Photos https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9wK8f9gJHDU/U57m8J_yanI/AAAAAAAAAOY/D0hCgF0VnsE/s487/H1.jpg https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--81DIcJozFs/U57m8Kzx54I/AAAAAAAAAOc/2HfJ4d8OxYk/s481/H2.jpg https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Ilj25oi6a9s/U57m8gWomcI/AAAAAAAAAOs/7Kn_VlhcxXc/s736/H3.jpg https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-6O5JEYnpaqI/U57m9UF6srI/AAAAAAAAAOo/Ri09PmQvAeQ/s736/H4.jpg https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-UTDbiG2rgTw/U57m9cz0bCI/AAAAAAAAAOw/S4AjLT6IRbo/s736/H5.jpg Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHGcBzGAHHs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjyKHt5JGrQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVmcuwrv1zA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUVutMjq-1k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9pgsgrqCYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn4T9MGhHpo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR6diJnWzb0 Careers Report Snapshot(Class of 2014) HEC Careers Report.jpg Download Career Choices Report (Class of 2014) Placement+report+class+2014.pdf HEC-Paris Social Media Updates Tweets HECParisMBA,469746988523606017,500 FB Updates HECParisMBA Interview debriefs of GMATClub members CommonMBApplicant Ninjamba Zat Grumpycat Ashkul123 HEC Paris: Where The Grande École Has Gone Global by John A. Byrne on June 10, 2014 Courtesy: Poets & Quants https://poetsandquants.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hec.jpg For a recent business school presentation on the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Connie Chen came dressed to the nines. After all, the MBA exchange student at HEC Paris was leading a group of four classmates in the semester’s last session of a class on Luxury Strategy. The highly popular course is taught by a charismatic professor, Vincent Bastien, who was once the chief executive officer of both Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent Parfums. A Chinese-American student from New York University’s Stern School of Business, Chen was smartly attired in a haute outfit, with a black-and-white sweater vest over a flowing pleated linen dress. But what most drew Professor Bastien’s attention were her Christian Louboutin four-inch stiletto heels. The professor playfully urged Chen to come out from behind a podium to show off her black suede, gladiator-style shoes, announcing to the class in his strong baritone voice, “beautiful shoes” as the petite student obliged. When a classmate reminded the professor that such comments would be politically incorrect in an American business school, Bastien laughed aloud. “That’s why I don’t want to teach in the U.S.,” he quipped. Welcome to HEC Paris, a business school that has become truly global without completely losing its French roots. One of Europe’s finest business schools, HEC Paris is located on a 340-acre wooded campus in Jouy-en-Josas, just 12 miles southwest from Paris. It is a school that has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past five years, from a distinctly French institution, part of the elite “Grandes Ecoles” where entry is granted only to the very best students in France, to a truly international business school where every course is taught in English. ‘FREEDOM OF LANGUAGE IS FREEDOM FROM CULTURE’ As Professor Bastien says, “The students are very diverse. I want my class to be a reflection of the world and it is. Out of a class of 30 students, I had one from France, four Americans, five Chinese, with some from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Beijing, Koreans, Japanese, Mexican, Russians, Italians and a Chilean. They see the world differently. And the big advantage is that no one speaks French. You have more freedom of language here and freedom of language is freedom from culture.” In contrast to either London Business School or INSEAD, which respectively take in 400 and 1,024 students every year, HEC’s full-time MBA program is small and intimate. The latest entering class—admitted in two intakes in September and January—is composed of 178 students. Some 85% of them are from outside France, reflecting 50 different nationalities, ranging from Brazil to the U.S. The school’s acceptance rate of 28%–which falls to 18% if you take into account candidates who completed an online profile but were not encouraged to apply–makes HEC more selective than INSEAD. The students, moreover, are taught by a cosmopolitan faculty of 110 permanent professors, 64% of them from other countries. Many of the professors are relatively new to the school, replacing a slew of inbred teachers that had been born in France and were proud products of the “grandes écoles.” Six out of ten are currently on the tenure track of six to seven years. HEC faculty who teach the MBAs are surprisingly down to earth, defying the stereotype of the stiffly formal and somewhat intimidating French scholars of years past. THE SCHOOL SAYS THAT GRADUATES TYPICALLY DOUBLE THEIR PRE-MBA SALARIES When HEC’s students graduate, they tend to find jobs outside of France. The career stats show that 72% of the MBAs find jobs outside the country, largely in Europe but increasingly in China, Korea, Singapore and India, often with French firms such as L’Oreal, LVMH and Schneider Electric, that have been gaining a foothold in Asia. On average, the school says, MBA graduates from HEC double their pre-MBA salaries and last year 89% of the class had jobs three months after commencement. The average salary with bonus was 95,160 Euros, or just under $130,000. In 2009 and 2010, five out of the 15 top recruiting companies were french. This past year only one—the fashion conglomerate LVMH—was among the top 15 recruiters which includes such mainstream MBA players as McKinsey, A.T. Kearney, GE, Credit Suisse, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson. This year’s two largest recruiters are familiar names: Amazon and Google, which have respectively made nine and five offers to the Class of 2014 which officially graduates on June 13th. “U.S. business schools are of a type,” insists Tony Somers, director of the MBA career management center. “They are all two-year programs and the jobs market is homogenous, both in terms of how the students find jobs and their ultimate location. At HEC, our students are from all over the world and they are placed all over the world.” https://poetsandquants.