1st attempt at drawing up a short list of schools

Question

Hi, I hope someone can help me (I've been lurking for over a year but finally registered to post). Like many others here, I've got to the serious stage of looking for the right school, and am suffering from information overload and would be grateful if someone can quickly critique my school analysis to see if they disagree. If I've got this in the wrong place mods, please feel free to move it

Who I am; UK, 34, male, 11 years experience in logistics and supply chain management, half internal consulting, half project management, working for AP Moeller, Kuehne + Nagel and these days DHL. Fluent in English, but only conversant in French and German (i.e. not good enough to be taught in these languages). I sit my GMAT in 4 weeks time, but I'm persistently getting 680 in all the practice tests I've taken; hopefully I can push that over 700 with work on my quantitive area. Being surrounded by McKinseys and PhD's all day in the midst of a massive global project, it's become painfully obvious that my BSc doesn't cut it and my decent work experience only goes so far. I'm rapidly approaching a glass ceiling. What I'm after A generalised EMBA (or Cranfield's logistics/operations heavy EMBA) taught in English based in Europe to fill in the holes in my skillset. Primarily I think these holes are accounting, marketing, general finance, but almost all decent schools cover these anyway. I don't want to become a financier/banker, so I'm not keen on a school that's too top heavy in these areas, but instead want something to continue building my consultant/project management career which I love. I am also keen on entrepreneurship, ethics and definitely in a school with an active alumni, networking and social opportunities. Schools I've ruled in so far for a short list In no particular order; IE, Said, IMD, ESADE, Judge and Cranfield (I know, there's 6

) Schools I've ruled out because I think they're not suited IESE, Ivey, LBS, Manchester, McGill, Queens, Rotman, HEC, INSEAD, St Gallen, Stockholm. If anyone thinks I've gone wrong somewhere and ruled in or out something that I shouldn't, I'd be very grateful for your experience. :-D

rasta · Answer

Hey Fwoggie, Welcome to the Forum!

I'm no expert on the EMBA programs, but i'd be a bit hesitant to take up any of the Spanish programs because their reputation, placement records, and alumni communities don't stand up to their English and French counterparts. I'd like to know your reasons for ruling out LBS, INSEAD and HEC. :roll:

On a side note, I wouldn't advise spending too much time worrying about the choice of schools until you're done with the GMAT. With 4 weeks to go, you can still increase your score by 30-50 points.

Fwoggie · Answer

Gosh that was a fast response :shock:

Thanks! HEC I ruled out because whilst it has intakes in September and October in Europe, both are bilingual. There is an English language intake in January, but that's too late for the demands of the DHL sponsorship program; I have to start it by mid November. I will nevertheless push back for an exception to be made, but I'm not sure they'll accept. INSEAD I ruled out because it looks top heavy in finance - too top heavy unless I end up on the global board. Maybe I should rethink. Core topics are corporate finance and macroeconomics, that's fine, but the electives didn't appeal so much. I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. LBS I ruled out for the same reasons as INSEAD.

aviroop · Answer

Do a school visit of LBS and you will be quite surprised to find out it is not the top heavy finance dominated school that it is perceived to be.

Lots of courses/electives in strategy/general management, ops and entrepreneurial roles. Bsdlover (alumni of LBS) can give some good pointers.

What about the MBA program at Imperial College?

And since you are interested in part time, you can have a look at Chicago Booth's exec MBA program in London or the EMBA from LSE called Trium

bsd_lover · Answer

aviroop makes a fantastic point. If you are located in the UK you should definitely visit your target schools before you make that 50k investment. LBS has a reputation for being strong in finance, but its absolutely not pure finance school. If you are purely interested finance, you can take the MiF program.

The EMBA and the Sloan programs are perfectly catered for you as the core will contain all non-finance (and finance) essentials (from marketing to operations to accounting to entrepreneurship and strategy). I majored in finance, but I immensely enjoyed all the Organisational behaviour and entrepreneurship electives. I actually think that the non-finance faculty is a notch better in teaching than the finance faculty. Some examples are Nirmalya Kumar (marketing), Marco Bertini (Pricing), Phanish Phuram (Strategy / International mgt), Constantin Markides (Strategic Leadership) etc. The project management elective taught by Bert de reyck is amazing. Unfortunately I didn't take any operations focused classes except the core class so can't guide you further there.

