AFC at Bocconi (in Italian) or Corporate finance at Luiss (in english) for MBB/IB?

Question

Hi everyone,

I have a doubt concerning my future master of science. I am an Italian student with the aspiration of working in either IB or MBB in Italy.

I have been admitted to Accounting, Financial Management and Control at Bocconi and being already a bachelor student at LUISS I was admitted also to the master in corporate finance at LUISS. I perfectly know that the brand of Bocconi is superior to LUISS, but there are some thoughts coming to my mind.

I think that the corporate finance course is more in line with the competences required for a job in IB or in MBB.
The course in corporate finance is taught in english while the AFC course at Bocconi is taught in Italian (my bachelor was held entirely in english and I think that studying in english is a plus).
Living in Rome with my parents I don't have to pay the rent and the other expenses. (I would have to spend 50% of my savings in order to sustain the cost of living in Milan).

To sum up, I would like to know whether studying AFC at Bocconi in Italian is, despite the aforementioned reasons, the best choice for working in IB and MBB (considering that in Italy also LUISS is well regarded).

Thanks for the attention.

Answer 1

Hi, there is not the right solution. In terms of branding, I confirm Bocconi wins. I would not give too much importance to the language of the classes (an international experience is much more relevant). But if you are serious into IB a dedicated Corporate Finance master would be better (I know many candidates from Luiss now in IB, you can quickly check on LinkedIn)

Best,
Antonello

Answer 2

Hi there, I have been working into IB in London so hope to help with this. I would largegly reccomend to go to Bocconi. The large amount of opportunities you can get there cannot be compared to what other European Business Schools (apart from LBS) can give you! Plus, the AFC course is exactly the right one for IB (The Bocconi Finance course suits better if you want to get into Sales&Trading, Structuring or go to the Buy Side which refers to the asset management funds etc.). I personally do not know much about the CF course a LUISS (which is an outstanding school in Italy) so cant really give a view on it. However, in the bank I was working there were from LUISS, but very fewer compared to Bocconi Alumni.

Plus, do not rely only on the brand of the school. If you want to higher your chanches of getting into IB, especially in London, play in advance and apply to the places so to get into one of the bank's summer internships (Start looking at their career web pages around August so to apply).

Then, check out through Linkedin who from your school is in IB now so to get an overview from the other side as well.

Last but not least, despite it seems you want to do IB, try not to specialise too much on something before getting into the real job (This is why I won't choose CF at Luiss). Real job is really different from what you learn at school and can sometimes disappoint you. So, choose a good school with a master that can give you the basic tools you need but remain open to everything.

Good Luck!