Sometimes there are decisions in life you don’t want to complain about: Whether to vacation in the Bahamas or the Florida Keys, for example, or whether to buy a Mercedes or a Lexus.
Sure, life could be worse. But that doesn’t make the decision any less anxiety-inducing.
Students who get into the top MBA programs in the world find themselves in a similar predicament. Do they want to rub shoulders with Wall Street types at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School or make international connections over croissants at France’s INSEAD Business School?
The top MBA programs on either side of the Atlantic differ in various ways, experts say. And prospective students should consider a variety of factors before they choose a top U.S. MBA program or an equally well-regarded program in Europe or beyond.
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The first thing students should consider when choosing between a top-tier U.S. or non-U.S. MBA program are the academic components, says Rachel Beck, a senior consultant at mbaMission, an MBA admissions consulting firm. While some programs have a general focus, others are known for their specialties. She suggests prospective students go through course catalogs to make sure they find a roster of classes of interest.
Students should also think about what industry they would like to be in, and whether their school has connections to that field.
Applicants drawn to business innovation and startup culture may be good fits for the graduate business programs at schools such as Stanford University, University of California–Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says Matt Symonds, co-director of the MBA admissions consulting firm Fortuna Admissions.
At the same time, students hoping to enter careers in private equity may want to choose a program at places like Wharton, Columbia University or University of Chicago.
A person’s ideal location after graduation should also be a factor in the MBA decision, Beck says.
Students who want to work in a specific part of the world should make sure they attend a school with a solid track record of sending graduates to those countries, she says. A quick way to do that is to conduct an Internet search for the schools’ employment reports. A search for the employment report at the London Business School, for example, shows that 45 percent of graduates remained in the United Kingdom after graduating in 2013.
Shane Clancy, a Canadian and Irish citizen who got into both London Business School and a top U.S. MBA program, says his goals for after graduating played a large role in deciding to head to London.
Clancy was interested in pursuing senior roles in energy finance, and thought London would be an ideal market for exploring new professional opportunities. Later, the plan changed, and he returned to Washington, D.C. to work as an associate investment officer with the International Finance Corporation — working in a country with relatively few of his classmates.
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Clancy and MBA experts say people who want to work in the U.S. should pursue their MBA in the U.S.
“U.S. MBA programs are much better understood and better known in the U.S. than Western European programs are,” Clancy says. “If you know without a doubt that you want to live and work in Chicago, it probably makes sense to consider going to the University of Chicago.”
Aside from job prospects, students should also consider the demographics of their peers, experts say. Non-U.S. MBA programs likely have more of an international student body, says Symonds with Fortuna Admissions.
“That’s very attractive to people,” he says. “That gives them a network from all over the world.”
Jenny Truong, a Californian who graduated from LBS in 2013, says the exposure to cultural diversity helps in other ways as well.
“Getting used to working with people from Portugal or Kazakhstan or India gives you confidence in working with different kinds of people and provides more cross-cultural understanding,” says Truong, now working in the pharmaceutical industry in Houston.
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European programs are a little bit more welcoming to older applicants, Beck says. Clancy, who was 28 and married when he went to LBS, says that played a role in his decision. He wanted to socialize with students at a similar life stage, and to be in a place where his wife also felt comfortable.
Finally, experts suggest that students factor cost into their MBA decisions.
Many top MBA programs in Asia and Europe offer one-year programs, which are less expensive than their two-year U.S. counterparts, Symonds says. On the other hand, he notes that U.S. programs tend to be more generous with financial aid.
While deciding what top MBA program to attend can be stressful, experts urge students to put the choice in perspective. It’s rare for students to be accepted into several of the world’s top programs, so if they are, they should at least take a few moments to celebrate.
“There is no right choice,” Beck says. “It’s all about the right fit for you.”
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Decide Between a Top U.S., Global MBA Program originally appeared on usnews.com
