fatemehhh wrote:
Hello everyone! hope you're doing well.
I really need your advise on choosing between INSEAD MBA (not sure about the scholarship yet, safe to consider 30%) and Kellogg MBA (no scholarship). I'm aiming for London with INSEAD for recruiting for consulting or PE/VC roles, and the same for the US and I worked in a boutique consulting firm for the past 3 years.
So consider these points:
- I want to live in English speaking countries.
- I have an Iranian passport, so there is always a risk of a situation when I’m not being able to leave US till I get my green card (e.g., travel ban returns) and that can be 3-5 years which is huge.
- Financially I can earn back tuition and living costs of MBA years in the relatively same period in both scenarios, but in the end, I will have higher earnings in the US.
- I’m pretty ambitious, but I prefer a better work-life balance, I experienced really long working hours in these past years and I felt mentally drained, not being able to enjoy the things I achieved.
- I’m really worried about the job market in the UK/London. Choosing INSEAD means I have to work harder to land a target job compared to US.
Thanks for everyone who takes to time to comment! really appreciate it!
Posted from my mobile device
fatemehhh hope this finds you well. Congrats on the admits!INSEAD and Kellogg are partner schools, and many Kellogg students spend time at INSEAD to make the best of the exchange opportunities, even from a recruitment point of view. Neither would be a bad choice.
If I were you, I would be slightly more inclined toward INSEAD (not just because I am an alumnus) because being in the EU gives you some flexibility with regards to travel and job hunting. At INSEAD, you would be able to aggressively seek suitable opportunities in the UK while still having some solid fallback options in the Middle East, where there is a very strong presence of INSEAD alumni. I am not sure about your language skills, but in case you are fluent in Arabic (or not), you could use the Middle East as a launchpad for a career in the PE/VC space while still looking for the right opportunities in the UK (this could happen). I have known people who I did not expect would get the type of opportunities they got in the Middle East because of the advantage of the language. Having been through the grind, I feel it's great to have this kind of flexibility with INSEAD - you can recruit in the UK/EU/ME/SEA and even USA (some consulting companies have a few openings in the US offices and actively recruit). But even if you pick Kellogg, you would be an ideal candidate for the INSEAD exchange.
The US situation is hard to predict especially in the light of current happenings. Please speak to a few folks who hold the same passport as you to get a firsthand perspective on the challenges. This should be your No1 priority right now.
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Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD MBA alum, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
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