How good is Cass Business School?

[ft338]

Excellent place to learn.

Reputation is building up with the banks but still nowhere near the likes of LSE, Imperial and UCL.

 

[Janezhen]

I will give you a pointer, my friend did his msc at Cass (finance), worked with me at a prop shop then left and went to work for a tier 1 IB (joined their associate grad scheme) so IB's do rate Cass. I would say, it is more highly rated at post-graduate rather than undergraduate level, the reason being that at undergrad level, there is the opportunity to take a fresh grad who has all the raw skills and then mould them in terms of training etc thus, if you have a maths grad from oxbridge, imperial et al they will look a lot more attractive than a grad from Cass. That being said, the links that Cass has are fairly good, which not surprising since it is based in the city - actually it is based right next to the IB I work for, therefore you have the chance to network and also people in the city are fully aware of cass as a good business school. Anyway, as I said, at undergrad level, it loses some of it's potency IMHO however, it is still well regarded.

May I ask how about the reputation of Finance at Cass? I have got an offer of Msc Finance at Cass and Msc Finance and Investment at Edinburgh. Could you please to help pick one course? Thanks alot

 

[chinabean]

May I ask how about the reputation of Finance at Cass? I have got an offer of Msc Finance at Cass and Msc Finance and Investment at Edinburgh. Could you please to help pick one course? Thanks alot

Cass finance course is probably ( I can't say absolutely as I do not know what Edinburgh is like except that as a uni, if it is st.andrews, then it has a v.good reputation) better because it is in london which makes a huge difference, in fact i would say unless you do a finance msc at said or judge then a london business school, ie lbs, cass etc is the way to go. Reason is that, a) a lot of alumni work in the financial sector in london b) whilst the course content maybe very similar the add-ons ie seminars etc will be far better in london. This is because a lot of the alumni live and work in london therefore, it is not difficult for them to come in and give a talk. For example, I have just done my mba at cass and some of the alumni that gave talks included senior structurer at gs, ex hedge fund manager that sold his stake for about 300mn (not some small fry manager).

Also, the recruitment teams are often made up of ex-financial services sector recruitment bods which can help. Plus cass is basically a finance business school. But then and again, I am biased a) living in london and b) as a cass alumni.

What about LBS mif? that maybe an option if you have the money and work experience. Or also, judge or said? Purely for the name.......it will take you far!!!!!

 

[Janezhen]

Cass finance course is probably ( I can't say absolutely as I do not know what Edinburgh is like except that as a uni, if it is st.andrews, then it has a v.good reputation) better because it is in london which makes a huge difference, in fact i would say unless you do a finance msc at said or judge then a london business school, ie lbs, cass etc is the way to go. Reason is that, a) a lot of alumni work in the financial sector in london b) whilst the course content maybe very similar the add-ons ie seminars etc will be far better in london. This is because a lot of the alumni live and work in london therefore, it is not difficult for them to come in and give a talk. For example, I have just done my mba at cass and some of the alumni that gave talks included senior structurer at gs, ex hedge fund manager that sold his stake for about 300mn (not some small fry manager).

Also, the recruitment teams are often made up of ex-financial services sector recruitment bods which can help. Plus cass is basically a finance business school. But then and again, I am biased a) living in london and b) as a cass alumni.

What about LBS mif? that maybe an option if you have the money and work experience. Or also, judge or said? Purely for the name.......it will take you far!!!!!

Thank you so much for your detailed answer May I also ask how good is the career service at Cass? Will they give career guide for international students, like Chinese student? You mentioned the most attractive resource Cass has is the alumni, could you please list me some at great companies? And also, may I ask what are the best courses at Cass? Thank you very much for your great help

 

[cassisefdup]

Hi,

I go to Cass and I have an advice for anyone hoping to go there for masters level

1) Do not waste your money
2) Librarians and administrative staff treat postgraduate students like nursery school children. Try and go to the course office with a question
3) Yes, they have arrogant industry specialists as professors but that doesn't mean that they can deliver academic material well. Most professors are crap. Stems from the fact that in a certain course a failure rate for a certain subject was 98%. Another fact is that the assistant dean teaches as well and if you raise an issue that's taken to him and he is your teacher, you are screwed!
4) The library doesn't have enough books such that books can only be rented out for 7 days or 24 hours. Books that can be rented for more than 7 days are often older useless versions.
5) The career services is crap for international students
6) THE MAIN EVENT: Since Cass achieved its triple accreditations, they changed the entire structures of the courses. Students have no freedom to make important plans, exams get seriously screwed, and most of all it takes 3 MONTHS for the exams to be released!
8) Cass recruits students from backgrounds like law, psychology, history, etc into heavily quantitative subjects and so, much of the time is wasted in introductory things!
7) If Cass Business School is not the number 2 rank in UK, just compare it to a number 2 school in USA...BIG DIFFERENCE

