[GoGreen Srini]

Hi Folks,
Those of you planning (and hoping!) to see yourselves in the MBA class of 2009-2010 at either Judge (Cambridge) or Saiid (Oxford)......get in touch with other aspirants here. I am starting a thread as the first round deadline for both schools is nearing.

My profile:
work experience: 5yrs
4yrs - Senior Research Fellow (Genetics), Singapore
1yr - Manager, Intellectual property management, Singapore
Education:
MS (IISc, B'lore, India), Ph.D (Cologne, Germany)

GMAT: 670 (AWA/5.5)

I have not made much progress with the applications though i am very keen on applying for the first round of both schools....Hope to share ideas and opinions on these two schools and admission related stuff...

Will i start seeing a lot of blokes contributing to this thread??
start shooting....
cheers,
GoGreen

[Trotamundo]

Originally Posted by GoGreen Srini

Will i start seeing a lot of blokes contributing to this thread??
start shooting....
cheers,
GoGreen

Hey GoGreen, me too on the run for JBS and SBS (plus two reputed Canadian schools)

My profile
3 years FT exp. as environmental and veterinary public health project consultant (GEF, WB, RedLAC, FAO-UN - ongoing experience)
2 years FT as social-business entrepreneur (I run my own restaurant in a shanty town in Lima - to present)
2.5 years PT as university lecturer (to present)
2 years FT as academic researcher
1.5 years PT exp. as English and Spanish teacher
1 year government sponsored internship at the Embassy of Peru to New Zealand

Acads.
DVM - Vet. Med (Chile), Diploma in Finance (Mexico), Master of Development Studies (New Zealand, NZAID Scholarship - Govt. of NZ), Magister in Political Science (Peru) plus a certificate in Entrepreneurship Development (EDI, India, ITEC Scholarship - Govt. of India)

Strong extracurriculars, strong international exp. Speak Span. Eng. and French (fluent)

GMAT - Will sit on the second week of December. Expecting a score between 600-650.
Currently crunching math. Working on essays since August, will get LORs in Oct-Nov, will take IELTS in Nov.

Intended post-MBA path: Social innovation and/or entrepreneurship work at NFP or multilateral orgs. Another option is mgmt. consulting.

Applying for Round 2. Hope we make it! Best regards from South America.

Peruvian Guru

[deeia]

hello i wanted to know if its good enough to apply for second round. whats the difference

[nittinj]

How are the placements there for Consulting, strategy, marketing & BD ?

Do one need to have personal contacts/ network or does it take 3-4 months for one to find jobs ?

I think there are several colleges under Oxford and Cambridge !! Are they all equal in terms of diversity, faculty, resources, placements ?? Any ranking within Oxford & Cambridge ??

[Trotamundo]

Originally Posted by deeia

hello i wanted to know if its good enough to apply for second round. whats the difference

Hi Deeia, I guess there isn't much difference between applying R1 and R2 other than having less seats available. JBS MBA population is somewhere between 120-150 students while SBS has 220-250. R3 and to a larger extent R4 applicants may find admission more difficult given that both schools will have filled around 75-85% of seats.

Based on pieces of info found in the web and personal estimates I think Cambridge will receive around 1000-1200 applications for the 2009 MBA program while Oxford will have a marginally larger number of applicants (1100-1400). I insist that these are personal estimates and should not be taken as factual info.

So, in short, applying in R1 or R2 doesn't make much difference as opposed to R's 3 and 4.

[Trotamundo]

Originally Posted by nittinj

How are the placements there for Consulting, strategy, marketing & BD ?

No idea, sorry.

Originally Posted by nittinj

Do one need to have personal contacts/ network or does it take 3-4 months for one to find jobs ?

Placement stats for SBS and JBS three months after graduation are very encouraging, both with 90%+ for the past 3-4 years. Personal contacts obviously do help when finding and/or securing jobs so you should deploy your people and networking skills before, during and after your MBA education (irrespective of a school's ranking!)

Originally Posted by nittinj

I think there are several colleges under Oxford and Cambridge !! Are they all equal in terms of diversity, faculty, resources, placements ?? Any ranking within Oxford & Cambridge ??

Not at all! Cambridge has 31 colleges and Oxford has 39. Although both universities have colleges with the same name (e.g. Trinity@ Ox, Trinity @ Cam) these are totally different between and within these institutions. Colleges vary according to all the factors you mentioned and, in addition, some of them only accept postgrads or women.

Colleges make of Oxbridge a unique learning experience. You don't only sleep and eat at your college but you mingle with students from other faculties, depts., programs who stay there too. For instance, during lunch you will have the opportunity to interact with historians, lawyers, vets, economists et al (undergrad-postgrad students and professors) who will be part of your college community. This is one of the main reasons why Cambridge and Oxford are such great places to live and learn.

Templeton-Green College is the "b-school" college at Oxford while Cambridge does not have a specific one. However, for the latter, Queens and St. Catharine's tend to be a popular choice due to their proximity with the b-school building itself. Hope this helps!

Peruvian Guru

[nittinj]

Thanks a lot great insight into Oxford and Cambridge.

Its because of their great 500-800 years old legacy and because of my low GPA (2.9/4) I feel slightly unconfortable applyting to Oxford & Cambridge. What accoridng to you are key criteria used by admissions committed at these colleges !!

