Although American, I have only worked outside of the US across Asia, living in 3 different countries for the last 6 years (Singapore, India, Taiwan). In addition I have learned how to speak mandarin-chinese proficiently and Japanese at a basic level.

Ultimately, upon graduation from any MBA program, I plan to continue working in Asia. My question is: is a MBA from the US still worth pursuing for me?

My understanding of the career placement with US schools is that they are primarily US-centric e.g. if you go to Columbia then you will be offered jobs in the northeast and new york. I know there is no hard and fast rule on this because one could find a job anywhere in the world coming from any school, but generally speaking, what would you advise given that I am looking for jobs located in hong kong, singapore, shanghai?

Thank you myEssayReview for the reply...I agree with what you said but what about European programs? The top programs in Europe such as Insead, IMD, ESADE, HEC, etc all have good track records for job placement in Asia as well, which makes sense since they all have a high intake of Asian applicants. And if you cross off the top 10 schools in the US, what would you say would be advantage of going to a top 11-30 US school compared to a top 10 school in Europe for someone like me?

Please consider the following, my three biggest concerns are: time, cost, and value (not necessarily in that order).
- For me, I am eager to start my post-MBA career and generally feel a two year program is too long. Especially since there are many good programs such as ESADE which offers a 15 month program where you can earn your mba and go do an internship like in a normal 2 year program
- Top mba programs in the US are north of $120,000 or even now almost $170,000 at Columbia when you factor in living expenses, etc. Whereas non-US schools are half of that or less.
- When I consider the value of a top tier school from the US and a top tier school from Europe/Asia, I weigh the above with job placement opportunities in Asia, networking opportunities, relative strength of each program, and programs which truly appreciate my type of background (not just say "we teach the international perspective" but with a hidden caveat "...however through an American lens")

Dude, you are totally right that Euro programs are FAR more international than US programs. As mentioned above, Asian programs could also be preeeeetty interesting for ya, given your Asia goals and your pan-Asia experience. INSEAD seems SUPER ideal to me, cause of their two campuses, and you could do one semester in Singapore and one in Europe, and hell, it's one of the best schools out there anyhow.

If you aren't looking to live in the US for a few years after school, it definitely makes less sense, although I wouldn't suggest ruling that option out completely, cause there are some truly awesome programs there...
If you have any further questions, just let us know!
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Jon Frank
Founder, Admissionado
http://www.admissionado.com
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