 

[ocs]

I'm also a current student at Cass. I would say the overall quality is good, but the previous poster do have some valid points. More specifically, there's plenty of good (and some great) lecturers, but there are some bad apples as well. That might be the case everywhere, but some of these have a bit too much influence, and they have been allowed to perform poorly for too long. It's not a good sign when 50% of all students in some classes fail, most of them not failing any other courses. And this is happening year after year.

Also, they generally don't have enough space on the Bunhill row site, so unless you're there early (9-10 o'clock) it's often difficult to find a place to study. Of course you can use the library at the City campus, but it's about a 20 minute walk.

So in summary, I think it's a school on the rise, and if they manage to fix some issues it will be even better.

 

[Hgz]

HI cassisefdup,

May I know what is your course?? you said that the career service was not good for international student. Could you give more details about it??
Currently I am offered MSc Mathematical Trading and Finance and I`m still thinking whether I should take it or not.
So your explanation may help me a lot in deciding about it.

@OCS: what is ur course?? so how do you think about career service in Cass?

 

[cassisefdup]

Hgz,

DO you work for Cass? or are you honestly applying to Cass? your questions seem like you work for career services and are really interested in knowing about who specifically is complaining. How do you know whether OCS is international or UK citizen to differentiate and ask about the career services.

Anyhow, just like any other investment, before you take a dive, dip your feet in the water first and get a feel of comfort!

It is funny how they recruit "the best of the world." Happens that 70% of the student populous walked through the doors with at least a 2:1 degree. The same population is ending up with less than 50% in points! I didn't fail, I am concerned for the others. Can you imagine if many of us knock on doors looking for jobs and most employers see that we have marginal grades? the reputation will sink with time.
The high failure rate is because they put so much emphasis on an exam rather than progressively measure student's overall performance through quizzes, groupwork, amongst others.

As for my course, I am an MSc. Student and I pursue experiment X as my class.

 

[Hgz]

Hi,

I`m really a student who is confused about CASS..
People said that the main thing for consideration in entering CASS is their career office.

Right now I`m studying in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and I have 2 option: Mathematical trading and finance in Cass or Quantitative Finance in National University of Singapore(NUS).
Actually NUS is the best uni in this country and that is why I`m really confused where to take the course.

I find from the internet that they said the ranking university for banking and finance in UK is as follow: Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, Warwcik, and the CASS.
So means that Cass is quite good.

I concern about the job placement. Because I need to go back to Singapore upon graduation due to my 3 years bond so, I really need university which can boost my employability.. And because of this, career office in Cass is really the main focus for me.

Could you give specific example why you said that it was not good for INT student?
Do you mean that many students in Cass are bellow 2:1 instead of it?

regards

 

[jewellui]

I have an offer from CASS too with the same queries.

cassisefdup which course do you study? And why is the high failure rate due to a high emphasis on exams?? I see you are not enjoying studying at CASS, are many of your colleagues feeling the same?

 

[Hgz]

Hi jewellui,

Will you take the course?? btw where do you come from? Does the CASS business school famous in ur country?

 

[jewellui]

Hi Hgz,
I am from the UK, I don't really know much about CASS either but it seems like a good course. I've just heard from other people, opinion on whether it is good is divided. I will be attending their information session on April 13th to take a look, pretty sure I will be studying there.

 

[Hgz]

EHmm.. Have you admitted in other programme from other unis??? From your answer, it seems that you are sure if CASS will enable you to get a good job

May I know ur profile?
I`m an Electrical and Electronic Engineering student expecting to obtain 1st.

 

[VickfromLondon]

From speaking to my friends who's studied and graduated from judge, said, IC tanaka, LBS, Insead, it seems that big finance/IB firms flock to these B-schools in the following order;

1. insead, LBS
2. said, Cass, IC
3. Judge, Henley

course the top two tiers all need GMAT. then again if money's important to you, Cass do offer a good value for money. the others have massively inflated fees, Oxbridge require college fee £4k. there's quite a huge difference between schools so should consider your budget first.

the one thing I can say is that you do see where the money go (almost!) as the best have really experienced career consultants who tend to have years of experience as head hunters working for the big guns! And of course they have excellent connection with all the executive serch companies, companies which you don't even know exist! check out their career service profile, how many talks/seminars with guest speakers from the industry arrnaged on average, and of course most importantly, employment statistics!!! this is foremost! ask them for the stat if it's not available on the net. All top one has these.

