Amsterdam Business School - Sep 2011

Hello Everyone, I got an admit at ABS for Sep, 2011 intake and would really appreciate if someone please give some insight about the institute, amsterdam and job opportunities there especially for Indians. Cheers, Mohit

Hello Everyone,

I got an admit at ABS for Sep, 2011 intake and would really appreciate if someone please give some insight about the institute, amsterdam and job opportunities there especially for Indians.

Cheers,
Mohit
Hello Everyone,

I got an admit at ABS for Sep, 2011 intake and would really appreciate if someone please give some insight about the institute, amsterdam and job opportunities there especially for Indians.

Cheers,
Mohit

please send your profile ?
gmat score?
may be then I can give some suggestions
Regards
EUMBA
RSM Alumnus
Hello Everyone,

I got an admit at ABS for Sep, 2011 intake and would really appreciate if someone please give some insight about the institute, amsterdam and job opportunities there especially for Indians.

Cheers,
Mohit

hi

It is not regarded high in Netherlands.
The top colleges in Netherlands are RSM & Nyenrode.. also Tiasnimbas.
Amsterdam has weak or no placements. They do not provide the placement reports where as other colleges do. Getting a job is difficult after graduating from here
They are not ranked in ft business school.
I suggest you put your money either in Top 20 in India or in RSM.
good luck.
I also got an admit from them but did not go ahead because of the reasons above.
It is not regarded high in Netherlands.
The top colleges in Netherlands are RSM & Nyenrode.. also Tiasnimbas.
Amsterdam has weak or no placements. They do not provide the placement reports where as other colleges do. Getting a job is difficult after graduating from here
They are not ranked in ft business school.
I suggest you put your money either in Top 20 in India or in RSM.
good luck.
I also got an admit from them but did not go ahead because of the reasons above
.

mmm partly true but placements are weak at RSM too, ive heard it from many people that RSM career services are the worst.
The method of placement is totally different in these schools as compared to India as you have to do all the running.

ABS is not ranked , i dont know why so why dont you mail them to find out.
Their MIF programme is good and has been in the top 5 in the past 2-3 years in the FT.Their MBA programme is not accredited by AMBA or AACSB so it does not have a global brand which is a draw back but the location of Amsterdam is a plus point.
It is not regarded high in Netherlands.
The top colleges in Netherlands are RSM & Nyenrode.. also Tiasnimbas.
Amsterdam has weak or no placements. They do not provide the placement reports where as other colleges do. Getting a job is difficult after graduating from here
They are not ranked in ft business school.
I suggest you put your money either in Top 20 in India or in RSM.
good luck.
I also got an admit from them but did not go ahead because of the reasons above
.

mmm partly true but placements are weak at RSM too, ive heard it from many people that RSM career services are the worst.
The method of placement is totally different in these schools as compared to India as you have to do all the running.

ABS is not ranked , i dont know why so why dont you mail them to find out.
Their MIF programme is good and has been in the top 5 in the past 2-3 years in the FT.Their MBA programme is not accredited by AMBA or AACSB so it does not have a global brand which is a draw back but the location of Amsterdam is a plus point.

Hi van Dijk,

Yes MIF is good. However, MBA is still not at its best. I called them to find out about the accreditations.It is because they cannot fill the 30 seats in one batch for 3 consecutive years which is the minimum criteria.

At RSM, it could be true that the carreer services are bad, but RSM`s reputation in EU and
also in India can help one to fetch a nice job.
Agreed, Amsterdam is an excellent location to study, however, Rotterdam or Utrecht is not far from Amsterdam. In general one can study anywhere in Netherlands and he/she is still not far from Amsterdam!
Yes MIF is good. However, MBA is still not at its best.
Yup , agreed no 2 ways about that

I called them to find out about the accreditations.It is because they cannot fill the 30 seats in one batch for 3 consecutive years which is the minimum criteria.
Thanks for the info ,that is a bit of a shock.Maybe its their marketing which is weak since they cannot attract students.

I am not applying in the near future but i just emailed them to find out about their placements.They could not provide me any numbers but the programme coordinator had said that many found internships , she also told me that she will provide the data in 2 weeks.(i'll post it as and when i get it)
Placements are not like the way they are in India.The school has a linkedin page of its own on which vacancies are posted.Plus alumni and companies come on campus only when there are vancancies in their companies.
The career services help you with the normal stuff like interview preparations,resume and that stuff.

