4 words -> No mandarin, no jobs.

H.K. biggest market is the chinese in mainland.
I spoke to some of the HK-UST alumnis (who is westerner), he tried to find jobs in H.K. but no luck. In the end, he found jobs in Singapore.. The guy had 10+ year work experience at UBS switzerland.
I don't know about jobs for marketing or other non-Investment roles. But to work in private equity/ sell-side definitely need to know business mandarin.

So those who are aiming HK-UST, HKU or CEIBS, better start your xin wen lessons.
IMO, HK-UST, HKU,CEIBS, Tsing hua, Peking U. All are within the same class. No difference whatsoever, as if we are comparing other 2nd rate biz schools in Asia. Asian bis schools are far from being an establish biz schools, like those in U.S. or U.K.

back to the original post please, as stated before my only interest is in the 2 before mentioned schools.

What's your background like? What field of work are you looking to go into? What's your educational background like? What is your ethnicity? (apparently if you're Chinese, for example, it's better to do your MBA at a western school, but if you're white, then going to an Asian MBA will set you apart) Where do you plan on working?

If you give answers to those questions, then people would be more likely to be able to guide you to the better choice.

Good post about the importance of learning Mandarin/(and reading Chinese) for career placement - i think it is misleading though to tell foreigners to who are working/applying to business school - to start learning it now, so that they will become fluent by recruitment in their second year.

Any investment bank/consullting firm doing recruitment in Asia who sees a resume from a Westerner (with no Chinese ehnicity) that says "fluent in Chinese" will look at two things - 1) Did they do their undergraduate degree or master's degree in Chinese 2) Have they lived in China more than 5 years. If one of these two are not fulfilled - the recruiter knows the person is intermediate at best. Intermediate Chinese works for 2nd tier banks and general management jobs in China - but not in a business where you need to work with Chinese clients every day.

In applying this to the original poster - I would say learning Chinese in either Singapore or Hong Kong in 1-2 years while doing an MBA is impossible. So, this should not be your goal for choosing the school.

i see the discussion has veered into different topics.

im going to try again, looking for comments/opinions from people who actually have made this choice( Insead - Hong Kong UST ONLY) what specifically you had looked at, and what made you decide one way or the other in the end.

thanks

Job opportunities.

INSEAD's prestige is higher than HK-UST.

Just apply to both schools, if one cannot get in INSEAD, choose HK-UST, which is the 2nd best school in Asia.

After reading your comments - HKUST.

Hong Kong has more going on than Singapore. Ask any young non-married expat in Asia, and most will say Hong Kong. Unless you want to take cheap weekend trips to Bali (which you will likely not have much time to do during an MBA program anyway) - Hong Kong is the way to go. More focus on China - likely more contacts will be made in Asia as a whole at HKUST (Korea, Japan, Mainland, Taiwan, HK) which can be useful if your family business needs a client in one of those countries.

If MBA recruitment mattered to you - I would say INSEAD - but if it does not, no need. Most INSEAD-Singapore students probably are not as interesting as the one's you may meet at HKUST in my opinion. INSEAD Singapore you will get 2 types - those really interested in Asia - and those wanting to split up the time in France. This makes it hard to develop close relationships like the ones you may do at HKUST where everyone is in the same boat.

<blockquote>After reading your comments - HKUST.

Hong Kong has more going on than Singapore. Ask any young non-married expat in Asia, and most will say Hong Kong. Unless you want to take cheap weekend trips to Bali (which you will likely not have much time to do during an MBA program anyway) - Hong Kong is the way to go. More focus on China - likely more contacts will be made in Asia as a whole at HKUST (Korea, Japan, Mainland, Taiwan, HK) which can be useful if your family business needs a client in one of those countries.

If MBA recruitment mattered to you - I would say INSEAD - but if it does not, no need. Most INSEAD-Singapore students probably are not as interesting as the one's you may meet at HKUST in my opinion. INSEAD Singapore you will get 2 types - those really interested in Asia - and those wanting to split up the time in France. This makes it hard to develop close relationships like the ones you may do at HKUST where everyone is in the same boat. </blockquote>

good comments, thank you. City wise, yes I have heard that Singapore is one boring a$$ city... and Hong Kong rocks, so judging by fun quotient the choice would be a so called no brainer. Placements dont matter to me, but networking is semi-important, the feel i get is that Insead's intake is smarter and more experienced, but perhaps lacks the street level enterpreneurial qualities that Hong Kong UST's people might have.

http://www.bm.ust.hk/research/ranking/2009_10_UTD_Rankings.pdf

Insead on top in this ranking. Both schools in top 3 worldwide in management research.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/08/0816_insead_virtual_tour/4.htm

New picture, Insead-Singapore, is that a new facililty they built? Former pics which I have seen looked different from this one.

<blockquote>http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/08/0816_insead_virtual_tour/4.htm

New picture, Insead-Singapore, is that a new facililty they built? Former pics which I have seen looked different from this one. </blockquote>

If anyone cares, this is a garden shot. Same building.

$maker - It appears like its been 2+ months since you have been researching this topic - any thoughts on which is the best school? I think most people visiting this forum are more concerned with career prospects and salary following graduation - and thus are not quite focused on the other elements of the school. Why are you not considering CEIBS - given the importance of China in Asia?

imho, someone would have to have very specific reasons to chose HKUST over Insead, the global network of the latter gives it such an advantage.