Information on HKUST MBA 2012 Program hosted by Current Students

MBA
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Hi PGs Recently we have received lots of queries regarding our HKUST (The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology) MBA Program that has scaled new heights with each passing year. To answer them we current students of this program ha…

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Hi PGs


Recently we have received lots of queries regarding our HKUST (The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology) MBA Program that has scaled new heights with each passing year. To answer them we current students of this program have started this thread to help prospective applicants by answering their queries here. We would be happy to answer queries related to our experience regarding the program, study methodology, admissions process, curriculum, MBA clubs, extracurricular and any other thing which we are in position to answer.

We would not be able to provide any comments on the possibility of someone getting selected by looking at the profiles so please avoid posting your profiles on this thread. Profile questions shall not be addressed by us. Anything related to checking of status for applications submitted please contact MBA office directly.

We will host this thread till May end 2012 so that we can provide enough information on the HKUST MBA Program and answer your queries but at the same time please bear with us for around 24-48hrs to reply to your queries.

We would appreciate and encourage you to visit the School website (MBA) to get the most up to date information on admissions deadlines, process, GMAT Average Scores and class breakup based on gender, past experience etc. We would recommend you to post a clear and specific question so that it helps the whole PG community to get more relevant information on the HKUST MBA.

Here are a few key facts about the program:


  1. Our class size is 99 people with diverse backgrounds (e.g.Military , Banking, Consulting, Trading, Digital Media, Marketing, IT, Law, Communications to name a few) belonging to 28 nationalities

  1. The mission of HKUST MBA is to prepare talents to Lead in the Globe and Excel in Asia

  1. The close vicinity to China is a big plus to understand the emerging economy and to find out more about the Chinese culture i.e. both business and traditional

  1. HKUST MBA is Ranked 6th as per latest FT-2011 rankings whereas our Kellogg-HKUST EMBA is ranked 1st in the world

  1. Most faculty members hold Doctorates or have strong industry experience which provides us broader perspective on business and management

  1. The current batch has 5 Indian students with different backgrounds ranging from consulting, healthcare, IT, general management

Also you can get commonly asked FAQs at the link MBA

Please feel free to post queries about the program.

The students answering posts on this forum would be Gaurav, Manish, Vikram and me (Ankit).

Thanks
MBA Indian Student Team
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Hi PGs


Recently we have received lots of queries regarding our HKUST (The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology) MBA Program that has scaled new heights with each passing year. To answer them we current students of this program have started this thread to help prospective applicants by answering their queries here. We would be happy to answer queries related to our experience regarding the program, study methodology, admissions process, curriculum, MBA clubs, extracurricular and any other thing which we are in position to answer.

We would not be able to provide any comments on the possibility of someone getting selected by looking at the profiles so please avoid posting your profiles on this thread. Profile questions shall not be addressed by us. Anything related to checking of status for applications submitted please contact MBA office directly.

We will host this thread till May end 2012 so that we can provide enough information on the HKUST MBA Program and answer your queries but at the same time please bear with us for around 24-48hrs to reply to your queries.

We would appreciate and encourage you to visit the School website (MBA) to get the most up to date information on admissions deadlines, process, GMAT Average Scores and class breakup based on gender, past experience etc. We would recommend you to post a clear and specific question so that it helps the whole PG community to get more relevant information on the HKUST MBA.

Here are a few key facts about the program:


  1. Our class size is 99 people with diverse backgrounds (e.g.Military , Banking, Consulting, Trading, Digital Media, Marketing, IT, Law, Communications to name a few) belonging to 28 nationalities

  1. The mission of HKUST MBA is to prepare talents to Lead in the Globe and Excel in Asia

  1. The close vicinity to China is a big plus to understand the emerging economy and to find out more about the Chinese culture i.e. both business and traditional

  1. HKUST MBA is Ranked 6th as per latest FT-2011 rankings whereas our Kellogg-HKUST EMBA is ranked 1st in the world

  1. Most faculty members hold Doctorates or have strong industry experience which provides us broader perspective on business and management

  1. The current batch has 5 Indian students with different backgrounds ranging from consulting, healthcare, IT, general management

Also you can get commonly asked FAQs at the link MBA

Please feel free to post queries about the program.

The students answering posts on this forum would be Gaurav, Manish, Vikram and me (Ankit).

