Hi, I have 13 yrs managerial experience and now looking to do an MBA. I am looking for highly ranked schools that offer MBA. Currently I have offers from Strathclyde and Lancaster. My aim is to find a job in consulting firms in UK/Europe after the MBA. Keeping this in mind, please suggest which is better Strath or Lancaster? Please feel free to suggest any other school that accepts people without GMAT and is in the FT top 100.
Thanks in advance.

Consulting is a big field. Think about which firms, industries and country or countries are your goals. Then use this approach: http://www.find-mba.com/board/33571

Neither Strathclyde nor Lancaster is a strong choice if you are focussed on the pure consulting firms (M,B,B,B) but for the big 4 accounting firms or the IT outsourcing firms (Accenture, Cognizant) then they are neither great nor terrible: I think Strathclyde will be slightly better. However, in that second tier you'd be better off at LBS, Cranfield, Cambridge, Manchester or Warwick. The GMAT is a clear quality signal to employers, and you'll find it much easier if you take the time to take the GMAT.

Thanks for your post. Please share your thoughts about Hult MBA as well - Dubai or San Francisco campus. I want to get into pure consulting firms like Mckinsey, Boston etc. Hult is ranked better than the 2 I mentioned earlier but my online research does not instill confidence in Hult.

No, Hult doesn't have strong relationships with any of the traditional MBA recruiters. MBBB are all firms whose work involves high levels of analytical ability, so they favour schools that use the GMAT. Use the LinkedIn method in the post I linked to above to see where they hire. They are all schools that use the GMAT.

Hi Rishir
Hope all is well with you. I am a current student at the University of Strathclyde. I am afraid the person who has answered your post has got it all wrong while stating facts about Strathclyde. Strathclyde Business School is triple accredited by AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS. If its MBA wasn?t ?great? it would pass the test of these very tough and demanding accreditation agencies. However, the other person is entitled to his own opinion.
Let me tell you something about the Strath MBA. The MBA at Strath is very demanding and rigorous since it is a one year programme. I would most certainly recommend Strath as a preferred B school over others since it is triple accredited and one of the top 100 B schools on the FT rankings. Apart from this, the professors who teach us are outstanding in their respective fields. Many of them have tremendous amounts of research articles published in the best of journals and have written many books too. Further, Strath has a special focus on Strategy (especially since you are looking at Consulting firms), with one complete term dedicated to it. None of the other B schools have that. Last, but not the least, Strath has tied up with different schools in Europe and has different centres around the world which enable you to choose from a range of electives that no other school can offer you. And yes, Strath has a dedicated Entrepreneurship cell by name Hunter Centre For Entrepreneurship which does tremendous research and helps start-ups in Scotland.
Now if we come to the diversity of the cohort we have 15 nationalities in the current cohort which has 32 members. Most students come from diverse industry backgrounds. This experience I found is unparalleled.

Finally, since you were focused on consulting, I have to tell you that we had Mr. Don Leslie (Director, Management Consultancy Recruitment at BLT) come over to our school and share his experience about hiring people into the consulting world.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to answer them. My email ID is [email protected].

All the Best
Hemant

Hi Hemant,

I'm interested that you say that I "got it all wrong while stating facts about Strathclyde." Could name *one* fact that I got wrong? Nothing you have written contradicts what I wrote, so perhaps there's a misunderstanding?

I wrote that "Neither Strathclyde nor Lancaster is a strong choice if you are focussed on the pure consulting firms (M,B,B,B)". By that, I mean McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, BCG and Booz & Company (MBBB or M3B). For a business school to be "a strong choice" for someone targeting those firms, then it would have to be relatively successful at placing alumni in those firms. As we say, 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'.

Luckily, it's easy to see which schools are relatively successful at placing alumni in those firms. Using this approach http://www.find-mba.com/board/33571 we can search the very large sample of MBA alumni in the UK who work at these firms.

These are the schools with the most alumni on LinkedIn in the UK who hold MBAs and are working at those four firms:
INSEAD (141)
London Business School (137)
Harvard Business School (77)
University of Cambridge (60)
University of Oxford (54)
Columbia University (35)
Wharton (31)
London School of Economics (22)
Northwestern University (21)
Booth (15)
INSEAD (SG) (15)

Those are the top ten schools and, out of 606 MBAs in the UK, on LinkedIn and working at those firms, *none* is an alum of Strathclyde. Indeed, the bigger fact about this list is that most of the schools are not in the UK. The M3B firms prefer to recruit from international schools, LBS and Oxbridge.

