HEC Paris admitted vs INSEAD WL

Hi DeepQuestions


First congrats on admission to HEC Paris and 22k scholarship !

That should be very good school.


For sure you should go to INSEAD before HEC or IE, if you get admission.

Some premature installments of fees serves exactly for that, to secure your position and show them that you are serious or they will accept someone else, with your scholarship.

I think they were very generous with you, respect that.

On the other hand, if you don't want to go there, dont, but why did you then applied to HEC in first place ?

As safety school option ?


Your best option is option A.

Now, regarding option B, how applying to IE is buying you more time with INSEAD and why would you refuse HEC ?

Is IE even better than HEC is arguable.


I assume you looked only in FT rankings from previous years to made that conclusion, since for this year IE was excluded from rankings.

I would not care much about it, IE is still fine, I researched the reasons for it and found them to be rather stupid and due to negligence.

How that affects IE brand is another question for them, but you will find more info here on my previous post about IE:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ie-vs-essec- ... l#p2074113



Speaking of that, you can more interesting info regarding INSEAD, HEC and IE here and through my other posts (I think I did mention somewhere INSEAD in comparison to LBS :

https://gmatclub.com/forum/lbs-gmim-vs- ... 67507.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/tepper-vs-he ... l#p2059909


Since we are talking about European schools, lets consult The Economist also, HEC School of Management, Paris is placed 15. and INSEAD is below on 21. place and IE University – IE Business School comes as 34. in full time MBA ranking for 2017. !

https://www.economist.com/whichmba/full ... _depth=All


Furthermore, if we consult QS Global MBA Rankings for 2018. INSEAD comes as second and HEC comes as third versus IE Business School that comes as 10. globally.

https://www.topuniversities.com/univers ... lobal/2018


So there is no reason to conclude that IE is better school than HEC because rankings/data don't show that.

You may like them more due to some preference (geographical for instance) and that's fine but they are not better school.


So what should you do ?

Apply to IE or whatever additional school you like, wait for INSEAD to decide and when you have all the facts go to best ranked school or school that you like the most, on your list.

In case INSEAD guys do not decide before time is up for HEC, I would go to HEC, Paris, especially with 22k gift.

Of course you may choose IE over HEC(for whatever reasons) if you would be in position to choose between them.


However, HEC with 22k seems most rational decision to me, best buy, best choice if you like.

That being said, even if INSEAD accepts that would cost you double more than HEC, Paris, €80,800 for INSEAD versus HEC, Paris €66,000-22k=44k.

INSEAD probably does worth additional 44k difference according to FT, due to weighted salary discrepancy 177,157 vs. 135,858.

https://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolra ... nking-2018


Below is posted detailed comparison by Economist head to head.


One way or another, seems to me you are going to Paris


Bonne chance dans votre processus décisionnel!

Thanks rtbs15, Arro44, billionaire for the precious comments. You're probably right, option 2 does not look viable. I have mentally added night time an option C (apologies if these keep coming, but is a rolling process ).

First of all, don't get me wrong: I am truly grateful to HEC for the opportunity and the scholarship, they have been extremely kind and professional and my application experience was wonderful.
That being said, I am only concerned about entering a Tier "1,5" (Tier 2 probably does not give enough credit) versus Tier 1 that I am so close to be accepted in.
Furthermore, what I got during several exchanges with people was that HEC was a bit "France-focused", which is not bad "per sé" of course, but I have not still decided what is the country I am going to live in. Again, don't let me wrong: I have a profound respect for the institution (otherwise I would not have applied in a first place), I just wondering what could be the best option for me.

So my option C that I have added on the table is to wait until September '18 to apply to LBS September '19 intake.

Pros (as I see them)
1. I have one year to prepare my financing if I am accepted
2. I am applying in round 1 so competition should be less fierce
3. I can wait more time for INSEAD to intercept potential refusing candidates

Cons
1. I lose a certain offer in exchange to an uncertain picture. That implies that if both LBS and INSEAD reject me I would probably lose the MBA opportunity completely.
2. If I am accepted to LBS and rejected from INSEAD, I spend one year "on the bench"

At risk of sounding risk averse, would seriously recommend to reconsider option C.

INSEAD and LBS are peer schools and go for the same talent. So if you were WL at INSEAD, there is a big chance it won't be a smooth ride at LBS either. Please don't get me wrong I am not making any judgement on the quality of your candidacy, just stating that there is a considerable chance you will end up with nothing if you go down this path, thus the risk/reward ratio makes it not worth it.

HEC is a good, solid school, and a scholarship can't hurt. Would recommend to wait until the deadline and go for INSEAD if they offer you a spot. And as a last resort, would send an email to INSEAD admissions, and state your strong preference for the school, and a convinicing story of why you are worthy of this spot. What's the worse that could happen?

There is no need to apologize for putting additional though in your application process.

With regards to your proposed option, I agree with rtbs with regards to the risks.
Personally, I would consider the LBS application process to be no less challenging than INSEAD, thus the chance for success would likely be no higher.

Furthermore, is the ranking of the respective schools (Insead, LBS) the only reason why you prefer them over HEC or do you have other reasons connect to the respective program?

