10 Most Prestigious Executive MBA Programs outside the US

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10 Most Prestigious Executive MBA Programs outside the US - YouTube Live with Dr. Shelly Watts

Presenter: Dr. Shelly Watts, EMBA Admissions Expert and Founder of MBAAdmit.com

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Hello everyone this is Dr. Shell watts of MBAAdmit.com. Welcome to today's webinar hosted by GMAT club. Today we are going to be talking about the most prestigious MBA programmes outside the USA. We're going to give you a high-level look to get you a sense of how to start to think about how to choose an executive MBA program.

What is an Executive MBA?

So let's start from the beginning. EMBA is an abbreviated name for Executive Master of Business Administration. And so the EMBA programs are designed for and they target older candidates who have more experience than you would see typically for a full time MBA student. So while typical full time student at the MBA level would have two to five years of post-college work experience that typical EMBA student would have five to seven or more years of post college work experience. You do not need to be a director or in the C suite to qualify for an EMBA programme. Some of them do target younger candidates, so people in their late 20s and 30s. Other programs do prefer people in their 40s or 50s. And so you should get acquainted with each of those programs and understand what is their preference. But one of the great attractions for the Executive MBA is that students do not need to stop working or relocate to a to complete the programme. They often meet on weekends or once a week, once a month. And so students can carve time either on weekends, or arranged with their work to take off a week and work remotely so they can complete the programme and it becomes a great option to advance yourself educationally. Just remember that the EMBA is simply the route to the MBA degree, your degree will say MBA and not EMBA. So you become an MBA graduate of the school.

Why to Choose Executive MBA?

And so why would people attend an EMBA program outside the USA, regardless of assistantship? For people who are in Europe, of course, it's going to be more local to them. For Americans, they may want to expand their international reach. And so and also for candidates and other parts of the world, say the developing countries, they also might want to expand an international reach. And so the traditional reasons for seeking an EMBA applies. So to secure a pedigree, or credentialing that you feel you're missing or might benefit from you, you get the brand the school you benefit from the procedure the school, it also gives you the opportunity to acquire skills that you might want and need for promotion or advancement. And it also allows you to grow your professional network. But specifically for these programs that are more international are based in a country outside the USA, it'll give you an opportunity to expand your access to people and resources internationally, it gives you the opportunity to access resources in another country. It also allows you to study in a truly global corporate court because the cohort typically is going to have more international participants than many of the programs might in the USA. And then again, it allows you to learn in an environment that stresses global topics or global perspectives. And so, again, there's many reasons why you might want to choose an EMBA program based in Europe or Asia, as opposed to the USA because of these particular benefits.

Notable EMBA Programs outside the USA

So then the question is which top business schools offer EMBA programmes outside the USA? If you look at the top business schools outside the USA, so whether rather Europe or Asia, you will see that most of them do offer an executive MBA. And so here's just a sampling of some of those schools: London Business School, INSEAD, Oxford Said, Schulich, University of Hong Kong, IESE, IMD. Many of them are going to offer their own programs. Many US schools also offer programs abroad either in their own campuses in other countries or in an alliance with a school located in a different country.

Diversity of Executive MBA Programs

And so that brings us to the whole matter of diversity. So there are different ways that these programs are structured. Some are based at one school in their home country. So for example, London Business School and Oxford, they each offer their own program in England. Some of them are dual or triple degree programs from business schools that are working in alliance and are meeting in different countries. So for instance, the Columbia, EMBA global Americas and Europe, they work with London Business School, at the end of the program, you will have two degrees to so two separate EMBAs, one from Columbia, and one from LBS. I mean, you will during the program be sometimes having your class in New York and sometimes having it in London, there's many programmes like that there's also Kellogg - Schulich. And so it's nice to have the option to you know, do a dual degree or triple degree, and then have the opportunity to also be schooled in different countries. And then there's also a single school that is offering a programme in a country other than its home country. So it simply has a campus located in a different country. And so an example of that is Booth in London, and INSEAD in San Francisco & Singapore. So you can take a look at the diversity of all these programmes, because the offerings are magnificent, and many more number than even 10 years ago.

