Hi all,

I live in Barcelona and I would like to do an MBA here. Given my budget, the big two schools, IESE and ESADE, seem out of reach, so at the top of my list are EADA (www.eada.edu) and UPF-IDEC (mba.upf.edu). I have heard many good things about the former, but I have heard hardly anything about the latter, despite UPF is quite prestigious here in Spain. Could someone please help me and list the pros and cons for each of them?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Erika

Since you live in Barcelona you should visit both places and see what they offer. In addition, you should take into account that not all applications get through. So if you are sure that you want to study in Barcelona it makes sense to apply to both places to begin with. Then you can see whether you get into both programs or just one.

Having said that, EADA is internationally accredited and UPF is not. That is partly because UPF is much younger. EADA is one of the oldest schools in Spain and UPF is one of the youngest. The main advantage of choosing a school with more tradition is that it is better known in the market and it usually has better alumni networks.

One strength of UPF vs. EADA is research. UPF has a stronger research orientation. However, you should know that UPF's research strength is in Economics rather than business.

Finally, I would also look at the prices (isn't EADA much more expensive?) and I would consider where you want to work after you graduate. If you are planning on working in Barcelona maybe the fact that UPF has a weaker network is not so important.

I totally agree with Jateigo,

Go and see the schools, informative sessions, School visit and make lots of questions.

Anyway I personally believe that at this stage, even if UPF is an excellent University, at business school level is still too young and not recognised in the MBA World.

Furthermore the price of EADA and UPF is not that different, so I would consider more EADA, but have a look yourself.

Regards

Erika, you should be aware how lucky you are to actually LIVE in the city where you want to study! That's a privilege - look at me, I'm from Venezuela and just planning my trip to Spain in order to get a personal impression of the different schools I consider for my MBA, what a long and expensive journey. And other people like our friend Noya from Indonesia (also posting in this board) who will have to chose "blindly" a school because travelling to Spain just to have a look is too complicated.
And I totally agree with James, once you have some basic info about different schools, the best thing is to go there personally to get an impression. Schools offer good opportunities, like informative sessions. Have a look at the websites, you'll see!

Hello guys, i am thinking to doing my MBA in spain but the thing is that the good schools are quite expensive like ESADE and Empresa ,does any one know anything about BMI in Barcelona it apperas to be a new business school and the tution fees is not that expensive so any idea about that?

Did you check out EADA? BMI is definitely not a well known program. To be sure that it's a good school, you should check out the accreditations.
But there is a lot of info about Spanish MBA programs in this board, did you go through all the old posts?

I agree: I wouldn't choose BMI either. It has no international accreditation and no reputation. Besides, tuition is 19,500 euros, which is the same (I think) as EADA (and EADA has 3 international accreditations!!). So for the same price I think the choice is clear: same price, same city, but one of the programs is better and has a much more established reputation. Then in Madrid you have U. Carlos III, which has one international accreditation and, being a public university, offers much cheaper tuition than BMI or EADA(less than 10,000 euros). And I would also recommend you to look at other MBA programs in Europe. Are you completely inflexible in wanting a Spanish MBA? If not, it is worth looking at other options too, even if you are not initially so interested. You may change your mind if you collect more information. And take into account that you should apply to several, not just one program. If you apply to just one and you are not admitted, you will have to postpone your MBA.

Thanx guys for the reply, actually BMI was one of my choices i mean i was thinking about it but i prefer to doing my MBA in Madrid, about the Carlos III you are right it's quite cheap compare to other Bus Schools but i am not sure however i am still searching maybe in France or Uk , but all the good Bus School are so expensive such as Bocconi , LBS, Esade , HEC and so on what about Grenoble MBA its quite reasonable price and triple accreditations?
Thanx again

hi sunnyboy, schools that are reasonable (at least, they made it to the FT50 best business school europe 2006): (in random order):
Grenoble 18,900 euro
audencia, nantes (17,000 if i'm not mistaken)
Vlerick Leuven, belgium (15,000 euro)
Solvay, Brussel

other to consider:
Nanyang in Singapore, about 16,000 USD-- triple accredited

that's all i know.. maybe other can help

Hello Sunnyboy, you can find some more good schools in Europe which are a bargain. But if they don't appear in the rankings as those enumerated by Noya above, you shoud definitely watch out for accredidation.
Pablo

I think jaitego's comments are spot on, especially the skepticism re BMI. I currently live in Barcelona and heard from someone who goes there that they turned up in January to start and they had something like three classmates and the school was not located where advertised. Their website looks real nice, but if you look at it closely, it looks totally canned. I mean it looks like they got all the photos for it off the web! I think rankings are of fairly relative value (I mean, they vary so much from one source to another) but accreditation must be considered a bare minimum for a school you're considering. If there's no accreditation, buyer beware!

