Hi everyone! My name is Beatrice Vezzoli, I’m Italian and am currently a MSc Finance student at Bayes Business School. I’m part of a double degree programme between Bayes and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Milan. I chose MSc Finance at Bayes because I wanted to develop a deep knowledge on the financial market and financial instruments. I knew from it’s outstanding reputation that at Bayes I would receive a high-quality education from a well renowned business school.

Choosing my elective

During my third term at Bayes, I was able to choose an elective module either in London or an international elective abroad. These allow students to tailor their degrees further towards their interests and chosen career path. I chose Investment Strategy as my international elective as I wanted to better understand the asset management techniques and performance measurement that portfolio managers and fund managers apply in order to choose the best asset that could increase the value of their portfolio.

I also chose Investment Strategy because it takes place in New York! One of the most exciting cities in the world, home of many important financial institutions.

Studying in NYC

Overall, the experience in New York was amazing. Thanks to our professor, Professor Andrew Clare, the lectures were really engaging as he was able to explain meaningful and key concepts of Investment Strategy in a short amount of time.

Moreover, our knowledge was always challenged by group work as well as a final project where we had to apply what we had learnt in a real world context and analyse the performance of 5 fund managers and, by using performance measure techniques and other concept that we had learned, chose the one that we thought it would successfully outperform in the next period.

For sure, this last group project was my favourite part of this course experience as I got to apply my knowledge and meet new people from other courses.

Thanks to this experience I was also able to visit a bit more of New York, a city that I have always loved and where I have been before but, this time, I wanted to experience it with my course mates. It was really exciting for me to experience New York not only as a tourist but feel like I was part of the city and loved being surrounded by its people. In fact, during the day, when going to lessons and having my lunch break, I really felt like I was living there!

Exploring the city

After class there was no time to relax, as the sun was going down and the city was lighting up, we had to live it! One night we had happy hour and then dinner in the beautiful borough of Soho. Another day, we decided we wanted to try the famous lobster roll at the most famous place in Brooklyn: Luke’s, and then of course Central Park, Upper East and West Side, Chelsea with the beautiful highline, Korean Area where to have delicious Korean street food. Finally, you have not been to New York if you don’t see it from above, we went to the Edge viewpoint and enjoyed the view of the city at sunset. My experience truly could have not gone better!

My time at Bayes has been amazing and I have to thank the school, the faculty, and the staff for making this possible. In particular, I have enjoyed attending MSc Finance as it has given me a solid and strong knowledge on different areas of finance like asset management, valuation, financial reporting and the FX market which I know will be useful in my future career.

Moreover, living in London during this year has been an added value. I got to experience a beautiful and dynamic city that has always something to offer beside the university life: amazing people, plenty events, and a lot of art!