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What Students Say
Likes
- Professor quality is among the top in their field from Europe/ France. Well published PhDs.
- The school facilities are great. Quality of classrooms, free printouts, the lunch/ cafe/ vending machines help you not leave campus unnecessarily. Bloomberg lab available.
- All academics has a practical element in terms of teaching and projects. The projects add to the grade as well. It is not just rote learning or theory.
Dislikes
- It is more on the expensive side of schools. Cafe food is on the expensive side as well.
- Only the MFE program is ranked in the financial times, and not the others. The reputation as a target school is mostly for MFE, and not MIF (or others)
- MIF student quality will not be the best. It is not specialised and often overlooked by local students who will do the MIM program or preparation courses. They prefer to get into corporate finance or financial engineering.
Course Curriculum
8
- The difficulty is average. It highly depends on the quality of students in the batch. The goal of the programme is to get students ready for the CFA Level 1 exam in a year. It is, of course, a little more complex than that, and I missed out on a few subjects. It is a mix of practical case studies and financial theory.
- It is a sort of a backburner course. It is not specialised and does not get the best students or the best treatment. It is basic, general, and too short for anyone to get specialised in anything. The attention of the administration on the prospects of this course is less.
- However, the school facilities, the quality of professors, and the educational content itself are pretty good. No complaints on the quality of education. Do not expect too much just because it is named exactly like ESSEC and HEC name their flagship course. This is not a flagship.
- Max classes are 2 per day. In extreme circumstances, there can be 3 a day. Often, there is only one a day. Rarely, there are none on a certain day. Timings are usually 9-12 and 2-5. Some classes can be 5-7pm as well or 8-11am.
- Including exchange students, it is close to 80 in the first 2 semesters. In the last 2, it drops down to 25-30 per class because the specialisation is taught separately. 5% indians. In my class, there were 6 Indians.
Admission Experience
- I applied for the following universities:
- WHU Otto Beishem (ineligible and hence rejected – my bachelors was not in finance)
- ESSEC (rejected – they have no interview procedure and no real way to verify your CV). I have no idea how they select students but I do not like the process much. I could have been rejected because I did not have any experience with the french language.
- Emlyon (admitted)
- EDHEC (admitted - CFA level 2 exemption from competitive exams)
- The ranking by financial times was a major factor. I also wanted just a 1-year course from a school that specialised in market finance. Hence, I chose EDHEC. The batches before me had good career prospects
- Application first with CV, motivation letter, references, exam scores, etc. All available on the website.
- Then they shortlist you for a KIRA interview (Pre-recorded questions that you answer, and the recording is sent to the admissions committee). Then they give you a scholarship if they can and then ask you to pay a deposit of 6500 euros if you choose to accept the offer (within 2 weeks of receiving the offer). The whole process can take a month or more.
- GMAT/GRE/CAT/TAGE MAGE/CFA Level 2 for exemption. There are no minimum scores. Averages are not very high. An equivalent of 650 GMAT is fine. You need to have a bachelor's (3 or 4 years, even though they mention 4 years, or 3 years plus experience). You need to be fluent in english as well, by TOEFL or IELTS. OR you can ask for the bachelor's school's certificate of medium of instruction. If that is in english, you do not need english exam scores.
- The process is straightforward. The indian representatives can be reached out to as well. There may be some delays if you ask too many questions, but student reps can help with that.
- Sept 2023. There is only one intake a year for each of the masters programs
- January start – GRE SCORE received
- January mid - interview call to be completed in a week or 10 days
- January end to february start – acceptance
- February mid to february end – paying the deposit and confirming admission (grace period is 2 weeks but can be extended on request)
Faculty
8
- Probably 1:50 to 1:30. This is not a published figure but an estimate. The quality is fine. The classes are not outsized and individual attention is possible if the student takes the initiative.
- It is not exactly 100% related to searching for a job in the field. It will prepare you with the understanding of how the markets work. It also allows you to do certain case studies as projects to get an idea about how things are actually done in the industry. But there is no direct industry experience seminar or such for MIF.
- Do not expect it from professors or even the career centre.
- Certain very senior faculty will basically be like very knowledgeable. You can meet them in office hours or even after. They are always willing to give advice. Some junior faculty will act as friends and will help you however they can without any inflated ego. The professors are good here.
Campus Life
8
- Lille, Nice (only finance courses), Paris and singapore. Printing area, vending machines, food, library, study areas, areas to sit down in a group, open terrace, cafe, gymnasium. It does not have sports or medical services.
- There are a few clubs, like the student finance club and the running club, that are popular. However, in a course that lasts 8-10 months, it is difficult to engage with them unless it is just another point to write on your CV. There are multiple festival celebrations that students conduct, and in the first month, there are engagement events for the students to mingle. There is also one major career fair.
