LBS vs INSEAD MBA

Aknmdly

If you are looking to develop your career anywhere outside of London, INSEAD will be the winner hands-down. You will get a great year of experience with INSEAD’s unique environment supported by a career service department that's well-networked in the consulting industry.

If your heart lies in finance or if you want to work in London, then LBS is a better choice. INSEAD in not known for its finance network nor finance program rigorousity.

In the last few years, there have been more International applicants who turned down LBS to attend INSEAD than vice versa. However, this is not as true in China as our community is generally more interested in finance than consulting.

Truthteller88

Aknmdly 发表于 2020-4-10 18:02
If you are looking to develop your career anywhere outside of London, INSEAD will be the winner hand ...

I highly doubt what you said 'If you are looking to develop your career anywhere outside of London, INSEAD will be the winner hands-down'. How could you make such statement? Any supporting evidence? Please don't misguide the discussion.

policeman

Aknmdly 发表于 2020-4-10 18:02
If you are looking to develop your career anywhere outside of London, INSEAD will be the winner hand ...

5天前注册的小号，发了一个帖子，明显为马甲。鉴定完毕。

Aknmdly

I’m merely expressing my view, just like everyone else. My view is formed on the basis of conversations with people that went to either schools, as well as experience of my own. Just like every comment on the internet, take mine with a grain of salt. The best way to find out is to talk to alumni of both schools and get a feel for how either programs have helped them. Both are top schools and you can't go wrong with either choice. I just realized that lz has in fact chosen INSEAD in the end. Over the years many admits have had to make this difficult decision (since the LBS+INSEAD application combo is so popular) and I've seen the decision went both ways. No one has ever regretted their choice though regardless of whether he/she chose INSEAD or LBS.

Truthteller88

Aknmdly 发表于 2020-4-10 20:43
I’m merely expressing my view, just like everyone else. My view is formed on the basis of conversat ...

Of course you can express your view. But please don't make such biased and misleading comments as 'If you are looking to develop your career anywhere outside of London, INSEAD will be the winner hands-down'. Anywhere outside London, Insead is better? If you are an Insead student, your dean will be very disappointed.  

Aknmdly

I am an INSEAD graduate and that was more than 15 years ago. I’ve since worked with people who graduated from all the top b schools you can name. At the end of the day, the person matters more than the b schools as long as the school is the top 10-15 in the world, speaking from an employer’s point of view. INSEAD does place well in the consulting industry internationally, because it is an international consulting juggernaut. LBS is much stronger in finance with an excellent track record overall in Europe. My take as an employer hiring across Asia is we took in more INSEAD grads in the last few years.  In any case. the truth is these debates and school slamming are meaningless. Both are fantastic school that have differences in strengths, which I pointed out to help people make decisions. Take it easy and don’t let mere online opinions upset you. Debating about any of these isn’t constructive.  I’m happy to help anyone who has questions about post-MBA career via private messages.

Jackit

Aknmdly 发表于 2020-4-11 13:54
I am an INSEAD graduate and that was more than 15 years ago. I’ve since worked with people who grad ...

no offending, but any knowledge possible to share about the placement for the recent Chinese graduates?

OneOldMan

Aknmdly 发表于 2020-4-10 18:02
If you are looking to develop your career anywhere outside of London, INSEAD will be the winner hand ...

Cautions: I think there is some misleading information in the cited response:
1. "If you are looking to develop your career anywhere outside of London, INSEAD will be the winner hands-down": LBS is considered more elite/ premium in China; in HK, LBS is almost on par with HSW due to the relation between HK and UK; LBS alumni work all over Europe - and most in very premium positions in banks, MBB, and investment funds (it's the most reputed name you can get for Europe).
2. "In the last few years, there have been more International applicants who turned down LBS to attend INSEAD than vice versa": in my observation, given opportunities, more people choose LBS over Insead, no matter in China or outside. LBS is more elite/ exclusive (LBS takes 10-20 Chinese, while Insead is 60+).
3. About consulting: yes Insead probably sends more people to consulting due to its bigger size, but the thing matters most to individuals is the ratio. I heard cases where MBB China offices proactively reach out to LBS students to recruit simply b/c there are not enough Chinese applying. At Insead, you will always compete against ~30-50 other Chinese students ("everyone" in Insead wants to do consulting) for a handful of interview opportunities at MBB.

No disrespect for Insead. I think both schools are great - just wanted to point out some of the potential inaccuracies to give a more balanced view.

Aknmdly

OneOldMan 发表于 2020-4-25 23:01
Cautions: I think there is some misleading information in the cited response:
1. "If you are lookin ...

Either LBS/INSEAD being more “elite” than the other is simply not true. Even if we were to go down the rabbit hole of really comparing the two school’s histories and reputations, which isn’t value-adding, the statement still won’t stand. George Doriot, the father of VC who taught at HBS, was the first person who brought Harvard’s case study teaching method and essentially the concept of business school to Europe after WWII when he founded INSEAD as a training ground for upcoming managers who could rebuild the world after the war. When I got my MBA 15+ years ago, INSEAD was THE B school in Europe. That’s why INSEAD has produced the most Fortune 500 CEOs besides Harvard. With that said, while INSEAD pioneered the B school concept in EU, both LBS and INSEAD are today at the throne of EU business education. Saying one is more elite than the other is the equivalent of comparing Harvard and Stanford.

Secondly, and this is more to help any prospective MBA students, please always remember that you are not really competing with your own class. If anything, you are competing with everyone from the top b schools.

In my old firm, our recruiting team will always recruit from M7 + LBS/INSEAD, in either good or bad market. In good times, we will include several other schools in S16 and even T25. While there are some incentives to hire from all schools, it’s never that strong. BTW, we do reach out to schools when we need more candidate in the pool. It doesn’t mean we must hire from that school. Some years we hired more from Booth, sometimes we brought in more from Wharton, other times we brought in zero from these schools. In the end, we will bring in whoever we like most. Don’t forget that Harvard and Wharton has a huge class (900-1000/year) as well. That has never affected their placement success.

Lastly, this is my personal experience having been through multiple downturns. The size and reach of the school’s alumni really makes a difference. I’ve been helped so many times in my career by alumni. If anything, the upside of a bigger community really shows in downturns. Yes, it helps when the school has more graduates in a year and has more people in higher places around the world. In that regard, both LBS and INSEAD alumni communities are very strong. I have many good friends at LBS and find that both alumni groups really look after their people. I would even say the LBS/INSEAD alumni communities are stronger than M7 schools, except for HBS...the HBS bond is really something else...

OneOldMan

Aknmdly 发表于 2020-4-26 13:06
Either LBS/INSEAD being more “elite” than the other is simply not true. Even if we were to go do ...

I don't think it's necssarily correct to measure elitism of schools by "histories". People do have a sense about which program is, in general terms, "better", or "more sought after". In a sense it's the same as most people would say Harvard/ Stanford is more "elite" than Wharton, and Wharton is more "elite" than the rest of M7.

I do think the size of the class matters; and the bigger the worse. Size is not an issue for H and W b/c so many top recruiters come to them to recruit students. When averaged out, everyone still has plenty great options. For other schools, there are fewer top opportunities. By the end of the day, recruiters will have to decide which resumes to put in front of the hiring managers. And everything equal, the more people applied, the less chance your resume is picked.