Re: IMD 2012 - Calling All Applicants
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08 Apr 2011, 14:11
Quality of education and faculty. How good are they? Are they excellent or just good. All of them? Most of them? Some of them?
I loved the sample lectures I found on youtube, and they were one of the major reasons for my choice of the MBA program. But these are just samples, how is it in real life?
As with any top business schools there are going to be stars and superstars. But generally the majority of the faculty here are excellent, and my personal opinion is that there is a much stronger opportunity to learn from them out of class.
If you come over to Lausanne for the interview you'll get to sit in for a class. We're just starting the 2nd block of classes (exams ended today) so I can't say exactly what they'll be like, but so far its really a case of what you see is what you get... we've had classes which seemed deja vu given we've seen that lecture on youtube. But to answer you again... its really what you've seen on youtube, and even better sometimes!
On a sidenote, I think the peer learning here is probably underrated; easily 50% of what i've learnt so far has come from my classmates
Budget: on the IMD website they say the following:
CHF 60,000 - tuition
CHF 25,000 - all program and project related fees, including books and course materials, the discovery expedition and weekday on-campus lunches, excluding personal expenses.
(fees may be subject to adjustments)
It just makes me wonder, whether an expedition or two plus the books plus lunches may cost that much! And that's excluding personal expenses.
I haven't exactly calculated the cost for every individual item, and also not to spoil the surprise for the class of 2012, but I think what we're getting for the 25k is a really good deal. I can say one thing about the lunches thou... they're AWESOME! If you get a chance to visit and join us for lunch, you'll see what I mean.
Budget again: Personal living expenses - what a family (2 people) budget should be in Lausanne for a year? On the web-site they say 36,000 CHF for a single person. I just wonder if it should be x2 or x1.5 for two. I'm thinking of not too moderate life, maybe dining in cafes twice a week, going on a trip to Milan once a month, etc.
Hard for me to answer since I came by myself, but so far my personal expenses look to be less than the 36k. I think a big part will end up going to your apartment because you'd probably want a slightly bigger place for the family.
[b]Employability of non-EU students[/b]: How good or bad are the prospects of non-EU students? Is it hard to get a job outside of Switzerland? Is it hard to get a job in Switzerland? Is it hard to obtain a work permit in practice?
How about languages, is English and mediocre French or German would be enough to secure a job in Switzerland?
Recruitment hasn't started yet so I can't really answer. Personally I'm a non-EU citizen myself but I don't foresee alot of difficulty in obtaining a work permit. That aside I'm looking to move back to Asia post-MBA anyway.
From what we've seen from the alumni, its not too hard to secure a job offer; of course that depends on what you're looking to do when you graduate. Career services will have loads to say to you during the course of the year on strategies for the job search, and they'll be especially useful if you're looking to stay in Switzerland or EU in general.
First salary: the published salary figures are around 110-120K USD. Is that more or less true for the just-out-of-school student?
At last check for the last class it was slightly higher than this, maybe in the region of 125k, but this was in January before all the numbers had come back, so I'd say its more or less accurate, maybe with a tolerance of about 10%?
ICP Project: was it interesting? was it helpful? was it worth it?
Preparation starts in June for us, and we'll go on site when we return from the Discovery Expedition in August. Can't really answer this one as we haven't started it yet, but its one of the most eagerly anticipated projects of the year.
We are in the midst of our start-up projects, where we work with various start ups. The idea of this to provide clearly added value to the companies (different companies have different requirements), and honestly this project is extremely interesting! (one of the startups is run by one of our classmates focusing on social work in Mongolia). It also ties in what we learn in the course of the first few months with practical hands on work.
What's your opinion: If I'm offered an Associate Consultant position with the Big4 consulting houses, and that's what I'd aim for as my first job after IMD, is the education at IMD still worth it?
I know it's all quite subjective, still I'd like to know your opinion. I wonder if the education per se outweighs the role of consultant for the same period of time. My feeling that the job may be just as good for obtaining skills and experience.
Strange you should ask, I had a friend who was in that exact same position. Well not exactly as the offer was for a more senior position. But to give you the short answer, he's now my classmate and neighbor. I know IMD spoke to him at length to explain why coming to IMD to do the MBA was more worth it than taking the job.
I think part of it is due to the formal training an MBA gives you, but also as an MBA grad, you do enter at a more senior level as a consultant and not just an assoc. consultant. If you like I can try to put you in touch with him, drop me a PM or something with your details.
Finally it came from my Swiss colleague! As I'm now working on some projects in Switzerland, i might have heart attack during coming weeks... 
You are right 
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