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/bernard_garrete_hec_paris.jpg ‘WHEN PEOPLE CALL US THE HARVARD OF EUROPE WE LIKE IT’ That diversity of people and thought has helped the school’s rankings. Ten years ago, HEC’s full-time MBA program was ranked 53rd in the world by The Financial Times. Just five years ago, it had climbed to 29th—and this year to 21st globally and seventh best in Europe. Overall, in its combined rankings of the MBA, executive MBA, master’s in management and executive education, the FT has also named HEC Paris the best business school in Europe in four of the past five years, tying with Spain’s IE Business School for the honor last year. The architect of HEC’s transformation is Bernard Garrette, a gregarious and accessible one-time McKinsey consultant who has been associate dean in charge of the MBA program since January of 2011. Garrette knows the old and the new HEC well: he earned his master’s degree from the HEC “Grande Ecole” in 1985 and his Ph.D. from HEC Paris in 1991. When Garrette stepped into the dean’s role more than four years ago, his goal was “to transform a national champion into a global champion in the business education world.” HEC graduates are a vital part of the country’s power elite. The school boasts 11 alumni among the CEOs of the 40 companies on the Paris Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization. It ranks fifth worldwide for having the most CEOs of the Fortune global 500. “When people call us the Harvard of Europe, we like it,” says Garrette. “When they say we are the Harvard of France, it’s not enough. We want the brand to be recognized around the world.” LIKE MANY AT HEC, THIS AMERICAN MBA BOASTS MULTI-CULTURAL ROOTS AND A DEEP INTEREST IN THE WORLD Students who find their way to HEC are a remarkably global bunch. Katrina Senn, 25, who will graduate in 2015, came to the school as an American from California. But her father is Swiss and British, while her mother is Chinese and Indonesian. Senn had gone to the Lycée Francais Laperouse in San Francisco for a French secondary school diploma in economics and social sciences before doing her bachelor’s in Asian studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Senn spent a year in Osaka, Japan, teaching English and writing classes in high schools and then returned to San Francisco to work for the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). after graduating from Occidental College with a degree in Asian studies, she left for Osaka, Japan, to be an assistant language teacher for a year. Both her parents have MBAs—her father from Chicago and her mother from UCLA—and encouraged her to go for the degree. “I was looking only in Europe,” she says, “I was drawn to go some place new.” She focused her search on schools in Spain, France, and Italy, but found herself liking HEC Paris the best. “The culture here is unique,” says Senn. “It’s a very international program and we learn a lot about France.” Many of the students here say they have chosen HEC over INSEAD because they prefer the fact that the MBA here can be taken in 16 months, rather than 10 at INSEAD, and because of the much smaller size, an annual intake less than 20% of what INSEAD admits every year. “INSEAD is a completely different world,” says Senn. “We have a small class. We get to know each other very well, and the focus is on individual growth.” Adds Marcus Vilcinski, 29, “HEC is one of the rare schools where you can find a wide range of students from all over. And 16 months is the right timing. I didn’t want to squeeze everything in 10 months at INSEAD.” DRAWN TO THE SCHOOL BY A BOOK CO-AUTHORED BY ONE OF HEC’S SUPER STAR PROFESSORS Vilcinski is Brazilian, though his father is half Japanese and half Portuguese, and he has lived and worked in Australia for three years. “The school is in the countryside of Paris so when you first arrive, you think it’s a negative thing,” he adds. “But if we were in Paris we could easily disappear into the city and the connections with each other wouldn’t be the same.” Vicki Yang, 30, was drawn to the school for its specialty in luxury marketing just as Stern exchange student Connie Chen. The Chinese American had earned her undergraduate degree at New York University and then worked four years at the BankofAmerica. She put a year in at a strategy consulting boutique and then founded her own custom lingerie company in San Francisco. Keen to learn more about the upscale market, she found herself engrossed in the book, “The Luxury Strategy.” “I was so fascinated by the book that I flipped to the back and saw that the co-author (Professor Bastien) was teaching at HEC Paris. I had never heard of the school, but the more I read about it, the more excited I got.” A big appeal was the school’s “luxury certificate,” a deep dive in a specific topic that requires the completion of three of four courses, a three-day business game that challenges students to address the problems of growth and profitability in the luxury market, and a group project that involves hands-on experience. The two compulsory core courses are Topical Insights in Luxury and Managing Luxury Brands, while the two electives are called Sense & Sensibility and Retail and Merchandising Management. AN UNUSUAL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM ATTRACTS MANY STUDENTS WHO WANT A DEEP DIVE IN A SUBJECT MBA students who take one of the six certificates—digital innovation for business, energy and finance, innovation management in aviation and aerospace, leadership, luxury, and social business—also rub shoulders with students in the last year of the school’s Master of Management Grande Ecole program as well as students enrolled in other one-year master’s programs. In addition to having the opportunity to take a class with the co-author of a book that resonated with her, the certificate program sealed the deal. “HEC was an obvious and easy choice because I wanted to stick to luxury,” she says. “Being in the heart of the luxury market was important to me.” The bet has paid off. Her field project is with L’Oreal and as the outgoing president of the school’s luxury club, Yang organized numerous dinners with prominent alumni at such companies as Louis Vuitton, L’Oreal, Hermes, Yves Saint Laurent, and Givenchy (which she wears). ‘I WAS TOTALLY SHOCKED HOW DIFFERENT HEC IS FROM MY EXPECTATIONS’ Whether one pursues a certificate or not, the MBA experience here is different on several levels. “I was totally shocked how different it is,” says Promiti Prosun, 26, a Canadian whose parents are from Bangladesh. Prosun did her bachelor’s degree in marketing at York University’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto and didn’t want to repeat her undergraduate experience.. “Coming from a cosmopolitan culture in Toronto I thought it would be a breeze to transition here,” she says. “But in North America, you have the expectation that people adapt and blend in. Here, there really is no one culture because it is so diverse. You have to be flexible. It goes to the way you speak and to how you act. Like most MBA programs, the work at HEC Paris is challenging. “If you cruise here, you get left behind,” says Jameel Zakkout, who did his undergrad at Université du Québec à Montréal and who graduates this year with his MBA. “It’s a humbling and challenging experience. I never have had to work so hard for an A.” Some students express surprise at how the global diversity of the program tends to overwhelm the school’s french roots. “You are not really in France in this building,” says Zakkout, who speaks French, English and Arabic fluently. Adds Yang: “It’s been a little bit of a struggle to immerse myself in the French language. Within the MBA building, it’s all English.” Yang is fluent in French and expects to land a job in luxury retailing in France when she graduates. She says she would have liked to take some electives in French but the entire MBA program is in English. Otherwise, the complaints are few and far between. Students say the bus schedule to Paris is horrible, the food on Sundays is not up to French standards, and they wish it was easier to get in tune with the French culture outside the school. “It’s hard to integrate in a foreign country,” says Senn. “France is very difficult.” A TRANSFORMATION THAT HAS TOUCHED EVERY ASPECT OF THE PLACE Little has been left untouched by the transformation, from the way candidates are admitted, to where they study and work, to how they land jobs. Admissions has been revamped so that applicants get a decision within five weeks of submitting their applications. In fact, candidates are told within three working days if their applications will move forward or if they will be cut. It’s a novel admissions process because the decisions are made by an eight-person jury that consists of Associate Dean Garrette, the academic director, a representative of the alumni and the faculty, and the directors of career management and admissions. There’s also the director of the Direction des Admissions et Concours, an independent body in charge of organizing and ensuring the quality and the integrity of the selection process for French business schools The president of the jury is a professor or dean from a different university who functions as a representative of the French ministry of higher education. To get the decision time down to just five weeks, Admissions Director Philippe Oster had to increase the size of the jury and ask it to meet monthly. When the jury meets, the deputy director in charge of development and the manager of the admissions Office are also present with their teams: they present the applications and answer questions but do not participate in the decision process. The president of the jury has the final word. THE GMAT IS ONE OF 17 CRITERIA ADMISSIONS USES TO ASSESS CANDIDATES The school receives about 1,200 applications annually, and applications are up 11% so far this year. Oster says he is especially looking for candidates with international exposure, leadership potential, career progression, and generally three plus years of professional experience. “The GMAT is only one of 17 criteria,” says Oster, who notes that the average for the latest entering class is 685. About half of the applicants go through two admission interviews done by a group of 400 alumni, and the yield—the percentage of admits who enroll—is between 60% and 