Hello,

I’m struggling with the choice between EMBA at Warwick and ESCP. Having been admitted at both, I’m trying to put pros and cons, but there is no obvious winner.

Apart from other factors which defined the choice of these two schools, ESCP comes as no. 10 in latest FT ranking and has been continuously improving its positions; Warwick on another hand has been losing its place three years in a row – 25th now.

With salary factors accounting for 40% of the score, it can obviously happen that Warwick students just either started their own business and “downgraded” their salaries, or around this time the cohort was of a “lower” profile and that caused Warwick to lose but still an impressive difference when compared to ESCP.

Then – as per FT detailed analysis based on students’ feedback, seems students’ satisfaction in Warwick is less than in ESCP.

On another hand, having spoken to quite some people it appears to me that ESCP is much less known to employers/people in general than Warwick even though the former seem to have a wider geographical reach.

Another point is that ESCP seems predominantly French market oriented with still good pan-European coverage while Warwick is really a UK business school for UK market and UK students (albeit not all of them of UK origin).

Does anyone here have experience of doing EMBA in either and could share his/her experience? Or just thoughts about each of the schools/programs? How teaching approach in one school is different from teaching in another? That would be of great help.

Thanks in advance!

I am an admissions coach who has advised people in your position. I was an EMBA student at similar UK and French schools (LBS and EDHEC) and think you have summed up the comparison very well. The other thing to assume is that the pedagogy will differ: the ESCP students will expect more individual assessment and the level of effort put into preparing for classes might be a bit more consistent. At a UK school, there will be more class discussion, group assignments and perhaps a bit less consistent preparation.

Personally, the scheduling of ESCP and Warwick ruled them out for me. I would have learnt much less in a four-day block on one topic than in a programme where courses are taught over a more extended period, with time for assigments and feedback. Warwick has a bigger core, and ESCP has more electives instead. If I had a prior degree in business then ESCP would interest me more, and if not then Warwick would have twice the classroom time for the fundamentals.

Thanks Duncan.

The schedule is indeed different - Warwick offers in first year bi-weekly schedule Fr+Sat at the Shard (4 electives to be completed next year), while at ESCP there are week long sessions every 2.5 months on average basis 30 months track.
Personally, I favor more Warwick as believe it provides for higher level of engagement and dynamics. But perhaps less compatible with personal live especially if one leaves outside the UK (my case).

Would you have any information about the students body in both schools? Obviously the brochures provide some data on that, but those don't give any indication about the true level, quality and maturity of the students. If to judge by the testimonial videos on school's website, I would say Warwick's students leave a better, more consistent and solid impression.

I also understood that Career support in Warwick is much stronger than in ESCP where one basically has to rely on the Alumni network only. Then whether that translates into true value is a question.

Same goes for soft skills development - an area to which Warwick has given an extra attention. ESCP is quite silent about this part.

Thanks.

Students at British schools always look better. We have more of a culture of promotion and self promotion, and the students will tend to be all working in English full time, unlike the ESCP students. The proof of the pudding, as we say, is in the eating. The ESCP cohort is more senior. Given the Shard option, I would also choose Warwick University unless I wanted to leave the UK. Careers services for EMBA alumni will be similarly uneven at both schools.

I think that a more senior cohort will have better soft skills, and the more multinational cohort at ESCP will be more challenging than a cohort all quite adapted to London. But Warwick certainly has advantages. Alumni services will be a bit stronger I guess. ESCP's network of campuses is a huge asset if you are interested more in the Euro zone.

Unless you target Central Europe/Eurozone or industries such as luxury I would say Warwick is more suitable.

I also disagree with Duncan that Brits have the culture of promotion and self-promotion, think about tourism industry Paris the most visited city on Earth or the luxurious brands such as LVMH. Pick-pocketing is a full-time job in Paris shows the sheer amount of tourists pouring in the country where they don't even make an effort to speak to you.

The French have their own specific ways of being posh and diplomatic which are superficial and grandiose that I come to somehow hate and appreciate at the same time. They claim Champaign couldn't be made outside of France which is utterly rubbish.

Having said that, I do agree that the Brits have very successful culture of promotion and have special talents for circular/pandering speaking that I learn and appreciate very much.

Britain's Champagne-method wines are great. But I don't mean that we Brits are good at promoting Britain, I mean that we are good at promoting ourselves and the organisations we are part of.

[Edited by Duncan on Dec 01, 2017]

Thanks to both for feedback.

In the end, it all comes down to ROI which however not always/necessary translates solely into money.

And have to admit that ratio between ROI and Ranking is somewhat obscure to me.

For instance St Gallen EMBA is ranked 45th, but there are plenty of senior managers in neighboring countries that have graduated from this school. Thus I’m not sure how big is the gap between ESCP with its 10th place and Warwick with its 25th place in reality.

One can obviously try to look where Alumni work, but seems most of the people who actually achieved something, hardly appear on LinkedIn. So if I take ESCP, I’m more of the impression that graduates tend to work in smaller companies with the focus on manufacturing. For WBS I don’t even have that because most of the profiles are for students who have done BA or MSc.

When you speak to schools reps, WBS leaves a more consistent impression as to why one should choose their school. ESCP’s main argument is: “Hey, look, we are no. 10th”. They even speak of WBS as no competitor really. But in reality, I think there is a much wider gap in terms of programs/students between say Kellog/HKUST vs ESCP than between ESCP vs WBS. So are ESCP and WBS indeed in different leagues?!

I’m working in energy commodities sector with worldwide coverage, thus don’t think I would benefit much from simply alternating between the campuses as ESCP allows on itinerant track – eventually you still follow the same program and with same cohort which is different from “expedition” some other schools drop you into with a particular focus on local business conduct.

Same time, being based in Central Europe with no intention to move to UK, I’m a bit concerned with possibly narrow focus of WBS on UK market/practices/problems and seems Duncan has confirmed this to be the case. Also as a student paying for tuition and where part of the learning is to come from the peers, I’m quite surprised that in UK students tend to prepare less, so apparently tend to take studies less seriously?!

I may be wrong ranging my objectives, but that’s how they look: soft skills = hard skills, followed by career opportunities, followed by networking. So I’m trying to figure out which school of the two suits most. Duncan mentioned more senior people with (possibly) better soft skills in ESCP, however I’m not sure to which extent one can really “learn” the soft skills from the peers, especially as/if there is apparently less team work in ESCP.

I think you need to visit classes and smell the air. If you are in central Europe, why not look at the Kellogg/WHU or Carlson/WU MBAs, or the Purdue/CEU IMM? An American MBA and an big US brand name goes a long way.

Warwick and ESCP are both pretty strong for energy.

Sadly, I barely have any support from my Employer. Neither time- nor money-wise. That ruled out several otherwise great options for me.

Thanks for the recommendations and comments anyway.

..out of curiosity (if you have an idea of course), which of the two schools offers experience most close to that of IMD? I did 2+2 weeks program in IMD a while back and that was a fantastic experience.

Certainly ESCP because, unlike Warwick, it is a top school for exec Ed. http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/executive-education-open-2017