Ask HKUST Admissions

Hi thankgod999,

Thank you for your interest in our program. Please see our reply in red below.

1) What is the acceptance rate of HKUST. i.e. how many applications are received, how many interviewed.
I am afraid we do not disclose these figures. Still, we can tell you that due to increasing interest in Asia/China business around the world and our worldwide recognition as a top MBA in Asia, our admissions have become much more competitive compared with previous years.

2) What other financial organizations offer the management associate program. When I gleaned your site, I came to know of Standard chartered MA program. I really liked the features and concept of this program.
Citibank's consumer banking branch also offers a management associate program. In fact, their team just did a recruitment talk with our students earlier this month, and one of our alumni who is now working there as Country Manager shared his experience in the MA program during the talk.

HSBC has an International Management Program and our students met with the International Managers earlier this fall in a recruitment talk as well. More info here: https://www.hsbc.com/1/2/careers/im/about

Some management associate programs are available overseas. One of our graduates this year was recruited by Citibank's headquarters in New York into its Global Engagement Management Associate. He is receiving training in New York and will be assigned to work in the Tokyo office in the future. MAs of this program are required to work in both developed and emerging markets so our students who have exposure to the Asia and China markets have an advantage when applying for such positions. Details here: https://www.oncampus.citi.com/careers/north_america/corporate_functions/citi_global_management_assoc.aspx

3) Apart from Investment banking & Trading, how many students prefer consumer banking. Also how many banks offer roles in consumer banking? What positions do companies offer in consumer banking.
It is difficult to count how many students prefer consumer banking since students' preferences change every intake. And our class is very diverse so the range of interested areas can be really varied as well. Here are some of the banks where alumni are now working in their consumer banking branch for your reference.

Banks: Citibank, Standard Chartered, UBS private bank, HSBC, DBS, Bank of China, CITIC Bank International, The Bank of East Asia, etc.
Positions: Premium Relationship Manager, Channel Marketing & Communication Manager, Senior Sales Planning & Communication Manager, Investment Consultant, Assistant Vice President (Local Corporates, Origination & Client Coverage), etc.

Any questions, just let us know.


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

Hi HKUST team,
Going through your website, i saw your program is focused mainly on China. I am an Indian and would like to work in any asian English speaking country. Is it like your program is more focused on China or i just interpreted something wrong.

Thanks

Hi hiimmunish,

Hong Kong is not just a gateway to China but also an important Asian business hub. Our program is positioned to offer students exposure in both China and Asia business in the following areas. We encourage you to download our brochure to get a full picture here at the same time: https://www.mba.ust.hk/enews/subscription/brochure.asp

1. Faculty
Our adjunct faculty have considerable business experience operating in Asian markets and can share with studens their management experience in the region. E.g.,
- Prof Ron McEachern, Former CEO of PepsiCo Asia
- Prof Caroline Wang, Former Chief Marketing Officer & Chief Information Officer, IBM Asia Pacific
- Prof Chris Doran, CEO Asia, Strategic Thinking Group

2. Case studies
We not only use case studies from China but from other Asian countries as well in class so that students can discuss how to tackle challenges faced by different businesses. E.g.,
- Cathay Pacific: Doing more with less (Hong Kong)
- DeBeers: Diamonds are for Asia
- Unicapital (Philippines)
- Samsung China's entry strategy of color TV (South Korea)
- The Benevolent Benefactor - Temasek Holdings (Singapore)
- Walt Disney Company's Yen Financing (Japan)
- Singapore Middleman

3. Network
We have around 20% of students coming from Asian countries excluding China this year. More than 75% of our alumni are working in Hong Kong and other Asian countries excluding China such as Singapore, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, etc. Such a network will be an invaluable asset for our students in both short term and long term career development in the region.
- You can refer to P. 13 of our brochure to see which companies our alumni in Asia are now working in.

4. Field trips
Field trips to various countries in Asia are organized by our student clubs, career office or the native students for students to get a personal experience of working and living in that country. Earlier this year, the students went to Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc.


Hope the above helps. Any questions, just let us know.


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

When would we be notified about R1 application status once submitted?

Hi pkarnany,

If you are shortlisted for interview in round 1, we will notify you latest by Jan 13, 2012.

You can take a look at our detailed admissions schedule here: https://mba.ust.hk/ftmba/admissions/application.htm


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

Question from Rahul:

hkust-mba-guide-118050.html#p981661

Hi Rahul J,

Banks in Hong Kong mainly lend money to local citizens and not international students. It is also much easier for candidates to get their loans approved by banks in the same country as they are. But we are also aware of this issue and are currently exploring loan options with banks in India that offer a more competitive rate. If there is any new scheme, we will post it on our website immediately.

Students with financial need can apply for our need-based grant (no need to pay back). This year, we have also launched some new scholarships (e.g. the Outstanding Leadership Award which covers more than half of the tuition fee) for those with potential.


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

Hi,

Is there an advantage in applying in R2 as opposed to R3? Will there be fewer seats available for R3 applicants?

I'm looking to schedule my GMAT exam for Dec7 to meet the Dec15 deadline. But with my work schedule, family and Christmas fast approaching, it's been very difficult to find time to study. I would prefer to apply in R3 and have the extra time to prepare for this test, but not at the cost of lower admission odds due to seat availability.

thank you.

A.