I would stick with my recommandation to go with HEC if you dont hear from INSEAD in time, although, as mentioned above, I doesn´t hurt to appraoch the INSEAD Adcom a final time trying to make your case.

Regardless of however you decide I wish you all the best for your time at BSchool.

Best regards,
Chris

Unfortunately, you do not give us many inputs so hereunder my opinion, with a lot of assumptions about your current situation (goals, work experience, expectations...).

What was your personal feeling about the schools? What can they do for you?
Only from your admissions offers, it seems that HEC is more excited about your professional project than INSEAD is: HEC has fewer sits than INSEAD and HEC gave you one! This means a lot and as a project manager, you may already know the difference that enthusiasm can make.
You are an engineer responsible for projects and INSEAD is a 10 months program, it certainly has (or at least should have) doubts about the ability of its program to help you reach your goals in such a short period and prefers safer bets with students already acquainted with business administration; think consulting, finance, corporate management... look at HEC and INSEAD class profiles for more hints at which program is designed to help whom. There is no one size fits all in education.

In terms of brand recognition:
The majority of people will not know INSEAD and they will also not know HEC. But that is not the kind of brand you are after: I guess your target is the business world. So in this sector, both schools are well respected. So someone who knows INSEAD certainly knows business schools and will know HEC.

Applying to other schools:
Applying to LBS would make sense in terms of ability to help you moving from engineering to business (it is a longer program) but you will lose time and money for nothing, with HEC you already check the "serious program" box and can get the interviews you want if your skills fit the company needs. The time and money you would lose applying to LBS (or other programs) could be used to get other skills, skills that could prove your motivation and convince a future employer to hire you.

INSEAD or HEC, in your situation:
The salary average difference between the schools is not the best thing to look at: salary increase is the same at both places. Moreover, regular ranking metrics certainly do not apply to you: your GMAT results are above even Harvard's average! So you already provide to a potential future employer a very objective and unbiased good reason to interview you rather than the average MBA applicant. On top of that, you are a project manager, again not the regular MBA applicant so statistics could be of very limited use in your case.
If you withdraw your INSEAD application, you can use the extra 44k in certifications and skills building.
We do not know what you expect exactly from your MBA but a 44k difference is a LOT. For instance, you could buy more than 2400 hours of face to face courses with language tutors and, with homework aside those lessons, become fluent (truly fluent, not the business-intermediate kind of fluency !) in 3 new languages.

Conclusion:
Again, this is made with a lot of assumptions about you:
I would recommend going with the "44k well invested in skills building + HEC 16 months MBA" plan even if INSEAD eventually offers you a sit without scholarship: in terms of actual skills (which is what companies are really after), it is the best option.

The truth is, HEC is known in France, sort of known in Europe, and not really known anywhere else.

INSEAD is strong in France, strong in Europe, and strong almost everywhere except for the US (where among the MBB/FAANG it is known anyway).

It is a Tier 1 vs Tier 2 decision, and even if you think you know what you want to do now, your decision may change during your MBA. A Tier 1 school will always open more doors than a Tier 2 school.

I know this doesn't make your decision easier, but I want to refute the assertion that HEC will get you the same result.

Yes, recognition in a particular location can matter too.
With so little information, many assumptions have to be made to answer.
For instance, if we assume that you want to work in the US, those schools are clearly not the best choices.
If we assume that you want a global absolute brand recognized even outside of the business world, schools part of fully fledged universities in UK or US are more famous.
If we assume that you want to work in or around Singapore, INSEAD with its campus and contacts there is definitely worth the extra 44k, even more so if you already speak Mandarin Chinese.
And plenty of other assumptions can be made!

At this point, only a personal feedback from recruiters at your target companies who had a look at your current skills can really help.

Look at what you can add to your profile with the extra 44k you save and then ask HR departments of some target companies (or people you met from the schools, or drop an email to career coaches in your sector) what they prefer:
Your profile + INSEAD MBA or
Your profile + HEC MBA + what you decided to do with your extra 44k saved.

I can only speak for my company, US company which is one of the world's 50 largest market capitalizations: HRs know the top 10 MBAs from each continent. This checks the "great candidate" box and beyond that, they do not give a damn. They may ask you why you decided to study in Europe though, but that is just to know you better. After this, they will look for skills, skills and... visa.

For the rest I am not a fan of the Tier argument: Tiers are made up on different criteria and are too often used to influence insecure students while actual recruiters consider larger categories.
And it is the MBA version of Godwin's law: after a few posts, it just pops up.
Try to focus on what you need to reach your goals and what programs offer for which sacrifices (money, time, efforts...).

I agree with some of what your saying, but it overtrivialises the power of brand. After all, if nobody cared about brand, we wouldn't be on this forum really.



I'm not sure what you can do with an extra $44k actually. I mean sure it is a significant amount of money, but the differential between average salaries at INSEAD and HEC are almost that big anyway. So really, after tax, a couple of years down the road on average you will be breakeven from a financial perspective.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/226 ... s-schools/



This cannot be true. Otherwise there would be no benefit to attending HSW or any of the other schools people aspire to attend. The truth is that while with a HEC MBA you might get an MBB or FAANG interview, it is going to be much harder than with a M7/LBS/INSEAD MBA.