HEC Montreal: Full-time MBA Fall 2013

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Hi,
Got an invite for interview there on April 11th

Hey thanks Carl,

My profile:

Age: 28
Gender: M
Nationality : French w/ PR in Quebec (living here since 2007)
Grad : M.Sc in IT
GPA: 3.5
GMAT: 600 - Q47 v25
Area of interest in MBA : Entrepreneurship/Finance/Marketing
Work experience : 4.5 years total in IT, including 2 years as a manager in IB (current position)
Extra-curriculars/community: Sports++, Volunteer fireman in undergrad


I'll give a feedback here after the interview!

As I said, here is a feedback from my interview:
I arrived about an hour earlier, so I took a walk around the campus/building. Thing that I haven't done so far and I really enjoyed it, the building where the MBA/Phd courses are is very nice.
The interview itself was held with 2 alumnis who did their MBA at HEC about 5 years ago and were currently managers in IB and with who I had relations in common, so I felt pretty relax discussing with them.
The questions were pretty standard: Introduce yourself, what have you done so far? Why MBA? Why HEC?
I felt pretty confident with those questions because it is the ones that I've been asking myself for several months. Thus, my answers were clear and without hesitations.

Finally, I just received my letter of admission today.

Carl,

To answer your questions:
In your experience, how does the investment banking community in Montreal value the three MBA schools here (HEC/Concordia/McGill)
- HEC and McGill are both very well known by people working in IB in Montreal as they are both very prestigious. They are clearly 2 or 3 steps ahead of Concordia in this domain.
My ranking would be something like this :
McGill 5 stars
HEC 4.5 stars
Concordia 3 stars
EDIT: I'm talking about IB here, not about University's overall ranking.
For example, Concordia has a better reputation in engineering than HEC (I don't even know if HEC has a such program) where HEC has a better reputation than Concordia in Finance.

Do certain firms value the schools differently?
- Even though, I believe that McGill has an overall reputation that is better than HEC, the difference is slim. I think that the difference is more based on the type of the company where graduates go after graduation: HEC graduates have more connections with the French speaking companies of MTL and McGill students have more connections with the English speaking companies.
On the other hand, the only people I know who were working in IB and who graduated from Concordia were no really on the Business side of the bank, but more on the technical side (IT or BA). Btw, if I only take MTL universities into account, in my current company, all the bankers/traders/Directors came from either HEC(80%) or McGill(20%).

Are there many IB offices in Mtl? I was under the impression that 90% of IB jobs in Canada were in Toronto.
Toronto is clearly 1 step ahead of MTL in the IB industry. If your plan is to go to work there, I think McGill is your best choice in MTL, however Toronto universities such as Queen's and Rotman are very well renowned there too.

Overall, I think McGill is the best university in MTL if your plan is to work in IB.
Now, does the overall difference with HEC is enough to justify the difference in terms of tuition fees (ratio of about 1 to 10 if you are Quebec resident) and the loss of salary due to the difference in the programs length: 1 vs 2 years ? That's another question and a personal choice.

Hey Carl,

I think you made the right choice by chosing McGill over HEC if your plans post MBA are to work in IB. Its reputation is far beyond Montreal and you shouldn't have any problem to find a job even in Toronto or NYC after that.
For my part, I only applied to HEC Montreal because post-MBA I want to create my own company, so I chose to do an MBA more for the skillset it brings than the contacts or the prestige.
Also, behind the cost of the program - which I'll finance by myself -, its length was decisive: Where the 2 years programs of Concordia or Mcgill include internships or international exchange which I already have, I prefer it to be the as intensive as possible so I can go back on the market ASAP and with some cash remaining - or at least with no debt.
That's why, with my criteria, HEC Montreal was the only one which fits and it's the only school I applied to.

I work for Société Générale Corporate & Investment banking (or sgcib).

Hi,

My name is Nizam, and I am MBA applicant for HEC Montreal.

I have couple of queries regarding HEC. Kindly answer,

1. What is the average GMAT score for International students at HEC Montreal??
2. How do u rate Placements for Non French speaking students at HEC Montreal??

Thanks, In anticipation of your reply.

Regards,
Nizam