ESADE vs ESSEC vs EDHEC vs SDA BOCCONI

Hi Rodrigo.

That's great to hear and congratulations!

I needed a little more help in understanding what the placement rates for these colleges are with respect to international students. Do companies recruit from these colleges? And what sort of companies?

I was considering EDHEC, because I know a little french, having studied the language in school. Any reasons why you chose ESADE over the colleges in France?

Thanks!

Zerish

Thank you for your congratulations.
The placement rates for each school are different, you have to go through all of them (do your research through school websites, businessweek, FT.com, etc) or the ones that interest you and analyze them according to your goals or desired sector and try to compare them somehow. In my experience the best insight of a school placement service would come from an actual student or alumni, they will give you a better idea of how that particular school career service department works, contact the BS of your interest and request them to give you the contact info of a former student or alumni with a similar background of yours by sector, country or industry. If the school doesn't want to give you a student's contact info DISCARD it as option right away.

I chose ESADE over the rest of the French schools for many reasons that I will just point out the most important ones:
- ESADE's career service department is integrated by 20 people at least, whereas in the french ones it is much smaller (1 or 2 people in some cases), which for me is a strong signal on how much emphasis ESADE puts in that aspect over the rest.
- ESADE's cohort size is bigger than the french ones 150/160 against 26, 50 or 90, which makes your network broader.
- ESADE's reputation is way superior to all the 2nd tier french schools (ESSEC, EDHEC, EMLYON, etc) in whole Europe and growing (check the rankings too)
- ESADE has a very strong orientation towards entrepreneurship sharing facilities with around 50/60 start-ups ( I saw it myself)
- ESADE is located in Barcelona, a city with too much to offer!
- I felt that ESADE really focuses on the students , it seems to me that they provide a very personalized service.
- Fitting for me was very important and in ESADE I felt very comfortable since the beginning of this long process.
- According to my research, getting a job in France post-graduation would require a very high level of the French language (I don't speak any French and in one year would be extremely difficult to reach that level) as would be in Italy, in Switzerland or any other country but on top of that in France the recruiters are very elitists, one of the first things they check is from what school are you graduating and if it is not from HEC or INSEAD (especially employers graduated from HEC) your resume would end up in the tall pile.

I hope this helps and gives you a heads up but if you any further information don't hesitate in contacting me again.
Best and good luck!

Hi Rodrigo.

Thanks again for the feedback. Will definitely keep it in mind while choosing a program.

All the best for your MBA!

Cheers.
Zerish