Carl,

I dont know whether or not you actually visited Insead's Singapore campus, the truth is that it really "sucks" and faculty+classes are not as good as the ones in France.

I'm an American who for a while thought about doing an MBA in Asia. Along the way i visited Insead-Singapore and HKUST.

In the US Insead is known to be the school for all rejects from Top 5 US schools, your CV would be in the same pile with Duke, Michigan and Cornell. I found it absolutely hilarious how high Insead alum/students think of the school.

I would take LBS and Oxford over Insead, how about Cambridge, have you looked at them as well? No interest in US schools?

lol. another HKUST fanboy?

Now I'm worried whether I should consider HKUST at all..or I should consider CEIBS instead...

Carl,

I dont know whether or not you actually visited Insead's Singapore campus, the truth is that it really "sucks" and faculty+classes are not as good as the ones in France.

I'm an American who for a while thought about doing an MBA in Asia. Along the way i visited Insead-Singapore and HKUST.

In the US Insead is known to be the school for all rejects from Top 5 US schools, your CV would be in the same pile with Duke, Michigan and Cornell. I found it absolutely hilarious how high Insead alum/students think of the school.

I would take LBS and Oxford over Insead, how about Cambridge, have you looked at them as well? No interest in US schools?

starting 16 month track at Columbia in January. in the end i did not apply to any schools in Asia.

Just telling you as it stands in the US bud, relax.

lol. another HKUST fanboy?

Now I'm worried whether I should consider HKUST at all..or I should consider CEIBS instead...

Carl,

I dont know whether or not you actually visited Insead's Singapore campus, the truth is that it really "sucks" and faculty+classes are not as good as the ones in France.

I'm an American who for a while thought about doing an MBA in Asia. Along the way i visited Insead-Singapore and HKUST.

In the US Insead is known to be the school for all rejects from Top 5 US schools, your CV would be in the same pile with Duke, Michigan and Cornell. I found it absolutely hilarious how high Insead alum/students think of the school.

I would take LBS and Oxford over Insead, how about Cambridge, have you looked at them as well? No interest in US schools?

I am not qualified to talk about all schools, because after I visited INSEAD I stopped looking elsewhere and I applied only there. Even though I did not do a survey, I remember maybe 30-40% of my friends had applied only at INSEAD.
There may be schools that claim better professors, or even a bigger alumni network, but there are many people who choose to be at INSEAD because of the culture and the people they meet there who are amazing, coming from all over the world and going back all over (not to put down the profs, they are as good I guess as many of those came from top 5 in US or other European schools, exactly for the pool of people and culture that they find at INSEAD, which brings even more quality students etc etc). . .

Maybe I found it at times too diverse in the beginning with 5 different students talking completely different things from 5 different points of view and finding it difficult to agree in a group meeting, but now, after I graduated 3 months ago their thoughts are the ones I remember as vividly as profs' and understand exactly what diversity is about. In the UN where I work in Africa we have people with different countries of origin, but with similar experiences for the past 5-10 years. There you get people with different countries of origin, different thoughts, interests in life, backgrounds - it would be amazing if the world of 100 years from now would be like INSEAD and not melted in one culture of a country like US. In such a place one can never learn enough from peers.
And, with so many interesting and different people, I could not get enough to know more of them. My personal opinion is that I would not have endeavored to know as many people had it not been for completely different things that I found in the next guy/girl. This makes the friendships stronger and when you graduate, you are all over the world and have intesting things to do together rather than beging only in hubs for example. I find it a different dynamic...
Other than this a quality education is offered by many schools. In these days it's different for one to go wrong, but my advice is to attend one day of a national week, sit in a couple of electives (they are more interesting) and talk to students what they were doing before, what they wanna do after. It can be enriching even if you choose to attend elsewhere.

Hi,

INSEAD is not a top MBA school in Asia; it is a top MBA school in the world!

Their selection criterion is very tight, and all their graduates have solid academic and professional experience. Many of them have worked for more than 7 years and hold very successful and high profile positions in leading companies.

If you want to get the best from your MBA, or if you are looking for a post-MBA career internationally, I would strongly advise you to do your MBA in top business schools in the world, such as INSEAD or CEIBS, but not top business schools in Asia, such as NUS, NTU, or HKUST. There is a huge difference between the top 20 MBA schools in the world and top 20 MBA schools in Asia.

However, if you are looking for a post-MBA career in the Asia Pacific Region such as in Singapore, India or China, then it makes sense to do a MBA in a top Asian school because of two reasons: 1) These top schools are highly recognized in the region; 2) Their cost fees are significantly lower than schools like Harvard, Wharton, INSEAD, or LSE.

I hope the above information could be useful to you.

Kind regards,
Thomas

Hi,

INSEAD is not a top MBA school in Asia; it is a top MBA school in the world!

I would strongly advise you to do your MBA in top business schools in the world, such as INSEAD or CEIBS

ha ha, im sorry, but thats the funniest thing i have heard in a long time

This tit-for-tat infighting betwen INSEAD and HKUST is getting quite boring, no? Especially when everyone already knows that the best school in the world is Rayat London College.

interested speaking with people who got in...
what are you profiles... scores.. experience...etc

CEIBS is on its way to become the top bschool in Asia:

Chinese business school wins top-10 FT ranking
2009-02-03

The China-Europe International Business School (CEIBS) has become the first business school in Asia to make the Financial Times' top-10 MBA programs since the newspaper started ranking programs a decade ago.

The Shanghai-based school came eighth in the top-100 list of full-time global Master of Business Administration programs, up from 11th place last year.

CEIBS graduates' salaries increase by an average of 179 percent in three years after graduation, the highest pay rise among the schools listed, according an FT survey....

