Just needed your feedback on how the Canadian MBA’s like univ of british columbia’s sauder MBA and HEC montreal are?? also schools like Dalhousie/Ottwawa/simon fraser/wilfred laurier etc. my concern is after passing out as an international student…
Just needed your feedback on how the Canadian MBA's like univ of british columbia's sauder MBA and HEC montreal are?? also schools like Dalhousie/Ottwawa/simon fraser/wilfred laurier etc. my concern is after passing out as an international student, does one land decent jobs from these schools. they are not the best known ones like rotman/ivey etc so the concern. my gmat is 600 and 5 yrs ex in marketing(india) non IT. any feedback on my chances and other MBAs I should target would be welcome too. and so is it better to get an MBA from the 2nd tier canadian MBA or US 2nd/3rd tier schiools..pls do advice soon. thanks
I'm perhaps not the best person to be answering this email. My MBA did not go well and I still don't have a job and I did well in terms of grades and stuff...
But no one else will likely bother and even though it hasn't proven effective I keep going out of my way to help other people...
If cost and visa isssues are not a problem I'd consider some American schools. What you are looking for especially if your goal is to break into a certain industry or company is a good career center. I only applied to two schools both in Vancouver and I went to UBC ie the Sauder School of Business.
There are a lot of Chinese people at Sauder but India was the second most represented international country. Lots of engineers... There is a large Indian community in the greater Vancouver area so you can find good food and a Sihk temple easily enough...
However Toronto is like five times the size of Vancouver and has lots of Asians too. If you can handle the weather one of the schools in Toronto or possibly Montreal might be more beneficial. GMAT isn't everything, but of course higher is better. Do you speak French? HEC Montreal is a French Language school I believe Concordia and McGill are the biggest English Language schools in Quebec. Dalhousie is on the extreme East Coast of Canada, it is a lot like UVIC in some ways, but it is older. Smaller schools have advantages but if you're looking for a massive alumni network you'd be better off with a US school in most cases, Canadian schools don't have as fanatical of alumni community.
Canadian schools can be more international than US schools and Canada is safer and used to be considerably cheaper to study in, but that advantage is not so prominant.
Do as much research as you can, more than just on this website. The rankings do matter but more important is who hires from that school regularly. Vancouver is too far West and too far North for some recruiters... Recruiters recruit at Sauder for positions in China, I can't recall seeing many for jobs in India...
An engineer from India wrote me about this already, and I turned my reply into a blog posting, hopefully I can link to it:
Getting into an MBA program
Good luck, you'll need some.
Muskie
Hi Muskie,
Thanks so much for ur reply and the link to ur blog? its truly wow!
I dont wish to find employment in India after the Sauder mBA. I would prefer working in vancouver/toronto for a while. how is the job scene for sauder graduates in canada? also was keen on sectors like retail/media/entertainment/consumer goods etc, so is it good to do an mba from sauder to land jobs in thoise sectors. also as an international student, is there a problem with work permits?
also thanks for ur tips on indian food and temple in vancouver. am actually coming to experiance life in canada, so i dont have a problem being far from indian food etc. I dont know freanch, but HEC montreal does have an english MBA.
which US MBAs would u suggest. i don not have the gmat for the top ones. any decent US mba u aware in 2nd tier with which one can land jobs. but I am keener on canada due to its safer cities and more relaxed lifestyle..ofcourse getting a decent job post MBa is the key! can I email u too??
regards,
amit
Hi Muskie,
Thanks so much for ur reply and the link to ur blog? its truly wow!
I dont wish to find employment in India after the Sauder mBA. I would prefer working in vancouver/toronto for a while. how is the job scene for sauder graduates in canada? also was keen on sectors like retail/media/entertainment/consumer goods etc, so is it good to do an mba from sauder to land jobs in thoise sectors. also as an international student, is there a problem with work permits?
also thanks for ur tips on indian food and temple in vancouver. am actually coming to experiance life in canada, so i dont have a problem being far from indian food etc. I dont know freanch, but HEC montreal does have an english MBA.
which US MBAs would u suggest. i don not have the gmat for the top ones. any decent US mba u aware in 2nd tier with which one can land jobs. but I am keener on canada due to its safer cities and more relaxed lifestyle..ofcourse getting a decent job post MBa is the key! can I email u too??
regards,
amit
Again I'm sure the powers that be would prefer someone else to answer these questions, but then again some people help others, and some people don't.
