Having pursued projects with bulge bracket investment banks in NYC, in my opinion, best universities for finance (or for that matter any other subject) are those who provide you BOTH knowledge and the right career break. I’ve shared the school names towards the end of this discussion. If that’s what you’re looking for, feel free to scroll down.
For Finance, the location of the school is very important. Why? Since the best finance jobs reside in a few key financial hubs across the world. Having strong network in these locations is very important! So, if you want to work in a specific location, make sure that your school has a strong network there - if the school is local, even better.
NYC is the world’s biggest financial hub by far - nothing’s even close. After NYC (in no particular order), London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, HK, Singapore, Chicago, SFO, LA, Dubai, Mumbai are big financial hubs. Among the above cities, besides Tokyo (and to an extent Paris and Berlin), you can easily get by with English language skills. If you’re in a sales role like investment banking, knowledge of local language is strongly preferred - it helps you connect with clients way better.
Now on to schools - I’ve mentioned the prominent ones, but there are many more local options you could look at:
NYC: Columbia, NYU, Wharton - it’s in Philly, so considering it to be local, Harvard, Yale, MIT or a NYC based school with a strong local network and strength in finance (Gabelli, Rochester etc.) which offers MS.
Chicagoland: Chicago/Booth, NW/Kellogg and local schools (Loyola, IIIT etc.)
California (SFO and LA): Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Most UCs and local schools (SantaClara, Golden Gate etc.)
London: LBS, Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, Warwick, Manchester
HK: CUHK, Chinese UHK, HKUST, U.Hong Kong
Singapore: NUS, Nanyang, SMU
Note: Having a CFA Level II would strengthen your application
