hi everybody though this is my first post I have regular reader of this thread......btwn aston & bradford I had decided on aston but the twist in tale is I got an offer from Strath recently so now I am confused.....pl. guide me...

Dear Rocky,

Strathclyde is in Scotland, and i personally feel Aston scores well over Strathclyde.
you can check various points highlighted by Hersh.
He has covered most of the points.

regards.

Deep.

Hi All,

I am new to this thread and during blogging, I found this thread and found it very useful. I am also in same dilemma of choosing one between Aston and Bradford.

Well thanks to Hersh, who has done an exhaustive study on both these school and I agree with him and would love to go with Aston.

But I have one query in concern to Aston. In Aston, along with competent faculty, companions/peers must also be competent. Then you can have a good discussion in the class room. As Aston has all qualties, but their entry requirements is just to quality the english competency. They don't have any GMAT requirements, or any particular test which sometime makes me feel that their screening crieteria is just academic credentials, which is an outdated system of selection.

So the stuff of students may not be that good. May be I am wrong but has any one felt the same ? If some one can put light on this matter, especially Hersh, who has given such a good explantion, then i think I can finalize the offer from Aston.

Wish to get a positive response from all of you.

Cheers

Dear Salil,
I think you are getting into a debateable scene now.
I totally agree with you that gmat is an important criteria that the university should have. But at the same time just because the university does not have that criteria it does not degrade the university.
Anyways I wish you best of luck.
Regards.
Deep.

I agree with deepbawa. Don't forget that UK nationals (who will comprise a significant proportion of the student body) won't need to take either qualification. So even if the university were to insist on GMAT etc., half the people enrolled on the course wouldn't have done it.

Hi Deep, Lukeh and folks,

Many thanks for replying back. I agree with both of you. Times ago, there was no competition exam like GMAT and people those who have done MBA from esteemed B schools in that time are the frontrunners of today?s world economy.

Please let me know, in Bradford they have asked for GMAT on the website or their internal exam. Those who have got the admission call from Bradford, have you all taken GMAT? Is Bradford giving waiver in GMAT requirements? Because if Bradford is also giving waiver for GMAT, then automatically my query will be resolved. Then in every aspect Aston is far better than Bradford.

I request you all to post the true facts.

Cheers

Dear Salil,

Trust me 99% students at bradford are not asked to write GMAT,

anyways if you have any more questions , please feel free to contact me on 9810904848.

regards.

Deep.

hi salil,
congratulations for your offers!

addressing your concern following thought process comes to my mind!

1> first of all i have also been offerd place in bradford,i filed aston and bradford at the same time and i got the offer from bradford in 7 days and aston took 15 days to make an offer to me.. both without gmat.. this definately tells something about selection criteria.. with bradford i felt as if no one has applied to them as i cant be so lucky to get offer in 7 days in such a prestigious college.. from selection point of view i found durham business school selection most stringent of all the offers i have , they conducted my interview for an hour and in the end made conditional offer asking to write an portfolio analysis..anyways average gmat score for aston business school is 620 as per which mba ranking and bradford shows not applicable.. means though aston havent kept the gmat criteria but peple with gmat scores who have applied averages 620 whereas bradford is not applicable.. shows the popularity..

2> what are you looking at.. i guess personal development through mba program and more importantly through external factors like class mix and all.. then aston ranks well above bradford for student assessment and personal development ...
intelligent class mix can be looked upon from two different angles depending upon the kind of person you are..
1> if you think you are intelligent and think you are independent enough to acquire knowledge from books and dont need anybody then you should be happy with less intelligent people studying with you as you can top the class..
2> if you think you love competetion as it motivates you towards learning and ofcourse learning from them then you should look for the class mix.with intelligent people..

3> mba is no value addition course .. they only tells you how to approach the problem more structuredly.. but cant enhance your intelligence in problem solving .. its persons fundamental and intrensic value that will take him ahead not the gyan from anybody..

so yes you will have other alternatives to same questions if you have class mates intelligent enough to think..

i feel who all have got offers from the aston must have passed certain xyz factors , thus its my intution that we all must be of same calliber with 19 20 here.. coz.. intelligent person would have fancied his chances to much better college and might have got offer too and person below us would have not qualified..

in the end we can probably disclose our identities in terms of achievements in our accads and work exp.. we can fairly judge the intelligence pool.

regards
Hersh

Hi Deep, Hersh, and community members !!

Your explanation and optimistic approach has made me clear, if I join Aston this fall session, then I would be pleased to study with you guys.

I have another question, if you guys/gals like to discuss here, because this is also a general question relating to all of us. Everybody here is going to do make an investment by studying MBA and we all hope to get the good returns of this investment.

But friends, Is it worth spending INR 16 lacs for a year MBA. Well, I am not discouraging any one but simply discussing. Like, in India, we have to spent around 10-12 lacs for two years, if we pursue our MBA from any reputed institute. Exception always exists, like Indian School of Business, where the fees of one year PGDM programme is 16 lacs. But we all Indians know that the stuff of ISB is excellent (this doesn?t mean that we all are not excellent) and big companies keeps eye to catch an ISBIAN. They get windfall premium, passing from ISB. Okay, I shall don?t digress from discussion topic. So, my question is, as individual, can we get an average start after pursuing MBA from Aston? Should we be able to repay our bank loans?