Hi van Dijk,

you are right! Schools in Europe dont push for placements. The students have to be on the prowl. Most of the business school websites publish information regarding their recent graduates...but Amsterdam doesnt.. it is a shame because Amsterdam University is one of the best in the world... ranks in the top 50.
I guess you have a Dutch nationality (from your name)..and therefore you need not worry about placements. The most affected graduates are non-EU nationals.

Good luck with your mba plans.

you are right! Schools in Europe dont push for placements. The students have to be on the prowl. Most of the business school websites publish information regarding their recent graduates...but Amsterdam doesnt.. it is a shame because Amsterdam University is one of the best in the world... ranks in the top 50.
Yea Amsterdam University is indeed one the best in the world


I guess you have a Dutch nationality (from your name)..and therefore you need not worry about placements. The most affected graduates are non-EU nationals.

Err no way im European lol i just like that name , im an indian, born and bred.
Work permits for non EU nationals are pretty tough to earn but not imporssible.The key is to have good work experience prior to your MBA/MS and fluency in english + some other useful european language(fluent enough to have a conversation with the natives of that country) only then will the companies be serious about hiring you.
I have friends who have worked in german,holland,usa and switzerland so just giving you a rough idea
It is not regarded high in Netherlands.
The top colleges in Netherlands are RSM & Nyenrode.. also Tiasnimbas.
Amsterdam has weak or no placements. They do not provide the placement reports where as other colleges do. Getting a job is difficult after graduating from here
They are not ranked in ft business school.
I suggest you put your money either in Top 20 in India or in RSM.
good luck.
I also got an admit from them but did not go ahead because of the reasons above.

mmm partly true but placements are weak at RSM too, ive heard it from many people that RSM career services are the worst.
The method of placement is totally different in these schools as compared to India as you have to do all the running.

ABS is not ranked , i dont know why so why dont you mail them to find out.
Their MIF programme is good and has been in the top 5 in the past 2-3 years in the FT.Their MBA programme is not accredited by AMBA or AACSB so it does not have a global brand which is a draw back but the location of Amsterdam is a plus point.


Hey Buddy,
My brother went to this scholl and its very unethical to coment on some thing which you have not practically experienced. Befor joining this school he was at a 9 Lakh package and today he is making 9000 Euros/month and the montly expense is only 1000 Euros despite of mamoth apartment and lavish spents every month. At present he is saving 8000 euros per month which is not possible in india. For me anybody who is from middle classs background with a limited expense and looking for a good ROI, Amsterdam is the best investment.
Amsterdam is not easy to crack as they only take 6 students in a year and the application process is like chewing a marble cake, so many essays to write that you might take off for few days from your work.
I know all this because i worked on my brother application and want to share that my brother also got an scholarship of 4000 Euros.

Well, ABS worked for my brother and our family.

thanks.
My brother went to this scholl and its very unethical to coment on some thing which you have not practically experienced

Talking about facts is not unethical.Ive never criticised this university and infact its one of the very good universities and i will strongly consider applying here in the future.
But as the other guy said they havent been accredited because they couldnt fill up the seats which is mandatory(he has mailed them so obviously hes not tellling this out of his own mind)
Your bro did well because hes smart and must have worked hard but just because he succeeded and helped you and your family does it mean this university is the greatest , surely it has its flaws

Could you please share your brothers profile including work ex.
Thanks



Hey Buddy,
My brother went to this scholl and its very unethical to coment on some thing which you have not practically experienced. Befor joining this school he was at a 9 Lakh package and today he is making 9000 Euros/month and the montly expense is only 1000 Euros despite of mamoth apartment and lavish spents every month. At present he is saving 8000 euros per month which is not possible in india. For me anybody who is from middle classs background with a limited expense and looking for a good ROI, Amsterdam is the best investment.
Amsterdam is not easy to crack as they only take 6 students in a year and the application process is like chewing a marble cake, so many essays to write that you might take off for few days from your work.
I know all this because i worked on my brother application and want to share that my brother also got an scholarship of 4000 Euros.

Well, ABS worked for my brother and our family.

thanks.
hi

It is not regarded high in Netherlands.
The top colleges in Netherlands are RSM & Nyenrode.. also Tiasnimbas.
Amsterdam has weak or no placements. They do not provide the placement reports where as other colleges do. Getting a job is difficult after graduating from here
They are not ranked in ft business school.
I suggest you put your money either in Top 20 in India or in RSM.
good luck.
I also got an admit from them but did not go ahead because of the reasons above.


