ESADE Business School

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

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...

hello guys! nice to see some activity on the thread! i'll get back to some of the comments in a moment, but first my experience from the open day:

The two days in Bcn were great, and I have made a decision:

I am moving to Spain next year and will be attending ESADE!

Here are some of my observations from the open day, and my key reasons for the decision:
- the school was impressive. the building is not the newest out there, but still very good facilities throughout. has a cool rooftop terrace with a cafe and a great view of Bcn, mountains and the sea!
- people were fantastic. the students I met were all extremely friendly and nice, and impressive at the same time. quite a few people from both South and North America. admissions and careers staff were, as I experienced already, extremely friendly as well
- had a sample lecture and the prof was impressive, really funny, and held a great class. kept on calling on people, and there was a good class interaction (these were all applicants & some partners)
- Bcn was great, really cool city, and the weather was awesome (20 degrees C, blue sky, some people were even swimming in the sea when we went to the beach...)

Overall I feel that I will definitely enjoy Esade more than I would LBS, based on my experience with the school, staff, students, and the cities in question (I live in London at the moment). In addition, learning Spanish is a major ambition for me, and my gf and I might consider remaining in Spain after the mba if we like it. For these I am willing to give up the prestige of LBS and probably better career opportunities within the UK market. I also feel that at Esade I will build a smaller, but potentially stronger networks of alumni/friends for the future.

So good luck to all applicants out there, and andygee, bajargyan - we're class mates from next year!

cesque, i spoke to a lot of current students, and a few alumni as well. everyone speaks very highly of the school, with the collaborative team work, close relationships, very diverse class/groups being the key returning themes in general. the students I've met were extremely nice - just genuinely friendly, intelligent people.

earlier today, i just spoke on the phone with an alum whose contact details were given to me by my admin officer. he was a graduate of '05, works in london in finance, obviously quite busy - still he was happy to take some time and talked to me for 15mins about the school, was really enthusiastic, and he said (without any prompt from me) that for him the key points about Esade were:
- people were modest and teamwork oriented
- class was extremely international
- liked the teaching methodology of not only cases but also theory/classes
- really liked that the programme was small, and he made many strong friendships
- overall had a fantastic experience

it sounded like a brochure or the website, but its quite genuine from someone graduated there four years ago and saying these things from memory - i was definitely sold

Thanks andygee

I just joined that group. look forward to meeting you guys there!

hi blinknow, welcome to the thread, and congratulations on your interview invite!!

i'll respond to your pm here as might be useful for others too. if you look earlier in the thread, you can find my and others' interview debriefs. as all have said, you can expect a relaxed interview aimed at getting to know you as a person. in terms of preparation, you can always expect questions about your work exp, why mba, and your post-mba plans. rather than preparing for specific questions, the best is to have a complete, logical story of how your past experiences, and the mba at Esade, will combined put you in a very strong place for opportunities xyz. you have to know your story inside out for the interview, and then you wont have problems answering any specific questions. remember that the admissions officers at Esade are also the career services people, so they'll be thinking how easily they'll find a job for you if they admit you. so show strong passion for what you're trying to achieve, but also some flexibility (good to have a 'plan b' if things might not work out as you planned). you also should have some specific points about Esade that you like, not only generic stuff, to show your 'love' and commitment for the school.
apart from that, you will most likely have some questions about how you work in a team, and how you lead people. so certainly prepare a few good examples of difficult team-work situations, times when things went wrong, times when you had to show strong leadership, how you dealt with those situations and what you learned from them.
as i said the interviews are quite relaxed but preparing for these questions will certainly help to make you more confident and put you at ease.

enjoy the preparation and best of luck for the interview!

Hi guys,

I had my interview on 22 December with an adcom member over the phone and I wanted to share my experience with those that still have to do an interview.

Just as everyone here that has been through it confirms, it was a pleasant experience, quite casual yet it was obvious that my interviewer was strictly following a pre-mapped question-route. We started with a 'walk me through your resume, giving attention to each milestone and the reasoning behind your key decisions." This took a good 25 min as I had to zoom in on things like - why this undergrad University, city, company; core business of my employer, my direct responsibilities and objectives. At one point I had questions such as "how did your employer react when you left the company?" and "Why did you leave the company you co-founded, what would your partners back then say about you should we ask them now?" All in all we studied my resume in depth.