70%. Do the math and it comes to an acceptance rate of about 25%. The MBA students study in a new and massive building with ten classrooms and six lecture theaters and 25 breakout rooms opened in June of 2012. Modern and sparse, Building S features gray concrete walls, wire grid ceilings that expose the building’s wiring and air conditioning ducts, and rooms that are often lit by metal shop lights. The design is not without its critics, given the industrial feel of the interior, but it is a first class facility. There is a formal career management center curriculum which brings students through a process of self-assessment, industry boot camps, and one-on-one coaching to assist in job searches. Somers divides the students up into two categories: Explorers and Hunters. About 80% of the students are not sure what they want to do,” he says. “They have a plan A and a plan B. A hunter is someone who knows he wants to be an investment banker or a consultant and is coming here to do that.” https://poetsandquants.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/HEC3.jpg CAREER BOOTCAMPS FOR STUDENTS If a student is interested in finance, the MBA candidate is taken through a mini-course on finance essentials, a careers-in-finance info session, a weekend-long bootcamp, where students learn how to craft a perfect CV for the industry, how to interview and what to expect in the culture of a financial service company. There is also financial modeling sessions and specific one-on-one interview training. In other words, what MBA students typically get at any world class business school is offered at HEC Paris. Increasingly, there is a greater emphasis on internships to help line up students with jobs. “We are dealing with a culture in which internships are undergraduate mechanisms and longer term, four to six months,” says Somers. “But I’m trying to make sure that participants have the same internship experience they would in a two-year program even though we are 16 months.” Somers says that more than 140 students in the Class of 2015 have landed internships and that 25% of those internships have been converted into full-time job offers. Besides the core curriculum and a full menu of more than 70 electives that can lead to one of five specializations—finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, leadership and strategy—or one of the certificate programs, there’s also three key events at HEC that help to define the MBA experience. The first is a two-day leadership seminar at Saint-Cyr Military Academy in Brittany, the French equivalent of West Point. where students don fatigues, navigate an obstruction course, and engage in leadership exercises with debriefs by French military officers. Thomas Maudet, who came to HEC from the French Defense Department, had to manage a crisis center that set up a refugee camp. ‘ONE OF THE MAIN CHALLENGES IS TO MAKE HEC PARIS MORE VISIBLE GLOBALLY’ Then there is the MBA Tournament, a student-run undertaking that has MBAs from all of Europe’s elite business schools competing in 23 different sporting events, from chess and foosball to soccer. The event attracts more than 1,300 MBA students. This past year, as co-president, Senn helped lead what everyone calls MBAT (pronounced M-BAT) and says she slept seven hours during the three days of the event. “It was only at HEC that I could have had this opportunity,” says Senn. “I am the youngest person in the program with the least amount of work experience. So the opportunity to run the tournament was a real growth experience for me.” Finally, every MBA student is required to do what HEC Paris calls a fieldwork project that addresses a strategic challenge for a company. MBA candidates–either individually or in teams of up to four students–do the project over one term, working in a company or sector closely linked to the student’s professional goals. Many business schools, of course, have similar projects but HEC even leave open the possibility that a project can be completed with a full-time job, an unusual twist. Where does HEC Paris go from here? It’s the question, admits Garrette, that keeps him awake at night. “One of the main challenges is to make HEC Paris more visible globally,” he says. “We need to let people from outside Europe, and sometimes outside France, know better about what we are and what we are doing here.” While HEC Paris hopes to build its reputation and the size of its full-time MBA program, it wants to do so carefully. “We do not want to grow too much and to become too ‘commercial’ because that would be incompatible with our ‘exclusive’ DNA,” says Garrette, who intends to better leverage the school’s powerful alumni network which has 75 chapters around the world. “We must enhance the visibility of HEC Paris by the business community in key international ‘hotspots.’” He especially calls out London, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Doha, Hong-Kong, and Shanghai. Africa, he believes, is the school’s next admissions and placement target. “An obvious reason is the economic take-off of some, if not all, African countries. The second reason is that HEC Paris’ French origin creates a competitive advantage in a large cluster of African countries. The HEC brand is already known and valued, we have some prominent alumni there and the potential is huge,” believes Garrette. “But in order to attract the best students that fit our philosophy, we must find ways to become more inclusive, facilitate funding and scholarships, without compromising selectivity. In other words, we must be socially inclusive while remaining intellectually exclusive.”