I am current student of ABS. There are few things I would agree and disagree from the list above. It really doesn't matter if I agree or if I don't , but the analysis that I provide could be insightful to some of you.

It is not regarded high in Netherlands.

I wouldn't completely disagree on this but its good to dissect the truth and understand the scenario rather then make conclusions . People do not know ABS much, but UvA is very highly regarded university. I had to explain in the interview that UvA also has MBA program. This can be tied to the fact that the class size is really small and the program is very young and not many companies yet know about it.

The only interview I attended I was selected for the kind of job I really wanted and I could say there was no bias towards the name of the school and this was the case with another friend of mine as well. When I was being interviewed, they were very curious why I choose ABS over RSM, but as long as one could explain with a good story,they don't care where you come from.

Coming from Indian background I can understand how much emphasis we place on the name of the school. Its tough to understand that the name of the school is irrelevant to a large extent, especially in Netherlands.

Now the big question - where does the name of the ABS matter ?
If you are planning to look for a job outside of Netherlands in Europe, especially the investment banks in London ,MBA from ABS is not yet there. But if you are planning to look for a job within Netherlands, the name UvA is strong enough to get you into any job you like as long as you have the potential. Even in the European scenario only problem you would encounter is to secure a interview call. But if you could pull this off which is quite possible if you know someone working there, you still have a chance even into these investment banks.

The top colleges in Netherlands are RSM & Nyenrode.. also Tiasnimbas.Amsterdam has weak or no placements. They do not provide the placement reports where as other colleges do. Getting a job is difficult after graduating from here.

This boils down to the question - what do you mean by top college ? Professors who teach here are highly regarded in Netherlands. I wouldn't claim that 100% of the teachers are great. But I can say 70% of them are very good.

Regarding the placement report - I gave my feedback to admissions officer on this sometime back and they are looking into it.

As I explained before getting a job depends more on you. I would agree on the difficult part but not in the context that you used. Its difficult because the concept of job placement is totally different here. I will explain this in detail in the next post.

They are not ranked in ft business school.
I would put it this way - "They are not yet ranked in FT Business School"


I suggest you put your money either in Top 20 in India or in RSM ?
Again it depends on the underlying reasons on which your argument is based. There is too much of difference between colleges in India and let me split them into 3 bands .

Top 5
If you are from IIM-ABC , you will have a strong international brand for sure.
You will have campus placements and you are sure of a job as soon as you graduate in a great firm. If you get a call from here you should definitely opt this.

Top 5 - 10 in India.
Not even a international brand name.
Strong campus placement but very less chance of ending up in job you would like to do.

Top 10 - 20.
I am not really sure about those colleges but I even doubt how good the placements could be.

ABS

Either you get a job which you like or you don't get anything.
No campus placements because that's not the trend here.
Opportunities never come knocking on your door but you have to go around and look for them. But if you do you have lot more options here.
Good work life balance in most of the jobs here.
International exposure and tremendous networking opportunities.

RSM
All of the above with additional advantage of strong international brand name for business school but comes with the disadvantages of less ROI and huge class size.

We have few classes with part-timers when the class strength goes beyond 50 and I have to admit I particularly don't like that because the chance of my involvement reduces significantly when compared to class size of 25.

Knowing the facts it's for you to decide what is right and wrong.

PS:- I might slightly be biased to my school but I tried my best to present information neutrally.

Feel free to drop me a email if you need more information regarding the school.

Well i did drop a few mails to the MIF programme coordinator sherien ibrahim and she did respond well.
She even gave me a Powepoint file about the placements.The placement figures werent the best for both MBA and MIF(a little amiguity is there though).This is mainly down to the eurozone crisis.If anybody wants the ppt just pm me

@Hemant
Could you elaborate your profile,the job you have secured and your overall experience at the univerisity?

@Van

I am working for a Management Consulting Firm in Strategy division. I am currently working on exploring new business opportunities to help the client transition into new markets, using their existing competence. In short a new business plan development for a client.Cant reveal more information than this.

I am glad to know that the ABS office is working on getting those numbers.

Regarding the University , please ask me specific questions. I will be glad to answer your questions.

If someone want PPT you should send mail to Sherien or Christina so that you can get a updated copy. Dutch people are generally very direct and transparent so just shoot them a mail directly.