- It is a small campus with not many in-house facilities. So the finance and trading clubs do a few weekly publications. The running club runs with the professors. There are other clubs that charge money to take you skiing for adventure activities if it is interesting to anyone.
Part Time Jobs
- Very close to 0, if not zero. In a course this small, and with the structure that EDHEC has, there are no TA, RA or DA roles available for students
- I would not know. However, if you do an internship with one of the EDHEC venture companies (Scientific portfolio or Scientific Beta), the salary is 2200 per month.
- There are no on-campus jobs. However, minimum wages are good. Usually 7-9 euros per hour.
- 20 hours per week as a student working part-time is usually allowed as far as I know. However, this is not properly monitored.
- If they know perfect french and can get a part-time job in restaurants or cafes, the per-hour wages are usually 10 euros or more. However, it is extremely difficult to get one due to the language barrier as well as the workload from the school. You can look for whatsapp communies or indeed etc. to look for part-time roles. Walking into restaurants is also not a bad idea because they have posters outside if help is needed.
Placement
4
- Probably 90% of students will get an internship within six months of graduation. However, full-time jobs are a difficult statistic to measure. As it stands right now, not even 50% of students are converted to a full-time role (this is for foreigners without an EU passport). It is easy for students with an EU passport or for students who can speak fluent french.
- Internship salaries range from 800 to 2200 euros per month. Full-time salaries will be upwards of 40000 a year.
- There is no campus recruitment. Linkedin, JobTeaser, and the roles that the career centre sends us are our best bets. Networking can work, sure. But networking at job fairs was useless, in my opinion. Online portals with 100s of applications work best.
- Almost always it is smaller financial firms or bigger firms that are not in finance. RWE for energy, MARS for corporate finance, and any major bank are good targets. The job roles vary from FP&A to admin to accounting. Most students ultimately do not get to do what they want, so they choose to also take up middle-office/accounting/compliance roles in any financial firm or management company.
- Broadly, including the locals and natives plus foreigners, it is SocGen, BNP Paribas, Unicredit Bank etc. It keeps changing. Most people DO NOT get into the biggest banks or biggest asset managers. It is a myth and a dream that is falsely sold to students.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- If you enrol early by February, you can get help from the International Students office for accommodation. They have tie-ups. That is how I got my accommodation. Otherwise, the best source is STUDAPART. They charge heavy fees, but it is reliable and can act as a guarantor as well.
- Bed, proper bathroom, microwave and stoves. Cabinet. Mattress as well. For my accommodation, even a balcony. Sometimes, depending on the building, there may be laundry facilities, a gym, a common area, and vending machines. My rent was 650 euros. I got a subsidy of 190.
- This is a tourist destination in the summer, so accommodations are expensive and get booked very fast.
- Get an admission early and use the help from the student office. It is a challenge otherwise.
- My accommodation was 20 minutes away by tram. Most indian students stayed close to the campus, which was just 5 minutes away.
Exams
- I do not think that for MIF, they still have an examination criterion for admissions. It helps the application but it is not mandatory anymore. IELTS/TOEFL + GMAT/GRE/TAGEMAGE/CAT/CFA Level 2 is standard.
- Motivation letter. 2 letters of recommendation from either your school or your workplace. An academic CV. Previous transcripts and diploma. Mode of communication letter from the bachelor's school for IELTS/TOEFL exemption. Grade conversion certificate from the school to convert GPA to %
- It is a very standard and average interview process. It is a KIRA interview (20-30 minutes) with pre-recorded questions that you have to record yourself answering. It is just for motivation and communication skills; however, I know a few students who could not communicate very well but still entered the programme. So it is just another part of the process. Let's say it has a 10-20% weight in the application
Fees
- Tuition is 28000 (24000 after scholarship). It is annual
- Residences range from 150 per month to 600 per month. 30% reimbursed approx. by the government.
- Transport for trams and busses is 192 per year (subsidized cost for students)
- Assume a living expense of 650 per month when saving or 1000 per month to live very well. With 1000, you can take international vacations and eat out.
- The cheapest you can stay for is less than 500 with a small room at CROUS and buying subsidised groceries from their market.
Scholarship
- 15% academic excellence scholarship (automatic without application). Amount was close to 4000 euros.
- A 10% scholarship is common. There are other scholarships from the school or the government like CHARPAK, LEGRAND, etc., which are posted on their websites when available. They are usually all available very early (before january).
- Let's say 50%+ of students receive at least 10%. The best students receive 50%. LEGRAND AND CHARPAK, ETC. are highly selective because they are not limited to the school but are France-wide. A couple of students every year from each school approx.