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Calling all HEC applicants (Sept 2015 intake) Class of 2017

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zat

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09 Dec 2014, 12:44

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Manali21

Hi, I am applying for Msc In Finance in HEC this year. All of my education has been in English. But my College Degree does not explicitly state English as the medium of the course. Do I need to take the English Exam or talk to the admission committee? Please suggest.

Hi Manali21,

You don't have to take a test for English. HEC will contact you in case they require an additional certificate from your college stating that the medium of teaching was English. For now, you don't need to submit anything extra.

binmahmood

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09 Dec 2014, 21:43

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Manali21

Hi Manali,

I suggest you get a letter from your college, signed by your director / dean or any other relevant person, stating that the medium of course was English. Upload a scan of this letter to your application portal. I believe this should speed up the process as otherwise Adcom will ask you for something later on and that will just increase the application review time.

Hope this helps.

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11 Dec 2014, 08:00

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FROM HEC Paris Admissions Blog: What it’s like interviewing the CEO of L’Oréal 1-on-1

As recent President of the General Management & Leadership Club, Vijay Tirumala (MBA.2015) has played an active role in helping develop his fellow students’ leadership skills by organizing various seminars, workshops and guest speakers. One of the highlights of the club is the CEO Speaker Series where some of Europe’s most influential leaders come to the HEC campus to talk with current students about their leadership experience.

