B-School selection

I haven’t blogged for more than a week. Was busy with settling in HK, and adjusting to the hustle-bustle of this great city. Yesterday and Today we had the orientation program at the Hongkong Disneyland and the college sponsored overnight stay at the Hollywood hotel in Disneyland.  On the first day there were presentations by several distinguished speakers and on the second day we had many team building exercises. It was a well organized and fantastic programme. I will write about this later, but first let me touch upon the topic about b-school selection and why I chose HKU MBA?

Some of the factors that one should look for while selecting a b-school are following -

• Budget ( remember to include living costs and the travel costs while calculating expenses)
• University Reputation
• Class Mix & Diversity+Class Strength ( smaller class size has its own advantages like individual attention from the faculty)
• Faculty profiles( Both permanent and Visiting )
• Alumni profiles and Placement Record.

This list can be quite expansive. but the points listed above are the most important ones. Its always a good idea to study MBA from the region where you would like to work after you finish your course. Also check about the visa rules and regulations in that country.

I applied to the HKU MBA program for all of the reasons listed above. I was looking for a 1 year MBA program in a reputed University and my budget was about 20 lakh Indian rupees. Most of the US B-schools have 2 year MBA and an MBA from a top US university will easily cost you anywhere from 60-150k USD( Some state sponsored universities may cost significantly less).top schools in UK also cost in the same range. University of Hongkong is the first and the foremost university of Hongkong and runs its unique MBA program in collaboration with London Business School and the Columbia Business School. It is 100 year old University with world class infrastructure and faculty.The University is ranked 18th worldwide in the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement and its MBA is ranked top 37th by the Economist. The core courses are taught in Hongkong and for the electives students travel to LBS or CBS. The present class is about 60 students and has a diverse mix in terms of profiles and nationalities ( 10 nationalities).