Sorry if you have read similar post but this is really important to me. I hope to get some advices and I promise this will be my last time posting such threads. I really love the community in AF as people are crude but only in here I get my wake up call.
I am 27 this year and graduated from NUS majoring in finance 2 years ago. I joined teaching 2 years ago as I thought teaching is my calling. However, I was dead wrong and I hope to come back to the financial industry after my teaching bond end next year.
I passed CFA Level 1,2,3 and got a 750 gmat score. I am also taking frm 1 and 2 this may. At the same time, I am hoping to enlist into Singapore Management University (SMU) MS finance program.
Reality struck me today. I read through many ads in wallstreetoasis and realized that none of the jobs need MAF. Most of them need people to know financial modelling or have a phd. I started to have doubts on why am I applying to MAF? According to the MAF website, the MAF program closely follows the CFA syllabus. I started wondering whether am I stupid to do this course since I pass my CFA L3. I started to liken it to a CFA prep course by providers like kaplan.
I started to explore other options like NUS MFE (NTU MFE is a stretch for me IMO). I realized it may be a good program as it teaches financial modelling and a lot of Maths which would be well-received in the financial industry. However, I started to worry whether can I cope with the program. I have zero Maths background and the hardest Quant course I did is research methods in finance which I got a A. I really have no confidence taking this course and I don’t know whether my profile is good enough for the course.
If I take MAF, I think I can be in the top few % of the cohort as I am quite good in those they are going to teach in the course. If I am in MFE, I may struggle and end up with poor grades as I know there are some phd in Maths taking the course.
I was thinking of 4 options. 1) Take MAF. On the hindsight, I was always thinking why LSE MAF is so popular despite being called a MAF. People was commenting MAF can only get into a sales job 2) Take MFE 3) Do not take any of them and complete my ACCA (I completed 6 papers). The reason why I took ACCA is for backup just in case I cannot get a finance job. I heard many horror stories about non-finance people quitting their jobs and in the end cannot find a job in finance and end up doing admin. I was thinking do I wait until I get into the finance industry before I take a msc? But it will be more or less the same 2 schools as my country is small and I do not wish to relocate because of family. 4)I happen to see this MA. Look interesting and I was guessing that it may not be very hard to get in as no one talks about it. Will this help as I see that I see some relevant courses here.http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/ecs/graduate/mssae.html. In my undergrad life, I played a lot and did not perform up to expectation (2nd upper). I was wondering if I work real hard, can I use this course to go into phd study? And after phd I go into finance industry? Is it wishful thinking?
I really hope people here can give me some life changing advices. Please pardon my ignorance if I sound stupid somewhere.