Of course, LinkedIn is just a sample - but it's a very large sample and I can't see any reason why Strathclyde should have particularly unrepresentative data. Indeed, Strathclyde is one of the oldest MBAs in the UK, so it could perhaps have quite a good network in the UK. Of course just because there isn't a Strathclyde MBA alum on LinkedIn at any of those firms does mean that there are not any. However, with a sample size of over 600, it does certainly mean that it's not one of the 10 or 20 schools with the most alumni at those firms. How could Strathclyde be a strong option for someone wanting to work at M3B when it does not have a track record of doing so.

None of this contradicts what you wrote. Strathclyde is a rigourous, triple-accredited MBA with world-class, research active faculty, international study options, a diverse cohort and support for entrepreneurs. One of your careers managers specialises in management consultancy. The students have work experience. The same be said of almost *every* other triple-accredited school (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_accreditation#List_of_Triple_Accredited_Schools). I am glad you have had a great experience, but the reality is that there are 17 triple accredited universities in the UK. Strathclyde may be unique in that every student is obliged to spend 10 weeks studying strategy, but so what? At most of those other schools it's possible to spend one, two or even three terms studying strategy if you want to. At LBS you could start strategy electives in term three and continue all the way to term six.

It is great that you are so loyal to your school but, honestly, if this person wants to get in M3B it would be much harder to do that from Strathclyde than from the other schools I mentioned.

Hi JK

By saying that you have got it all wrong, seems to have agitated you a bit! However, that was not the intention.

With regard to Rishir's query and his position as of now, Strathclyde is the obvious and the stronger choice he has when compared to the other school. Also, since he is not very keen to take the GMAT exam, he is almost left with no choice in the FT 100.

Now coming to the business schools which have alum in the top consulting firms; they require the GMAT, which Rishir is not very keen to take. Further, I laud you in using Linkedin to great effect to give us statistics. However, not everyone working in the top consulting firms are from Insead, LBS and the likes. While it is very comforting to state statistics, it must be remembered that "Statistics are just like mini-skirts, they give you good ideas but hide the most important thing". It is very important for us to make Rishir the right choice with the limited resources he has, rather than suggesting something which is not possible to achieve in the short time he has.

Again, while recommending Strathclyde as a strong option to Rishir, I kept his requirements in mind in doing so.

Also, if not many alum of Strathclyde figure in the Linkedin list that your were successful able to retrieve, it may be because of career moves they have made since joining the school. I know at least 3 guys who have previously worked in big consulting firms in my cohort who do not wish to go back to their previous job because of its pathetic work life balance.

On your comment that every B school which is triple accredited has the same strengths, I beg to differ on that. If they have the same strengths, why are we ranked high above most of them on FT? Some of them are not even ranked in FT or the economist. I remember while I was applying to Strathclyde, most other schools did not match up to the standards of Strath.

Finally, about schools which offer strategy for one full semester, can you name the other schools you are talking about? I would like to visit their websites and see if I made the wrong choice by joining Strath.

I really appreciate your comment that it will be tougher to get into top consulting firms from Strath, but I think Rishir will be taking the same tests, interviews that people from LBS etc would be taking. As far as I know, consulting firms do not differentiate pass outs from LBS and other schools. If they do that, then they cannot be called equal opportunity employers!

Regards
Hemant

I didn't say "that every B school which is triple accredited has the same strengths". I said what you said about school could be said of almost *every* other triple-accredited school. Your ranking isn't what's in questions: the question is: is Strathclyde a strong path into M3B schools. It is not.

I'm sorry to repeat myself but remember that I wrote:
"Neither Strathclyde nor Lancaster is a strong choice if you are focussed on the pure consulting firms (M,B,B,B) but for the big 4 accounting firms or the IT outsourcing firms (Accenture, Cognizant) then they are neither great nor terrible: I think Strathclyde will be slightly better. However, in that second tier you'd be better off at LBS, Cranfield, Cambridge, Manchester or Warwick. The GMAT is a clear quality signal to employers, and you'll find it much easier if you take the time to take the GMAT."

Where can you study strategy more than at Strathclyde? Well, at most of those schools. LBS is six terms. Manchester is five. Cranfield is four... and that provides lots of time for electives.