In addition to this event, the club President interviews the CEO 1-on-1 and asks pointed questions on their views on leadership. This fall, Vijay got the opportunity to sit down with the Chairman and CEO of L’Oréal, Jean-Paul Agon. Below, he answers what it was like organizing the CEO Series event and meeting with such a prominent business figure.

—–

Why did you decide to preside over the General Management & Leadership club?

The General Management & Leadership club at HEC-Paris provides members with an excellent forum and platform to discuss the Art of Leadership in Business and Society. Most of the club members, including myself, are drawn to the objective of providing inspired leadership. By presiding over the GML Club, I wanted to focus the club activities by organizing events such as Leadership workshops and simulations that ideally compliment the St. Cyr Off-Campus Leadership Seminar.

More importantly, the opportunity to work closely with Dean Bernard Garrette and Virginia Sartoretti at the Career Management Center taught me and my colleague, Dominic Taylor – Vice President (GML), the importance of effectively managing time, resources, and building successful alliances across campus.

How was it organizing the CEO Series event featuring Jean-Paul Agon?

It was as exciting as it was challenging. Exciting because as the CEO of L’Oreal, Jean-Paul Agon needs no introduction, least of all at HEC Paris – his alma mater. He was kind to spend the evening and share his experiences and Leadership journey with us.

Challenging because we had to pool together all the resources available at HECParis to organize the event. Usually, CEO Speaker Series attendees are between 200 – 300. For Jean-Paul Agon, we had 700+ interested attendees in a short-span of 1 hour. We reserved three large auditoria on campus just to meet the demand and telecast the event on screens for those who couldn’t find seats in the main auditorium. Handling the logistics was a feat in itself and three cheers to the HEC Logistics team for quickly adapting to our changing demands at short notice.

What was it like being able to sit down 1-on-1 with the CEO of L’Oréal?

Incredible. I had the opportunity to spend 15 minutes with him 1-on-1 to learn about what constitutes Leadership from his personal point of view. You will see from his responses in the video below that Leadership is also a calling and aspiration alone is not enough. One needs to find the source of strength within oneself to sustain the lifelong journey along a challenging path not unlike a roller coaster.

How do you think this experience will help you in your future career?

As an engaged member of the HEC Paris community, Jean-Paul Agon clearly set a high bar for all of us to aspire to. Observing the way Mr. Agon conducted himself throughout the event and the way he engaged every single member of HEC’s reception team before and after the event, spoke volumes about his commitment to the school and the community. But if there is one takeaway for my future career, it would be the courage Jean-Paul Agon summoned to lead L’Oreal Americas in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001.

—–

Watch the entire interview with Jean-Paul Agon below:

The post What it’s like interviewing the CEO of L’Oréal 1-on-1 appeared first on HEC MBA Blog.

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maggay

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18 Dec 2014, 08:10

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Hi guys,

First time here..anyone is applying Msc Sustainability and Social Innovation?

Anyone can give me an idea the requirement for GRE score? Esp. the quantitative part? I am no good at maths so while I am drilling it I just wonder whether I can make it..

I met with the Development Manager last month and she saw my CV (Arts Bachelor from a reputable university and 8 years of relevant working experience) and she said my CV definitely appeals to the panel (though my GPA sucks but she said GPA won't matter much in this case...?)

I recently completed an Executive Certificate on CSR with a Distinction so i hope it will at least help a little.

Hope to find some fellow applicants as well so we can share our journey! I am aiming to do GRE in Feb so that I can apply the Mar/Apr Intake....if not then maybe next year, BUT this is the course that I want to be in! So I definitely will do my best......

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19 Dec 2014, 08:00

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FROM HEC Paris Admissions Blog: Forming lifelong bonds: The Partners’ Club

For even the most seasoned traveler, relocating to a new country to study can be daunting, but moving abroad to be with your partner can present a whole host of different challenges. It was with these challenges in mind that the HEC Paris MBA Partners’ Club was set up, providing an instant network of friends, activities, and resources to help partners and children in their transition into life on campus and in France.

