Hong Kong UST

Ah, thanks for replying and good luck with the admissions!

i got my acceptance today, good luck to everyone

I've also just been admitted, slightly more than two weeks after the interview.

Hi Togafoot,

Thanks for answering our questions.

I am an Asian Canadian and am applying for round 2. From reading the thread, I noticed that you mentioned HKUST is very much focused on Finance. I am trying to finalize my goals essay and my long term career goal is to work for a management or a strategic consulting firm such as M/B/B in HK.
However, my background is in healthcare and I have crafted my essay as to discuss that I would like to work in healthcare consulting in the long run. Do you think this is a bad idea, since HKUST does not have a healthcare management focus and that I should just state that I want to work in a general consulting field. I am just worried that adcom might think that my distinct background won't fit with the rest of the student population.

Do you know if you have any classmates who are scientists or if HKUST admits people with scientific backgrounds?

Thanks

if you were looking to work for strategy consultancy, you should think twice before applying to HKUST because traditionally the top consulting firms M/B/B do NOT recruit there.

I am sure you could be correct to a certain extent hwksacn but however, I find it hard to believe that everyone who works at M/B/B are from top 10 business schools from the US. Especially in Asia, don't these firms hire locally ?

I was amazed to recently discover that someone who has an MBA from HKUST is working as a counsultant at a Big4 firm in HK.

Actually, the HKUST Admission Assistant Director told me himself during the interview that M/B/B do not recruit from HKUST. I'm in Management consulting so I know that for a fact too. M/B/B recruit most of their people from the Top 10; these are their "Target" schools. And, they recruit a much smaller percentage from top 10-20. For Asia and Europe, they recruit from schools like INSEAD, LBS, etc.

M/B/B do not currently recruit the MBA's directly.. One of the key reasons in class size and lack of history with MBB.

Class size is small compared to schools in USA/Europe, and there are no real comparable schools nearby. e.g. if MBB send their recruitment people to Boston/NY, they have a range of good schools to go to with large class sizes. Therefore, they are able to efficiently reach more students, a 1% return would be squite a few students

However in HK, the pool is small a 1% return is negligible.

Secondly, due to the school being relatively new (approx. 17 years). There is no history of recruitment with MBB, therefore they have less experience with assessing the quality of the HKUST students when compared to the schools they have traditionally recruited from. So for MBB, the quality of students is an unknown, therefore, adding the two points together, they do not specifically come to campus to recruit the MBA's.

Having said that, they come to the school to recruit the undergrads, and the MBA's are invited to attend those events.

togafoot

I have read a couple of your replies so far and I would just like to make certain things clear about HKUST.

1) Does the weak link to M/B/B means that HKUST is not strong in management consulting?

2) How is the marketing/international business program at HKUST? Do students usually get decent job after that?

Thanks in advance

togafoot, i also have a follow-up question. you mentioned that MBB do not recruit at HKUST. however, looking at HKUST's career services site, mckinsey (which i assume is the 'M') is listed as an on-campus recruiter.

i am interested in landing a buy-side position with an investment bank in HK post graduation. how do you think the career services office fares in terms of placing students in these positions? or do students have to rely mostly on their own network to land jobs?

please advise. thanks!

lonewolf: HKUST is not traditionally focused on management consulting, it's predominantly a finance school which is spreading out. Having said that, there are the occasional students who get into top tier consulting companies.

There was little interest in marketing in my class, so i wouldn't say marketing is a key strength, although during my time there, the marketing faculty was strengthened. In fact, the school is focused on increasing their strengths in other areas beyond finance. This year has not been a great year recruitment wise, but some of my classmates have secured some good positions (e.g. some classmates are in LVMH's general management programme, although interest in MC is generally low amongst my classmates, one has joined a top tier management consultancy)

bschool10: MBB do recruit at HKUST, but not specifically for MBA's, they are there to recruit the undergrads, and McKinsey has recruited the MBA's before (but not specifically on campus).
In terms of the careers office, most positions they find are in the finance industry, so there are more opportunities to do so, however the careers services is currently undergoing transition after a change in management. This years students will have a better indication of how they are fareing. I do know that one of this years students has already landed a role at a prominent VC, however i;m no tsure whther that was through careers services or networking. (I did not utilise careers services much due to going down the entrepreneurship route).

togafoot, thanks a lot for your replies.

I am looking into some b-schools around Asia since I want to work in either China or HK afterward.

MBA programs in Tsinghua, CEIBS, HKUST, CUHK? Which one held more prestige and preferred by employers?

Would also appreciate if you can share some links/info regarding MBA programs in Asia

Speaking from a 'logical' point of view, if you want a career in Shanghai, CEIBS is your obvious choice, Tsinghua for Beijing, and HKUST for Hong Kong. Having said that, for work in China, Mandarin is almost a necessity and many chinese companies are recruiting native chinese students who have studied abroad to get the integrated foreign and domestic expertise. In terms of Hong Kong, depending on the role, Mandarin or Cantonese may not be necessary (dependent on the focus on the company and role.)

Thank you togafoot.

Mandarin is my native language and I got my degree in engineering from the US.
I guess what I am wondering would be the prestige of the HK MBA held by employers in China. I mean would the big company recruiters in China consider MBA from HKUST/CUHK as competitive as ones from CEIBS/Tsinghua? I am currently more interested in getting my MBA from HK but does not want to rule out the possibility of working in China.

In terms of MBA prestige, well I would say most chinese companies don't really care about MBA's yet, mostly the giant ones, the ones looking to expand internationally or the giant finance related companies, and in that respect it's all relative. Recruiting will be based on perceived reputation (influenced by Alumni and surpisingly, ranks to a lesser degree). In this repsect, each company will be different, CEIBS is still upcoming, Tsingua still upcoming, HKUST probably higher on the upcoming list, but in terms of regional areas of China, probably holds a different prestige rather than better or worse.

Many graduates from HKUST end up in China.

hi Togafoot. I am really thankful to you for providing such helpful insights about HKUST's MBA program. I am not an MBA aspirant but am deeply interested in exploring the MSc in financial analysis, investment management, and global finance courses offered by HKUST.
It would be really great if you can provide some information related to the placement stats of these courses. I have tried to contact on campus students to inquire regarding the same but was unsuccessful.
Therefore it would be really great to have your comments.

thanks
CK

Sorry, i don't have access to that information, although I have met a few graduates from that programme working for VC's in Hong Kong. Some of the classes are shared (financial ones), but most of the MSc Financial analysis grads/students I have met usually have work experience in the industry.