<p>Hello everyone, hope you're all having a good day. I am doing an internship right now at a local consulting firm here in the UAE. I just finished my bachelor's degree in May at the American University in Dubai, with a major in finance and a GPA of 3.48 on a 4 scale basis. Seeming as my internship will last a couple of months more, I went against the decision of applying for a masters in the fall semester. I looked through the Financial Times list of the best grad schools in finance masters, and only found a few offering masters in January but they were out of my budget. I also looked at the recent thread started here, that listed Illinois Tech and Bentley but unfortunately those universities were also a bit too expensive for me. I don't mind studying in the US/EU/Canada as long as its a good university, I don't think Ivy League is for me since I have very little experience and come from a relatively weak university, and of course the costs involved. My current budget is around $35K for a 1 year program for the tuition fees itself. I'm looking for a 1 year program because I can't imagine myself living 2 years alone in a foreign country. Please keep in mind that I will be apply as an overseas student, as I don't have citizenship in any of these countries. Thank you.</p>
<p>There is no way around this - as far as I know, there is no comprehensive list out there of programs that begin in the spring, so the only way to find this out is to do some extensive research. You’ll need to begin looking up universities that tend to be less expensive and then check their websites to find out if they admit in the spring. You may have more success because generally speaking, it is the less competitive programs that do spring admissions. However, with the constraint of only 1-year programs, you’re adding an additional burden that might be difficult to find. Two years really isn’t a long time; if you can live here one year, you can live here two.</p>
<p>In the U.S., you may want to check out regional public colleges/universities especially. They tend to be less expensive and more flexible as far as entry goes. For example, Baruch College of the City University of New York system has a well-respected business school where tuition is only about $10K for out-of-state students. They have an MS in finance that is spring entry and it is only 30 credits, which means you could probably finish it in about 3 semesters of full-time study. (The downside, of course, is that living in NYC is very expensive. But even with room and board expenses of about $20-25K, you’re still coming in at or below your $35K budget).</p>
<p>I do want to say, though, that waiting the extra few months to start in the fall is probably better than trying to rush and begin in the spring. You have more options, you may be eligible for more scholarships and assistantships, and you have more competitive schools to choose from.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestion juillet, but honestly I’m looking for a better university, I’m still continuing my search but I’m not finding much luck either. Looks like I will look for a temporary job if I don’t find anything in the next few weeks.</p>