CFA Level 1 Fees and Total Preparation Cost

CFA Level 1 Fees as compared to MBA Fee ?

CFA Fees is around $1275 (till 18’feb 2015) for CFA level 1 and $ 680 for L2 and L3. Where an MBA can cost you between $10,000 to $20,000. The fee for cfa course and MBA differs widely. Most of the time student are confused about CFA fee (cfa exam fee), it is understood as too costly!

Lets understand how can you compare a program cost or fee!

Student education loan and cfa feeBased on pocket

Many student can not afford cfa fee because they don’t have it. In India Banks still do not give education loan to prepare for CFA course. However, student can avail scholarship program from cfa institute.

Comparing CFA with short term value addition courses

Some student are not able to value CFA program. They do not understand the worth of doing this program. You can not compare cfa program with short term value addition programs. It is compared with a PG level program like MBA, MS-Finance and other course.

Based on Salary

It takes around 2 years to complete MBA and 2.5 years to complete CFA all 3 levels. Salary has to be compare with a qualified MBA and a Qualified CFA. As per our observation and study CFA’s are earning far higher than a normal MBA in India. However, additional benefit to a cfa candidate is that, they can earn even after CFA L1, there are enough jobs available for them too.

So, you do not lose opportunity cost of 2 years which you lose while studying MBA-Finance.

Based on Job profiles

People compare CFA Fee based on job profiles also, It’s like ROI on cfa course fee. I pay $1240. So, how much I’ll get and what profile I’ll work on.The job profile depends on you area of interest and expertise; a cfa is working in equity research, investment banking, portfolio management, credit analysis, risk analysis, project financing, core finance and many more profiles. It takes years and expertise to get into a particular job profile. You can get into any one when complete CFA. It all about what you want to do.