Forum: General Forum (2 Comments)
Warwick/Cass/LSE/Grenoble?
Posted by - kinginthenorth - on 22 May 2012 - 11:18am
I am an engineering final year student and I always wanted to work in a Management Consultancy. I decided to pursue a MSc in Management to change my career path from Engineering. Since I applied really late(April'2012) most schools in Europe were almost done with their this years enrollment.
However I have offers from the following schools:
Warwick, Cass, Grenoble,Edinburgh and Strathclyde. I am on the reserve list for LSE(as their class was full but my application was strong so they have put me on a reserve list)
I am waiting to hear from Imperial, LBS and Rotterdam.While the FT Times ranks Grenoble really high, I am not sure if its a good course. Cass is ranked as the third best in UK but I have always seen people saying Warwick is a more reputed business school. I have to pay my deposit at Cass by June 1 and I am really confused.
Please help me with the pro's and con's of each school. Specially considering that I need a school that will help me network in the management consultancy field!
Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 22 May 2012 - 1:54pm
Hi,
first of all, congratulations to all these positives messages from so many renowned schools. Your profile must be really good!
Your most important sentence seems to be at the very end of your post: "...help me network in the management consultancy field!"
It is very important to be clear on what you want from a Master BEFORE you decide. And these WANTS can guide us through the decision making process. Now, since your primary goal appears to be increasing the likelihood of finding a consultancy job after graduation you can use this as a starting point.
The first thing you can do is: Check the statistics of the schools's websites and have a look WHERE the graduates (of the respective progam) find a job later on. How many percent are finding a job in Consulting?
The second thing you can do: Check the websites and look which companies come on campus to recruit students of the respective Master. Are these the firms you are interested in?
The next thing: You can approach the schools career offices and openly ask them the same questions: WHich companies come on campus and how many people in the last three years got a job in consulting? If they cannot answer these questions it may not be a good sign :)
Next, you can ask the career or admissions office to bring you in contact with a graduate that actually started his/her career at a consulting company. He or she may provide you with insights about how difficult this was and how he/she perceives the school's reputation among the McKinsey's, BCG's, or Roland Berger's.
Finally, you can make a list of your favorite consulting firms - those where you would like to work later on. Then you can contact them, e.g. in your home country or in the country where you wanna work after graduating. Be very polite, say that you woud like to soeak with the HR department, say that you are interested in their firm and that you plan to approach a Master in advance; finally ask them if they have any preferred schools where they recruit and particularly whether they recruit at the schools that you mentioned.
Best wishes
Thomas
