU MSF in particular?
1. a. Twomain reasons for the MSF in general:
i. I didn’t excel academically as an undergrad. I was also apoli sci major w/ econ minor. In general, I wanted to improve my academic trackrecord and get an education more focused on my career goals, which bring meto….
ii. I was working at a job a loved, but the firm was small,so upward potential was limited. Nonetheless, an outstanding chance to learnabout everything from back office operations, analysis, and trading/portfoliomanagement (a path I followed in my 4-5 years there). Again, coming from asmall firm, my goal was getting a degree that could give me a little boost andhelp me move to another firm. Also, because I was in trading and want tocontinue in trading (and I wasn’t in managerial positions yet), an MBA seemedlike a lot of classes that didn’t focus on my core interest, finance andmarkets
1. b. Reasonsfor JHU:
i. I wanted a program that was flexible and that I could getinto. With a less than stellar undergrad GPA, even with a good GMAT (probablycould have done better on a second attempt), GW and Georgetown were out. At thetime, JHU was in the mist of coming online as a higher profile program, but it was already fairly well-regarded in the area (employers like booz allen and other large firms in the DC area were the majority of my classmates). Moreover, it was a good name and the school as a whole has a great reputation.
ii. I also wanted to stay local so I could keep my job andget my degree at night, so I was geographically limited to schools in the DCarea.
2) Prosand Cons (if any) of the JHU MSF?
1. a. Pros:
i. Great professors. Most of them worked in government orNGOs, but had private sector experience. They had daily insights on marketsthat were not purely academic, but reflected their daily real worldexperiences. A few examples:
1. 1. My professor for financial statement analysis and a few other classes was the leadanalyst at FDIC. So during the financial crisis, the guy teaching my class was also theguy “red flagging” banks around the country. He brought in examples of financialstatements and asked us to determine what happened with the bank and sometimeit would be healthy, but others it was a bank that got shut down 2 days before.
2. 2. My capstone professor was a top analyst at Freddie Mac, not only did he line up great speakers:Edward Golding, chief economist at Freddie Mac; D. Wayne Silby, Founder ofCalvert Investments and a bunch of other high profile economists etc. What madethis particularly interesting was that this was during the housing crisis andI’m listening to the top economists from the bigger mortgage pass through firmsin the world.
3. 3. My Risk Management professor was the Head of Risk for the World Bank. Pretty interesting insight into themarkets from a person managing that kind of global risk on a daily basis.
***The point of my tangent is that people don’t tend to associate DC with big finance, but thereality is that nothing is bigger than the government. While the hours arebetter and the pay is less, the professors I had could very readily have jumpedfrom the public sector to the private sector and worked at any bank on WallStreet, likely at a very high level, some of them already had, but insteadchoose public service for whatever reason. This is particular true during theworst parts of the crisis.
ii. Beyond that, I had a great experience, because classes were sometimes mixed with MBA and MSFstudent together, I was often working with significantly more experience professionals,which was great. The student body is also very culturally diverse, whichfrankly has pros and cons, but the cons are actually pros in the long-term as Ibelieve it’s important to learn how to work and communicate across cultures(better to learn this in the class room than the board room in my opinion)
1. b. Cons:
i. Accreditation has taken a bit longer than expected, not abig deal locally, but outside of this area that could pose a problem for jobsearchers (like me).
ii. Still developing career services and growing the network(I think once they fully tap into the general JHU population this effort willquicken. They have also made efforts to hire Career Services people fromschools like Booth etc, which should help over time).
iii. While I was there, they were re-designing the whole MBAand MSF programs, which led to my first 5-6 classes being 3 credits (18 weeks)and then my last 12+ classes being 2 credits (9 weeks). This was a rockytransition, but administration and professors handled it fairly well and Ithink it’s for the best in the long run.
iv. The JHU- Carey alumni network is very small outside thisregion, which makes things difficult.
3) Who would you recommend an MSF to?
1. a. Peoplelike me and you. Younger people, with limited to no management experience, whoare looking to get an edge, meet new people and develop their abilities. It’s great for career switchers orpeople looking to change firms, like myself.
4) Anythingelse you want to talk about. OCR, Alumni, class experience, regrets, how ithelped, etc.
1. a. My only regret is not getting on top ofnetworking sooner in my grad experience (as oppose to after I graduated, haha).The alumni I’ve reached out to have been very helpful and accommodating, Ibelieve the school is heading in right direction and that overall JHU is agreat university. The new b-school in Baltimore is beautiful and they are doingsome great work up there with getting students internships etc at the assetmanagers in Baltimore (Legg Mason, T. Rowe Price etc.).
2. b. Although I quit my trading job tocomplete my last year of grad school and take a breather, my graduate degree (or theprogress I had made at that point in time) helped me secure an unsolicited jobas a financial analyst at another firm. It’s not my ideal job, but I wouldn’thave gotten it without my MSF and even if I did, my skills set would have beenlacking, so there is definitely a benefit. I feel that it’s helped getmy resume some more attention as well, particularly in the DC area.
3. c. My biggest pieces of advice for someoneconsidering MSF would be:
i. Go to school whereyou want to work!!! Also, want to work where there are jobs you want to do!!! I view this asthe key weakness of my MSF strategy, although if I had the chance to do thingsagain, I would still have kept my job and gone to JHU at night, because that’swhat worked for me.
ii. Go to a school that focuses on what you want to do!!! I want to get into physical energy trading (although Iwasn’t as sure of this when I started looking into MSF programs), I would havebenefitted from a school with energy/commodity focused courses and professorswith experience in those areas.作者: foreveroflam 时间: 2013-7-26 09:33
谢谢分享作者: s 时间: 2013-11-4 13:48
thank you for sharing the info作者: KFCC 时间: 2013-11-5 13:57
thanks for sharing!~作者: masaduoduo 时间: 2013-12-5 11:43