Thanks for your post Hemant and JK. Today is saw that BCG hires from Lancaster and on their website does not recognize Strathclyde - strange. Just wanted to check why is the batch size so low - just 32? Is it because of the UK visa regulations, the students decided to stay away or Strath usually has those nos. I am waiting for answers from Imperial MBA that seems to be better than both the b-schools I mentioned earlier. Please share your views on this. Hemant, If you dont mind, tell me a bit about your experience before joining the MBA and what are you planning to do after - job market in Scotland / UK.

Well Rishir, the year before I joined the MBA the cohort strength was 62. However, because of the UK Visa regulations, many Indians decided to stay away from unis in the UK. The business school in the future may not have the numbers the other schools boast of since the admissions team plan to keep cohorts small and exclusive for better classroom experience.

With the regard to my prior work ex, I have 5 years of experience in the financial services. I have worked in Deloitte Financial Advisory Services and Assurance services before joining a start up LPO. Post MBA I plan to go back to the same sector but may not be in the UK. I am not very keen to work here since most of my experience in US based financial services. Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards
Hemant

Rishir,

I strongly suggest you to go with Mr. Duncan's unbiased comments and if you are really aiming for M3B than dont even think about Strathclyde.

Regards
Nirmal

Hi Rishir
Hope all is well with you. I am a current student at the University of Strathclyde. I am afraid the person who has answered your post has got it all wrong while stating facts about Strathclyde. Strathclyde Business School is triple accredited by AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS. If its MBA wasn?t ?great? it would pass the test of these very tough and demanding accreditation agencies. However, the other person is entitled to his own opinion.
Let me tell you something about the Strath MBA. The MBA at Strath is very demanding and rigorous since it is a one year programme. I would most certainly recommend Strath as a preferred B school over others since it is triple accredited and one of the top 100 B schools on the FT rankings. Apart from this, the professors who teach us are outstanding in their respective fields. Many of them have tremendous amounts of research articles published in the best of journals and have written many books too. Further, Strath has a special focus on Strategy (especially since you are looking at Consulting firms), with one complete term dedicated to it. None of the other B schools have that. Last, but not the least, Strath has tied up with different schools in Europe and has different centres around the world which enable you to choose from a range of electives that no other school can offer you. And yes, Strath has a dedicated Entrepreneurship cell by name Hunter Centre For Entrepreneurship which does tremendous research and helps start-ups in Scotland.
Now if we come to the diversity of the cohort we have 15 nationalities in the current cohort which has 32 members. Most students come from diverse industry backgrounds. This experience I found is unparalleled.

Finally, since you were focused on consulting, I have to tell you that we had Mr. Don Leslie (Director, Management Consultancy Recruitment at BLT) come over to our school and share his experience about hiring people into the consulting world.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to answer them. My email ID is [email protected].

All the Best
Hemant

Nirmal & David, thanks for your comments. Is Lancaster or Imperial good enough for M3B? My decision solely rests on chances to get into M3B, I understand the other factors that influence this but those aside, purely on universities history of placements and reputation, is lancaster or Imperial good enough for M3B?

You can find the answer to this question yourself: http://www.find-mba.com/board/33571

Your best bet for M3B are schools listed by JK. Imperial also has a good reputation but I am not sure if it is a good choice to get into M3B.

Guys, what do you think about university of bath, looks like its the best among the three. Annual recruitment drive by M3B at Bath, placement record similar to Lancaster, recent sunday times ranking and highest increase ranking puts Bath very high. Please share your views on it.

"Annual recruitment drive by M3B at Bath"? I think you're mistaken about that. Please don't confuse undergraduate outcomes for MBA outcomes. Bath is one of the leading schools at the BSc level, but even there is it hardly a top target for M3B. See: http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/courses/undergraduate/bba/placements/companies.html

I saw it somewhere on the mckinsey website...cant find the link though i remember its yearly and in 2012 it was between 18 - 22nd October. Boston consulting also had a similar event at bath.

The link you posted does not show either organization which is surprising..

I think you'll find that neither BCG nor McKinsey recruit regularly from Bath and, certainly, not from the MBA there. Recruitment is quite different from attending campus. As far as I can see, most Bath alumni at McKinsey are international students who have joined through recruitment efforts in their own countries.

With over 10 years of Experience, I would suggest you to take GMAT and opt for the most reputed B-Schools, such as LBS, CASS, SAID, Warwick or Cranfield as only these B-Schools can help you in achieving your career Goals and you may also be able to find good peer group.
If you do not wish to take up GMAT then the next level of reputed B-Schools to choose from are Lancaster, Strathclyde, Aston, Bradford, Durham, Henley or Birmingham more or less you would expect similar career opportunities.