Those who are not borrowing any loan, can also post the reply, if they have any worthy information/suggestion?

Hope you won?t find the topic bore, because we all are striving for good career and money as well. So please spend some time and reply.

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

Cheers

Salil,
first of all get one thing very clear that aston falls under tier 2. You cannot compete with manchester in uk or isb in india.
Yes we all our concerned about the loans we are taking.
Trust me you can easily pay back within 2 years.
The average package you start will be 30 to 35k pounds.
So dont bother about that we are all in the same boat.
Take care.
Deep

Hi there guys,
Sorry I've been away - I have been quite busy. As far as the quality of students at Aston, I have a good friend who attends Aston now, and he honestly is a bit of a snob. But he still believes that the quality of students at his school is quite high. He loves to tell me of the sort of debates and discussions they get into in the classroom. This is one of the reasons why Aston was so high on my list, in addition to the fact that they are accredited here in America (triple accreditation).

well there is a point there.As an Indian student myself, is it possible to compare Indian B schools with the ones like Aston or Bradford for that matter? this is actually a serious question i have been thinking about. Like salil says MBA is definitely a financial issue to Indian students like me. Where exactly do our IIMs and other B-schools stand in comparison with the schools in UK?

Hi everyone!

I've been reading your posts with great interest, because I've had an offer of admission to Aston, among others, and it seems to have come down between Aston and University of Glasgow Business School for me...

Right now Aston is leading because of its triple accreditation and it's closer to London (where I want to try to live afterward), but Glasgow had a double accreditation so it's not total crap either.

I was wondering if anyone had any opinion between the two, in terms of types of students who go there, the cities, their reputation in the UK and abroad (I'm an American and want to make sure the degree I get is recognized beyond UK borders), the employability after graduation, etc. etc.? Like Kelly said a while back, you can only do so much online research.

Thanks very much for your help!

Hi there,

I can't say I know too much about either Aston or Glasgow - not from first hand experience, anyway. It sounds like you've already done a fair bit of research, so you probably don't need telling that Aston is, according to the FT's rankings, the 27th best school in Europe, while the economist ranks it 54th in the world, which is pretty good going whichever way you look at it. Glasgow isn't in the Ft's top 60 schools in Europe, or their 100 best schools in the world, but is 75th in the world according to the Economist. You'll already have read all the debates on here about whether Aston is better than Bradford or not (most people seem to think it is), and hopefully that will have given you some idea of what people think both of the programme and one's employment opportunities afterwards. But from a purely personal point of view - and I know there will be plenty of people on here who will violently disagree - I would choose Glasgow. If only because for me where one lives is at least as important as where one studies, and in my opinion Glasgow wins hands down.

haha @ "violently disagree"...

I hope there isn't any violence in these discussions. When you talk about living in Glasgow, are you refering to the scenery, and environment, or are you talking about the opportunities for networking and the job prospects in the area?
What don't you like about the center of Birmingham? I'm assuming you know both cities well, so I definitely would defer to your point of view.

Thanks.
Kelly

Thanks for the response lukeh!

I guess I am partly concerned with the environment and really liking where I'm living for a year, but maybe more - as Kelly said - about the networking and job prospects. Given that Aston is closer to London, might it have better connections to the industry?

I'm looking for something to tip the scales in either direction here, since my pro/con lists for both are so equal right now...

Thanks!

Hi All,

I have been seeing the useful feedback of all the participants. I would like to get some info to finalize on my decision. I have got offers from Bradford / Kent / Nottingham / Exeter / Durham Business schools in MBA programme.

I have 7.5 years of work ex and currently working as PM in IT MNC , India with gud perks and going for General MBA. Post MBA, would like to work in UK.

Need info on
1. Which MBA College is the best among these (Job prospects, salary, reputation)
2. Any other information which might be important.

Any info / help would be appreciated.

Regards.

Thanks for the response lukeh!

I guess I am partly concerned with the environment and really liking where I'm living for a year, but maybe more - as Kelly said - about the networking and job prospects. Given that Aston is closer to London, might it have better connections to the industry?

I'm looking for something to tip the scales in either direction here, since my pro/con lists for both are so equal right now...

Thanks!

Good point, Seb.
Location will definitely have to be a personal decision. I am considering working in London afterwards, so I thought it might be important to experience and know London beforehand, while being in the very place where much competition would be happening. Not a stranger to competition, coming from Los Angeles and New York. Aston has a great advantage, as well, being away from the madness of London, but still being in an important metropolitan area. This makes you competitive both in London / South East as well as Birmingham / Midlands. In the end, we all have to do the research and personally answer questions about what we want for ourselves....

You're right. And even though I'm not exactly a big fan of Birmingham, I'm sure going for Aston is a good bet,outside of London it is one of the UK's top schools. Out of interest, are you not applying to any London schools?