Hong Kong UST

Hi,

I plan to apply for Hong Kong UST this year, i will have 4 years of work ex by next June. I work as a Software Engg,I have a GMAT score of 690.

I am also involved into Investing into Stock Markets, and i have a great Interest for Investing,i do blogging,even where i have written some articles on Investing and Financial Markets, although they are at a beginner's level.

Do u think i can go ahead and apply for Hong Kong UST for MBA? Do i stand a chance?

Thanks,
Ram

Yes you do, the application process is based towards work experience and social abilities. There is less emphasis on GMAT. Furthermore it has a great reputation for Finance in Asia.

I've just returned from the start of the program and some stats of this years class :-

Average Age - 29 (*26-33 range)
GMAT range (*560-710)
Male - 60%
Female - 40%
Full time students - 91
Nationalities represented - 23

* - mid - 80% range.

Class size has increased this year from 70-odd to 91 this year. Competition to get in this year was high, i heard (not confirmed) that the there were more than 1000 applications from Beijing alone this year.

Forgot to mention.

Class is 88% International..

and a picture of the view from campus

If you're the type of person who considers rankings then HKUST has just been ranked 11th in the Economist which MBA this year.

Kinda late posting to the thread but anyways...

Hi togafoot! Thanks for taking time off to answer our queries.

Could you tell me what the placement scenarios at HKUST are generally? Are there chances for getting employment outside Hong Kong/China? are there chances to find work in companies from other south east asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia etc)?

PS: that is a beautiful view!

Yes, we have some people in this years batch working in Singapore and Japan for their internships. We also have 1, who secured an internship in the UK, although generally speaking, quite a few of the recruiters who do come in are from Asia headquarters so they are recruiting focused on China/HK, but with an eye open for the whole Asia region.

Thats good to hear!

I am now seriously considering applying now. The only thing which worries me is my lack of international work ex (diversity), which I have head HKUST greatly values.

Hi Togafoot, I am planning to apply to HKUST mba. To brief about me, i am a chartered accountant from India. 1 year with Deloitte in audits and 2 yrs(still working there) with CRISIL india in equity research. I am looking for a strong finance oriented prog, as i plan to continue in finance(if lucky private equity, valuation kind stuff). I have few queries, summarised below:

1) Is language a barrier for Finance guys searching for jobs in HK. Being indian, have no knowledge of mandarin.

2) How z its recognition in finance. how z the faculty. How z the placement scene this year. students placed in India??

3) With my profile and gmat score of 650(q49, v30), what do you think my chances are, with no international work exp. Heard HKUST stresses lot on international work exp.

4) On a personal front, how would you rate the prog for learning, for personality development.has it been a transforming experience. In hindsight, do you regret not going to US or UK for ur mba.

Thanks,
Deepak

Beautiful campus!

Dear Togafoot,
Its been long that you have replied on this thread...are u still around....

Hi, sorry, been busy for a while.

I am back to answer questions..
@deepakg :-

1) Is language a barrier for Finance guys searching for jobs in HK. Being indian, have no knowledge of mandarin.

Depends on the role, if its a client facing role dealing with clients in China, then it will be an issue, however there are many ex-pats with no mandarin skills working within the finance industry in HK.

2) How z its recognition in finance. how z the faculty. How z the placement scene this year. students placed in India??

HKUST's core strength is in finance, faculty is string in finance and HK is a finance city. Last year was as truggle for internships, but its looking a lot better now that China has resumed fast growth. There is no real ties with Indian companies

3) With my profile and gmat score of 650(q49, v30), what do you think my chances are, with no international work exp. Heard HKUST stresses lot on international work exp.

Depends on the type of experience you have had, there is an emphasis on cultural and international diversity so having international work exp. usually helps, however that does not mean you won't get in.

4) On a personal front, how would you rate the prog for learning, for personality development.has it been a transforming experience. In hindsight, do you regret not going to US or UK for ur mba.

I actually went to Berkeley to do an exchange so i can compare quite well. In terms of what your career goals are, I would say that HKUST is a far more finance focused school, and if you are focusing on a carrier based around HK/China, then there are plenty of opportunities here. If you want a career in the USA, then USA is the way to go. Top international companies also recruit in the top schools in the USA for china roles, but in terms of networking, it is immensely difficult to do that in the USA if youare focused on HK/China.
For personality development, HKUST worked well for me and Berkeley complemented it well in a different dimension. Berkeley has an entrepreneurial culture, HKUST has a finance driven culture. For sure, HKUST was more diverse internationally and the classes are more 'globally' focused. Berkeley was more US-Centric (general lack of awareness of trends in China, for example) but that is to be expected because most people in Berkeley land jobs in the W.Coast, most people in HKUST land jobs in HK and China.

Hey Togafoot thanks for answering our queries here, I too have some questions I am seriously considering applying to HKUST for fall 2010 class will be applying in Round 2

1. A number of clubs have been listed as active on HKUST site, however I wanted to know what goes around in these clubs for e.g. what does a club focussed on management consulting do

2. Are the case studies that are taught during the course international in nature or do they focus on China. Which is the best case study that you have done till now.

3. Are there any need based scholarships available and how many people get these.


@deepak: there is an interesting thread on pagalguy where a few Indian students are answering questions about HKUST do check it out

Comments in this colour

Hi,

I was wondering what are the finance jobs available for internship/job placement? Are there investment banking jobs or the finance jobs are mostly middle/back office? From the career placement statistics, it looks like most jobs are corporate finance/accounting instead of investment banking. Is this true?

Thanks

The roles vary and are spread across the board. so some are in corporate finance positions, some are in middle office and some are in investment banking. Last year, IB recruitment was down a lot, but other finance positions did not suffer as much. IB is bouncing back this year, however there are less IB`s around after the shakeup, and the `boutique` IB`s in Asia are much more language-region specific.

Thanks for the information.
Not sure if this is true but my friends doing IB at Goldman, Morgan, JPM, etc. said that they rarely meet anyone from HKUST so that was my concern on whether I should apply to HKUST to transition into IB from Consulting. It sounds like most of the IB jobs are coming from boutique firms instead of the major players.

Sounds about right... the biggest reason is class size. The current class size is ～110, in my class it was 90, previous years have been around 60-70. This means the number of people getting into top tier IB`s is lower due to sheer class size numbers.. ratio to ratio.. i would guess we are probably slightly below top tier schools but catching up fast as the school continues to develop its reputation, some years we get none entering, other years several enter. If you consider that Berkeley is considered a small school with a class size of 250...then HKUST is miniscule!!! Some companies that have to travel internationally to recruit do not come to HKUST due to the class size because the expense for them is high in exchange for the number of people they present to e.g( e.g. if you expect to get 1% of students, going to HBS will get you 9 people, going to HKUST will get you 1 person) ... instead they post on our job board directly. Most of the companies who have an office in Hong Kong will come to the campus to recruit. A mix of MBA`s only, or combined events to recruit both UG`s and MBA`s.

Secondly, the exchange program can be useful, if you exchange to a top tier school who allow you to use their career services, then you have the benefit of having 2 sets of career offices helping you. (N.B. Not all exchange schools offer their career services to exchange students)