The Club not only helps partners acclimatize to HEC Paris life, they want to make sure that the partners make the most of their time spent in France. By organizing regular meals, social events, and trips, this informal network provides a way for MBA partners to share interests and explore everything that Jouy-en-Josas, Versailles, and Paris have to offer.

With each MBA intake, the club says goodbye to outgoing members and welcomes a new group of students and partners, and a new President and Treasurer is elected. Club members meet weekly to organize upcoming events and trips, including dinners, excursions, and getting involved in on-campus events, such as the recent Cultural Weeks. This term they have been cooking up a storm, their first food stall event proved such a resounding success that it sold out within an hour, leaving students and staff demanding more. Happy to oblige, they prepared delicacies from their home countries for a second time, giving MBA students and staff the chance to get a taste of an array of different cuisines, including but not limited to: Indian, Japanese, Russian, Vietnamese, and American.

We sat down to talk to some of this intake’s Partners about their experiences both on and off-campus. All of them agreed that being a member of the Club made the transition into HEC Paris life much easier, and that having a pre-existing network ready to welcome them on campus took a load off their minds. For those living on campus in Jouy-en-Josas, the opinion was unanimous: there’s a real sense of community. One partner really appreciated the change in pace – “it’s a calm, tranquil environment, having previously lived in Jakarta, it’s a welcome break being here for the year.” Those with young families were keen to add that the calm environment is ideal: “My children are good friends with the MBA students!” That being said, many also spoke about how exciting it was to be so close to Paris, “some of us go regularly for French lessons, but we always try to organize some excursions in the capital, so that we can all experience it together.”

Needless to say, being a member of the Partners’ Club “family” is a great opportunity, where members develop a solid circle of friends, with a network and memories that often last a lifetime.

The post Forming lifelong bonds: The Partners’ Club appeared first on HEC MBA Blog.

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27 Dec 2014, 08:00

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FROM HEC Paris Admissions Blog: Student Voices: The Forté Foundation Scholarship

Giovanna Santaniello is the former Women in Leadership Club President, and recipient of the Forté Foundation Scholarship. The HEC Paris MBA Program awards this scholarship to exceptional women who have demonstrated exemplary leadership skills, and a commitment to women via personal mentorship or community involvement. The aim of the scholarships is to improve leadership opportunities for women in business.

“I have always considered women’s economic empowerment as a driving force for the achievement of not only gender equality, but also of overall economic growth and poverty reduction. Before joining the HEC Paris MBA Program, I worked in Egypt for four years, where I put my expertise in the areas of financial and advisory services to use in supporting companies and female entrepreneurs.

At HEC Paris I started consider gender diversity from a new perspective. This time, it was focused on business and leadership rather than on women’s empowerment as a means for development. Receiving the Forté Foundation scholarship has encouraged me to continue to contribute to the efforts of the organization to improve leadership opportunities for women in business. I’m convinced that, at a business level, diversity is a critical factor in improving not just the quality of a company’s leadership and decision making, but also its overall financial, environmental, social, and governance performance, and ultimately, the company’s sustainability.

In my future career in the corporate world, I will aim to balance the current emphasis on short-term profit maximization with a broader focus on long-term sustainability goals. Being part of the Forté Foundation’s network of current and prospective women business leaders will help me to achieve these goals.”

Giovanna Santaniello, HEC Paris MBA, Class of 2015

What is it like to be a student at HEC Paris MBA? Student Voices is a student contributed section where current students share their first-hand experiences of life on campus and beyond.

The post Student Voices: The Forté Foundation Scholarship appeared first on HEC MBA Blog.

Ajinkya87

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28 Dec 2014, 06:24

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Hello everyone,

First time here and applying for Fall '15. My major concern is I am very late in applying to this one. Should I give a shot or is it better to defer my application?

