ESADE Business School

vgeri I'll add you to the LBS roll call thread.

Hello vgeri, thanks for your response! I love to travel but at the moment I feel undecided the location where I want to be after getting my MBA. I am also interested in Oxford (Said) or Cambridge (Judge) for European programs. I do know what career I want to pursue: management consulting. I wouldn't mind staying in Spain for a bit but I hear that unless your Spanish is pretty fluent it is difficult to obtain a position. My real desire to attend ESADE is being in another country for the short term and learning the language/culture. Not sure if that will be good enough reason to get my MBA when I have to think about my job prospects after.

Here's details of my profile: https://gmatclub.com/forum/advice-on-choosing-where-to-apply-based-on-my-profile-86089.html
I will have about 7.5 years at matriculation (almost 4 as a manager). Let me know your thoughts! By the way, where are you located and what is your current industry/ job function? Good luck with your apps! I should be done by mid December : )

beckee, I checked out your profile on the other thread. I think you have a realistic chance with ESADE. Your WEx is clearly very strong, with good leadership and international experience. Gmat is on the lower end, but still within range for ESADE (80% range is 600-750). I think Judge may be tricky as I believe they are quite keen on a high score.
ESADE seem to be keen on North American applicants - if you ace your essays you should have strong overall package!

My prof: I have 5yrs WE, past 3 in management consulting, based in London. Lots of international experience and leadership roles. Post-MBA goal is to go into industry in business development (and later) general managerial function.

Hello Everyone,

it great to see a post on ESADE Business School. I have applied to the school in the first round and i had an interview on Monday 01. november on the Phone for about 40-50 mins long. It was a good interview i think, but still nervous on what is going to happen.

Vgeri when is your interview? good luck for it though and i believe it would be the better interview experiences you will have as they really make you feel at ease.

I think ESADE is a great school and its very personalized compared to some other programs out there or atleast i have so experienced till now. They have a very flexible program which meets the needs for both young professionals and professionals with more than the average work experience.

There is not much u can say about barcelona! I think nothing can beat that in terms of location for and MBA. Have read great things about ESADE and barcelona on ex-students blogs.

hey bajargyan! welcome to the roll call - that makes two of us in R1 for now!

so how did your interview go? what kind of questions did they ask you? did they tell you how long it'll take before they make a decision? good luck with the whole process mate!!

my interview is tomorrow! i'm so busy at work I had barely any time to prepare. it's nice to hear you had a pleasant experience. mine will be a face-to-face.

couldn't agree with you more re the experience with the school so far - seems very friendly, personal, but professional!

good luck with your interview! let us know how it went

Hello Vergi

The Questions she asked were as follows:
1. Why european schools (i am applying to only european schools hence the question)
2. Why MBA and Why esade.
3. A situational question " in esade teamwork is of imporance and your grades are dependent on the team's perfromance, having said that how would you deal with a situation where some of the team members are not pulling their weight"
4. Where would you want to work post MBA
5. How did you land your job? how do you get customer leads.
6. how would i contribute to ESADE MBA class?

other questions were with my background and stuff. there was no mention of my gmat which is in the mid 600 and the interviewer wanted to know more about me as a person. I got positive feedback on the questions i had asked the admission director and also on the overall i was told i am very focused.

but the final decision will be made by the admission committee and it can go either way.

Good luck with your application and hopefully you would do great!

Thanks for your input bajargyan!

hey guys, quick debrief of my interview today

bajargyan - first of all, thank you for your post! i havent had time to reply, but i did see your comments before my interview, and they were very helpful!

I had a pleasant interview as well, my interviewer was very nice and made sure I was at ease. i had the usual questions as well:
- take me through your CV (spent around 5-10min here)
- what do I want to after MBA and why
- why ESADE
- what will I contribute to the programme
- some situational questions - like tell me about a time when you didn't achieve what you wanted. even though this is a really standard question, I drew a blank here and my eventual response wasn't the best. i feel a bit disappointed about that
- finally I could ask some questions, and in the end she explained next steps in the process

overall very nice experience, and I will have a decision in about two weeks. she also made sure to tell me that she wasn't making the decision, but 'represent me in front of the adcom'. now i'm just hoping for the best!

hi guys,

I received an offer from ESADE yesterday... I interviewed with them at their open-day on the 30st of October, the whole day was a great experience and I am very impressed. I had about the same interview questions, even though I also had to do a short case study. This was basically a text with a couple of questions like summarize it, would you invest in this business, how would you market and sell it, what is the target market... so quite easy stuff...

about my profile: I studied biology in switzerland, did my phd in roche (pharma) and am now working at kings college in research... I got 3 years work experience (as a scientist), but have got very clear plans why I want to do an MBA and so on. GMAT I scored 710 and my academics are quite strong; I speak german, english, french and some italian.

