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IESE |   SDA Bocconi |   
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IESE VS BOCCONI?

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anilugoal
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anilugoal
Please help me decide IESE vs BOCCONI?
I'm self-employed. My plan is to go back to run my company (Media industry) . I'm doing the MBA for networking, for deepen my kwnoledge in finance, and look for new business ideas/opportunies for my company.

IESE +:
- Better ranking
- Startup ecosystem in Barcelona
- Barcelona life, weather and beach
- Cohort +350 students
- 25% students from latam where I came from.

IESE -
- Longer program: 19 month program
- More expensive

Bocconi+
- I can learn italian
- I like italian culture
- Only 12 month program - so I can go back to run the company again and look for new business.
- Milan city -I like more fancy style
- Cheaper

Bocconi neg-
- Only 100 students per intake
- Lowest ranking
Well, I haven't really searched for MBA so I will give my intake upon post job work environment.
I am not sure whether you want to return back to your homeland or stay in Italy/Spain. But if you decide to stay in your post grad country and network through working over there, I will say Italy provides more opportunity than Spain.
1) Italy has more MNCs exposure than Spain, so networking with professional is easy in there.
2) Secondly, Spain is kind of conservative in providing post study work visa, so you will get only 1 year work visa, if you decide to stay longer abroad, you might not enjoy that in Spain.
3) Bocconi does have a good reputation in European countries.

But, it still depends upon which language you have more hold.
Networking will require you to learn local language so whatever language you are comfortable with, go with it.

Rankings are just a part, seek the media companies data in both the countries and decide which one will offer you better networking opportunity.
Spain is definitely an easy going country, with vibrant people, ease in setting up business and so on.
Italy is more of traditional country, with people might be more conservative at first.
But there is nothing you will be missing much, no matter whatever school you end up choosing.
Both countries have a lot to offer.
Good luck for your journey, ahead. :)

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a bit late, but maybe still useful. In my view, 100% IESE, here is why:

anilugoal


IESE +:
- Better ranking
- Startup ecosystem in Barcelona
- Barcelona life, weather and beach
- Cohort +350 students
- 25% students from latam where I came from.
- You have access to a startup ecosystem across Europe. IESE gets more and more access to Berlin, and the entrepreneurship club in general gains in importance
- Cohort is growing this year, with 400+

anilugoal

IESE -
- Longer program: 19 month program
- More expensive
- there is an option to shorten, but believe me, the time flies by like crazy. I saw it negatively as well, having finished my 1st year right now I'm super happy I have more months ahead. trust me those additional 7-9 months are super valuable
- more expensive is true, worth to mention that barcelona is cheaper than milan (I lived in both cities) and quality of life is much higher in BCN

anilugoal

Bocconi+
- I can learn italian
- I like italian culture
- Only 12 month program - so I can go back to run the company again and look for new business.
- Milan city -I like more fancy style
- Cheaper

Bocconi neg-
- Only 100 students per intake
- Lowest ranking

- At IESE you have a big italian network as well and the italian business club is planning a bunch of activities to foster the italian language
- Again 12 months is a disadvantage in my view
- I like fancy style too and BCN is not really fancy, but you can get your fancy moments in Madrid over the weekend. Being an MBA is fancy by definition, so you'll have a fancy lifestyle either way
- Talking about italian culture, being a student in Italy is not as much fun as you might think, let's have a chat over it when you come here ;)

Hope it helps!