... Three Asian schools, two in China and one in India, feature in the top 20 of the FT rankings this year.

Hong Kong UST Business School is ranked 16th, up from 17th last year.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200902/20090203/article_389693.htm

FT ranking: http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings

Regardless of whether you go to Fonty or SGP, you'll at some point have to deal with your language requirements.

For those of you from the US and Canada, I'm going to guess that your second or third language is probably Spanish.

If you do need certification in Spanish you basically have 3 options. The first is to fly to France and take the language test in Fontainebleau with FL&C language school, but I wouldn't suggest that unless you are already pretty close to fluent.

The second option is to study independently or with a school familiar with the DELE exam, but this is fairly difficult since the DELE exam is only given twice per year. Regardless of whether you are in a January or July start and when you might get your acceptance letter, you will be in a situation where you'll only have one shot to take the test. The DELE takes a very long time to return your results (up to two months?) so while you wait you'll have to keep studying in case your fallback is to take the FL&C test instead.

The third and IMHO the best option is to take classes with tradfax.com to prepare for the FIDESCU D.I.E. (I know its a terrible acronym for an exam but don't worry) which is also accepted at INSEAD. Tradfax is the first (and right now the only) school and _exam_center_ in North America that is associated with FIDESCU.

Tradfax is physically in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. It is run by Francis Guinazu who has been teaching Spanish, Portuguese, and English as a foreign language for over 25 years. He or another instructor can assess your skills and if necessary set you up with an intensive course of study (say, 8 hr/week or so) to help prepare you for the exam, and you can do it in person, via skype, or even by phone. You can take the test with tradfax directly rather than having to fly to Spain or elsewhere.

I'm plugging them because I personally used their services and went from a very basic level of Spanish to the required level in just a few months while working a full-time job by using their intensive course.

And good luck to you all!

CEIBS is on its way to become the top bschool in Asia:

im sorry but you cant be serious with that statement.
ceibs only appears in one ranking - and only because it gets a nice PPP adjustment.

the only global school with presence in Asia is Insead, everybody else is regional and it remains to be seen who makes it global. the two front runners are tsinghua and hkust, ceibs is distant third.

Hi Alex
interesting stuff! how much did it cost you, is it comparable with berlitz's fees?

I'm not really familiar with berlitz's fees but tradfax's basic fee schedule is posted on their site.

However, I'm not sure the comparison is a good one. You see, a LOT rides on passing the accreditation exam (and I'm not even considering the substantial INSEAD deposit money!). Therefore I can't help but recommend courses that emphasize the specific skills tested on the exam over more general courses of study.

I second to it .........INSEAD and CEIBS are top B Schools of Asia and others are not even close to them. ....... I dropped HKUST to join CEIBS this year. .................as for me the top choice were only CEIBS / INSEAD............though I place them equally among so many parameters ..............

Its the objective what matter..........rest all is fuss................

For me CEIBS is a good choice and even better thatn INSEAD in some cases........but still agree that INSEAD is really good college..........Its only about me.......because.
1. It is consistently ranked as one of the top B School in the world
2. Small class size and hence focussed attention.
3. China Advantage.
4. In line with my future business plan of starting my own businesss.


Regards,

Hi,

INSEAD is not a top MBA school in Asia; it is a top MBA school in the world!

Their selection criterion is very tight, and all their graduates have solid academic and professional experience. Many of them have worked for more than 7 years and hold very successful and high profile positions in leading companies.

If you want to get the best from your MBA, or if you are looking for a post-MBA career internationally, I would strongly advise you to do your MBA in top business schools in the world, such as INSEAD or CEIBS, but not top business schools in Asia, such as NUS, NTU, or HKUST. There is a huge difference between the top 20 MBA schools in the world and top 20 MBA schools in Asia.

However, if you are looking for a post-MBA career in the Asia Pacific Region such as in Singapore, India or China, then it makes sense to do a MBA in a top Asian school because of two reasons: 1) These top schools are highly recognized in the region; 2) Their cost fees are significantly lower than schools like Harvard, Wharton, INSEAD, or LSE.

I hope the above information could be useful to you.

Kind regards,
Thomas

Hi Lokesh,
INSEAD singapore is indeed more flexible than other bschools tend to be, applicants with very little work experience are not in principe excluded, but have to prove exceptional achievements.
There is the following info on their website:
"In general, INSEAD participants have had several years of professional experience and demonstrate clear managerial potential and a career-oriented focus. However, we do not preclude applications from exceptional younger applicants with little work experience, provided they can demonstrate unusual maturity."
Hope that helps!
Kate

really seek pardon to disagree with that.......According to me there are 4 broad categories of MBA schools in Asia....

Cat 1 :- Truly World Class - INSEAD / CEIBS

Cat2 :- Regional but good institutes - NUS/HKUST/ISB

Cat3 :- Colleges with good standings - IIM's / CUHK/ NTU

Cat4 :- The one which need improvements..

Regards,

ceibs world class? :-)))))

thanks i needed a good laugh.

top jobs in asia go to graduates from top schools - h/w/s etc. also Insead.

i have heard of some people applying for hkust full scholarship option purely as a back up.

Not sure why people are comparing INSEAD with Asian schools. Just because it has a campus in Asia does not make it an Asian school. People - get it right!

Not sure why people are comparing INSEAD with Asian schools. Just because it has a campus in Asia does not make it an Asian school. People - get it right!

if you want actual physical presence in Asia then Insead in a way is an "Asian School" you apply for Insead Singapore preference if you dont get it then Hong Kong UST is the next on the list, this is how it goes these days.