Hult International: The Kanye West Of Business Schools

Possibly Kanye West gets hated on more intensely online than Hult International Business School, but it’s got to be close. There’s even a website devoted to trashing the school.

With few exceptions, the negative web posts on that site, and on popular business school-related forums, come anonymously. Claims and stories may be fabricated. Commenters abusing the school may be nasty, Nietzsche-loving INSEAD students kicking around their runty cousin. And they’re often written so poorly that English is clearly a second language for many commenters.

The school attributes the criticism to graduates who failed to immediately get jobs with their Hult degrees. Philip Hult, the Swedish educational entrepreneur who founded the school with his father, says student satisfaction with business-school education rests to a large extent on whether students get the jobs they want after graduation.

SCHOOL SAYS CRITICAL COMMENTS ARE FROM GRADUATES WHO FAILED TO GET JOBS

“If you’re doing the work it’s a lot of work and you don’t have a lot of time to go looking for a job,” Hult says. “Students sometimes get a cold shower that, ‘Oh my god, I’ve graduated and I don’t have a job.'”

It doesn’t help that Hult’s student population is more global than most. That sets the school up for complaints from U.S. graduates from foreign countries who erroneously believe they will easily obtain U.S. work visas. “Those guys, until they get a job, they are pretty unhappy,” concedes Hult.

Whatever the truth may be, reading the online dialog provides entertainment.

Here are some highlights, or is it lowlights?

From HultMBAreview.com:

• “At Hult you are not a customer, not even a product; you are a cow that will be milked!”

From CollegeTimes.tv:

• “Don’t fall for these recruiters . . . if they tell you that you’re special and unique and a good fit and even arrange some bull@&@# interview processes i’m afraid they are simply seducing you. They’d come to your house providing you had a pulse and some savings to waste.”

• “To those of you who are considering joining Hult IBS, please spend your money on something better, even toss it into the ocean.”

• “This is probably one of the worst educational institutions out there. They are misusing the noble cause of education. They have made education a perishable commodity rather than being an asset to the alumni.”

• “The craziest b school out there. As a recent grad dont go to Hult, avoid this mba. Worthless degree. Cost a fortune of hard earned savings. they are full of false promises and very little delivery. They cant keep screwing people like this, trying to get in touch with my recruiter but she’s left, this is what they do . Annoyed and unhappy and clearly not alone.”

• “It’ s a money grabbing business/company- not a genuine bskool.. They keep calling and dont care about the quality.”

From beatthegmat.com:

• “Hult is like paying for champagne and caviar in advance and the waiter brings you big mac and fries.”

From Wallstreetoasis.com:

• “Yea…I ‘got into’ this place too… Catch is I never applied. That should tell you something.”

• “The most fuck up business school I attend ever ! Totally regret for taking this one year program. The biggest remorse in my life.”

• “You have to be accepted to that shit hole? I thought you just walk into class with a check in your hand.”

• Post: “I just got accepted to Hult recently and I was more or less excited about it considering their international programs where you get to study in 3 different cities in one year. I also witnessed them from not being in the FT rankings to all of a sudden appearing on FT’s top 60 in 2012, and top 50 this year.”

Comment: “You got ‘accepted’ the same way I got pre-approved for a capital one credit card with 43% APR. Save your money.”

DON’T MISS: THE STORY BEHIND THE REMARKABLE GROWTH OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST GRADUATE BUSINESS SCHOOL or HULT INTERNATIONAL: A RISING POWERHOUSE OR A PARIAH?