HEC Paris Jan 2012 - Intake

Yeah apparently the teachers are not as good in the January intake. Also it seems like you don't have as many electives available. On the other hand it's still an MBA from HEC, you get the same degree regardless. I would have a hard time waiting another 2 years before I start bschool. I'll do it if I have to but it'd be tough. Anyways I met a current student at the QS MBA fair in San Francisco, I'm going to email him about this issue and I'll post his answer here.

Guys, don't worry, you would definitely have an internship if you join Jan intake.

Yeah, I suspect the internship will still be available to us, but I've heard rumblings that the January intake is slightly different in terms of courses/lecturers being available to students. If that's the case do you think recruiting efforts differ at all. Or would there be any type of disadvantage to attending in Jan 2012 vs. Sept 2011? I initially intended to apply for the Sept 2011 intake but was discouraged after viewing their cutoffs for R1/2 etc. My application wouldn't have been complete until late December and I didn't like the idea that 3 rounds of applicants would have gone through the decision process before I would have gone complete. I figured that applying to the first round of the Jan 2012 intake would increase my chances of admission but I hadn't considered the possibility that there would be differences between the two intakes. Anyhow, if anyone can clarify regarding the differences between intakes, if there are any at all, that'd be greatly appreciated.

The structure of program is like this(can be found in program brochure) -
1. 8 months of core phase(core 1, core 2) - all mandatory course
2. 8 months of personalized phase (pp1, pp2) - internship and electives.
Sept intake - core 1 from sept to dec, core 2 from jan to apr. then sept intake students do internship during pp1/exchange/electives etc. then pp2 from sept-dec where they follow a track and take electives.
Jan intake - core 1 from jan to apr, core 2 from apr to july(aug is holiday in france) and pp1 from sept - dec where they follow a track and take electives. jan intake pp2 is from jan to apr. Since they have already completed classes, in a way they are ready for full-time jobs. they can either go on exchange, do internship or just simply find a full time job.
Since jan intake does not correspond to the standard recruitment cycles, the number of opportunities can be lesser but it depends on what kind of internship/industry you are looking for. But a lot of jan intake students also look for full time jobs directly after finishing pp1 in dec. along with sept intake students who have finished all their phases.

There is no particular difference between professors for the two intakes.

Since jan intake does their PP1 with PP2 of sept intake the availability of electives is the same as sept intake. If a student wants to continue doing electives in PP2 as part of jan intake and not do an internship or job then the availability can be limited. The same holds true for Sept intake if a student wants to take electives from apr-july during PP1 instead of internship/exchange.

Also I would apply at this stage for Sept intake and not worry about how many rounds have passed. HEC has a rolling admissions process with deadlines every month almost now so many more rounds are still there. But its definitely a personal decision.

I hope this clarifies the points raised above.

Very useful post! Thanks and kudos to you.
When you say:
"Since jan intake does not correspond to the standard recruitment cycles, the number of opportunities can be lesser but it depends on what kind of internship/industry you are looking for. "
Does that mean that for industries that have a very structured recruitment such as consulting and finance there would not be as many opportunities for January intakes?
You're right, I may try to apply for the September intake. I read somewhere that HEC receives the bulk of the applications by the end of February so I assume there is still enough time to apply.

Thanks for the kudos! Happy to help.

Yes, we can say that for companies which follow standard recruitment cycles only, those internships wont be available for jan intake. Some consulting companies i have seen have internships round the year but some dont. I am not very sure about finance internships but i know their deadlines are strict too(mostly in dec). A point to note here is that the MBA recruitments in europe in general are not as structured as they are in US. So that could sometimes work as an advantage or a disadvantage!

I also applied in Feb and without going into too much detail, I dont think it affected my chances of admission.

Thanks for your quick reply! Would you mind briefly sharing your background?
Do you know how difficult it is to land a job in London? I'm French but my wife is American so working in London would be a good compromise for us.

After reading a lot about Sept v. Jan intakes I've decided to apply late to the September 2011 intake (Feb 8 deadline). From what I've read it seems that many apply in February with a fairly significant portion of positions still available. I prefered a September start anyhow but was initially discouraged by the multiple rounds when considering forwarding an application in early December. Thankfully I've got most of the essays done so the rest of the process should be fairly easy. Best of luck to the rest of you January 2012 hopefuls!

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