How to Choose EMBA Programs - Time and Locations

So how do you choose one of the first big things is going to be time and location, because not everybody can structure their work to be available for a full week, once a month. And so if you don't have that flexibility, you should be of course, not looking at those type of programmes. And so the Columbia EMBA global will require that you take a whole week, once a month and be able to be in attendance. If that is not something that you can do, then you'd be looking at some of the other programmes. Some of the other programmes will meet only on weekends. Sometimes it'll be every weekend, sometimes, once twice, or three times a month on the weekend.

Top 10 EMBA Programs outside the US
How do you determine which are the most prestigious or the top 10? The first thing to think about is, of course, formal rankings. And then there's also informal rankings. Formal rankings, there are various organisations that will rank the programmes. Sometimes it's usually a list that will be all EMBA programmes around the world. And not just specifically though it's outside the USA. And so you can basically funnel out the ones that are outside the USA and see how they are being ranked. The two these organisations that people often cite are the economist and financial times. And here's the sampling. This is coming from the economist for 2020. And you'll see that this is a subset of a broader list that would include some of the US schools, and these are the ones outside the USA. And this is how this particular organisation has ranked some of them. Now one thing that may jump out at you as you look at this is you might be surprised at how they're being ranked, you would expect that you'd see in Seattle on this list, you might expect that you would see London Business School as well. And so that brings us to the downside of the formal ranking, which is methodology variances, these organisations may be weighing something more than you would so for instance, you may think that they should weigh the students experience, the quality, what they think of the programme more heavily than they do. Or they should be weighing perhaps how employers view the programmes more. And so there's going to be differences in methodology, which means that the list look nothing like in terms of where schools actually being placed. Another thing is that one might argue that these lists don't correlate well with real-world prestige. And so like I said, London Business School and INSEAD should be on that list in most people's minds. Actually, I do believe that Oxford was on that list. But basically, we would expect to see these schools ranked very well. And they don't appear, which means that the methodology is just sort of doing something differently than maybe a typical person might when they're looking at the school, and deciding how attractive it is. There's also the issue of yearly swings that because of the methodology, sometimes the school might be ranked quite high one year and then fall dramatically the next year. And you have to remember that no one's going to remember what the rankings were 10 years from now. And so if you're looking at the list and saying, Look, it's ranked number two, why don't I go for that school 10 years from now, it may be ranked 22 and no one's gonna remember it was ranked 2nd to that's kind of how they're using this, how they're valuing the school. And so you need to think about other things such as the long term reputation of the school the long term prestige of the school, the strength of the alumni. And those should be factoring into what you're thinking in terms of is this a prestigious school.

So that brings us to the issue of informal rankings. And so when I do say informal rankings, what I mean is the long-standing reputation and procedure, the school, you see this even at the undergraduate level, so for instance, Harvard will be considered by most people, the top school in the USA, and some years will be ranked number one, sometimes it'll be ranked number three, most people will make the decision to go there based on the long term reputation not on a ranking that might fluctuate year to year. And so the same thing applies for the EMBA think about the overall prestige of the school. Also think about beyond the current curriculum, because current curriculum is very important. It's going to tell you will you get the skills that you need? But remember that you're getting a brand and the brand is what is long term. And so you need to consider that the current curriculum is more of the short-term consideration. The brand is a long-term consideration. And you need to consider both, when you're thinking about is this a prestigious school and a school that I should target?

Other things that you should consider what we call parts of the return on investment? Are these factors. Again, what's what are the skills and knowledge you'll be able to pick up during the programme? How will it impact your salary or will position you for promotion? How great is the alumni network? And is a strong enough for your needs? And do you have access to career services? Should you want to change jobs or careers? This is a deeper look at one of these factors, what we call the return on investment factor increase in salary. And so there are organizations have tried to project what will be the impact on your salary. And according to this one study, a typical EMBA graduate will enjoy a 14.1% increase in compensation, other say 60% when you're going a little bit further out in time to assess the difference in the income. So impact on salary can be quite attractive and each of the schools can there are organizations like this particular study that will or rather survey that will show for each individual Business School, what is the impact and so you can look that up and look for the school that you are assessing to see what the impact seems to be on salary. And then there's also promotion that students are reporting that when they go into these programmes that they get promoted during the programme sometimes and after the programme. So a big bounce on the career.

