Foreign students at top US MBA: work visa a risk?

[aleksander_karlsen]

Hi

I have been admitted to the Columbia MBA and London Business School Masters in Finance. Columbia is my first choice due to its strength in finance, the Value Investing Program, and the location. What worries me a bit is the H1B visa requirement, and the seemingly protecionistic vibe in the US (a nation built by immigrants on the free market dream acting protectionstic is in itself a strange thing to observe. Its understandable, but I doubt that it will be productive in the longer term)

My "dream" is to attend the Columbia MBA with a focus on Value Investing and then secure a position in a buy-side organisation (either a small botique or a division of an investment bank) in either New York City or London.

Could you please try to answer the following questions:
- Are international students at a disadvantage to Americans when applying for internships and full time-positions? Do you have any data on the % of int students from top schools getting internships and full-time positions?
- Does only larger international firms (Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Citi, JP Morgan, Fidelity) hire internationals due to the H1B requirement? What about the hedge funds and long-only stock funds in New York (answer here is much appreciated...)?
- With a Columbia MBA: if demand for H1B visas outweigh supply, will the individuals from the top MBA schools stand first in the queue, or will this rather be a lottery (exp: an MBA from an unknown school hired by a local bank in Alaska will get the visa on front of a MBA hired by Goldman Sachs due to random lottery assignment...)?

I look forward to hearing from you:-)

Best regards Aleksander

[mbamission]

Hi Aleksander and congratulations on your acceptances! Those are both wonderful programs and I hope you're very pleased with what you've accomplished.

My answers to your questions, however, are going to leave you unsatisfied. I believe Columbia's career services website should be able to answer many of them though, and as an accepted student I have no doubt that you could even set up a conversation with someone from career services to go over your questions. They will have the data on the % of foreign students getting positions. For your other questions, I suspect the answer is "it depends". Are international students at a disadvantage? It depends - some are, some aren't, some firms view them negatively, others positively, others neutral. There are just too many variables to be able to give a blanket answer.

But I do think that calling the admissions office to facilitate a meeting with career services, or contacting career services directly will shed far more light on the topic.

Congratulations again,

Jessica

[aleksander_karlsen]

Thanks for the reply, Jessica. Yes, I am very happy about attending Columbia - excited about the prospect of engaging in the investment management community there.

I have been in contact with a student currently attending the Value Investing Program at Columbia - I am not to worried about the visa stuff - with the right commitment on my behalf it will probably work out I think.

Aleks