Dear friends,

My name is Ram Charan and I am a bachelor of business and economics graduate from a second tier university in India with a gap of 3.0/4.0. however, I have a gmat of 740 with full IR score. Did not give any English tests.

I will have 1 yr of experience in jet airways as a pricing analyst by August 2016. I am a avid reader andand readread a great book called managemanagement consultancy by Joe o Mahoney and was intrigued by this career. it fits my personality really well.

I want to do a masters in Europe or America which will give me best access to operational turnaround consultingconsulting as well as pure strategy firms like bcg. I prefer Europe because of improving market outcomes.

what are the best masters for my goals. I have more than 5 months to start my program. So, I can learn any European language up to a2 and improve to b1 while there.

Ram

Use the FT masters in management ranking. Focus on the schools with the highest salary. Move to Europe now and get to B2 by September.

Hi, I received an offer today for MSc International Management (IMEX) at LSE. I am pretty happy but many of my friends from LSE are working in Dubai or India now as they did not get any career support from the university and the bad visa situation especially for pakistani and indian students. LSE is not top ranked in the FT ranking..even for salaries. Along with these facts and talking to 2 students at LSE I heard it does not place well into consulting.

So, based on your advice these are the top ranked schools I will apply in the coming two weeks:
1. HHL
2. WHU
3. EBS (heard bad things about this. May not apply)
4. St. Gallen (heard very hard to get admit to MA SIM)
5. HEC Paris
6. ESSEC
7. IE (heard bad things about this. May not apply)
8. LBS
9. Rotterdam
10. ESADE
11. ESCP Grand Ecole and specialised master in Organisational change and consulting

Out of these schools which combinations of schools and countries will provide me the highest chances of breaking into consulting? I can focus on one/two languages then until I get my offers( maybe in a month or so after applying as most of these have rolling admissions) and decide on the final language and possibly enrol in a language school in Europe.

How about Duke Fuqua MMS? Its not in rankings..but Duke is a strong uni right and its employment report shows it places people without permanent US Authorisation well.

LSE IMEX has a guaranteed exchange opportunity with top schools like Kellogg, Booth and Yale. But, its just a exchange right? it won't add much to my CV or help in my goals as I won't have access to alumni or OCR.

Thank you so much for your advice.

If you can take a year to get to fluency in the language, then the German schools are compelling. There are state-run schools, Studien Kollegen, which do this excellently in two semesters. Otherwise, pick the schools in the countries where you speak the language, and high high international mobility scores.

How about duke MMS?

Do I need to travel to germany necessarily? There's goethe institute which Is state run too and they have intensi've programs. Maybe I can do the last 3 monmonths there. It will be easy to get a visa then. Otherwise, I will have to apply for visa twice.

if I mmay ask, why do you think German schools are better than french schools. I think German is slightly harder than french. Is German worth the effort.

Take a look at Do you need to speak the local language? www.find-mba.com/board/34713

Duke MMS is a great choice if your goal is simply to work in the US. However, the roles are much more junior, with salaries around 55k for international students. Europe pays more: http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/masters-in-management-2014 That ranking will also show you are much higher salaries are in Germany.

I doubt that you will really learn professional fluency through the Goethe Institut. You will learn to listen and read more effectively than you will learn to speak or write (I can say this from my own experience there). Conversation, culture and accent reduction are not tasks for them. A Studien Kolleg will offer a much wider and stronger foundation. Indeed, what would be idea would be learn the target language (French, certainly, if you prefer) and then do a masters in the target language rather than in English so you can really integrate into the labour-market.

But top colleges like hec, whu, hhl, do not offer masters in Local language.

I was researching studienkollegs and found that they are aimed at students going for bachelobachelor ddegrees and their school leaving exams do not qualify them. w Course gives economics and business.vocabulary.. .however I did international baccalaureate diploma which is recognized in Germany. Are there any Such cocourses aimed at masters Students. Or may be I can go to a private college with a intensive 7 to 8 month course like the sschiller language school which will be easy to get admission too than the free state run studienkollegs.

Furthermore, studienkollegs require at least b1 to start and there is An eentrance exam. this complicates visa matters. So maybe a intensive private school will serve me best.

That is simply not accurate, although I see that the central website for Studienkollegs makes that point. However, in practice, you will see that in almost every case the Studienkolleg is part of a language teaching unit in a university which will prepare anyone for the DSH exam, and which will start from A1/beginner. This is certainly the case in Munich, where I studied (search for the DKFA at the university), the Herder Institut in Leipzig uni (where I think the DSH unit is called InterDAF or something like that) and Heidelberg.

[Edited by Duncan on Mar 14, 2015]

All the state universities (Mannheim, Cologne, St Gallen, etc) and French Grande École (Hec, Escp, Essec, EDHEC, em Lyon, etc) offer local language masters.

HHL and WHU do not. HEC does it in both languages..some courses are english. some in french..Its ok. But, i would prefer studying in English Duncan.

I am not making this up. You need to leave the English language HeC site and go to the French site. HEC has MS degrees taught in French and the Grande École programme can be completed largely in French. Indeed, WHU and HHL require English, and that is the easier language to study in. However, I think you appreciate that the language of business is not English in those countries and a degree taught largely in the local language will make you a more credible candidate, and will assimilate you more into the national culture.

I really appreciate that fact but I need to know the language to a very high level to learn/communicate the subtle nuances of strategy or organisational behaviour in German. I heard from a Mckinsey employee in Frankfurt that these days all documentation is in English but local client communication is predominantly in German. So, they do recruit students with Fluent English and Intermediate(B1) German skills though I need to have a backup with the Mittelstand if I cannot make it into MBB. I do intend to learn German to C1 though by dedicating 8-9 months full-time in Germany as soon as I finish my current contract in January 2016.

So, should I apply to Schiller school( a private german language school) : http://www.schiller-language-school.com/en/ instead of StudienKollegen. They require at least b1 to start and there is an eentrance exam. this complicates visa matters. So maybe a intensive private school will serve me best.

Kindly help me with this also:

How do you compare HEC Paris Msc Grand Ecole or Msc Strategic Management with WHU Msc Management in terms of career prospects in strategy consulting? WHU has much higher starting salaries..what are the structural reasons for this?

thank you

You can answer the first question via How to use LinkedIn to find the best school www.find-mba.com/board/33571

There's less than half the supply of German-speaking, top-quality business school educated, talent in Germany, and a much larger and stronger economy. No mystery. There are around 20 top tier schools in France, but half as many in Germany.

Thank you Duncan so much for your help. I have decided to apply for WHU, HHL and ESMT in Germany. I think I will get into at-least one of them based on profile match. And I will study German intensely from now on. I found a native speaker/citizen of Germany and she agreed to tutor me from the very basics. I guess I will do this until I get the opportunity to go full time and enrol in a intensive german class in Germany. Thank you once again.

Good luck. Here is the InterDAF website: http://www.interdaf.uni-leipzig.de/learn-german.html Accommodation is just 290 a month, and the two-month courses are much better value than the one-month courses.

I studied at the DKFA in Munich. Their course is cheaper, but has no emphasis on conversation or small-group training. With hindsight, I would have chosen InterDAF. http://www.dkfa.de/english/dates-costs