We did a longer webinar, specifically on return on investment from EMBA. So if you're more interested in going in-depth about that, look up this webinar, hosted by GMAT club here.

Finally a list of Top 10 EMBA programs - And so when you consider all these factors, the formal, the informal, the return on investment factors in many people's views. Some of the top schools will be these on this list: London Business School, INSEAD, Columbia (has two programmes with Americas and Europe), Oxford, IESE, HEC Paris, Kellogg - Schulich, and booth, I think many people would say that these are some of the top schools in terms of offering programs outside the USA. And this is growing. The wonderful thing to see about the EMBA field is that people are recognizing the schools are recognizing, the value of the EMBA, and the desire for it. And so more and more schools are bringing out their programmes. And so this selection will probably only get more extensive moving forward.

Audience Q&A

Q1: Are there full time Emba programmes?

Dr.Shel: That is a very good question. People are always asking this because sometimes people want to simply stop working. Other times people actually see it as an opportunity to try to get to a different country and maybe then be able to stay by landing in a job or so forth. There are actually not a lot of full time EMBA programmes. And they may not even be labelled EMBA, but there are some programmes that are MBAs targeted for older candidates that are full time. Some of the ones that I know about would be MIT Sloan fellows. There's also Stanford has something called Stanford MSx, which stands for master's in science, unfortunately, doesn't have the MBA late label, but it is essentially their executive MBA. It's a one year programme full time, the MIT Sloan fellows is also one year full time. There's also 1 year programmes offered at Kellogg, and Cornell and all of those are in the USA. So that doesn't for those of you looking for something outside the USA, that doesn't satisfy that. For most of the ones outside the USA, I believe most of them are part time. And so it is very, it's actually hard at this point to locate full time EMBA programmes or full time programmes geared to older candidates, I suspect that you're going to see more over time because there is a demand that's not being met at this point for that.

Q2: Does a poor undergrad record prevent admission at one of these top EMBA programs?

Dr. Shel: Well, this is the same answer I would give for EMBA programmes inside the USA. So it holds for both those inside the USA and those outside, which is the stage at which you're typically applying for the Executive MBA, you are at least 10 years removed from your undergraduate records, sometimes you're closer to it. But essentially, the further away you are from it, the less defined you are, the less relevant it is. And so imagine that, you know, you're 10 years out, you've had 10 years of work experience at this stage, you should be defined by the successes you've had. And so the key thing is to redirect the attention in your application and your essays and the recommendations to all the successes you've had professionally. Sometimes if the record is really bad, you need to demonstrate to the school that you have the skills you need to get through the programme that can be done by taking courses online and getting A's and having what we call an alternative transcript. Sometimes you can be doing that by just doing very well on a standardised test, like the executive assessment test. But in general, you know, the poor undergraduate records should not stand in the way if you create a strategy that allows you to redirect the attention and also demonstrate that you have the needed skills for success.

Q3: Do non-US EMBA programs have age preferences?

Dr. Shel: I just say yes. And so you should know the preferences that each of those schools one way to figure that out is to go to the websites and take a look at the class profiles that are that often will give you a sense of things. When the average age for matriculating students is 43 that tells you that they do really like older students serious there's going to be quite a number of people in their 40s and their 50s as well as some people in the 30s when the average matriculating age is 35 or 34 that tells you that the school is very open to younger candidates and so you should take a look and see exactly what the school is doing in terms of when you're what the age average and what the average years of work experience is.

Q4: Can engineers fare well in admissions to the top EMBA programs outside the USA? What minimum title should an engineer have - Project Leader?