What I learnt from various blogs that though there are several colleges under Oxford & Cambridge, but the finally the b school classes are conducted by same faculty. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Regarding placements, I wanted to know traditional forte of these schools, for example - MIT/ Stern are known for I banksing, Insead/ HBS/ Chicago for I bank & consulting, Kellog for mktg !! Are there any particular fields/ electives which are the stregth of Oxbridge.

How are Oxbridge as compared to say an Insead or HEC (Paris)? Please advise?

What I have learnt regarding IMD, Switz & ESADE & IESE are - expensive b schools, gives lot of strees on international exposure during job and academics? Am i correct or is this not a correct thread to discuss these b schools?

thanks again,

best regards,

Nitin

[GoGreen Srini]

Good start folks. thanks to Peruvian Guru, Deeia and Nitin for contributing to the thread and having it alive with activity!

Hey Peru Bro, you have been planning your MBA for a while now right? Had seen some of you old posts/threads from i guess last yr or yr before.... good stuff. you seem to be well informed and surely many of us would benefit from your posts in one way or another...keep it going...
I had been to a MBA tour fair yesterday here in Singapore. Met the program manager from Queens. Dint really get a good idea of whether it will be a good fit for me...though i have heard from my Canadian friends that Kingston is a great place to live! The only school i'm (was?) targeting in Canada is Ivey. I'm sure you will have some valuable things to add comparing IVey and Queens, in terms of reputation, class profile, recruitment options post MBA,etc....

Deeia and Nitin, From what i know abt Judge.......their acceptance rate is about 12%...so PeruGURU was about there when he said the total applicns could be around 1200. As with any other top school, they are looking for people with well rounded profiles.....i'm sure you have read and heard enough abt what that means...so, i wont bore u abt that... But my take on at least Judge (which is my #1 choice) is that its location in Cambridge provides for a great opportunity for people with interest in innovation management (my main interest), entrepreneurship, VC,etc becoz of the great academic and start-up environment there...Also, another important factor Judge offers is the opportunity to do 3 consulting projects...that means a whole lot of "practical" experience chance before u graduate!

cheers,
GoGreen

[nittinj]

I think low acceptance at JBS is may be due to no application fee.

Can anyone help me with stats of past year/s of placement at JBS & SBS. I couldnt locate it as of now. I think US schools are more friendly in providing placement/ summer intership related data.

As I understand Oxford is mainly considered good for finance and no so good for strategy/ marketing/ general management/ consulting ! Please correct me if I am wrong.

Though FT ranks SBS & JBS pretty high businessweek does not consider so !! Any reasons for such discrepancy !!

[Trotamundo]

Originally Posted by nittinj

Its because of their great 500-800 years old legacy and because of my low GPA (2.9/4) I feel slightly unconfortable applyting to Oxford & Cambridge. What accoridng to you are key criteria used by admissions committed at these colleges !!

Hey Nittinj, dont be discouraged by a low GPA. The great thing about these schools is that they look beyond numbers. For instance, although not due to GPA, I know about a candidate who got a 460 GMAT score, was invited to interview (and to retake the exam), got a 510 in the second shot and was admitted. Of course his profile was strong enough to overcome this hurdle. JBS and SBS look for DIVERSITY, if you have something nobody else would provide make sure u highlight it.

Originally Posted by nittinj

What I learnt from various blogs that though there are several colleges under Oxford & Cambridge, but the finally the b school classes are conducted by same faculty. Please correct me if I am wrong.

True

Originally Posted by nittinj

Regarding placements, I wanted to know traditional forte of these schools, for example - MIT/ Stern are known for I banksing, Insead/ HBS/ Chicago for I bank & consulting, Kellog for mktg !! Are there any particular fields/ electives which are the stregth of Oxbridge.

First of all I recommend not fixing a school to a determined field. These generalizations lead to poor assumptions and uninformed decisions; SBS and JBS degrees will open doors everywhere/anywhere. With this in mind, both schools thrive in social entrepreneurship (esp. Ox with its Skoll Centre) and innovation management (Cambridge has a slight advantage here with its Silicon Fen Park). However rest assured that your finance, mktg., logistics and other skills will be on par with the best. On top of that sharing a year with students-specialists from other fields of knowledge will polish your social and networking skills.

Originally Posted by nittinj

How are Oxbridge as compared to say an Insead or HEC (Paris)? Please advise?

Again, I resort to my previous answer. Insead and HEC are awesome institutions with a distinguished heritage so it would be unwise to take my PERSONAL view on these schools. After visiting their website did you get the "feeling" of applying there? Were you compelled to search for additional info about them? Do you view yourself studying in France? how about the size of the program? do you feel comfortable with their curriculum and the way they have distributed it throughout the 10 or 16 month timeline? Again, follow your instincts. I did so and currently feel very comfortable with the four schools I will apply to.

Originally Posted by nittinj

What I have learnt regarding IMD, Switz & ESADE & IESE are - expensive b schools, gives lot of strees on international exposure during job and academics? Am i correct or is this not a correct thread to discuss these b schools?

All b-schools are expensive! ...and all of them look for international exposure. Bottomline, be careful when choosing between 1Y and 2Y programs. Pagalguy is a must for any serious MBA aspirant. Being Peruvian I have found it extremely useful as a valuable and trustable information resource. You will find specific threads for the schools you have mentioned.

Hope this helps

Peruvian Guru