Greetings,

Hope this message finds you well

I'm a general manager and entrepreneur looking to do an MBA to enhance my financial and general management skills, and enhance my career prospects.

I was accepted to ESCP fulltime program, yet unfortunately, the pandemic happened followed by the Ukraine war, which led me to deferring twice and then couldn't defer anymore. I didn't want to attend classes online on Zoom during the pandemic, and then the war in Ukraine happened and unrest and the energy crisis in Europe happened. In addition, I couldn't find a suitable apartment in Paris and the rent was quite high for my currency, relative to the apartment's space.

Anyway, I decided to do a part-time MBA program, and got accepted into a reputed part-time program in Dubai, and an online MBA with campus options in the US. I was wondering if there are more options to consider before making my decision between these two programs?

My options regarding the location are not limited, and the budget has to be friendly as well.

For example, LBS has a great EMBA in Dubai but it's $145,000 (4 million + in my currency), and so is INSEAD in Abu Dhabi. So given my profile and requirements, are there other recommended programs that are budget friendly, preferably part-time and not online MBA?

Thanks in advance,

There are thousands of MBAs, and it's hard to say which is the best for you without knowing your specific career goals. 

A full-time MBA is a great way to make a big transition: to change role, industry and/or country. A more costly MBA will probably be a better investment, and there are loans available to help people make that transition. 

A part-time MBA (online or on campus) is a great way to accelerate your current career trajectory. The best value online MBAs are certainly UIUC and Boston UNiversity. 

The Financial Times has good rankings for MBAs. 

There are thousands of MBAs, and it's hard to say which is the best for you without knowing your specific career goals. 

A full-time MBA is a great way to make a big transition: to change role, industry and/or country. A more costly MBA will probably be a better investment, and there are loans available to help people make that transition. 

A part-time MBA (online or on campus) is a great way to accelerate your current career trajectory. The best value online MBAs are certainly UIUC and Boston UNiversity. 

The Financial Times has good rankings for MBAs. 

Are you avoiding the GMAT? Take a look at https://find-mba.com/board/gmat/why-you-should-take-the-gmat-33542 

Exeter is better than Southampton for its MBA, but there's a huge gap between it and Durham. Cranfield or Glasgow would be better still, and closer to Durham. 

Not avoiding it, I wanted to get my applications in sooner than later and start my course this year. Thought I might lose time preparing for the GMAT and miss round 1 applications. That said, I'm in round 3 for Durham because they sent me an additional exercise, as part of my application, that took time for them to process.

In fact, I intend to start prepping for the GMAT soon anyway and take it before the start of my course. Purely from a learning standpoint to get me back into the academic mindset as well as the logical and analytical thinking it requires. The prep will be useful to me in the long run.
My end goal is to find work in London, how does the Exeter vs Southampton conversation weigh up in that context, considering the Exeter fee is 7.5k more after scholarships? Do u reckon that's too little a delta to choose Southampton over Exeter?

Hello, well I am not much of an expert in this field but looking at your requirements I would say that you could try the Lancaster MBA also. It's very highly regarded in the UK (top 10 MBA programmes in UK) and has consistently being ranked in the FT top 100 Global MBA rankings as well. The Lancaster MBA is much better than Exeter or Southampton and can be said to be at par with Durham or even better in some context like being more practical oriented. It's very highly regarded amongst the various employers and is one of the most value for money MBA programmes at just 36000 GBP with good scholarship options available too. Apart from Lancaster, for your given experience Cranfield and Edinburgh MBAs would be a good choice as well.

[Edited by overlord47 on Mar 30, 2023]

My end goal is to find work in London, how does the Exeter vs Southampton conversation weigh up in that context, considering the Exeter fee is 7.5k more after scholarships? Do u reckon that's too little a delta to choose Southampton over Exeter?