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MBADilemma2010
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Duke vs. Oxford? 28 Mar 2010, 02:33
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I have been very lucky to be admitted to both schools. I am an Asian living in west Europe in the last several years. I work for a Fortune 500 as a software engineer. Both my wife and I are free to work in Europe, but not in US.

Regarding my career goal, I am interested in strategy consulting, but also open to finance if possible. I hope to return back to Asia post-MBA, but don't mind working in UK or US for a couple of years.

Pro. of Oxford: 1. Close to London. 2. One year program(tution + net income loss ~ 100k USD) 3. My family is nearby 4. Both I and my wife don't need work permit working in UK.
Con. of Oxford: It doesn't seem to provide as many opportunities as Duke Fuqua does (plz correct me if I am wrong). And as far as I know, the job placements in last two years were not good. Even in the best years, very few Asian SAID graduates got jobs in IB or MC.

Pro. of Duke: 1. Better reputation and alumni network in my asian country. 2. Excellent Healthcare program (I happen to work in the area, although as an engineer) 3. More opportunities for international students in US than UK? I see more Asian Fuqua graduates got good jobs than SAID graduates do.
Con. of Duke: 1. Both my wife and I need permits to work in US. That means my wife has to become a housewife if she will move with me, unless she goes for a US degree too.
2. Two-year program. tuition + net income loss between 200K USD(me alone) and 300K USD (if my wife stays with me in US for 2 years)

Questions:
1. Please criticize if my analysis of Pros and Cons are wrong.
2. Does anyone know the job placements for international students of Oxford MBA 2009 or Duke MBA 2010? Thank you
3. Any subjective or objective comments are sincerely welcome!
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InCaseYouAsked
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Duke vs. Oxford? 28 Mar 2010, 04:17
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I say Duke - heard the Dean speak yesterday (at Blue Devil Weekend) and he spoke at length about the Kunshan campus (near Shanghai) that the school is building and the partnerships the school is building with China/India. There were a ton of Asian students there (Dean said Duke has 2nd highest # of int'l students for top biz programs) also. Check with some of the current int'l students and ask them about they're reasons for choosing Duke - also see if you can find any with partners that came with them and how they were able to find work, I'm pretty certain there will be several folks coming from a background very similar to yours.

Best of luck! Tough choices, but good choices to have.

:)
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asimov
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Duke vs. Oxford? 29 Mar 2010, 08:57
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1. It all depends on where you would like to work. If you want to work in the US post-MBA, you should go to Fuqua; if you want to work in Europe, you should go to Said. US work authorization is pretty hard to come by, even then only you will be sponsored to work, and your wife will not be able to work.
2. Fuqua’s international student placement is pretty good. You can check out Fuqua’s employment stats. Typically, the international students command slightly lower salary than domestic students.
3. Oxford has a stronger overall brand in East Asia (I don’t know much about other parts of Asia), but I am not sure about how strong the MBA brand is. I do know that Fuqua is working hard to create inroads abroad. It has campus in Russia, Middle East, and building a campus in China (KunShan). Fuqua also has a huge number of international students from all parts of the world (especially strong Indian and Chinese population), as mentioned by InCaseYouAsked. So in the long run, Fuqua may have stronger alumni network abroad.