Calling all Manchester(MBA) Applicants: (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!

FROM Manchester MBA Blog: Welcome to Class 2015

Having reviewed all of their applications I do feel that I know many of Class 2015 already and indeed I have already met members of Class 2015 at selection events over the last 12 months.  However, I am looking forward to meeting all of Class 2015 face to face tomorrow morning. As always we have made some changes to the curriculum this year.  By popular demand Francis Chittenden and Malcolm Smith’s Negotiations classes have been moved to a separate course starting in January 2014.  This will mean that all of Class 2015 will have the challenge of competing in the European Business Plan of the Year competition.  Bruce Tether’s innovation classes are to become part of the UK Consultancy Project and Rudolf Sinkovics’ International Business classes will be delivered as part of the International Business Project. However, for the next 4 weeks Class 2015 will be engaged in the MBA Induction programme. The MBA Induction allows the class to get to know each other, the MBS MBA team and the great city that is Manchester. To encourage the class to explore the city it has become something of a tradition that I issue a challenge – The Director’s Challenge.  So, I want to know who this is a statue of, what has made the individual depicted in the stature so ‘excited’ and where it resides. Hopefully someone from Class 2015 will email me with the answer within the next 36 hours.  There will be a small prize for the winner who I will announce at the Drinks Reception at 5.30pm tomorrow evening. best wishes Professor Elaine Ferneley MBA Director

FROM Manchester MBA Blog: European Private Equity Competition – So close

The below post is an extract from my personal blog. Please visit www.mbamanchester.com for more insight on my MBA experience. _______________________________________________________________________ Second Place. Again. The Manchester MBA’s team have just returned from the Rotterdam School of Management’s European Private Equity Competition and, as seems to be the recurring theme in my MBA, finished second to the hosts by one judge’s vote at the final stage. Again, the feeling of “what might have been” is gnawing at my insides but is mollified somewhat by the knowledge that multiple finishes in the Champions League positions is at least a sign of consistent performance. Even the great Matt Busby had to finish second four times before winning his first league title at Manchester United. The RSM competition simulates the thought process of a Private Equity firm but in a fraction of the time that they have. On the Monday of the week we were given a brief detailing a company that the Private Equity house were considering. We then had 48 hours to rip through the numbers and strategy to decide whether the PE house should buy the company, what they should do with it, how much they should pay for it, who they could sell it onto and how much money they could make. This had to be distilled into a two page document and a short slide deck that was presented to the professional judges on the Saturday in Amsterdam. In Action during the Final Round The preparation process was certainly intense. An M&A in (almost) a day if you will. Our brief was for a deal in 2004 so we had to put ourselves in pre-financial crisis mode when banks were making crazy loans for leverage buyouts. The difficulty was keeping our heads in that year and not putting our knowledge of what happened during the crash into our solution. Finals day began with the teams being split into three groups and presenting in front of a small panel of judges. Following victory in our group stage we progressed to the final where all three teams were simultaneously grilled by the full eleven man jury. Our interrogation went well and we successfully batted away the probing questions that came our way. Off the back of this we were pretty hopeful going into the announcement but it didn’t quite go our way. Rotterdam had also made a solid case and the judges went for them by a majority of one. Still, we could take consolation in finishing as the top UK team in the competition and the beers in central Amsterdam that evening dulled a little of the disappointment. It’s unlikely that I’ll participate any more competitions during the remainder of my MBA but, following the multiple second places (with our victory in SVCIC being the honourable exception) you can be sure that I’d rather crash and burn spectacularly in the preliminary rounds than miss out by a whisker again.

Admitted with scholarship!

Anyone else?

Congratulations on your admit!

Feel free to contact if you have any questions regarding the school, the city, course.

Id be happy to help!

Nitish

Thank you, Nitish!

Did you take the Foundation in Business and English course? What can you tell me about it?

Hey,
I did not take the foundation course but some people did. I think people from latin america generally do it as it covers mainly English and other basics of MBA.
An added advantage of taking the course is that you arrive in Manchester early, which helps you get an accommodation easily and at a cheaper price.
So I think it is a personal choice, i believe the admission team would send you the curriculum of the course, if you feel you are comfortable with all those subjects then there is no need to join.
Hope that helps!

Nitish

Thank you!

And talking about accomodation... It seems like the regular ensuite rooms at the halls are really small... Are you staying at one of their halls? What do you think? And what about the deluxe room at George Kenyon? Is a studio rent in a walking distance from the school much more expensive than staying in one of their halls?

Hi, apologies for the late response.
I donot stay in a student hall and not many people from the class do and one of the reason for that is that they are small.
George Kenyon is really close to the school so you can consider that(few from our class also live there)
Most people generally rent an apartment and share it with one of their classmates.
There are alot of apartments around the school(walking distance) but they go off the market very quickly so you have to plan accordingly.

Hope that helps!

Nitish

Received admission offer from MBS!

Hi All,

Received admit with scholarship.

I really want a general picture about UK visas (especially once the course is over) and job scenario, since I have been receiving conflicting opinions regarding UK being a study/job destination. Can any current/past/prospective student share some light on this matter?

Thanks.

I've been interacting with MBS 2016 class students and they had a very impressive result on internships this year (more than 90% got these) and some have already received a full time offer for when they graduate ( I guess one got from McKinsey and another from Amazon - had to be sponsored a work visa for sure-, maybe there are more with such offers, I don't know).
They say it was pretty much because the economy is getting better in the UK and companies were offering many job positions.
I guess this may be a good indicator about UK visas and economy. But no one can guarantee the same result next year...

Hi Bruna,

Thanks for sharing the info.

Actually I have interacted a couple of guys who are pursuing MBA/working in different parts of the world (Europe, UK, USA), and they seemed concerned about the stringent visa policies and difficult job scenario in the UK. Anyway. You are the first one to share something positive.

Also, is there any portal to contact the current students? The MBS website doesn't seem to have any mail IDs of those currently pursuing MBA.

Thanks and regards,
Abhilash

Well, I think like every job search, it depends on the candidate's efforts.
My sister did her Masters in the UK and was sponsored by her employer. This was in 2013, just after the visa change and in the middle of the crisis.
So it is possible... maybe not as easy as it used to be, but it is.

I started looking for MBS Alumni and Students at LinkedIn, but then the ADCOM gave me a list of contacts from my country. I guess you can just ask them for this info. But LinkedIn is a great tool, you can search for people in your country, industry, dream company, etc..

Regards,
niddy

Hey Guys,
No doubt the job scenario in UK is tough but it is not as gloomy as people make it look. As niddy said the 2016 guys had a record breaking internship season and many already have a full time offer. The 2015 also have an excellent full time statistics and many of them got sponsorships here. With time more and more companies are sponsoring students because they are starting to realise it is not as difficult as it seems. Another thing that needs to be considered here is the industry you are looking for. Because some are going through a bad time while others are not, so that also plays a very important role. I would say that the current market is very good and alot of companies are coming to campus as well. The career services at MBS are actually doing a pretty amazing job in this. If you have specific questions regarding carreers, you should ask the admissions team to connect you with someone in Career services to get a better picture.
Also,if you guys want to interact with the students from 2016,2017 Linkedin is the best option, but make sure you write in the request that you are a perspective student and want to know more about the school. I am pretty sure the admissions team would also get you connected with some students.

This thread is slow! I just submitted my application. Anyone else submitting in these days?

Me I too. I just submitted.

I submitted my application in stage 2 and I have an interview at the end of this week. Does anyone on here have any advice on the MBS interview?