Thanks in advance.

binmahmood

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29 Dec 2014, 03:21

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Ajinkya87

Hi Ajinkya87,

In my opinion, go for it. If you get something like a wait-list decision, you can always ask them to defer to January intake and that might increase your chances.

Ajinkya87

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29 Dec 2014, 11:34

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Thanks binmahmood.

I wish there was a way to find out the number of seats still vacant

zat

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03 Jan 2015, 19:11

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The Most & Least Selective International Business Schools

HEC Paris MBA is the most selective MBA Program in Europe:
https://poetsandquants.com/2015/01/03/th ... schools/2/

Manali21

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08 Jan 2015, 21:23

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Hi, I am applying for MIF and MIM for the March session. Just a quick question.
Does it matter which session you apply for? Do I have lesser chances of getting selected if I apply for a later cycle than Jan 2015?

rahulwins

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09 Jan 2015, 08:55

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Hi guys... Got Admit for HEC Sept 2015 intake just now. Happy. :-D

Backgnd info: My profile is 6.5 years exp in oil & gas - Maintenance and projects.

zat

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09 Jan 2015, 15:59

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rahulwins

Hi guys... Got Admit for HEC Sept 2015 intake just now. Happy. :-D

Backgnd info: My profile is 6.5 years exp in oil & gas - Maintenance and projects.

Hi rahulwins,

Congratulations and welcome on board!
Enjoy as much as you can till September. After that you're going to be really busy for the next 16 months. :-D

zat

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09 Jan 2015, 16:23

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Manali21

It depends. In a year when the school receives really high quality applications in the initial months, the selection committee might admit a higher number of applicants and the next few rounds become highly competitive as very few seats are available.
On the other hand, if they do not receive quality applications in the first few rounds, the school might select only a few cadidates and competition may not be so fierce in the next few rounds due to availability of more seats.
Noone can tell in which round you will have better "chances" as the quality of applications in each round is random. Just concentrate on submitting a great application. If your application is better than the others in that round, you will be selected. Although both MiM and MiF are highly competitive, it all depends on how good your individual application is. So just give it your best shot.

pdl0312

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09 Jan 2015, 19:43

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Hi - Got an admit last night after a 2 month waitlist!. Is there a Facebook/Whatsapp group for admits?

Stan17

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10 Jan 2015, 00:29

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pulkitlambah

Hi - Got an admit last night after a 2 month waitlist!. Is there a Facebook/Whatsapp group for admits?

Congrats Pulkit! Patience well rewarded!

Guys, confirmation from a waitlist at this time.
Can it mean less number of applicants than expected at the HEC?

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10 Jan 2015, 01:20

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pulkitlambah

Hi - Got an admit last night after a 2 month waitlist!. Is there a Facebook/Whatsapp group for admits?

Congrats Pulkit! Patience well rewarded!

Guys, confirmation from a waitlist at this time.
Can it mean less number of applicants than expected at the HEC?

Not at all. In fact the number of applications is much higher this year.
Here is how the wait list at HEC works. If the school likes your application but is unsure whether to accept or not due to some reason, they put you on the waitlist. The application is then evaluated again along with all the applications received in the next round and is reviewed just like the other applications. If the jury finds the application interesting compared to the other applicants in that round, they admit the candidate.

zat

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10 Jan 2015, 01:27

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pulkitlambah

Hi - Got an admit last night after a 2 month waitlist!. Is there a Facebook/Whatsapp group for admits?

Congratulations Pulkit!
There is an official Facebook group which is managed by the MBA Council. Make sure you link your topapply account (used for your HEC application) to Facebook. You will receive an invite to join the group soon.
Whatsapp group can be created by anyone in your Intake as there is no official group for that.

pdl0312

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10 Jan 2015, 05:34

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Thanks guys. Have already linked my FB account to topapply, hoping to get the invite soon. Any idea about criteria for Excellence scholarships - is it solely acads & majorly GMAT Score?