I got smart enough to quote your post this time. I know Sauder has some sort of service where you can question current and past students of the MBA program, but you might have to be accepted to use it. There really are a bunch of Indian alumnus that might be more useful than I. Several Anands :-)
If you want to work in Toronto, you're better off going to a school out East. Some of the big banks or consulting firms recruit at Sauder but like I alluded to before they may be recruiting for jobs in China instead of jobs in Vancouver. Vancouver is the most Chinese city outside of Asia, Toronto actually has more Chinese people but it is five times as large so it doesn't seem as obvious. The only cities that compare in the US are LA, NY, and possibly San Fran or Seattle for Asianess. Seattle is known for its Japanese community I believe.
The job scene in Canada for trade labour is really crazy right now in things like construction. Canada has a lot of resource companies, but also a lot of IT companies and even some Financial Services. The financial service industry is headquartered in Toronto. Even Calgary has more national and world headquarters than Vancouver now, or so I read. All the big banks in Canada have towers in downtown Vancouver but only HSBC has their Canadian headquarters here. I know of one person from my class working there, but they never even interviewed me once.
Vancouver actually is a media and entertainment mecha. In addition to being known as Hongcouver, Vancouver is also known as Hollywood North. Many movies and TV shows are made here. There are several movie studios headquartered in Vancouver and there is print and television too. There is also a huge New Media industry, web, video games, cellular phones... Nokia opened an office here recently, one of my classmates got hired by them I believe too.
Retail companies have headquarters in Vancouver or at least Burnaby. Best Buy and possibly Lululemon hired people from my class. More complete information on who hired people from my class or the class before mine should be available here:
Sauder Hiring Information
Scroll down a bit and download the pdfs.
For consumer goods I think Toronto is where you want to be. Calgary is something of a Canadian boom town, but everyone who has lived in both Vancouver and Calgary will tell you Vancouver is a better city to live in. The Calgary industry is the oil patch.
As for permits some international students went back to China or India to do their internship, others found work in Canada. Finding an internship can be tough even if you are not a citizen. You're specialization choice can help or hurt you here. Mine probably hurt me more than helped... I know several international students who also began the imigration process even before applying and that may have helped them find a job. There are definitely jobs for which you have to be a Canadian citizen, some government jobs for instance.
In theory the career center is suppose to help you find an internship and a full time job. They would also help you with any work permits you need. Canada has the most open imigration policy in the free world, or close enough. People still complain and it can take time and they have a scorecard...
Write the schools, they'll answer and send you PDFs and probably glossy brochures too.
As for American schools, Americans like them. The Harvards, Tucks, Dartmouths are tough to get into. Schools like Michigan, UCLA, Chicago the bigger public schools are also tough to get into. Again look who recruits there. Private schools can be expensive but there is student aid and more schoolarship money than is available at most Canadian schools. Pick a coast, California has an army of schools as does New England. There are good schools in the South and Midwest too.
There are so many schools with MBA programs in the US it isn't even a comparison to Canada. The MBA is a USA invention. I thought Thunderbird sounded like a cool school, but I didn't learn about it till long after I was down the MBA application path. You've already written your GMAT. I clicked a box when I wrote mine and all sorts of school contacted me including Tuck which surprised me...
It takes time to apply to each school and good advice I saw in "Which MBA?" (which I recommend reading) is to apply to your favourite schools in order. Get the damn transcripts and even more subject to people's whims the letters of reference early. I had people try to back out after I put their name down on my applications and that was what held up my acceptence... Anyway most schools have rolling admission so if your five favourite schools are:
Standford
Duke
University of Toronto
McGill
Dalhousie
Apply to them in that order, it may not be that simple but the advise is to put all your effort into your first choice until they say no. This does cost money and take time, you have international post and time zone issues to worry about. I had them too, I applied while living and working in Japan.
