Hi all. I need help on ranking some courses I applied to for a masters in finance related course.
I'm from Nicaragua and I just won an award to study an MSc Finance related course in the UK. I initially preferred courses related to finance and investments and it was easy at first considering that my obvious choices were the top ones like Oxford, LSE, LBS, Warwick and others in London. But shortly I found out that the award had a fee limit around 15,000 GBP which wasn’t enough for this schools or any other course in the city.
It was tough! I had to look for the best schools slightly below the top 5 that were around that budget and were considered the closest to the top or simply the best. I was able to narrow it down to 11 thanks to rankings and some friends advise. I mainly focus on the FT MBA rankings and the masters in finance listing as they focus on postgraduate studies, but in this group of schools it’s difficult to differentiate what makes one better than the other. I also considered other rankings like the times, the guardian, the complete university guide and the economist, but the first three focuses more on undergrad I heard and the economist only focuses on MBAs.
Finally I applied to Durham, Exeter, Glascow, Strathclyde, St. Andrews, York, Portsmouth, Aston, Bristol, Loughborough, Birmingham, Bradford, and Leeds (I couldn’t apply to other schools like Manchester, Edinburgh and Nottingham due to deadlines and fees).
How could I rank these schools? I think I will be accepted to the majority of them and I just secure admissions to Glascow and Strathclyde. What I need to consider (apart from the structure of the course which I have already done) is how to rank or classify them on the basis of their prestige on the field, the prestige in the UK and abroad, and an understanding of the perception locally and internationally. My goal is to have a degree that is internationally recognized and to study in the best school considering the budget limitations.
I’ll appreciate any advise or suggestions! Feel free to elaborate. Sorry for the long story! :p