Following, the focus shifted to my proffessional aspirations and the MBA role in my career gameplan. I have a good reason for applying to ESADE just as many of you do and I used this opportunity to tie my answers to the school's USP's. I had an interesting question here: what do you expect to be the most difficult thing for you during the MBA at ESADE. A good question which I had not thought of before so I asked for a few secs to put my thoughts together - the interviewer was patient and understanding at that time and throughout. The other good question I thought was the one about my alternative post MBA job (in case my first choice falls through). Other questions included 3 strengths / 3 weaknesses, personal contribution to the programme, etc. but nothing that can catch you off guard after a good prep. If you don't have time for a comprehensive prep, my suggestion is to write down your entry- and closing sentence to each standard questions. When the question comes up that will serve you as an anchor and keep you at the mark.

We closed the interview on what would be the two unique characteristics that the adcom could use should they wish to introduce me to the new MBA class. Having a two-liner ready that recaps on the overall marketing message in your application may help you end on a strong note.

that said, my own verdict is probably being signed as I type this. I hope my debrief has been as helpful to some as others' have been to me. Good luck!

best,
daniel

Hey guys, I got some bad new and good news. I didn't make it to ESADE. The good news is that I got a final admit from HEC. So I've decided to go to HEC!

Good luck everyone on your applications and scholarships. Hopefully I'll get to meet some of you during the HEC MBAT

-cesque

Hi all
Had my interview in Sgpore yesterday....

The admit comm lady was really friendly and the interview was more like a casual conversation...
Case Study component:
There was a case study in the beginning on business model for a leading cafe house...and what should be done to bring about change/improve business model...quite easy..
just prepare your slides well..and neat...and follow structure when replying...

Actual interview:
The actual interview was more on a recap of the resume...and why MBA now? was a bit surprised as was told tat the essays are clear enough on why MBA..and why ESADE...

I am more than ever convinced now that ESADE is the right fit for me.
Hopefully there will be good news...

ciao

Just for the record - I did actually secure an internship, albeit unpaid and slightly less sexy than some of my classmates (2009), it was an internship nonetheless. Part of the issue with my class was not just the economy, but Dell actually came in and sweet talked about thirteen or so of us into thinking we had internships, and it wasn't until about a month before summer began when they finally ceased all communication with us and the school and we realized we really didn't have an internship with them afterall. Prior to that I was left to believe I was heading to Bratislava or Dublin, turned out I had to reach into my bag of tricks and make the most of my summer - which I did by offering my services up to a personal financial planner and mentor of mine back in California. In the end, it is all in how you spin things and I secured a full-time job with no problem whatsoever in my choice of internship.

HI to everyone,

I am new here and I am considering to apply for ESADE. How is ESADE compared to IESE? I find very difficult to differenciate between these two schools (both are Spanish, both in Barcelona).

In fact, I am from Barcelona (from Sarria) but I´ve been living abroad for many years, and now I might come to my city for the MBA.

I am specially interested in the opinion of non-Spanish applicants. Please, no hard facts such as rankings.

many thanks,

John

Ganesh--
I think the people who have heard bad news just aren't announcing it to everyone! If it makes you all feel better about your accomplishment, I was actually dinged by ESADE

Congrats Beckee

I hope to see you in Barca this fall.

Hey vgeri! I am also thinking about applying to ESADE for R2 (Dec 11th). I've done some research too and would like to know a bit more before I actually start requesting those transcripts and formulating my essays. Background, I'm from LA and already applied to UCLA FEMBA and planning on USC. After traveling a bit earlier in the year, I really would love to go to school overseas! (Barcelona is #1 choice for me, followed by cities in UK and France) But I don't want that to be my only reason. Worried about the kind of job opportunities us Americans will have. I heard that other than banking/consulting (which I do want to get into), there isn't much jobs with "return on investment". Of course this was a few years back and things can be different now. Anyone else have any insight?

Hi beckee, nice to see some other ppl interested in the school! Yes placement is a slight worry for me as well, as the ESADE website only seems to have aggregate placement statistics. According to Businessweek website though, of the 2008 class 84% had a job offer by graduation, and another 13% within 3 months - which is pretty good. Where do you want to work after your MBA - Europe or back to the US? Re 'return on investment' - I really think this depends on where you will want to work post-MBA. In the UK, for example, you might be earning twice as much as in Spain, especially within finance. 41% of graduates start working in Spain, so that decreases the post-MBA average salary of ESADE compared with UK schools. But all the top consulting and finance firms recruit on campus at ESADE, so if you get an offer with any of those, you should be fine getting a 'quick' return on your investment!

Whats your WorkEx profile? have you done your Gmat yet?

In the meantime I got an interview invite, so I'm getting quite excited! Will keep you posted how I get on.

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