You can possibly get accepted to multiple schools and have a choice, I got accepted to both schools I applied to. But I met lots of people who settled for Sauder after getting refused by Harvard or Michigan for instance. I also met people who were refused by Sauder and had to settle for some place else.
There are a lot of really competitive people who do MBAs and some schools have a much more agressive student culture, Sauder is reasonably laid back and shark free. On my exchange the guys from Kellogg quickly earned a reputation for agressive question asking during student presentations. It scared a bunch of my teammates, but I convinced people to choose my solution and the guy they were afraid of agreed with everything we recommended. :-D
I think Sloan (MIT) and Babcock College have cool MBA programs too but they are probably tough to get into.
This propaganda page, which went up during the least few months of my MBA is aimed at recruiting more foreign students to do an MBA in Canada. It made the Globe and Mail which is the paper you'll want to read if you want to be a Canadian bussiness person:
Canadian MBA - MBA Programs In Canada
There is also a site aimed at Indians doing MBAs already (other than this one) and I swear a blog of a MBA student from India, I think he is going to Queens or something...
There is so much information online, MBAs are big earners for universities. This organization travel the world, I never got to go to one of their events, but if you can it would be interesting. There website has information, but not necessarily impartial information:
The MBA Tour
You can email me I guess, but see if you can't find some Indian students in Google to hound too.
Muskie
Hi Muskie,
I dont know how to thank you for your very detailed reply! It really is usefull not just for me but for others thinking on the same lines. And feedback from someone like you who has already gone through the MBa is invaluable.
Your links and the info is really useful . The fact that you say that vancouver is a good centre for media/entertainment jobs really makes me want to study at Sauder. Not to metion your info on retail. I really have no interest in Finance jobs, Thats why Toronto is not that attractive to me. I think I will also apply to Schulich apart from Sauder and HEC. among US schools, Thuderbird with its one year option is also an option. Am also thinking of some schools like case western/pittsburg and my dream school is Stern at NY for the simple reason that they have a specialization in media and Ent and new york is such an amazing city too. But my Gmat score is way below there average requirement. Also canadian schools are considerably cheaper. I like the fact that u mention that sauder is laid back compared to others. I am a little late with my applications for US schools. But am gettinf started on recos and transcripts now. I hope I dont face the difficulties u went through. Thanks again for your replies and very detailed and useful help!!!
amit
Good luck.
I hope your MBA works out signifigantly better than mine did.
I really think the "Which MBA?" book is worth reading. It is put out by the Economist Intelligence Unit. I have a lot of respect for "The Economist" magazine.
They have a website naturally:
Which MBA online
Muskie
I hope your MBA works out signifigantly better than mine did.
I really think the "Which MBA?" book is worth reading. It is put out by the Economist Intelligence Unit. I have a lot of respect for "The Economist" magazine.
They have a website naturally:
Which MBA online
Muskie
I think the Canadian univs emphasize undergrad GPA more than GMAT and work ex.
So for those who have low GPA's it's a place to stay away. There are US programs that may take you in with a 3.0 or less; I've heard that this is rare in canada.
I have a friend who got into NYU Stern and CMU with a 760 + 2.9 GPA last yr; he had some cool essays to his credit though. He was rejected at every place in Canada.
I think the Canadian univs emphasize undergrad GPA more than GMAT and work ex.
So for those who have low GPA's it's a place to stay away. There are US programs that may take you in with a 3.0 or less; I've heard that this is rare in canada.
I have a friend who got into NYU Stern and CMU with a 760 + 2.9 GPA last yr; he had some cool essays to his credit though. He was rejected at every place in Canada.
I said the opposite on my blog didn't I? It almost sounds like you took the contrapositive of what I said or is it the inverse? Math 224 was a long time ago...
Undergrad GPA especially if it was a long time ago, doesn't matter that much. My GPA was a lot closer to 3 than 4. My undergrad university used a 9 point scale so it is all a bit of an estimate anyway.
760 is a great GMAT score. Unofficially that would be the highest score or very very close to it in my MBA class (of the people who told me) but I know of people who got in to Sauder with below 600 too. Our class average was a bit above 600 but less than the previous years average and less than my score... The essays and letters of reference are really important.