I also applied to LBS and got an invitation for an interview... however, I am running into a problem here: ESADE wants my decision (and 8000 euros deposit) until november 27th, whereas LBS will only communicate their decision on december 16th... so what can I do? ask ESADE about an extension (which they obviously not gonna like as they want to be 1st choice)? the thing is that I really like ESADE and its feel: the people are great, the admin officers amazing and I was impressed by the level of personal interaction between professors, students and career service... students seem to see each other not as competitors which is great. however, I haven't made my mind up what I would do if I would get an offer from LBS as well since it is one of the top schools worldwide... but keeping both options open would only be reasonable I think, but I don't know how to handle this timing/deadline issue... has anyone got a suggestion or has had similar experiences?

any thoughts welcome

thanks

hey andygee, welcome to the thread!

first of all: congratulations for your admit - that's fantastic!
it's really nice to hear you had a good feel for the school too at the open day.

second: that's a really tough call mate, and I definitely symphatise with you. I feel like I might be in your shoes pretty soon: I only applied with 2 schools, ESADE and LBS. I'd be really happy with either of those. I had an interview with ESADE this week, and got an invite from LBS. I don't want to get ahead of myself, as I'm far from being accepted anywhere yet, BUT - certainly crossed my mind what will I do if I get an offer and acceptance deadline is before LBS decision date....

I'd like to help you, but I am short of ideas myself. I guess you might have two options: either try to extend ESADE deadline, or try get an earlier decision from LBS after your interview. I don't know if that is possible at all, as they might want to make all decisions simultaneously. The advantage is that you could say 'you are my definite first choice, can you give me an early decision so I can turn down my second choice which already accepted me' rather than going to ESADE and say: 'well I'm happy with the offer but waiting for another one to come in, can you stick it out...?' But at the same time, ESADE obviously want you, and might be willing to extend for another 2 weeks?

I have a feeling this is a common problem for many, just with other schools involved - have you tried searching the forum for this topic? If not, I would post a new topic asking about decision deadlines specifically. There is so much great advice here, I'm sure you will learn somthing!

Other than that, it might be worth really thinking through what you want. Yes, LBS is a top school, but so is ESADE. You might be able to make a decision based on all your experiences in Barcelona? I see you're based in London - maybe go for a drop in, and see if you like the place as much as you did ESADE. You might be able to make up your mind without having to wait for their decision?

anyway, good luck with your decisions, and the LBS interview! it seems we might end up same place next year?

hello andygee

Congrats!! on your offer...i am still waiting on the final result... quite nervous...as for me ESADE is the first choice... your profile is really impressive and i don't think there was anything that would have given you away to the adcom......anyhow..going on to your dilemma...here's what i think:

From the experience i have had so far i believe MBA programs are aware that students apply to various schools and its normal for student to wait for results from couple of other schools. Just as the admission officer's says you should not wait on just one school.. i think they would not mind if you would like to ask for an extension...If you really would like to wait for LBS..then you should just ask them for an extension...

Congrats once again...and good luck with your LBS application...

i am certainly no expert in the field, but just wanted to say that I was at an ESADE info event last week, and the presenter specifically said they are not keen on extending the decision deadlines.

the best approach might be to give your admissions contact an informal call (I assume you have a good relationship with him/her after the whole process) and explain the situation. If you do it nicely, i dont think it can hurt, and worst case scenario is that she says 'sorry, i understand, but we have a policy of not extending'. But they will definitely not revoke you admit or anything like that!

hi guys,

thanks a lot for your help. I think the suggestion to try to make an decision based on your experiences with the respective schools is very good. I did go to an information evening at LBS and it confirmed two things: LBS is an amazing school, however it is very big and you won't be able to establish such a close relationship with the professors as it will be possible at ESADE. You also won't be able to get to know all the other students. It really depends on what you prefer.

however, I did some research on the deadline extension topic and there are a couple of threads. I can't post the link as it won't let me, but just look for deposit deadline extension.

there is a number of people who have got the same problem... most people suggest to pay the deposit and then withdraw. however, this is not an option at ESADE as the deposit is 8000 euros! other people suggest to ask the admin officers nicely for an extension. I think this is my best option, even though I will be a bit worried of spoiling my relationship with the admin team, but this is a risk that I will have to take I guess. you would think though that such a great school as ESADE will understand that you apply to more than one school. as you said, the lovely admin officer of ESADE pointed out that they are not keen on extending the deadlines (the event you mentioned was at the mba center, finsbury square... right? ) do you think I should give them a call or send an e-mail?

I will also e-mail LBS on monday and ask if the interview and decision communication process can be sped up. I believe it won't be possible as I think they like to stick to their announced deadlines, but it is worth a try...

I will keep you posted

andygee - that was finsbury square indeed!

I agree that best option is ask nicely for extension - personally, I would go for a phone call. Have a little chit-chat, explain how thrilled you are with the offer, and then explain how you want to make a decision once you have full info on your other application. you will get a much better feel for her reaction. just maybe prepare a few positive ways of closing the conversation depending on what she answers...

good luck and keep us posted!!

guys, have you got any news?

andygee, have you tried asking for a deadline extension?

bajargyan - are you still waiting for your result?

hey vgeri

Yea i am still waiting for the result..haven't heard anything from them yet.. it will probably be coming any day now and its really getting to me.. how about you? is there any news ??