As far as "excelling" in both places, the education at most schools will give you the right tools to excel anywhere in the world. The more international schools provide a diverse crowd of students that promotes cultural sensitivity and insights into doing business in various regions. Also the case studies tend to focus on businesses around the world rather than being region specific. Look into where you want to work in the short term post MBA when you make the decision. For instance if you want to work in Holland, Erasmus is a strong regional brand that places well in Holland. The bigger names such as LBS and INSEAD give you more options into location post graduation.
BigRedEnvEng wrote:
Thanks for the info, bsd_lover, very helpful!
First, a question. I'm looking at applying for the September 2011 intake to schools in Europe. My top choices are HEC Paris, EDHEC, Erasmus, and Imperial. I'm an engineer by schooling (B.S.) and occupation (water resources) and plan to stay in the engineering field upon completion.
I would like a global program that would allow me to excel both in Europe and in the US. Is it foolish to keep EDHEC and Erasmus as options? My mom lives in Holland and I speak Dutch, so this would be a special experience for me, but I don't want to jeopardize my career too much. Would love any advice.
Second, I have a couple of friends from France and UK and this was their advice when I asked about European b-schools in those two countries:
Best in France are HEC Paris, ESSEC, and ESC Paris, in that order. The only other alternative outside of Paris was EDHEC. Everything else, she said, is not worth the effort (if you're looking for a good international school). I do see INSEAD everywhere, so I'm surprised she wasn't familiar with them. Would you consider this more of a global b-school that happens to be in France and less of a French b-school that's globally recognized?
As for the UK, they said the best ones are Imperial, London Business School, and Oxford. Cambridge and Warwick were the second tier. They indicated that Cass is good, but not known outside the UK. They were familiar with Cranfield for their engineering program, but not their MBA program. Manchester was considered reasonable. They had never heard of Lancaster.
Understand that they have both lived most of their lives in Europe, so their view is probably regionally biased, but thought I would share the info.