The Skinny: What It’s Really Like To Study At … CEIBS

On a recent visit to China Europe International Business School in Shanghai I had the pleasure of sitting down with a handful of current students in the MBA and other programs. Over lunch on campus we discussed many things; each shared their story of what brought them to CEIBS, what it’s like to study there, and how they expect the degree to impact their life and career.

As one student said, “If you don’t go to CEIBS, you can’t understand China.”

Here are some highlights from our conversation.

Martin McLaughlin, Lakeville, Wisconsin

One thing you should know about CEIBS if you’re considering going there, I would say that the network within China, if you want to pursue a career in China or having to do with China in the future, I think it’s the best choice out of many options. There are some business schools that are a little bit fluffy. So if you’re really looking to increase your network and learn a lot, I think CEIBS is the best choice, especially if you want to pursue a career in China in the future. If you’re not looking to pursue a career in China in the future, maybe you should strongly consider what CEIBS has to offer. If you just want a China experience for 16 months, it’s not bad, but you have to consider your employment outcomes as well.

So even if you’re not considering staying in China, CEIBS has a lot to offer?

I think it has a lot to offer, if you see having a deep understanding of China’s business landscape as valuable. For example, if you’re in the U.S. and you work in agriculture and you’re trading soybeans and corn to China, then a CEIBS MBA would be really valuable. And as an American, we know that the U.S. and China are dominating the global GDP. So if you can have a strong understanding of both, I think that CEIBS is a great way to increase your understanding of what’s happening in China.

Marc Prats, Barcelona, Spain

As an exchange student from IESE, I am obviously very open to relocating, which I don’t know if that’s the case for a lot of people. I have seen the struggles of the language barrier, for example, in China, but I do think CEIBS has kind of provided me this bridge of providing the right kind of guidance and directions of speaking with the right people where I can overpass this language barrier to get myself kind of the foot in the door of Chinese companies, if that makes sense. So I think it’s kind of a more developed and more niche network for my specific needs and qualifications, since I don’t speak the language. If I can get myself the ultimate goal of working in China, it’s a good bridge there.

One thing you should know about CEIBS, for exchange students: Everybody has been extremely welcoming to me. I’m the type of person that also likes to just put myself in very weird situations or very just random stuff, so I can kind of get the feeling of stuff. So the first day I went to the gym and I was playing badminton. I had never played badminton in my life, but I play tennis. And people, I think, when they see somebody from a completely different place, who is embracing their own culture, it’s like kind of a double effect of welcoming.

For me, my ultimate goal was to not — this sounds weird — hang out too much with the exchange students more, but hang out with more with the locals so I could really feel the cultural presence.

And for me, I think that’s why I chose CEIBS in a way, right? It was more about not just the MBA, but the whole cultural picture of cultural education, cultural experience.

Louis Li, Liaoning, China

Maybe I think you need to know which industry CEIBS is more powerful. Maybe healthcare, venture capital, or you want to make a startup. If you focus on the three directions, CEIBS is the best choice. And you need to know that CEIBS has the very deep connection with Chinese government and the enterprise from our alumni. And that is very different from other business schools in China like Tsinghua MBA, Fudan MBA.

If you are a CEIBS MBA student, you will have more resources from clubs such as the Entrepreneurship Club. This club will help you how to make a startup from your own career goal, I think is very interesting.

Miya Ding, Anhui, China

Every business school will mention their alumni networking stuff, but in CEIBS, this is the most founding connections I ever see — not only just MBA alumni, but also other programs like Financial MBA, executive MBA and Global Executive MBA. This year, CEIBS EMBA program ranked first in the world, so we have a lot of programs to connect with people like mentoring programs, so we can have a mentor from these programs who will provide a lot of help. For example, as an entrepreneur, if you want to start up a company, they will give you a lot of advice as well as the resources, maybe funding and suggestions such as like that.

They also have amazing experiences. I had one experience in a course called the Gobi Module for EMBA Program. I joined this program and had the opportunity to work with this EMBA student to, as a team, deal with the obstacles in the Gobi Desert for four days. You work with them and so that you can more deep understanding and deep learning from them. Because every team, every EMBA student, they have very cherished experience of their business. So they will use it or apply it in the Gobi Desert module. So I learned a lot. And you also become very close after this module because you survived in the desert, so this is really amazing.

Jess Nguyễn, Hanoi, Vietnam

I just arrived in CEIBS just a few months ago. And we’ve been talking to some international friends who have been thinking about reflecting on our experience so far. I think one thing that you couldn’t get outside of CEIBS is the China experience. As compared to traditional MBA schools, I think the knowledge is more easily accessible from those MBA programs. But if you don’t go to CEIBS, you can’t understand China. Because it’s pretty much closed off to the outside world. And then there’s a lot of things that are more nuanced and a lot more deep understanding that you could only get if you’re in China.

And another thing is, Shanghai is a great city. So you don’t get the same type of convenience anywhere else. You could go to Boston, but then obviously you don’t get that many cultural elements there. And the technology here is developing at a different pace and different style compared to the rest of the world. So for example, Chinese consumer is super highly adaptable. They could get used to new technology in really fast time, just two years. So you need to be here to see that.

Another thing is, for me specifically, because China has a lot of manufacturing capability, so to combine the strengths of knowledge, the trends, investment overseas with capability of manufacturing in China, hopefully we’ll be able to create a win-win solution for climate technology in general.

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