<p>I've heard that quite a few SAIS grads take the leap to Wall Street upon graduation. My question is, for those who get a coveted job as an i-banker at one of the big firms, do they start on the same level (junior associate) as a recent undergrad, or at some higher level?</p>
<p>I believe that they start off at the same level, which is junior analyst and not junior associate. The SAIS degrees comes handy in landing the job and would allow you to move up faster than with just a BA, from what I've been hearing. All of the big BB firms recruit at SAIS - Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Lehman, etc.</p>
<p>Why not get an mba instead?</p>
<p>Which requires several years of work experience.</p>
<p>So do most of the top IR degrees</p>
<p>so basically there's no good reason anyone interested in banking would choose an ma over an mba?</p>
<p>My thought is if you can do the masters at the same time, say add a summer plus take additional courses then go for it. Barring that.....get to work, take the experience to MBA.</p>
<p>If the goal is definitely i-banking then I would get some work experience and then do an MBA. Some people try to do an MA and an MBA, but then you have to pay for 2 different degrees which doesn't make a whole lot of sense when an MBA alone would suffice. Obviously all the top MBAs Wharton, Harvard, Standford are great, but for I-banking I would strongly consider Stern (NYU) which is second only to Wharton for people want to focus on Finance, nevermind the obvious advantage in terms of proximity to Wall st.</p>
<p>My suggestion on double was Masters while doing undergrad. In many schools no premium is charged for submatriculation. The masters doesn't have to be in a business school dept.</p>
<p>If you want to go into I-Banking, what on earth are you doing at SAIS?</p>
<p>I know all the BB i-banks do recruiting at SAIS. Attending SAIS would definitely help you get a least a foot in the door to the i-banking world.</p>