Stern should be harder to get into than almost any school in Canada, I would think. If you have the time and the 50-100 dollars it is probably worth applying to schools. Pick a half dozen with one or two dream schools and few more realistic aspirations. There aren't quotas but schools like to have 'diversity' and good pull quotes they can put in their marketing material.
If you were on the national ping pong team, or you climbed Mount Killamanjaro, or you founded a not for profit etc. etc. Stuff like that counts and it ends up in quasi-official promotional material.
Good luck, hopefully things work out better for you than me.
Muskie
Hi,
How gud is University of Newbronswick , Saint john for MBA. Do u have any idea ? Pls do share ur idea abt that school.
Regards,
Karthika
hay, any one can tell me the chances to get in ubs hec with low acadmics........
my profile
work ex 3.5 years
cleared cfa label1 and 2
gmat 710
graduation 72%
10+2 58%
10 42%
is there any chance in ubs hec if not than any other good colleges in Canada...
hay, any one can tell me the chances to get in ubs hec with low acadmics........
my profile
work ex 3.5 years
cleared cfa label1 and 2
gmat 710
graduation 72%
10+2 58%
10 42%
is there any chance in ubs hec if not than any other good colleges in Canada...
HI Manish, You said your's is a low profile 😃 😃 :)
If you see my profile..you would just laugh at me.....I am terrible compared to you
my profile
work ex 3.0 years
Extra curll - descent
gmat : 560 (worst haha)
still I applied to HEC....and I got a below reply from adcom
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good morning,
The admissions committee has sent you a letter as of this morning. You should get it soon.
Thank you and have a great day
Frdrique
Frdrique Brunet-Maheu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I dont know what above means..i am rejected or selected......most probably I think its a negative....don't know..I will know once I get the letter..
REgards,
Hrishi
Hi there guys . I have been searching for 2 year MBA program in canada ,where is could specialize in operations management in the second year. To my surprise after searching for about 50 odd universities ,i was able to find just 2 universities which have this specialization.
- York university
- HEC montreal
I have done my engineering degree in electrical and electronics engineering and have worked in dell computers for 2 years. I am very interested in doing my MBA in canada in operations mangement specialization .:D Even in the above to options HEC has a one year MBA only .
Its would be really helpful if some could let me know the list of universities that have an operations mangement specialization in canada . :o
Thanks a lot for your time in reading this post . Cheers .:cheers::cheers:
HEC Montreal is very good in the field.
HEC MONTREAL | Gilbert Laporte, One of the World's Top Researchers - The HEC Montral professor is recognized as the most influential, according to a Taiwanese study
A lot of the world's research in Operations Research happens at HEC Montreal and Polytechnique Montreal (just across the street).
The school also holds the Canada Research Chairs in several related topics (these are very prestigious distinctions, as they select top faculties and give them $$$ to research)
- Canada Chair in Operations Management
- Canada Chair in Information Technologies
- Canada Chair in Logistics
Also, CIRRELT (Inter-University Research Centre on Corporate Networks, Logistics and Transportation) and GERAD (Group of Research in Decision Analysis)
http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/program-programme/srp-prs/hec-eng.pdf
Hi,
Any reviews on the Thomson River University MBA (TRU MBA).
I am planning to appy to its One year MBA course.
my profile
Gmat: 660
work ex :4 yrs IT.
Will greatly appreciate your help.
Hi, Any reviews on the Thomson River University MBA (TRU MBA). I am planning to appy to its One year MBA course.my profileGmat: 660work ex :4 yrs IT.Will greatly appreciate your help
Hey did you go for an MBA program at TRU? I'm also interested in doing mba from there. I haven't given GMAT/GRE exam and i'm planning to take admission with only Ielts. please suggest me!
Hello...!! I am new here,i just wanted to know your view on HEC-Montreal MBA or any other canadian B school u suggest for my profile.
Total Exp : Post Grad : 9 yrs hardcore sales & Mark for an MNC (Currently working as Business Development manager).
IELTS : Overall Band 7 / GRE : 293
Post MBA i wish to work and settle in canada,your views and suggestions will be appreciated..
regards/Lokesh.