Dr. Shel: I think that this is going to vary. Okay. So I think that schools that are a little bit newer into the EMBA field will probably be more open to engineers. And so consider that when you're applying for those that are more established. I think that the schools over time tend to want candidates that have moved somewhat out of the pure sort of technical arena to be more managing at a business type level within maybe a technology space. And that would imply that your title needs to be more than a project leader, more at the program leader level, if not higher. And so you need to look really well and try to understand where each of the school is with that, because I do think a lot of weeding out happens at this point. As schools like London Business School and Oxford, they're going to be more sceptical about someone who looks too technical. And they're going to want someone who is more at a senior level in terms of overseen maybe engineering and not being at a lower level like a project leader. So you have to be careful because a lot of engineers do apply to business school and so you want to target the school well and also present a very business-relevant application.

Q5: Is sponsorship a MUST to pursue Executive MBA?

Dr. Shel: No, an answer Quick, quick, quick answers is NO, because not all companies offer that. So you will not be penalised if your company doesn't offer it. It obviously if, if a company has an established programme, and they may be some for two students a year to a particular school, that's a major endorsement of a candidate. So cuz it can seriously help a candidate, it communicates to the school, how much that candidate is valued. But the absence of that funding is not going to close the door. And so, so the quick answer to that is no, it would not hurt you. It's not a must.

Q6: Are employers skeptical of programs that offer two degrees in the time it typically takes to earn only one MBA, such as the CBS EMBA-Global Americas? Do they feel the two degrees are watered down?

Dr. Shel: So for instance, Columbia with London Business School and the EMBA global miracles programme, you get a separate degree from each of the schools in the same amount of time that you typically would only earn one degree from a different school. So you'll have both a Columbia Business School MBA and the London Business School MBA. And to my experience, absolutely not. It's a wonderful programme, everyone I know that has gone there has absolutely loved it. And these are extremely prestigious schools. So you can only imagine what it looks like on a resume and how impressive it is to employers when they see that. So I absolutely do not think there's any skepticism and I think that it's actually a very great programme that allows you a wonderful, diverse education in two different countries, and gives you an amazing alumni network. So those are certainly programmes you should look at.

Q7: How effective is EMBA vs MBA if one is looking for a change in geography post graduation?

Dr. Shel: If you're an executive level age - if you're in your mid 30s, and higher - you for the most part will not have access to full time MBA programmes at many schools, because they will think that you're too old that you have too much experience. And so it's kind of a false option, you just may not have access to a full time MBA. Remember that the EMBA is just a route, you're still getting an MBA. And so if you want that training in your mid 30s, and higher, usually the EMBA is going to be the most viable option. And so with that in mind, given the fact that most of them are not full time residential, you will have to work hard or if you're going to be trying to use it to make a career change or geographical change. But it's possible people do it, you just have to take the initiative, you need to take advantage of all the career resources that are available at the school. And then you can try to make that change. But the best-case scenario many people believe is to get into residential programme because then you get to the other country. And while you're there, you're networking and trying to land a job locally. But the unfortunate thing is that there are not that many that are residential and targeting an older candidate. So just do your homework about that. I do suspect that over time, that will change. As I said, I do believe it's a market that is not being served well right now. And that schools will start to recognise that and kick in some programmes.

About MBA Admit

MBA admit has been offering admissions advising for over 30 years, our company has worked with all the top programmes both EMBA and full time. And we have great success with all those programmes. And we welcome you to come to our website after the webinar. Maybe you would want us to do a profile evaluation and let you know what we think about the strength of your candidacy and how you might fare if applying to some of these top MBA programmes. So feel free to contact us especially if you're looking for a profile evaluation, we are more than happy to assess your profile, let you know what we think about your profile with regard to competitiveness for the schools. https://mbaadmit.com/free-profile-evaluation/

*This is an auto-generated transcript so please ignore any grammatical errors you saw although we have reviewed the transcript and eliminated as many errors as possible.

Video Recording of the Session --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GghDb_ApJ1s

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10 Most Prestigious Executive MBA Programs outside the US

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