FAQs part Deux

stuartmba — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:55:00 +0000

Hi all,

this cheeky li’l mouse has been busy travelling all throught the christmas break and is now gearing up for the start of session in this new year.. gosh what a lovely break… !!

Meanwhile, the stream of questions from prospective applicants has been gathering momentum.. more recently i received the following questions on my businessweek forum

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=bw-bschools&nav=messages&msg=73646

I’m posting the answers to these questions here for the benefit of all involved.

Q1. The choice of electives (subjects) and what possible specilizations are possible by combining these electives ? I understand that program itself is tuned for general management.

Stuart: There is a range of electives being offerred and we have been given the option to suggest our own elective too. There’s however one pre-condition to introducing a new elective: that we should have significant interest in the proposed electives. i.e. atleast 7 students.

Please note however that the degree awarded would be of an MBA in General Management. The electives in finance (we have 2 electives in finance taking the total finance courses to 5) would enhance your financial acumen but the degree title would essentially remain the same. A recruiting company like an I-Bank, will certainly give u due credit for ur enhanced financial prowess.

Q2. My personal objective is to move into strategic management (consulting). Do you see the current electives and/or past placements an indicator to comment on the suitability of the program to my objectives.

Stuart: My immediate seniors and people from the previous batches have joined the who’s who of consulting. I think this is proof enough of the potential of the course to arm one to be a consultant. However, please remember, the consulting recruitment process is no cakewalk. You need to convince the firm that u have relevant transferable skills from ur previous experience as well as an industry/ sector expertise that is ur USP and makes u attractive to them.

Q3. Is the exchange program with Babson and NTU available for all HSG MBA participants, or only to a select group ? If only to a select group – then what is the criteria of selection (merit, desire, availability etc) ? Have exchange opportunities improved for your batch i.e. any new schools added to the exchange program ?

Stuart: Yes the exchange programs are open to all students. Most of the people have overwhelmingly opted for Nanyang and Babson has not found too much favour. The reason is clearly that Asia is booming and is a charming proposition for the westerners. Singapore is strategically located and gives one the opportunity to experience mystique of Asia while pursuing a western lifestyle.

Q4. Is the dual-degree MBA program with NTU available for all HSG MBA participants ? If not what is the entry criteria applied if an applicant desires to get a second degree from NTU ? What extra costs (host university fees, living costs) are incurred ?

Stuart: Yes. The extra costs are clearly mentioned in the mba brochure and website. For our batch the extra costs are SGD 12000 for tuition. For living, SGD 1000 per month should be ample.

St. Gallen FAQ

stuartmba — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:40:00 +0000

I started a forum on Businessweek addressing the prospective St. Gallen MBA audience..(http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=73646)
and immediately i found myself amidst a flood of questions on and off the forum

Well the interest in the program is heartening.. Euphoria?? i checked with the adcom, they are visibly pleased but are having a hard time turning away so many good candidates..
but there is so much interest!!! and the program is rather selective.. just 35 candidates from across the globe…

as i’ve mentioned earlier this place is worshipped in the German speaking world.. and just at the first round we’re having troubles of imposing caps on the nationalities.. germans.. swiss.. indians .. americans.. even a rational cap of 15% means that only 5 students of a nationality would be able to enroll…in our present class we have 16 nationalities..(just 35 students!!) but the coming class is bound to be even more diverse..

each week we have prospective students share classes with us…. we even invited a group of prospective MBAs to our Diwali Party (http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/11/indian-connection.html)

guys and gals.. don’t miss the second deadline for sure..!!

I think i’ll take up a job in Zurich and then get to meet all the business wizzes of the next batch…

Anyways, the various questions that are frequently asked to me have spurred me to dedicate a post to the FAQs..In case i see interest.. I’ll keep updating FAQs in future posts too.

Q. Where do most St. Gallen MBA grads work?

Looking at the immediate two previous batches, most people are based in and around Zurich…and a majority of the rest are in Europe…this is primarily because of grads prefer working in switzerland owing to the high salaries but amazingly low tax rates here.. so most guys are based out of Zurich… I’d also prefer working here.. imagine u get a 120K swiss Francs and pay 10-15% or less in taxes.. !!! as against 50k-60k pounds in the UK with prohibitively high taxes … To add to the pleasure.. the cost of living in Switzerland in PPP terms is less compared to say London..

Q. Where do most company reps who visit St. gallen for workshops, presentations or recruitment come from? London / new york / elsewhere?

For recruitment,workshops and guest lectures, the company representatives come from a variety of offices.. Zurich, Frankfurt and London (in that order). Firms having big offices in Zurich send the Zurich guys while others send people from both Zurich and Frankfurt/London offices. So if a firm has a presence only in London.. the london guys will come..

Q. St Gallen Vs. IMD:

IMD is more towards industry and not so much towards I-Banking or consulting. Besides the candidates there are older…the median age of the IMD MBAs is atleast 4-6 years higher than that at St. Gallen.

St. Gallen has a reputation in finance, economics, business administration and international affairs that is unrivalled in German speaking Europe (not just Switzerland). The top consulting and I-Banking firms are full of St. Gallen executives. if on the other hand you want to go to the industry, the ABBs and Novartis and Hiltis of the world will offer you a large number of projects for your MBA summer internship even at St. Gallen. For instance, our Alumni meet in October was sponsored by Alstom. My buddies in St Gallen also applied to IMD but they somehow didn’t like it and hence didn’t join IMD.. so it is also a question of “fit” and preferences.

Q. St. Gallen MBA and Financial Times rankings:
Since the MBA program is new, it will debut in the FT rankings only in 2010.. but when it does it is going to cause major upsets in the ranking tables! For the moment though, it is worthwhile to have a look at the online businessweek comparisons of St. Gallen with other top European B-schools. http://bwnt.businessweek.com/premium_ft/compare.asp?r=1&schools=186&schools=187&schools=220&schools=538

what is worthy is looking at the career services sub-section in the comparison. Some stats that u’ll need are the average salary at St. gallen was CHF 110,000 (class of 2006)

Q. Funding the MBA deficit:
The university of St. Gallen provides funding help for students. EU nationals can avail a loan without collateral from Credit Suisse at a favorable interest rate of just 4% p.a. while non -EUs can avail a loan by the university.. more details in my post
http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/08/mba-ahoy.html

For more queries, mail me , leave a comment or ask a question on the businessweek forum.
cheers!
Stuart

Stuart Little gets an MBA at St. Gallen » FAQ

FAQs part Deux

St. Gallen FAQ