Forum: School selection (2 Comments)
Need help to choose from european business Universities
Posted by - charisis - on 9 March 2014 - 11:43pm
Hello! :-)
I am currently searching for my potential future university, since I am interested in a Master degree in Management, starting from the autumn semester of 2015. Perhaps it is a bit early, but I would like to plan my next steps.
As a matter of fact, I really need some guidance regarding the universities that I should go for , and therefore I would appreciate your help.
So, let me introduce me a little:My name is Charisis, and by now I am on my fifth and final year of studies in the Electrical and Computer Engineering, in the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Although my background is clearly technical, I would like to change my field of studies and move to something more managerial.
As I mentioned, I was looking for management programs, and more specifically in Europe.Regarding the criteria that are quite important for me:
Cost.
That is the reason why I have rejected the option of United Kindom, since most of the "good universities" (Cambridge, LSE, etc) require approx. 24.000 pounds per year. Unfortunately, i can see that the same happens for most widely acknowledged universities (esade, hec,..). But I would prefer to find a more economic solution, since my budget is limited.Bond with companies and employment possibilities- quality of the university.
I wouldn't say that my goal is a specific market for the moment (UK, scandinavian countries, or whatever). But I guess that the reputation of the university is quite a fundamental one for success in job pursuit.Life.
Well, I would say that a key factor (although not the most crucial one) is the life in the city of the university. When it comes to leisure time, living costs, entertainment, etc. (For example, I guess the university of st. Gallen is one of the major ones in Europe, but I wouldn't stand living in a city of only 75.000 people).
And a few thoughts: personally, the idea of the CEMS program is extremely appealing to me. Taking a look at the Universities that collaborate in the program, I think that SSE (Stockholm) would be a great choice, since it offers that opportunity, and the situation is very good considering the college fees. So for the moment, seems like a good option for me, eventhough it doesn't make it that good at the common Rankings.
-By the way, are the rankings that important to consider a Uni as "good" or not?So, I would appreciate any thoughts or advice regarding the above as well as any suggestions about universities.
(you don't have to limit your feedback on what is related to the CEMS, feel free to express yourselves )Thanks a lot in advance! :-D
Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 11 March 2014 - 10:31am
Hi there,
thank you for your post. Overall, your approach makes sense to me. That you want to acquire management knowledge as a complement to your previous technological knowledge. I also like your three balancing criteria around career goals (e.g. contacts to firms through the school), resources (e.g. money), and experience goals (e.g., city).
To get further inspirations and also to get some tips how to approach and analyze programs, I recommend you to read my new eBook "Roadmap to your Master in Business Degree 2014".
As for the rankings, it depends. Being in a ranking creates some visibility - to students, schools, but also to companies. Being in the rankings for a long time increases the likelihood that companies recognize the school or program.
In addition, you can look at the details of the ranking and for instance, create some sub-rankings - for instance, by filtering to only one criterion such as "best return of investment" etc.
Overall, I find it nice of a school appears in management education-related rankings overtime but I wouldn't overemphasize it. if you are interested in a specific employer that recruits at some regional schools because of the history of contacts and exchange of the school and the employer, this school doesn't need to be in the ranking.
If a school achieves high positions over and over again, this school may have a great prestige but may also require the students to pay for this prestige and charge higher tuition fees - not your ideal school.
Overall, you need to find a balance of how much reputation/exposure a school needs to have to make you happy and the costs. A good approach, as described more in detail in my book, is to screen the schools with respect to their connections with specific employers or at least industries of your interest and career statistics of their graduates.
Best wishes
ThomasBy Thomas Graf
