Top Business Schools for Finance or Financial Services 2023

The “Finance and Economics Division” is by far Columbia Business School's largest division, and offers almost half of all the courses at the school. Columbia's proximity to Wall Street means that students don't have to go far to network with financial executives. Of the MBA class of 2021, 36 percent of students went into roles in the financial services industry (including investment banking, hedge funds, private equity firms, and other parts of the industry). The school also offers a five-month online certificate in Corporate Finance.

In any particular year, up to 40 percent of MBA graduates go into the financial industry. Finance-minded students can choose to pursue Booth's long-standing Finance concentration, or drill deeper into the theories with a unique specialization in “Analytic Finance.” Booth’s Fama-Miller Center produces a range of research in financial topics.

Where some MBA programs offer a single concentration in finance, NYU Stern offers six, including a specialization in Financial Technology—“FinTech”—that was launched in 2016. Students regularly go on to land finance jobs with the Federal Reserve Bank and Nomura Securities, as well as into a wide range of corporate finance roles. Thirty-five percent of the class of 2021 went into careers in financial services, in industries like investment banking and private equity.

Of Wharton's MBA class of 2021, over 35 percent of graduates went into financial services companies, including large firms like J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs. A growing percentage has also been going into firms specializing in financial technology—FinTech—as well. MBA students can choose to pursue the school's popular concentration in Finance and build a network through its Finance Club.

In any given year, up to 40 percent of the school’s MBAs go into the financial services sector, one of the highest rates of all the Canadian business schools surveyed by FIND MBA. Finance-minded students can pursue an MBA specialization in Finance or choose to pair their MBA program with a Master of Finance. In recent years, Queen’s MBAs have been snapped up by firms like Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Capital One, and Credit Suisse, among other firms.

A Tube ride away from the London Stock Exchange, London Business School is at the heart of one of the world's most active financial centers. The school offers a robust range of finance electives, including classes in derivatives and hedge funds. Over one-quarter of 2021 LBS MBAs went into finance-related industries. Goldman Sachs and citi are among the school’s top recruiters.

The past couple decades have seen a gradual opening-up of the Chinese financial system, and this coupled with unbridled economic growth has encouraged the development of a strong financial industry. Guanghua, with its Beijing location and some specialized curriculum, is in a good position to land grads in this growing field. In recent years, over 35 percent of the Guanghua MBA cohort has gone into the finance sector

CUHK placed 33 percent of its MBA class of 2021 into the finance industry (including banking, investment/asset management, venture capital and private equity), one of the highest rates of any school surveyed by FIND MBA. The school’s MBA concentration in Finance prepares students for finance roles in Hong Kong and the Asia more broadly. 

Hong Kong—one of the world’s financial centers—is a great place to do an MBA in Finance. As part of the program, students can also study for four months in other financial centers like New York or London, with partner schools LBS and Columbia. In recent years, over 30 percent of graduating MBAs have gone into the financial services industry, many landing jobs in some of Hong Kong’s biggest financial firms.

Over the past two years, Frankfurt has become a destination for some banks and other financial services company fleeing London, amidst the uncertainty of Brexit. This is good news for finance-minded MBAs graduating from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, who now may have more job possibilities as a result. In recent years, over one-quarter of the MBA cohort from the school has gone on to finance roles.