I've applied to Cass and IC and, may do gmat so can apply to Said + LBS as well. though not sure if I could afford them! haha. Will try sit-in lecture to get a feel. done that with Said, nice campus!
Good luck!

 

[cassisefdup]

I have an offer from CASS too with the same queries.

cassisefdup which course do you study? And why is the high failure rate due to a high emphasis on exams?? I see you are not enjoying studying at CASS, are many of your colleagues feeling the same?

The failure rate is news to many of us. Personally, I passed all of the courses. It is hair raising that they recruit students with at least 2:1 only for them to fail! Term two was a main rip-off. Students complained about many professors this semester, one professor said "I'd rather be out in the sun than stay in this class and pretend to teach." Professors themselves state that no student ever gets above 70% so I wonder how our grades will look to employers in the city if most of the applicants from Cass will be in the range of 50%-69%

 

[cassisefdup]

And yes, many of my colleagues feel the same only 1% would disagree

 

[cassisefdup]

Also, please do not forget that if you are a foreign student coming in 2011/2012, you will not be able to get a post-study work visa as it will be yanked out next year! they wanted to take it out this year but they had mercy and stated that it will definitely be taken out next year. So if you want your money to be used and get a firm kick in your butt out of UK, then WELCOME.
This applies to even EU students, even though the good relations, it is hard for students from EU backgrounds to get jobs.

This is something that CASS will not tell you!

 

[cassisefdup]

Hi,

I`m really a student who is confused about CASS..
People said that the main thing for consideration in entering CASS is their career office.

Right now I`m studying in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and I have 2 option: Mathematical trading and finance in Cass or Quantitative Finance in National University of Singapore(NUS).
Actually NUS is the best uni in this country and that is why I`m really confused where to take the course.

I find from the internet that they said the ranking university for banking and finance in UK is as follow: Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, Warwcik, and the CASS.
So means that Cass is quite good.

I concern about the job placement. Because I need to go back to Singapore upon graduation due to my 3 years bond so, I really need university which can boost my employability.. And because of this, career office in Cass is really the main focus for me.

Could you give specific example why you said that it was not good for INT student?
Do you mean that many students in Cass are bellow 2:1 instead of it?

regards

I hadn't seen this.

Please check out my post about post-study work visa! You will not be able to apply for it if you are finishing next year! The UK govt wanted to take it out this year but postponed it to April 2012. So as of April 2012, you won't be able to apply for work permit to work in UK. To apply for Tier 1, you need to have finished your degree you see, and in April you will just be sitting for your Term 2 exams with term three still on the way till about July! In short you will finish Cass way after April 2012! It will be like after paying 20k GBP, you get a firm kick in the butt out of the country. My advice for you is to take a US university if you have any offers from reputable ones. I come from USA and I know better! It is better for international students to get experience there by the way.

 

[sroth]

Dear Cassisefdup:
You didn't answer the question of which course you are on? Does that mean you actually don't go to Cass?

Hi,

I go to Cass and I have an advice for anyone hoping to go there for masters level

1) Do not waste your money
2) Librarians and administrative staff treat postgraduate students like nursery school children. Try and go to the course office with a question
3) Yes, they have arrogant industry specialists as professors but that doesn't mean that they can deliver academic material well. Most professors are crap. Stems from the fact that in a certain course a failure rate for a certain subject was 98%. Another fact is that the assistant dean teaches as well and if you raise an issue that's taken to him and he is your teacher, you are screwed!
4) The library doesn't have enough books such that books can only be rented out for 7 days or 24 hours. Books that can be rented for more than 7 days are often older useless versions.
5) The career services is crap for international students
6) THE MAIN EVENT: Since Cass achieved its triple accreditations, they changed the entire structures of the courses. Students have no freedom to make important plans, exams get seriously screwed, and most of all it takes 3 MONTHS for the exams to be released!
8) Cass recruits students from backgrounds like law, psychology, history, etc into heavily quantitative subjects and so, much of the time is wasted in introductory things!
7) If Cass Business School is not the number 2 rank in UK, just compare it to a number 2 school in USA...BIG DIFFERENCE

 

[whatisthis]

Dear Cassisefdup:
You didn't answer the question of which course you are on? Does that mean you actually don't go to Cass?

It is amazing to see how people who do not study and do not get a job think that their school is the problem. Busted!