Hey Katalina

Where are you from? And finally want program are you applying for?

I am right now applying for EADA- do you know anything about the admission test?

Hi Single Spain,

McKinsey hires more people now in Wharton, 96, then it did in 2006, 75, and we can produce lots of other statitics, but even if you are at Wharton it does not mean that you will be hired form McKinsey and if you are not from Wharton it does not mean you will never be hired by Mc Kinsey.

I agree that statistically you have more or less chances, but people from ESADE have been hired in Mc Kinsey even if everyone says that McKinsey considers only IESE.

We are trying here to give real life experience and provide a real idea of how much you can get out of your investment. IESE is the first in the world for the Economist, but ESADE is the first for business week, even if McKinsey does not go. The Rankings differ, you need to consider several parameters to evaluate a business school.

Regards and open your mind

James,

Thanks for your comments. Seems you are pretty comfortable with EADA, which is something I appreciate as I am born in Barcelona. Where are you from? Which schools did you consider to apply for your MBA?

Hello, a question for SingleSpain concerning EADA:
I'm a wondering why international companies don't recruit at EADA.
It seems to be a quite good program, accredited (triple if I'm right), and ranked in the FT rankings, and in the Economist rankings. As it exists for over 10 years I would presume that alumni situation must be quite good. That's why I'm surprised.
Is it really true that companies sort of "ignore" EADA, and if, do you know the reasons for that?

In recruiting yes, is a sort of ignored school for many international companies but for the local market is fine.

Also, I don't know if EADA is able to provide Bologna´s masters, do you know it?

And, why I should considered EADA instead of choosing ESADE or IESE, which are a more "secured" option to get a wellpaid job in Europe?

I have to say I'm quite skeptical about SingleSpain's comments on EADA. I would check before jumping to conclusions. Does SingleSpain imply that EADA's graduates are not hired by international companies? I don't think that's true. I'd change my mind if I saw actual data, but SingleSpain just gives an opinion. To reach conclusions one must have data or trust whoever tells you.

I would be surprised as well if international appeal of EADA was as limited as SingleSpain says above, and companies don't recruit.
As you pointed out jaitego, it is one of the 5 internationally accredited schools in SPain, and it is one of the 4 in the FT and Economist rankings - I'm sure that makes EADA MBA holders interesting candidates for international companies.

Besides, with this standing and as well a more then 10 year history, EADA must have to offer something in terms of alumni and networking.

Ok, IE, IESE, and ESADE are the top category schools in Spain and more prestigious, but for many they are financially out of reach, and here I must say, EADA offers a lot for significantly less money!

Hello people,

For applicants, Eada is a good school but totally unknown in Spain (outside of Barcelona). Also, other Spanish schools, such as EAE, Instituto San Telmo, Deusto, Caixanova, Esic, among others, are at the same level than Eada, for Spanish companies.

Saying that is the 4r in Spain would be not what MBAs from these Spanish second tier schools would say. Personally I would recommend Eada for internationals when considering any of these second tier, but you must consider that in the rest of Spain they would say what Ive stated before. My bias in favour if Eada, is due to my city, but I am also realistic about pros / cons. Also, I prefer Eada in front of Eae, both in Barcelona.

Guys, I am not inventing anything, and you can ask it to any of you Spanish friends about it .

If I understand you right, the international reputation of EADA completely differs from its national one?

Of course the fact that it's ranked in several serious rankings positions EADA internationally as a top level school, makes it number 4 in Spain.

What I'm surprised about is that Spanish companies would not take the ranking nor the accreditations into consideration. Why is that?

SingleSpain, would you say that in reality EADA is not better than all these other schools you mention, that it's some coincidence only that EADA ended up ranked, and the others not?

Mukerjee,

The brands in mentioned are more prestigious in Spain, Deusto, ICADE, Esic for instance.

What I would recommend you is to post your comments to www.expansionyempleo.com There you will get the opinion of many Spanish MBAS regarding the presitgue of each school in Spain.

I think accreditations and rankings exist to avoid endless discussions based on opinions rather than facts. We could discuss forever, but I prefer to focus on objective facts, and the truth is there are five internationally accredited schools in Spain: Instituto de Empresa, IESE, ESADE, EADA and Carlos III. Accreditation is not subjective: it involves serious external auditing by deans or directors of other accredited schools, usually from other countries. All five schools, with their strengths and weaknesses, are serious and offer high-quality programs. Otherwise they wouldn't be accredited.

In terms of rankings, four of them (the first ones) appear in the international rankings, although they do not all appear in all rankings. Everyone can check how those rankings are made and see where each school stands. Rankings however vary because they don't give the same importance to all aspects of an MBA, they don't survey the same people, etc.

The FT ranking is mostly focused on post-MBA salaries (20%), salary increases (20%), alumni opinions (19%), and the quality of faculty (20%). According to this ranking, you would have IE first, then IESE, then ESADE, and last EADA. Carlos III is too young to get into the rankings.

The Business Week approach is different. It focuses more on the quality of the programs rather than the salaries (quite different from FT which gives a lot of importance to salaries). Also, the BW ranking relies on surveys of employers and alumni, whereas FT does not survey employers. According to BW, there's ESADE, then IESE. I think IE and EADA are not ranked.

