Calling All AGSM MBA Applicants for Jan 2016 intake

Successful for Excellence Scholarship (25000 AUD). Does this mean that I did not qualify for the full fee waiver?

Yes! The full fee is ~75k ,as we know.

But Congrats on this great achievement! Are you planning to go ahead.

Thinking about it still. Problem is I'm not even close to finding out the decisions of other schools that I've applied to. Might end up deferring by a year.

ok. All the best avgroh!

Others who have accepted the offer - can we connect please ? my email is krsna83@gmail.com

Hi,
I have accepted the offer and paid the initial fee. But i have not received the eCoE yet. Anyone knows the process and the time it takes. Plus, who is applying for university-based accommodation?

Any applicants in R3?

n

Thanks for the inputs but can't help but note that you have given quite a damning review of the program. Why do you mention both Class of 2016 and Class of 2017 in your signature? What are you up to these days?

Hey. Im a member of the 2016 Cohort.. What the guy above me wrote is mostly BS. I agree that consultant jobs are less as compared to US and that finding a job without PR is difficult. Having said that, im sure the above person knew this before coming to Australia for an MBA.

If youre coming to Australia for an MBA hoping to get a job and stay here WITHOUT a PR... then thats the wrong reason for coming here. I said this last year when my cohort was applying and ill sau it again.

The building isnt ancient... The toilets are not smelly.. The chairs and desks are perfectly fine. I guess the above guy is just sad he didnt get any interview calls during careers month... And I wonder why :p. I would blame AGSM for how they managed to enroll someone like him :p

Cheers

As a current full-time student, I also want to disagree with the negative comments made above. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that is certainly not been my experience.

- The course have overall been of a high quality
- there is nothing wrong with the building in my opinion (apart from being a little tucked away at the back of campus)
- i have no idea what chairs of tables are broken ( I haven't seen any)
- the quality of students is really high (great diversity within the class and lots of really smart motivated people)
- No idea what the manipulation he/she is talking about.
- saying the MBA has no value in Australia is very misleading (no doubt it has less value than in the US), but it has successfully allowed me to switch careers and land a job
- careers team are helping and very involved - I got my current internship through careers, the careers month schedule was packed, the top consulting firms all recruited on campus
- having PR is definitely helpful, especially if you are looking at a smaller company here in australia (the big companies including consulting firms will generally sponsor), the extension does allow you to get a 2 year working visa as well

I am not saying the program is perfect, or that everyone's job outcomes will be perfect, but the overall experience for me and most of the classmates i have spoken to about it has been positive. The above post is very misleading and one sided in my opinion. anyone considering an offer is welcome to contact me and get some more feedback.

Thanks for the detailed clarifications, guys.

To help you clarify even more:

ironbru23 was able to get a job because he's British, is well spoken, is well mannered and is probably in the top 10% of the class in terms of intelligence. He will be one of the 5-10 or so people who will land consulting jobs. However approximately 40 people out of 50 class size were interested in consulting and 30-35 will not get it, so the success rate at AGSM isn't great.

There is nothing wrong with the facilities or with the teaching. The school places poorly because it accepts students who are not qualified to land top jobs in Australia. It's up to the individual to get jobs and blaming the school for personal failures is pretty silly. That being said, AGSM's on campus recruiting is nowhere near the caliber of top American schools or at LBS/INSEAD. For example the consultancies at AGSM only interview for Australia offices while at the top schools they interview for offices all around the world.

If you decide to enroll at AGSM, be prepared to see lots of classmakes like xoxo43.

You're using faulty reasoning. The placement at AGSM is not good even though it's one of Australia's top MBA programs. All Australian MBA programs are pretty much jokes and the top firms (consultancies, ibanks, top tech firms etc.) mostly hire from Australian undergraduates or from top American B schools. Lots of Australians have never even heard of the MBA program and top Australian talents certainly do not enroll in Australian schools.

ibank and top tech firm recruiting out of Australian B schools is non-existent.

At AGSM this year, there were 4 Australians who enrolled. Three dropped out and one has a 5xx GMAT score.

Are you a recent/current student? If so, are you an international student and how have things worked out for you?

The reality is that outside the pool of top 10-20 B-schools, it's pretty much up to the (international) student to find a post-MBA job including conducting all the relevant immigration/market research.

What's non-negotiable is the quality of education, infrastructure, and genuine assistance from the school's career services department - areas in which it seems that AGSM does not seem to let its students down as such.

There are two types of international students. Type 1 are students from rich countries (USA, EU etc.) which countries have bilateral agreements with Australia to allow for fast-track processing of work visa sponsorship. For these students getting sponsored is not difficult, however it's still up to the students to find a job. Everyone I know from these countries, with the exception of 1 person, were able to get at least one interview.

Type 2 are students from developing countries such as India that does not have a bilateral agreement with Australia. These people have a much more difficult time getting interviews and job offers because of more difficult visa rules, language barriers, and cultural barriers. Success rates for these students at finding good jobs is very low.

I suggest that you contact current AGSM students who come from developing countries to hear what they have to say.

Career services do their best to help you but their abilities are very limited.

Agreed. This should be obvious to an informed prospective student. Get a PR before you go to Oz, or enroll for the extension program so that you get your post-study work visa.

Correct. However while PR or the 2 year extension program will open doors for less competitive jobs, they definitely are not enough to land the top ones.

To give you some more stats about consulting:

In the last two graduating classes (Class of 2014 and 2015), one person landed BCG (German) and two landed McKinsey (both Australian) and nobody landed Bain. So success rate at MBB is only 3 out of 100+ students despite a large amount of interest from the class.

At top business schools success rate is well over 50% for those who applied and almost everyone gets at least a 2nd round interview.

There are a lot more people who graduated form top American B schools than Australian ones at MBB even in Australian offices.