Hi. I'm trying to decide between IESE GEMBA and Hult 1 year in San Francisco, California. Hult was formerly Arthur D Little school and is just starting the San Francisco campus in 2010. I live in San Francisco. IESE requires a lot more travel and costs 2x as much, and I'm wondering if the extra cost of IESE is worth it? Will it pay off more than a degree from Hult?

FYI, if it makes any difference, this is a career change for me. After graduation I want to work in management consulting.

In this economic climate a career change after the MBA is quite tough, so if you can get into a school which is targeted by the big consultants i would go there. Hult is a good school but isn't targeted specifically by McKinsey, Bain, BCG (although graduates do work there). I believe that IESE is, at least by the Madrid offices.

Therefore, if you speak Spanish fluently (a requirement for associates in teh Madrid office) then i think IESE is the best choice. If not I would go to Hult and save the money.

Hope that helps.

That does help, thanks! I don;t speak Spanish but I hope to learn. I'm also not necessarily looking to be hired by a behemoth of a corporation unless they have a section devoted to sustainable management. This makes me lean towards IESE which emphasizes the importance of social responsibility. Thanks for your input.

L

Ah. If you are interested in sustainable management then you may want to look at Hult again. They have a subdivision called IXL (www.ixl-center.com) that is focused on sustainable innovations. That is run by a number of partners from Monitor Group. They do a lot of consulting in this area and use Hult students who perform well in their classes.

I just took a look and this extra information has got me very excited about Hult. Strange that they don't emphasize this more on their web page.

Thanks again!

L

If it were the full-time MBA programs at both schools, cost is the only reason I might consider Hult over IESE, since IESE is a much more highly regarded program.. it's on like Ivy Leauge level in Europe..

However, it seems like you are looking at an online EMBA at IESE vs. an in-person EMBA at Hult. In that case, I would lean toward Hult. I think it's always a big benefit to interact with professors in real life, and have the experience of actually being on a college campus. If it's less expensive, than that's one other good reason to choose the Hult program.

If you did the online EMBA at IESE (with only occasional visits to the campus), I think you wouldn't get the same networking and career benefits that the on-campus students at that school get. The only benefit I see would be having the IESE name on your resume.

However, in the US, I don't think the IESE name holds that much more weight than Hult would. So, I do think it sounds like Hult might be a solid choice for you. However, since this is a new campus in San Frasisco, I would try to find out as much as possible about what resources and facilities will be available to you there. Will it be as large a campus as the school has in other cities, such as Boston and London? And will all campus resources be available to students in the first year of operation?

Out of curiosity, have you checked out Berkeley? Haas School of Business has a joint program with Columbia that requires only a few trips to New York:
http://www.berkeley.columbia.edu/

Hi. Yes it would be the Executive MBA with IESE since I am based in San Francisco. Hult is just beginning a SF campus so I don't have anyone I can speak to about it yet. I am wondering if IESE has as much name recognition in the the US as it seems to have in Europe. Many of my friends, Harvard MBA grads, seem to think it is unknown here. They seem to think I should be applying to Stanford or UC Berkeley instead.

Stanford doesn't have an EMBA program. You would have to do a regular, full-time MBA. Although it's definitely considered the "best" MBA program on the West Coast. It's often considered #2 in the world after Harvard.

Berkeley is the second "best" (in terms of prestigue) West Coast b-school behind Stanford. And they do offer an EMBA, in conjunction with Columbia, which is also one of the best MBA programs in the country/world :P

Like I said: Berkeley's "Haas School of Business has a joint program with Columbia that requires only a few trips to New York:
www.berkeley.columbia.edu/"

Anyway, it depends on what you are looking for. If you're looking for ivy-league level connections, I would choose one of those programs.

But, if you think Hult will meet your needs, by all means go there. And, since you're working, scheduling is obviously also an issue.

Like I was saying. IESE is virtually ivy league in Europe. But nobody has heard of it in the US, so I don't think the brand would do you much good, unless you have plans to go to Europe (or perhaps aim to work at a multi-national company that's based in Europe.)
Out of curiosity.. if you have no interest in Europe, how did you end up applying to IESE in the first place?

I would LOVE to work in Europe, but this is a career change for me and I don't speak a European language. I would be happy to learn but without fluency I don't think I would have much chance getting hired.
IESE reached out to me based on my profile.

How do people feel about paying off loans? Most people with MBAs seem to make $100-150k initially and I wonder if the high cost of IESE tuition is worth it?

It sounds like you need to do more research on these schools and soul searching on what you want out of an MBA.
IESE is a great school, but it sounds like it might not be a right fit for you.
Why limited yourself to two randomly selected programs that you're not sure about?
Why not research a range of possibilities and then choose what's best?
If you would prefer not to move for your MBA why not research all of the programs available in the San Fransisco area?
It's not too late to apply for many programs that start in the fall.
Also, did you read about the Berkeley-Columbia program? That program always starts in May, so you could apply for the session that begins in May 2011, if it sounds like something you'd be interested in/able to do.
If you're going to spring for an expensive degree, and plan to work in the US afterward, I would definitely go to a US university.
IESE costs almost as much as Harvard, and I definitely don't think you'd get the same bang for your buck, especially if you plan to stay in the US.

Yes, I'm reaching out to alumni and recruiters currently to gauge the strength of the programs. Like I said, I would LOVE to work internationally. I don't PLAN to work in the US, but I'm being realistic.
I have some knowledge of international development issues. But my 2nd language isn't French, Spanish or Russian. I also want to focus on sustainability and corporate social responsibility, but on an international scale. It seems each program offers a piece of what I am needing, but not all. I looked at Columbia-Berkeley and am still researching their merits.

Thanks again for your advice.

Why main question is, why did you limit yourself to Hult and IESE? Or did you apply several other places but were accepted to these two?

If you just google the words *San Frasisco MBA* you will see there is no shortage of worldclass options local to you.

Check out: Wharton (in the league of Harvard and Stanford) has an executive MBA program in San Fransisco:
http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mbaexecutive/
(This might even be better for you than Columbia-Berkeley since its all in SF and it's on weekends only.)

I don't know much about Dominican University, but this program sounds like it might be up your alley:
http://www.greenmba.com/

UC Davis offers an MBA in the Bay Area as well:
http://www.gsm.ucdavis.edu/bamba/

Then of course there are local unviersities, such as San Fransisco State:
http://cob.sfsu.edu/cob/graduate-programs/emba.cfm

I just got the impression that if you hadn't even looked into Berkeley, you must really not have done your research on which school is best for you. Because I think I know more about San Frasisco MBA programs than you do, and I only just now started researching the topic via Google.

I'm familiar with these programs, and ruled them out for different reasons. But thanks for your help.

you didn't answer my "main question" which was: why is your choice limited to Hult and IESE?

But if you don't want to answer specifically, that's OK. It's your decision!

Those two schools just seem like random choices when there are so many options in San Fransisco -- it's probably one of the best places in the world to get an MBA. (Up there with Boston and New York.)

I'm not limited to Hult and IESE, but I started this discussion as a comparison of these two programs alone in trying to determine the relative merits of two similar programs, should I decide to take the MBA in an international setting. I'm considering local options as well. I'm prefer to focus on areas that are relevant to my needs so unless there is information you can provide about IESE relative to Hult, I'm busy continuing my research.

Your needs as communicated on this forum:
You want to go into consulting
You are interested in sustainability issues
You want a brand that will be recognized in the US.
You want to continue living in San Fransisco during your MBA.

Based on those criteria, I don't understand what you're hoping to get out an "international" program. So, it's really impossible to offer much advice between Hult and IESE beyond what I've already offered.