U.S B-Schools: ‘We’re The Best In The World’

IESE MBA ADMISSIONS DIRECTOR: SURVEY DATA IS ‘ANEMIC AND ONE-SIDED’

Ros Raventós’ school is an example. IESE itself, Ros Raventós pointed out, has campuses on multiple continents.

“IESE is one of the most international business schools in the world, with students coming from 64 different countries, taught by a faculty that is also international, hailing from 30 different nationalities,” she continued in the email. “We have campuses in Barcelona, Madrid, New York City, Munich, and Sao Paolo and offer MBA modules in NYC, Sao Paulo, Nairobi and Shanghai and projects in Kenya and Brazil.”

Ros Raventós said the international nature of most European schools certainly better prepares students for global careers. “The survey only asked U.S. business schools for input, therefore it is a biased sampling,” she said, noting the “anecdotal” nature of the survey made the data seem “anemic and one-sided.”

“I think many U.S. business schools and their MBA degrees are excellent and marketable, especially in the areas where the business schools are located,” Ros Raventós adds, echoing Schlie’s thoughts. “At the same time, MBA degrees from schools like IESE, INSEAD, and London Business School typically reach to the far corners of the world in terms of where their MBAs are recruited and employed. U.S. business schools are often quite local in the needs they meet, which is fine, but there are other markets that need to be served — what is the basis for their thinking they can serve them better? It’s unclear to me why many of them would think they produce graduates suitable for international markets, when they may not truly have an international scope.”

On the other hand, a report from the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), released almost a year ago, found that only about 7% of MBAs graduating from Indian schools are actually employable. Of the estimated 5,500 business schools in India, 220 shut down in 2014 and 2015 and another 120 were predicted to shut down in 2016, according to the report. Over the past five years, the number of seats at Indian business schools has tripled, but 93% of those graduates are unemployable after leaving B-school, ASSOCHAM reported. “There are more seats than the takers in the B-schools. This is not surprising in the wake of poor placement records of the pass-outs, ” according to the group’s secretary general, D. S. Rawat.

IE B-SCHOOL ALREADY SEEING ‘TURNING OF THE TIDE’ IN ADMISSIONS TRENDS RESULTING FROM TRUMP, BREXIT

Schlie used the opportunity to go beyond simply saying European and American schools just serve different purposes.

“Let’s focus instead on where U.S. schools might be lagging behind or lacking some of their European counterparts’ savviness,” he says. “Many top European business schools have clearly demonstrated for decades that you don’t need to invest two years to obtain an enriching and truly transformational MBA experience that prepares you for the next big career transition. It can also be done in one year if the program is designed in a smart way and not constrained by the rigidity of the U.S. long semester model.”

Subject areas and classroom content that can be “static” is “useless in a disruptive environment” without continual life-long learning, Schlie says.

“Instead, the ability to update yourself through lifelong learning, embracing critical thinking skills and a truly global mindset, coupled with the ability to comfortably navigate across a massive multitude of nationalities and cultures, even during the most stressful moments,” Schlie explains. “That is what ultimately sticks and provides the points of differentiation over many U.S. schools when content is taken for granted.”

The schools were surveyed by Kaplan from August 2016 to October 2016, before the election of Donald Trump. “The survey was concluded before the U.S. presidential election in November 2016, and as we have witnessed with varying degrees of ‘shock and awe’ over the past two months, the world is no longer the same,” Schlie says. “U.S. business schools will equally find it hard to escape from this new reality and its arising broader repercussions, some of which we cannot fully grasp yet.

Many talented MBA candidates from certain parts of the world might encounter unprecedented hurdles to enter the U.S. on a student visa – and many other future business leaders will simply choose a different pasture and thus deliberately avoid a business school based in the U.S. given the emerging new climate. With the United Kingdom and the United States embracing an isolationist stance, where else should the best global MBAs-to-be turn to but to Europe as a safe haven? We can already observe the turning of the tide in our own latest admissions trends.”

FOR ALL BUSINESS SCHOOLS, GEOGRAPHY OFTEN OUTWEIGHS REPUTATION

Regardless, at least one respondent to the survey shared similar sentiments to the European schools — sometimes geography matters more than prestige.

“Business education is very location-centric,” the admissions official believes, “so you want to go to a school near where you’re planning to launch your career because their connections will be strong in that area.”

Requests for comment for this story were also sent by P&Q to INSEAD, Cambridge Judge, and London Business School. At the time of publication, Cambridge Judge confirmed they did not want to comment and the others did not respond.

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