Well i did drop a few mails to the MIF programme coordinator sherien ibrahim and she did respond well.
She even gave me a Powepoint file about the placements.The placement figures werent the best for both MBA and MIF(a little amiguity is there though).This is mainly down to the eurozone crisis.If anybody wants the ppt just pm me

@Hemant
Could you elaborate your profile,the job you have secured and your overall experience at the univerisity?
Well i did drop a few mails to the MIF programme coordinator sherien ibrahim and she did respond well.
She even gave me a Powepoint file about the placements.The placement figures werent the best for both MBA and MIF(a little amiguity is there though).This is mainly down to the eurozone crisis.If anybody wants the ppt just pm me

@Hemant
Could you elaborate your profile,the job you have secured and your overall experience at the univerisity?

Van can you please share the PPT!
goody2shoes2160

Can you please provide a profile of your brother who graduated from ABS?

I'm thinking of applying, but I'm skeptical about job placement. Here is my profile:

American Citizen
GMAT 620
Bachelors and MS from USA (University of Texas at Austin)

I plan to get a job in marketing. I'm sure all of you guys are in the tech industry, which makes it easier in my opinion to secure a job. I do understand that in Netherlands, like in the US, they provide international students with 1 year to look for a job without a visa. This is definitely a plus!

Any thoughts and suggestion would be highly appreciated!

Can you please provide a profile of your brother who graduated from ABS?

The original user who posted was just messing around. Its highly unlikely for someone who just graduated out of college, to earn over 100K Euros in Europe.(I am not saying its not possible). Besides the original poster has no credibility, its his first post.

I'm thinking of applying, but I'm skeptical about job placement. Here is my profile:

American Citizen
GMAT 620
Bachelors and MS from USA (University of Texas at Austin)

I plan to get a job in marketing. I'm sure all of you guys are in the tech industry, which makes it easier in my opinion to secure a job. I do understand that in Netherlands, like in the US, they provide international students with 1 year to look for a job without a visa. This is definitely a plus!

You nationality is your biggest strength. However, to get a marketing job, dutch language could be your barrier. Coming from tech industry, and doing a MBA and finding job is not that easy either. Especially in Europe, if you come from a background of marketing, you have a chance of getting lot of interview callsfor marketing positions rather than for Analyst/Associate positions in investment banks.(this is just an example) But most people, who come to MBA are looking for a career switch and its not that easy in Europe, unless you have a good story which can connect your choices.

Any thoughts and suggestion would be highly appreciated!

Hemanth_28

Thanks a lot for all the info you have provided. I have about 5 years of relevant marketing experience from the US. I would hate to get an MBA from ABS and have to come back to the states because that degree would be absolutely useless here.

I'm trying to figure out what experiences international students have had obtaining non-technical jobs in Amsterdam. I know the Dutch economy along with the German is much better than anywhere else in Europe. Plus, I have lived in the Netherlands and their command of English is quite good, maybe the best after native speakers.

If anyone has any thing else to add, please do so. As they say, knowing if half the battle.

I can imagine , what it would feel like if you have to go back to US after MBA in ABS.

The class of MBA is 100% international students. Lot (around 70%) of students who have been seriously looking for internships found them, in the fields they are interested in.(none of these are technical fields ). In another couple of months I have a feeling that most people will end up with something. However , not many wanted to get into marketing either. (mostly people were looking for something in investment banks, consulting, risk management etc etc.) I know someone who got a marketing internship as well.(non-dutch speaking).

So in general, given the current (recovering) market scenario , the situation is pretty good. If you are from US , I believe you have a good chance of finding a marketing job, because its generally perceived that US nationals are very good in marketing.( This is my personal bias as well).

You are right, Dutch economy is very good. Though dutch people have good command on English, they will like if you can speak dutch ,which I think is very much understandable.

Just curious, what is the reason you want to come to Netherlands , that too after graduating from UT Austin ?


Hemanth_28

Thanks a lot for all the info you have provided. I have about 5 years of relevant marketing experience from the US. I would hate to get an MBA from ABS and have to come back to the states because that degree would be absolutely useless here.

I'm trying to figure out what experiences international students have had obtaining non-technical jobs in Amsterdam. I know the Dutch economy along with the German is much better than anywhere else in Europe. Plus, I have lived in the Netherlands and their command of English is quite good, maybe the best after native speakers.

If anyone has any thing else to add, please do so. As they say, knowing if half the battle.