ESADE takes part in the Prodigy loan scheme, so you would not need to use a bank loan.

I think you could easily compare the costs and the outcomes, and calculate the NPV. If you feel that KPMG's audited figures are mistaken, and that the outcomes are identical, then if FAFSA was cheaper than Prodigy I guess you would choose ESMT. I think it would be unfortunate if you chose between two such very different schools because of the cost of attendance rather than their different outcomes.

Thanks Duncan. According to me, Prodigy loans offer terms and rates that are very similar to education loans people can get from banks.

With ESADE, I have two conflicting pieces of data that I am unsure how to reconcile. The first is that the audited FT data says the ESADE is a stronger choice for employment overall. The second is that every American that I emailed with, which is about 5, said that getting a job after graduation was a huge challenge. One American had an EU passport, knew Spanish, and was highly motivated in the job hunt. It took him a challenging 6 months to find a job after the program. I know this anecdotal evidence is a small sample size. But it is really hard to see ESADE as a more solid choice when all the alumni I reached out to said finding a job after the program is difficult and that ESADE is basically unknown in the U.S.

Yes, but wouldn't that also be true of ESMT? I don't know what roles of countries your US friends were targetting, but I assume that most international students at ESADE get placed outside Spain. Restricting the job search to Spain would be restricting the job search at ESMT to East Germany: possible, but quite possibly a challenging, six-month project.

ESADE is certainly better known in the USA than ESMT, and its joint degree with Georgetown and large alumni network help. But if you want an European MBA that is portable between the USA and Europe, then you would look at least for AACSB accreditation and ideal for a much better brand (LBS, Insead, Oxbridge, IESE).

Thanks Duncan. Known to some US schools, yes, but to US employers? My point is that both ESADE and ESMT are relatively unknown in the US, so ESADE has no edge in that area. That's what American ESADE alums say anyway. ESADE does offer exchange programs to US schools but the time at the partner schools is so short. Three months at Northwestern or Georgetown likely wouldn't be long enough to yield any substantive connections. Also, The schools you mentioned aren't an option for me. I applied to 12 schools in the EU and US, and I believe ESMT and ESADE are my best options now. Both are AACSB. Overall, I'm more interested in being aligned with the German-speaking world than with Spain and latin America. At the end of the day, do you at least think ESMT is a solid school?

Some former professors, friends and classmates of mine have worked at ESMT (and, different ones, at ESADE). Obviously ESADE has a huge alumni network worldwide, with functioning five alumni chapters in the US and more alumni in Germany than ESMT. ESADE certainly has an edge, since it's successfully placing students in the US, and since the FT survey data shows that it is #6 worldwide for careers success. I had missed ESMT getting AACSB accreditation, and that really matters -- especially for their fledgling PhD programme. But still the school backs the strong financial basis of Mannheim or HSG, or the generous (by German standards) alumni of HHL. GISMA was, in my opinion, a stronger MBA programme during the time of its partnership with Purdue, and had the strong personal backing of the former Chancellor. The Hannover location is, in my opinion, much better than Berlin because of the closeness of major business cities like Cologne and Hamburg. Despite strong relationships with Accenture and Sennheiser, the school just could not survive. ESADE is, of course, much more solid.

I understand that you might feel that a semester in a US business school might not produce good connections. That was not my experience as an MBA exchange student at Dartmouth, and I thought the people from ESADE and IESE were the most well-prepared of all the exchange to hit the ground running in the US because those schools were founded by US business schools and their students resemble the Americans in that they really master the numbers, are prepared to disagree in class and show self-confidence and elan. I made friendships and connections that mattered and survive 12 years later.

The strength of the ESMT is placing students into its corporate partners: it provides not only MBA talent there, but also executive education. If your focus is on those firms, then ESMT is a great option.