0312gmat wrote:
Hello All,
I desperately need experts' advice.
I applied for Oxford Said & Cambridge Judge MBA in R1 and got accepted to both. Chose Oxford and paid deposit of £8900.
And applied to INSEAD in R2 and also got an offer today.
Oxford has been always my top choice (just because it is Oxford..), but now I am not sure.....
1) Brand Recognition - Oxford is well known to everyone, while INSEAD is well known to MBA people yet.
2) Deposit Paid - £8900 is a quite big amount of cash for me... that if I give up on Oxford, it goes into the bin.. any suggestion?
3) But INSEAD has a higher ranking & better career service/alumni pool.
4) International Visa - Not sure how it works for INSEAD graduates, but since 2020, UK school graduates can get 2 year working permit..
I am in a Tech field.
Please help! What shall I do?
Hi there,
Happy to chime in here because I was in nearly the exact same position as you about 2 years ago. The only difference was that I got offers to all the schools you mentioned (INSEAD, Oxford and Cambridge) as an international applicant and received scholarships for all three in round 1.
The points that you have raised there are all valid and should be considered. In the end it's all a very very personal choice and depends on what you want to get out of the MBA in the end. You decision will be and should be heavily impacted by
- Your post MBA career goal
- Your post MBA location
- The Alumni you wish to connect with
With regards to your point
1. Brand recognition - correct. INSEAD is very well known among the MBA/ business community but I would argue that outside of that circle, Oxford and Cambridge will carry a better name. Depends on where in the world you work afterwards an Oxford / Cambridge masters could carry more weight than INSEAD.
2. You deposit - That is a large sum, but definitely take BB's advice and ask for a scholarship. It's very much doable if you structure the email well and ask in an appropriate manner. I was able to negotiate an extra £10k scholarship on one of my offers.
3. INSEAD has better careers and alumni pool - Agreed. INSEAD just has the sheer strength in numbers of Alumni so it would serve you well in the future. What a lot of applicants miss however, is that that exposure Cambridge and Oxford opens you up to Alumni in the broader university and not just the MBA. For the careers service, it depends on what you want to get into afterwards and where. If you want to get into consulting pick INSEAD, if you are not sure and willing to open yourself up to new ideas and new fields then all 3 schools are quite similar.
4. Work VISA - Great that you mentioned this because this is a very important point. If you want to work in the UK then Oxford and Cambridge is a good bet because of this new 2 year Visa situation (which my cohort missed out on). It makes a massive difference with UK work opportunities if your employer doesn't need to sponsor you for 2 years. I'm not sure of the situation in France or Singapore (depending which campus you pick for INSEAD) but the 2 year VISA is a big plus if you wish to stay in the UK.
I picked Cambridge over INSEAD in the end because
1. Financial - Cambridge gave me the most generous scholarship (The delta in £ between INSEAD and Cambridge was substantial)
2. Cambridge had a further reaching brand name
3. I knew I had to fight for a job either way so I didn't see INSEAD giving me the extra boost that I needed in terms of recruitment.
With those points said, it's a very personal point and your gut would be the best indicator of which choice to make to minimise your regret. £8K deposit is a large sum of money but to put it in perspective, it's 2 months of your working salary after you finish your MBA. Consider the type of friends you wish to have in the future, where you want to work and who you like to spend time with as the school will impact a lot of these factors.
I hope that helps but feel free to DM me if you have further questions
-D