Hey zamzim - have you considered LBS for a finance focused MBA ? Or purely a MiF (depending on your timeframe). While it is not located in France, its close enough surely

Within France, you can't go wrong with INSEAD, which is a world class program. HEC Paris also gets some pretty high reps. I'm surprised about your comment that not many within France know about INSEAD. But, I suppose you've done your research about that already.

Have you also considered the visa aspects with your move to France ? I hear that the bureaucracy is just terrible to deal with.

Best.

According to what you mention about HEC and employment in France, I really wonder whether Judge is a good card to play if I want to work in France. However, I'm very attracted by this school, and being Franch I'm seeking a real life experience (for instance with College life) a French school would difficulty give to me.

Uh hu!!! According to your words, Hec sounds better in my case... Difficult choice when the heart is opposed to Reason.

U seem to know pretty well this school : I suppose that u r a HEC student ...

Thks for ur post.

Any opinions on ESSEC for Master in management program? I also know that HEC is the top top, but where does ESSEC stand in your opinion?

Thank you in advance

To be more informed about the perception of French schools IN France itself, it is best, in my opinion, to look at the Statistique Sigem Classes Prepas data (google it, since i'm new for some reason this forum won't let me post urls). But if you look at the data, french students going through the grandes ecole route, the rankings would be: HEC>ESSEC>ESCP Europe.

How clear is this hierarchy? I'd say super clear. 99% of those accepted to all 3 schools chose HEC (only 1 chose ESSEC, with the other 285 choosing HEC instead). Between ESSEC and ESCP, 93% chose ESSEC over ESCP (only 14 chose ESCP, the other 189 chose ESSEC over ESCP). HEC clearly dominates ESSEC in terms of obtaining the top students, and ESSEC clearly dominates ESCP. But these 3, in terms of business, are probably the top 3 in France.

Someone here was surprised that HEC is stronger in France than INSEAD is. The reason why HEC has a stronger reputation in France than INSEAD is because INSEAD's main offering is the MBA, and in France, an MBA is pretty foreign. Executives in France don't typically hold MBA's. MBA's aren't how you prove yourself in France;instead, what separates you from the rest is the ability to attend a grandes ecoles, like HEC, ESSEC, ESCP (doesn't have to be a business grandes ecole, the others grandes ecoles are also very dominant in the business world, though they don't have many business courses, such as ENS, ENA, and ecole polytechnique). Once you go to a grandes ecoles, for life you are considered an elite of France. But the problem for us foreigners is that most of the course offerings by HEC is not a part of the grandes ecoles scheme. The MBA and most other masters offered in English by HEC is not a grande ecole program, though it is offered by the institution itself. So it seems that the grandes ecoles stream, the way to become an elite of French society, might not be so easily available to us foreigners. So i might wager that until the HEC MBA gets ranked better than INSEAD, HEC's reputation in France through its grandes ecoles program does not matter because the MBA program would not be associated with the programs offered to us foreigners anyway.

Just my 2 cents