Ok I have to ask, if you are a VP at a S&T firm with 4 years under your belt, why are you doing the M.Fin? Why not just keep going or go for an MBA? What do you stand to gain from the degree that you don't already have with your experience?
I'm really glad you asked that- that's a good question.
If you want to generally stay in finance, I think an MFin from a top program gives you as many options over the next 30 years as an MBA from a top program. There's also a lot fewer of us. 1000 students graduate from HBS every year. Similar numbers play out for Stanford, Booth, Wharton, and Sloan's MBA program. To get the numbers for the top two or three MS Finance programs and the stronger MFE programs, you need to take a zero off of that.
You've also got much smarter people going into these programs. And the two or three best finance programs are looking for people with personal skills on par with the top five business schools. Finally, of course, the curriculum is a lot more specialized and technical. It's not as easy as an MBA program. So IMHO, the dynamic for the really strong programs starts to look a lot like '70s and '80s MBA programs back when the degree meant a whole lot more.
Also, don't forget the fact that an MS program costs less in the form of time and money than an MBA. If you can do an MS in two semesters or even 18 months, you forgo a lot less revenue.
If you want a good asset manager, talk to a Sloan MFin guy first. If you can't find what you're looking for out of those 120 students, ok, then you try to find a Wharton or Harvard MBA out of the thousand students there.