The Economist's ranking is again different: it does not survey employers --only alumni and schools. In terms of criteria it is kind of in between FT and BW: salaries are important, but not as important as in FT, and the quality of the program plays a more important role than in FT. According to that ranking, there's IESE, then IE, then ESADE and EADA.

The Wall Street Journal's ranking is based on employers' opinions only. It does not directly evaluate the quality of the program, it does not ask alumni. In that case there's ESADE first, then IE, and then IESE.

One last comment. Given that most people first decide to come to Spain and then choose the program, you should take into account that those schools (and often their alumni) view themselves as direct competitors. Unfortunately, such competition often leads people to despise programs that are not their own. That's why I think it is important to focus on objective data.

As for me and other people in my stuation, we consider SPain as a possibility for doing an MBA, but with a job perspective on the international level, Spanish national employers are not what interests us.

I'm not talking about the considerable number of Latin american MBA students in Spain.

So for international student your international point of view is relevant, jaitego: What do the rankings say, what are the accr., what is the reputation of the degree in international companies. If bschools have a prestige only inside SPain, that doesn't help us much.

Besides, thanks Jaitego for your insights about the differents rankings and their criteria, very interesting!

how are job chances after doing an MBA where instruction language is Spanish? do I have t do an English MBA to be interesting for international companies, what's your opinion?

I think doing your MBA in Spanish does not necessarily close any doors with international companies, as long as you have sufficient knowledge of English and your MBA is well reputed at the international level. But in that case I would go for an English MBA (even if you feel more comfortable in Spanish) because that will improve your language skills.

Hi Guys, It is good to share experiences, but not to contaminate this forum with pub-opinion, if you do not have data do not send subjective inputs and who is looking dor data, gos to the source, in the this case the school, and ask what do they do.

Regards

Accreditations are a good indicator of which is a B.School and which is not, so I agree with someone previous post.

As for rankings, there a many of them and of many colours. Financial Times is probably the most recognized (not the best for all), but also WSJ, and BWeek are recognized. At the end, is where you are able to get accepted, in the top B.School where the most talented people goes, and the less prestige/ demanded B.School.

Regarding price, I do not think is an key decision factor for people when choosing an MBA because you will get rewarded when you get a job. What dou you think?

Hello,
thanks jaitego, this makes sense.
I don't quite understand your comment james, I think one of the advantages of a discussion board is that you can get evaluations beyong stats and data. Of course comments are subjective, and many times people will have different opinions, but all speak out of personal experience. For me that means valuable first hand information which I cannot get elsewhere.

Hello,
I'd like to add something to SingleSpain's comment:
Generally speaking you are right of course. But I must say that this is not always valid for people comeing from "poorer" contries, for whom an MBA is even more expensive compared to their financial means. For instance Latin Americans. This is not true for all, there are many Latin Americans who don't have a problem to afford a high tuition.

But for others a high tuition can be very problematic because this money has to be raised beforehand, the later "reward" in terms of salary does not help here..

So I'd say costs SHOULD not be a key decision factor, but unfortunately for some people, including me, it is.

However, it's not about chosing the cheapest MBA for that reason, the MBA program needs to have a certain quality, otherwise it does not make sense to do it.

I think the price should always matter, unless someone else is paying for your MBA, which is usually not the case (still you may have a scholarship or a nice employer (?)). In the end, you have to figure out whether your MBA plan will give you some financial return, and the price of the program is of course a very important variable there (plus living expenses, travelling costs, etc.). Of course the quality of the program matters too. I'm not saying it's not important. But both things (price and quality) must be taken into account. The fact that quality is very important doesn't mean you should be ready to pay any price.

More expensive programs are not always better, although they often are. For example, some non-accredited programs are equally or more expensive than some programs that are accredited. And one of the rankings (I don't remember which --I think it's the Financial Times) provides information about "value for money", which means that the relationship between price and quality is not so simple.

But then, suppose you are comparing two programs and you know the more expensive one will give you better training and career prospects: even in that case, you have to figure out whether the difference in training and career prospects compensates the difference in prices. Unfortunately, to be able to make some predictions there you need to know the post-MBA average salaries for different programs, and there's (I think) no way to know that. But even if you knew that, those would just be other people's salaries, not the salary you are going to get.

Katalina,

You are right, many people from poor countries cannot afford to spend 80.000 to 100.000 euros for the MBA. I think that this is not fair, specially for the fact that many top business schools, including LBS, Insead, IESE an ESADE, which are expesinve, says that they promote "corporate responsaboloty values" and things like that.

Unfortunately, these schools do not do anything to solve that, only a small proportion of those potential MBAS can receive a schoolarship, those candidates that are normally above the average. But it´s wirth to try it, maybe you can get a schoolarship. BTW, Are you from Rusia?

Jaitego, best B.schools, mean best job prospects and a better satisfaction for yor MBA/ investment for life. Nobody would drop from a top tier school to another of lower prestige for the fact of the cost (with the exception of the poorest ), but even for people with no savings, is very typical in the US for instance that many MBAS ends the program with debt levels of 50.000 USD or more.