Hello caveat, weird and no good news what you write about BMI! Was this now, January 2007? How are studies going by now for this student at BMI? I'd be very curious!

Hello Guys
How about University of carlos III MBA programme in Madrid? is it any good they are accreditated as well and the tution fees is only 9000 Eu!

Hi katalina, a couple of months ago I met a girl who said she was going to BMI. I was curious and she told me a little bit about it. As I recall, she was only taking one or two classes because it was just starting up. I haven't seen her since so I don't know anything more about it other than what I saw on the website. But she was disappointed because the site generated expectations that were not met once she was here.
Hi Sunnyboy, at 9,000 euros Carlos III looks like a pretty good deal. But, it doesn't look too international, if that's important to you. If you plan on building a network of contacts that's more Spanish, then it looks good and definitely legit. I think they were founded around the same time as Pompeu Fabra (late 80s, early 90s) and are supposed to be strong in economics, too. But I don't know too much about the MBA, except that it's accredited.

I don't think Carlos III's students are mostly Spanish. I've checked their web site, and 67 percent are from Latin America, 16 percent Spain, 11 percent rest of Europe, and 6 percent others. So the student body is quite international and I wouldn't worry about that at all. The thing you should take into account, though, is the relatively short history of the program compared to other programs. It implies that they don't have as many alumni as other schools, which can be important in terms of building a network.

I would have said the same, Carlos III is internationally less perceived than other b-schools like EADA. If you take f.ex. an employer from the US, Carlos III might not ring any bell - whereas you can find several other schools in Spain which are know all over the world.
As you describe the composition of classes in Carlos III, the focus is international, true, but kind of latin American - 2/3 of the students, thats quite a lot, no? I know that we are everywhere in Spain, but I would presume that IE, ESADE, EADA don't have this latin american overrepresentation, no?

You are right about the perceptions, Katalina, although I think that it has to do with the short history of the program rather than class composition.

According to IE's web site, their international MBA has 33 percent Western Europe, 26 percent Latin America, 19 percent Spain, 11 percent North America, 6 percent Asia-Pacific, 4 percent Eastern Europe, and 1 percent Africa. So it seems they have a more balanced student body, but still 45 percent from Spain + Latin America.

I couldn't find the exact figures in EADA's web site. For their international MBA they say 91 percent of students are international and provide a list of countries. You can't tell anything from that list. It could well be that there's a high percentage from Latin America, as it is usually the case in Spain, or maybe not. Perhaps somebody knows and can tell us.

I couldn't find any exact figures for ESADE either. Does anybody know?

That's what thought too Jaitego, it's not so international and I guess this is mainly because of short history and therefore fewer alumni and networking. Then, as an effect, there is this imbalanced composition of classes /overrepresentation of Latin Americans and Spanish, compared to those other program you mention.
After all, many Latin Americans wanting to do an MBA have 2 main criteria: MBA tought in Spanish and not so expensive. Carlos III is perfect for this!

Yes, but still.... we don't really know the composition for EADA or ESADE. At least I didn't find that info on the web and no one else seems to know.

I think all programs in Spain tend to have a large portion of Latin Americans anyways. As I said, 1 out of 2 students at Instituto de Empresa's international MBA are Spanish or Latin American, which I think is quite a lot --and there are probably more in their Spanish-spoken MBA (by the way Carlos III's stats are for both the Spanish-spoken and English-spoken versions).

My point is: if you are from Latin America and do not want to have too many classmates from that region, then it's better to choose the UK or France, for example. On the other hand, having many classmates from your own region may be good for networking, if you plan on going back to your home country upon graduation.

The composition of the english MBA in ESADE EADA, IESE or IE is on average 35% from latin America, 35% form europe, 10% form north america, 10% from asia and 10% africa and australia.
If you talk about the spanish class of any of these schools the % of latin american students is between 70 and 90%