Once again - I highly recommend that you visit and sit in the classes before deciding on a school list. Its all to easy to dismiss or select schools on pre-existing notions / stereotypes leading to biased decisions.

Belyok · Answer

My view is that you should do an IMD fullt-time MBA for the following reasons:
- Age - your 34 fits perfectly into their average
- IMD offers a lot of courses on ethics and leadership, plus enterpreneurship and social opportunities
Since you want to cover the basics, I think a full-time program is a better fit for you, plus in Europe it only takes 1 year instead of 2.

libraal · Answer

Hey,

We have somewhat similar profile. If I were you, I'd consider IMD's full-time program. It's excellent - go for a site visit and you'll be able to discern much more than from all of the brochures.

I wouldn't go to Cambridge - the program is simply overrated! Some good quality and very diverse students though. Cranfield is good value for money, although Cambridge and Oxford have lured away some, perhaps, better quality students from Cranfield.

Don't underestimate yourself and believe in yourself!

Fwoggie · Answer

Hi.

You guys gave some great info, so I wandered off for a while to put time into GMAT prepping and also to work further on researching the schools. I took my GMAT twice in the end. The first time I scored 620; I ended up with a cold when I woke up that day. Feeling rubbish I figured there's no point not going, so I went, and did (in my opinion badly). I then went back in May, and scored 670. This still isn't great - my sample tests had indicated 680/690 - but I'm settled on it and won't take again. I also took your advice and popped over to London (I live in Germany) to visit LBS. The campus is smaller than I expected, but people were very friendly and helpful. We had an open Q&A session with one of the admissions managers who was very professional; he did a good job. Bizarrely some people turned up late for the session, and then left early - I thought that was rude and also was hardly going to set a good impression should he remember your name (and I'm certain he would remember all of us, or at least make a note on our applications). I was still left with a lingering feeling it's a bit finance heavy however. As for IMD, the cost raises my eyebrows - 85,000 CHF; that's 70,000 EUR as near as makes no difference, with another 30,000 EUR on top for living costs. I'm really dubious about the value add. For the time being, Cranfield goes ever higher up my list but so does INSEAD; it's apparently known for generating consultants and it's something I've been tempted with switching into for a while.

mazwaz · Answer

fwoggie,

At your age you can definitely rule out all 2 years programs. However, don't look at cliché from schools. They are all very good at finance, strategy, marketing etc... we are talking about top notch european schools!!!

I would recommend you visit IMD and INSEAD as they are the two best 1 year program in Europe. You seem tilting toward consulting as a post-MBA job possibility but be carefull as you will have 35 at graduation and consulting hire always at the same level no matter your age !!! Thus, they might be less likely to hire you rather than a 28 folk for example.

They are also some great program in the US that could suit you if accepted

like the MIT SCM program https://scm.mit.edu/program/degree if you want further advancement in you career (in supply chain) or other fellowships program depending on your seniority like the stanford sloan master's program https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sloan/

ngango2 · Answer

So which school you chose at last?

Fwoggie · Answer

Cranfield. I started on their Exec MBA program back in January. I love it, suits my needs perfectly and I think it's a reasonable price - Forbes has it top 10 for international schools (Forbes separates US schools from the rest of the world for some reason). One thing to consider is the cost benefit analysis (or it was for me). Why pay €91k for the part time INSEAD (which I thought was a ridiculous price) when instead you can pay £33k for the part time Cranfield one. I asked the Dean at an open day to justify why the part time was so high (their full time for the record from memory was €57k), and he said the classes were smaller and they put their best professors on the job. I find it hard to believe INSEAD has many crap lecturers to be honest, so I didn't buy his explanation - it seemed to me to be excessive profiteering or maybe they simply weren't interested in part timers.

1st attempt at drawing up a short list of schools

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