Do you speak Portuguese? Language is going to be a main factor if you want to work in Brazil after graduation. That's why many people who want to work there do MBAs in Portuguese - at COPPEAD or elsewhere.

If you just want some exposure to Brazil, then either of the programs you mentioned would be fine. However, you'll have much less time there in the Global Partners program. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your goals.

I am looking into these programs as well. My Portuguese is ok (I learned growing up but haven't spoken it in my professional life) so I am looking at programs in English.

The Global Partners program looks more polished, but I can't seem to find any career statistics to see what job possibilities it leads to.

The main thing that's pushing me towards FIA is that I saw that you don't have to take the GMAT. I am not good at standardized tests so I am trying to avoid it.

Are you going to try to work in Brazil after graduation? I don't think I will - I just want to get some experience there because the company I work for has some operations there, and it would be good for me to get some hands-on time down there.

That said, I think the Global Partners program might be a bit better for me, as I would get a wider sense of international exposure. But we'll see. I'm going to take the GMAT though.

Five weeks in Brazil... you'd be better off looking for a better school with an exchange programme if you want to know Brazil, since with Global Partners you will be studying with other people in the same programme rather than local students, so that doesn't really give you a very international experience. I would not think anyone in Europe will take an MBA from one of the IAE very seriously: none of them have international accreditation, and the IAE are much less prestigious than the mainstream business schools, in the grande ecole system.

PS Actually one of the IAE does have accreditation: the one in Aix. The Paris IAE does not.

Agreed. I think that you'll find that a lot of US business schools have partnerships with b-schools in Brazil, even with the ones you're looking at. If you do your MBA at Emory Goizueta, for example, you could spend a semester at FGV; and if you were going to Wharton you could do an exchange at COPPEAD.

Thanks. I'll look into Emory and Wharton... I guess I will have to see what my score on the GMAT will be.

FYI - it looks like COPPEAD is going to begin offering an English-language MBA option - tuition-free it seems, but the initial intake looks limited to 15 people:

http://www.find-mba.com/article/819/coppead-to-offer-mba-program-in-english

Wow, super interesting... Do you think admission will be competitive for this program? I'm scoring around 700 on the GMAT, which will most likely put me at somewhat of a disadvantage for the Wharton program, which I was really interested in. But maybe it could actually help me for this program...

I think it will be competitive, seeing as how it's free and limited to 15 spots. They're looking for a minimum GMAT score of 620, and I have no idea what kind of candidates this will attract.

However, I'd imagine that even if a free MBA is a good enticement, for most strong candidates with a 700+ GMAT score, a top-tier program would still be better for career growth over the long term.