INSEAD vs Cornell Johnson

Question

Hi people,

I've been admitted to Cornell Johnson for the fall term and INSEAD for Jan '17. I'm currently in Toronto working in finance for a big 5 bank, but the plan is to transition to management consulting preferably at an MBB firm. I want to have the option of coming back to North America, but I'm not a 100% set on geography. What school offers better potential for a career switcher to go into consulting?

Would also like to learn about the quality of the experience, alumni relations after graduating if possible in North America.

Thanks!

pate13 · Answer

All else equal, INSEAD is the winner. INSEAD placed 43% of its graduates into consulting in 2015, while Johnson placed 25%. Additionally, MBB were the top three employers for the 2015 class at INSEAD. MBB placed 8th, 9th, and 12th for number of hires at Johnson.

madihaj · Answer

Thanks pate13

Mo2men · Answer

Congrats

I would choose INSEAD for reasons mentioned above. Also i have another perspective. When you mentioned that you are not certain about geography I would choose the school that gives me big region. If you want to be in Europe and Asia, INSEAD will be your gate. If you decide to return to Canada, you should not have problem to work in your country in any MBB (assuming you are Canadian). When you decide to go to the USA, so may encounter high competitiveness from American schools such as M7 and others but your Canadian nationality will help you as there is certain agreement between USA, Canada and Mexico for employment and still the name of INSEAD in MBB is huge.

madihaj · Answer

Thanks  Mo2men

You're right I am Canadian, and I'm hoping with NAFTA on my side I should be able to place into a consulting role in the U.S. if that's where I decide to end up. Let's see! I've heard the Cornell Johnson alumni network is very supportive and cohesive, whereas INSEAD is a bit more sporadic. Would anyone be able to comment on that?

jckval · Answer

Disclaimer: I'm a Johnson MBA alum, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

If you look to the raw numbers, INSEAD has an edge - like it was pointed out, consulting placements are a notch higher there. One thing you might want to take into consideration, though, is the "rate of transformation", i.e. how many non-consultants were able to land a consulting job post-MBA. My evidence here is anecdotal, but from what I heard from friends that went to INSEAD, most of the MBB placements there are actually from folks who worked at MBB before the MBA (think pre-MBA analyst from BCG Mexico getting a job at McKinsey Spain after the MBA).

Again, anecdotally, I can tell you that the conversion rate at Johnson is decent - a lot of my classmates who landed consulting jobs had experiences in industries other than consulting. Nonetheless, it is important to tell you that Johnson isn't a core school for MBB firms, so they go there just to cherry pick a dozen super qualified students that ended up going to Johnson for scholarships. The most likely scenario for someone interested in a consulting job at Johnson is to end up in Big4.

Don't want to make your decision even harder than it is, but there are pros and cons in both choices and, IMHO, there's no clear winner. Hope it helps and feel free to PM me if you want to talk more about Johnson.

madihaj · Answer

Thanks  jckval

That was quite helpful actually. I have been looking at the conversion rate for INSEAD as well, so the 43% wouldn't be an accurate depiction of that, but it is still higher than that at Johnson. About 29% of the 1003 grads in their employment report were in consulting pre-MBA, so based on that INSEAD is placing about 140 additional grads into consulting per year.

Additionally, here are the total number of grads that were placed into consulting with those returning to their pre-MBA employer in brackets:

Top Employers 2014 - 2015
Numbers in brackets are former employees returning to the organisation after graduation:
McKinsey & Company 102 (38)
The Boston Consulting Group 72 (20)
Bain & Company 52 (18)
Amazon 29
Accenture 24 (4)
Strategy& 24 (9)
A.T. Kearney 16 (5)

jckval · Answer

Hi madihaj,

I don't think I follow your comparison ("INSEAD is placing about 140 additional grads into consulting per year"), given that the average class size in Johnson is around 300 while at INSEAD adding the 2 cohorts and campi is around 1000.

One more thing to consider, my anecdotal evidence about ex-MBBs going back to MBBs after INSEAD is more about a shuffle (like ex-McK going to Bain, BCG going to McK and so on), and not that much about returning to the previous employer.

Anyway, I still think it's a tie on the employment front, and your decision will boil down to a few other aspects (campus location, class size, tolerance for hard winters, ...).

Feel free to ping me if you have more questions.

Mo2men · Answer

Hi madihaj, I think you are getting another view which will help in your decision. I think you will find INSEADers soon to answer your doubts. Meanwhile you can have look at out forum for business school reviews. you can PM some students also. https://gmatclub.com/reviews/business_school/insead-24 https://gmatclub.com/reviews/business_school/johnson-16 Hi jckval, Thanks for your post. Can you post a review of your MBA experience in Cornell? It would be helpful for future candidates. You can use the second link above.

farrous13 · Answer

madihaj, I contacted INSEAD alumni in Calgary who work in the consulting industry - MBB. Try to get in touch with alumni in Toronto as well from both business schools - LinkedIn is a great tool. One factor besides the consulting placement is the two years vs one year program. Which one do you believe best suits your needs and goals? Also, in the US you'll be in competition with applicants for MBB positions from a lot of prestigious universities - think Harvard, Columbia, MIT, Stanford. Most likely you'll be selecting a popular office in a popular city which will reduce your chances. INSEAD on the other hand has an edge in Europe and the MENA region and most likely your competition will be your colleagues

. Switching offices later - once and if you land a position in one of the MBB firms - is not as hard as you might think. Consulting industries know INSEAD VERY well compared to other industries. I might be biased towards INSEAD but I would note down the following: - preference between 1 year and 2 years program and why? - region preference - pick 3 cities that you like to work in post-MBA regardless on whether you want to stay there permanently and regardless on how high your chances are to land a position there - finances (scholarships + living expenses...etc) - Recap why you applied to INSEAD and Cornell. What attracted you to these schools in the first place? Are your reasons legitimate? Congrats on both admits and good luck

vnixnj · Answer

INSEAD admit here, so I may be biased as well.

It didn't seem like much of a comparison to me. It's a fact that INSEAD is a monster MBB-feeder and the non-sponsored hire # are both visible and strong. If you do the math, about 15% of the INSEAD class are new MBB hires - that's a reasonably high number. If location is not as important as a career switch, I really don't see much of an argument to be made for Johnson.

VeritasPrepDozie · Answer

I think INSEAD is the play here,better placement and in the US Cornell will be fighting with big feeder programs like Kellogg, Wharton, and HBS and will often be viewed in a secondary light with INSEAD being one of the top players in Europe. The other key consideration is the 1YR program vs 2YR program, often career switchers need that internship or even just multiple cracks at securing an offer is a benefit of being in a 2YR program.

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