Masters in Finance Degrees: US vs Europe

This article is about the QS Business Masters Rankings 2019. View the QS Business Masters Rankings 2021.

Included in the QS World University Rankings: Business Masters Rankings is the Masters in Finance Rankings 2019, which features 158 of the world’s top business schools for this degree, based on a methodology in which each institution was considered using five indicators: employability, value for money, alumni outcomes, thought leadership and diversity.

55 of the top business schools in the ranking are based in the US, while 79 are based in Europe. If you’re thinking of studying a master’s in finance degree in the US or Europe, how can you decide which suits you the best? Read on as we compare and contrast important pieces of information to help you decide.

Looking firstly at the top business schools in the US for master’s in finance degrees, and its top three entrants are all ranked within the global top 10: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Sloan School of Management is the country’s top entrant at third in the world, while UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business is eighth and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management is 10^th.

Sloan achieved a perfect score for the thought leadership category, demonstrating its excellent reputation and strong history of ground-breaking ideas in management and finance, such as the Black–Scholes model. The school’s next highest scores are for alumni outcomes and employability, with 92 percent of its Master of Finance students in employment three months after graduation, earning an average starting salary of US$80,000. Tuition fees for this course are over double the global average of $33,073, currently standing at $78,000.

Of course, Sloan is by no means the only top business school in the US charging high tuition fees, but for many students, the high price tag will be worth every penny when you consider the huge probable return on their investment. Graduates of US master’s in finance courses typically earn a starting salary of $67,890. When you narrow the results down by the value for money indicator, the highest-ranked US institution is UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business – its Master of Financial Engineering costs $68,725, but students have a starting salary of an incredible $160,083 – double that of MIT’s Sloan.

If you place importance on your master’s in finance classmates and faculty members being diverse, Florida International University, appropriately enough given its name, is the leading US institution in the diversity indicator, with 63 percent of students and 60 percent of faculty members coming from outside the US. Overall, around 68 percent of students in US master’s in finance classes are international, with eight nationalities represented – this is slightly below the global average of 71 percent of students being international, made up of 10 nationalities. And in terms of gender, US business schools have the same percentage (41 percent) of female students enrolled in master’s in finance courses as the global average.