Hi,

I have been accepted at HEC Paris and IESE Barcelona for their 2021 intake. I should let them know my decision soon. I have been offered a scholarship of 10K by HEC and nothing (yet) from IESE.

My postcareer goal is MBB in Germany (I am fluent in German), have spoken to MBB alumni from IESE, but no one from HEC so far. I personally am tending towards choosing IESE for its strength in consulting, case-methodology as well as its location, but with the scholarship and the course duration it ends up being 30K costlier than at HEC, which makes me think if its worth it. My first preference was IESE, followed closely by HEC - so that leaves me in an unenviably confused state. I’m not sure if IESE is considerably better to justify the extra 30K, or if I’d be making a mistake by opting for HEC over IESE.

Any advice? I very much appreciate some thoughts and input.

IESE is the better choice. Its MBA is deeper and more quant oriented. Always ignore scholarship offers of you are aimed at top outcomes. 

Hi Duncan, thank you for your response. You don’t think the 30k difference wouldn’t offset the difference in ‘quality’? Considering that both are highly ranked and have similar placement records (in %), according to their published employment reports. Even the post-MBA salaries for Europe for consulting are at comparable levels. I understand that IESE has the case methodology, but in what other ways are they considerably better than HEC?

If you think the outcomes are similar we must be all looking at different information. The FT data says IESE places more people into consulting, and it is better at helping people to change careers (but, correspondingly, does have slower placement than HEC because of the greater number of career changers and [perhaps] more non-EU students in the cohort). No-one can say saying it's better than HEC in every way, but it's a tougher and more quant-oriented MBA. 

[Edited by StuartHE on Mar 04, 2021]