Hi Alistar,

The admissions chance really depends on the number and quality of candidates in that round. And from our past experience, the situation varies from year to year so it is difficult to tell whether there will be any difference in this year's admissions.

However, there are still two key differences between applying in R2 and R3:

1. R3 is set in a much later date. The admissions results may be available as late as Jun. The time can be very tight for international candidates to apply for student visa, quit their jobs and move to Hong Kong since class will start in early Aug. So we recommend international students to apply in R2.

2. Candidates applying in the first two rounds will have the priority in getting some of the scholarships.

We understand that the workload can be heavy for candidates to apply for an MBA and work at the same time. If you are only missing a GMAT score in your application, you can still submit your application and indicate the GMAT test date first by Dec 15. As long as you send us the score within 30 days after the deadline, we will still treat you as a R2 candidate. This way, you can take the test latest by Jan 15 (assuming you will send us the unofficial score report which you get after the test immediately).


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

Thank you for your quick response.
I wasn't aware that I could submit my GMAT score within 30 days after the deadline!
In this case, I will submit my application in time for R2 and my unofficial score before the end of the year.

Again, thank you very much!

A.

@alistar: Happy to help. We understand that the application process can indeed be quite tough for working candidates so hopefully this kind of flexibility can help a bit.

If you have any other questions, just let us know.


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

hi - I have submitted my application for R1 and I very happy to have submitted a well thought out and a good application.

Only fact I want to know is - while over 15 days are over of R 1 deadline - how many interview calls would normally go for R1.

Also I am aware certain candidates have already received calls, is it because they had applied well before the deadline or is it in order of Merit.

please provide your views.

Hi alokag,

Generally speaking, the applications are reviewed in the order of their submission date. But it is actually very difficult for us to control whether the interview notifications are sent out in the same order.

Each application will be reviewed by different (and multiple) members of our admissions committee. Their different pace will give rise to different order when we send out the interview notifications after the admissions committee have found the candidate good enough to be shortlisted.

So you need not worry if you still haven't received the interview message when the others have. Our deadline for sending out interview notifications is on Jan 13. So you will know you are not shortlisted only when you still haven't get the interview invititation on Jan 14.

About the number of interview calls in R1, we don't have a fixed number or quota since it all depends on the quality of candidates in that round.


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

Hi Admissions team,

I have two questions:

1. Could you please share a list of China case studies? Is there any case related to public sector or SOEs?

2. May I check if there is a rough weightage of GMAT against the entire application, for both HKUST selection and scholarship consideration? I plan to retake GMAT to increase my chance but given other priorities, I'm not sure how much more time is reasonable to invest in this test.

Thanks!

Hi gmatcrash,

1. Here are some examples of China case studies used in our program.
- Acquisition of Hummer: M&A challenges faced by Chiese companies overseas
- Air China
- Arthur D. Little in China: a whole new ball game
- Future of Avon China: Direct Sales, Retail Sales or Both
- Cola Wars in China: The future is here
- Dell vs Lenovo
- East of Africa and West of China: Chinese Business in Africa
- Google in China
- Motorola in China: Failure of Success
- Sanlu's Melamine - Tainted milk crisis in China
- Saurer: The China Challenge
- Shanghai General Motors: The rise of a late-comer
- Shanghai Volkswagen:Time for a radical shirt of gears
- Worldwide Equipment (China) Ltd.: A Sales Performance Dilemma
- Wumart stores: China's response to wal-mart

2. Our mid-70% GMAT range is 600-720. The "acceptable" GMAT score is different for each candidate since the admissions committee will look at it together with the whole profile, particularly the undergraduate performance. So we can't provide you with a "rough weightage".

If your UG grades are good then a lower GMAT in that range may also be ok. If your UG is not so good, then you should work on a better GMAT score.

For GMAT score, remember to have decent percentile for each section since the admissions committee want to have well-rounded candidates instead of those who get really high marks in quantitative but low percentile in verbal, or vice versa.


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

Do you have a rough estimate of how long it takes after the interview process before a decision is made on an applicant?

I recently had my interview and to be honest - not knowing the answer is almost as stressful as the actual application itself!

Hi ignus99,

Hope you did well in the interview!

Usually, the decision will be sent out around a month after your interview date but there can be exceptions. All round one candidates will know the results latest by Feb 10, 2012.


HKUST MBA Admissions Team

Hi Team,

I am from India. In India banks such as Citi offer Experienced management associate (EMA) catering to slightly tenured 5-6yrs experience students. This program is a MA (Management associate) program but for seasoned professionals, as compared to a Management associate program for fresh graduates.

I hope banks/Financial institutes such as Standard Chartered offering Management Associate program has such variants for seasoned professionals and fresh graduates.

From the MA program specifics it wasn't clear if the program was tailored for fresh graduates or experienced professionals.

Please clarify, appreciate a prompt reply.

Hi thankgod999,

The management associate programs our graduates join are mostly targeted at MBA students. Since many MBA programs, including ours, only admit candidates with prior work experience, the associates at those programs are not fresh graduates.

Of course, we do not know if there are exceptions in which outstanding fresh graduates with no prior experience but have shown great potential have been recruited. Yet from our experience, those institutions always do separate campus recruitment for undergraduate and MBA students. HKUST undergraduate students join the management trainee/ graduate programs while our MBA students the management associate/international manager programs.


HKUST MBA Admissions Team