Hi Everyone,
Need suggestions with selecting an European B School. Here's my profile.

Software Consultant from India with a professional experience of 5+ years. Graduated as an Engineer. Scored 750 in GMAT.
I would like to select a college which is decently ranked, has good career support and mostly importantly, one which provides scholarships. I am not financially well to do and would need a scholarship if I wish to pursue my dream on getting an MBA.

That will get you a 50% scholarship at EDHEC. There's another 8% off if you can meet them first at a fair: http://www.edhec-mba.com/faq-/mba-fees-scholarships-faq--2491.kjsp#Fair

PS Also take a look at http://board.find-mba.com/europe/2015-french-business-school-ranking-from-le-parisien-41631 and The sad facts about scholarships http://www.find-mba.com/board/37055

[Edited by Duncan on May 27, 2015]

Yes, and also Emlyon offers a scholarship of 60% for 700+ scorers. But do I stand a chance of scoring a scholarship in the top 10 in Europe? Or do they look for something exceptional?

No. The only schools that will offer you a scholarship will be schools that would not be able to get someone with your background to pay. I guess you could try with ESADE or HEC, but it's really a stretch for you to get in even if you are paying because there are so many applicants with your background looking at the top schools. I think you'd need to look outside the top 25 schools worldwide if you wanted anything more than a token discount.

Also look at schools in the Prodigy loan scheme. Most of the top European schools work with them now. https://prodigyfinance.com/get_a_loan

PS I really think EDHEC is a better bet than EM Lyon now.

Hi Duncan,

Thanks for all the information. Any specific reason to prefer EDHEC over EMLYON? The ratings say otherwise.
Also can you or anyone else enlighten me about LISBON MBA. It appears to be ranked quite well in the world rankings and has a 1 month international immersion program in MIT SLOAN which seems to be a big plus.

The French rankings regularly put EDHEC over EMLyon now. EMLyon is very cautious about placement data.

Lisbon MBA is great if you speak Portuguese and want to work in Brazil or Portugal. Not sure how useful the 'immersion' is at MIT Sloan. Okay, you'll get a polo shirt (http://mitsloan.mit.edu/international/about/news/the-lisbon-mba-mit-sloan-summer-immersion-program-2014/), but there's not many networking opportunities on the campus in the summer. Why not just fly the lecturers to Lisbon? I had a similar international MBA summer school at UCLA Anderson, and without new classmates the experience is pretty limited.

Thanks Duncan for all your help.
I have heard that studying in Italy or Germany would mean that I have to be fluent in the local language by the time I graduate to secure myself a job in the local market. Does it apply for all European countries? How about the top schools like Insead or HEC? Is it possible to learn a language during the MBA term? Although I am fluent in English, I don't want to opt for UK because of the Visa problems.

See Do you need to speak the local language? www.find-mba.com/board/34713

I can't see any way that a beginner can learn a language to professional fluency during a top-tier MBA. If you can only speak English, then I think you are restricted to small pool of investment banking roles, or to working in countries where you know the working language.

A good measure here is the Insead language policy (http://mba.insead.edu/admissions/documents/LanguagePolicy2016.pdf) which expects people to go up one level, from A1 to A2, during their MBA. That seems a reasonable goal in one year, as would be two levels in two years. But there are six levels to fluency, and even working in a coffee shop (outside Amsterdam) will require more than A2.

Why not look at something in the UK? Oxford or Cambridge for instance. I'm not sure what kind of scholarships you'd get but if you speak only English, your post-MBA job search will be much less of an uphill battle.