Masters at Nova

Question

Hey all!

I came with a similar question a few months back, now I have follow up news:

short backstory: I am currently studying marketing (msc) at WU. I wanted to do the program primarily for a second exchange semester but got rejected twice without valid reason (reason being my GPA was not good enough but I had a 1.28 at that time). I have learned a lot concerning analytics in my degree until now (2. semester now). But I applied to catolica and NOVA in february for a management msc. because I want to pivot into strategy consulting / project management and my WU masters is not making me happy at all, also content wise not.

Now I got a 10% scholarship for catolica (management strategy track) and also got accepted into nova (management), which I did not expect at all.

As this is a significant financial investment too and I have no mentor or someone in consulting to help me with my decision to gather more information - is it worth it to quit WU and my job & apartment, go to NOVA for 3 semesters (so I'd finish one semester after my initial WU master's would be done) and is the roughly 30k investment (tuition + living costs together) feasible? I would love to one day work and live in London but also getting a work visa there is not easy - so also here: is NOVA a better bet than WU for recruiting? My parents do have the money but with catolica they were not a fan of me quitting but they also play it safe very often. For them it's always only the financial view which is understandable but also I'm 23 and I fear I will never have this opportunity again but would also like to be mindful of money and having to afford life and a move to another city after my academic journey - no matter which one I'll choose now.

Might be helpful: I've worked in project management and marketing as a parttime/working student now for 2,5 years, have my own mini photography business, wu bsc international business admin gpa 2.0 and now wu msc gpa 1.5, mckinsey forward program, google analytics certificate, austrian entrepreneurs certificate and a business consulting society member. I did also get positive answers from 2 smaller boutique consultancies in frankfurt for an internship and only "failed" to get an internship because of unavailable capacity in summer, but both said I should definitely reapply or tell them other possible starting dates.

also how important is the name of your masters and the uni name?

thank you a lot beforehand, i appreciate your insights!

Answer 1

Hey Anonymous,

First of all: you are not alone, I remember how complicated it seems to face these choices at a very young age. And, from your story, it seems like you have already done a lot and are an incredibly proactive person -- kudos!

However, answering to your question is almost impossible: you are comparing two institutions (Nova and UW) that frankly tend to be very similar. Both are very prestigious, they have similar rankings, they probably send a good number of students to MBB every year. Even Marketing and Management are not that different!

The reality is that many other things in your life will co-determine what kind of job you will get. Getting a specific job is not a deterministic process where you can confidently say "I need to go to Uni X vs. Uni Y, because I will get a 30-50% higher change of working for McKinsey". There are too many factors (your internship, your interests, the specific needs of the office, the economic cycle, etc.) to control for. A Management program might be more aligned, but also more people will apply to MBB and so you might be less likely to stand out.

The only good advice that I can give you is making a choice that you think will make you generally happier. Here, *generally* means in the average outcome, and not only in the xx% outcome where you land an MBB job straight out of undergrad.

If you want to do more Strategy than Marketing/Analytics in your life, then switching might make sense if that's driven by genuine passion, maybe less so if driven by an unproven y% in improvement in your job prospects. And are you sure that your current degree gives you statistically significant lower chances of getting the work you need? When I was facing a similar choice, what helped me a ton was speaking with alumni. I was worried that my "favorite" MSc. program could have limited career opportunities, but speaking with five Alums showed me my assumption was totally baseless :)

Good luck on your endeavors!

Tom

PS: Fwiw, keep in mind that my colleagues at McKinsey had every kind of degree: Management or Finance for sure, but also Marketing, Humanities, Design, Engineering, Biotech, etc. Also, many of them joined McKinsey much later in their life, so any choice you make you'll have more than a few opportunities to do strategy consulting.