Thanks
MBA Indian Student Team



Hi hkustmba2012

1)Do you think applying with just over 2 yrs of full time Work Ex is a good choice.(Am from Construction Background)
2)Is Freelance Consulting taken into account for work ex??
3)Can you give a brief history of the 5 Indians cerrently studying in HKUST
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Hi Vinothpl,

Generally you can apply to any university if you have a minimum of 2 years experience. While freelance consulting will be considered as full time work, there will be high emphasis on the quality of your experience. So if you just have 2 years of experience but if the admissions team feels that the experience is very good, you will still have a chance to get the admission. So the discretion to apply is truly your decision.

About the 5 Indian students this year, 2 of us have an IT background with 5 and 6 years experience each. One of us has a business background in hospital management, while one of us has a finance and risk analysis background with more than 7 years experience and lastly one of us has a manufacturing background in chemicals industry.

While you see that they go for a variety of experience, the average work experience is between 5 and 6 years. But again, if you believe that you have an outstanding work experience, you should apply.

Thanks,
Vikram

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One question :

Is TOEFL mandatory?

I did my undergrade studies in English and I have been living in USA for the last 18 months now.



Hi Vinothpl,

Generally you can apply to any university if you have a minimum of 2 years experience. While freelance consulting will be considered as full time work, there will be high emphasis on the quality of your experience. So if you just have 2 years of experience but if the admissions team feels that the experience is very good, you will still have a chance to get the admission. So the discretion to apply is truly your decision.

About the 5 Indian students this year, 2 of us have an IT background with 5 and 6 years experience each. One of us has a business background in hospital management, while one of us has a finance and risk analysis background with more than 7 years experience and lastly one of us has a manufacturing background in chemicals industry.

While you see that they go for a variety of experience, the average work experience is between 5 and 6 years. But again, if you believe that you have an outstanding work experience, you should apply.

Thanks,
Vikram
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Dear Gymnasty,

TOEFL is mandatory for our school if your undergraduate education was in a non English speaking country. However you can waive toefl if you have secured your undergraduate degree in English.

Thanks,
Vikram

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Thanks for your Reply Vikram,

Can you tell me how HKUST asks to prove my relationship with recommender.

I am on a international assignment in US since May 2010. My manager in India is still my manager in company system, she approves my leaves and all... But for my day today basis I have a US manager. I want to fill US manager as my recommender and not even let know my Indian manager. What should I do ?

Also one of my other recommender is having 5 years of experience , though he did his phd. I am just a undergraduate BTech from NIT Trichy India. Shall I find a new recommender ?

Thanks for your help.

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hello sir,

Can you give a brief comparison of the course content and other relevant details of HKUST and HKU

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HI Pugs.....

1) What is the range of GMAT score ( mid 80 % ) in current batch.

2) How have Indians in the previous batch fared during placements in HKUST ?

3) You must have done ur share of study reagding HKUST ? What was the most distinct factor which made u choose HKUST over other B schools u applied.

Thanks

-Mechanimal

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Has any interview calls gone out for Round 1 as yet??

Also whats been the average salary for the last year pass outs?

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Hi hkustmba2012,

First of all, thanks a ton for the initiative!

My query is:
According to you, how much of a deal maker/breaker is 'international experience'? Is a candidate without international exp at a considerable disadvantage? I'm asking this because of the huge importance hkust seems to be giving for international diversity (from the basic research on website).

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Hi... first of all thanx a lot for starting this thread...
I am a fresher and having 5mnths of experience.. Am i eligible to apply for this??

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Dear Gymnasty,

Your case is different. But definitely not unique. You can definitely ask your US manager to write your recommendation. You will have to specifically explain how he is qualified to be your recommender during your application cycle. But, there is no direct verification method that the university is known to follow.

However, if the admissions team feels that they need to find out the validity of your claim, then they may directly email or call the recommender from the details you have provided. Also, the experience of the recommender is not taken into account as long as he is a credible recommender. So I would suggest you to go ahead and ask your US manager to fill your recommendation.

But remember, there are 3 required recommendations for HKUST. :)

Thanks,
Vikram

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Dear Palantir,

International experience is a factor that may be given much importance by the admissions team. However, you can negate the international experience factor by a very strong career progress, GMAT and other details in your application. And yes, you are very true. The international experience of our batch is very high and also the diversity is very highly stressed upon. Even when we form study groups for assignments and coursework, they make sure that no study group has more than 1 person from each country. So it is highly important for them.

thanks,
Vikram

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Dear Rahulmind007,

I would strongly recommend to apply for any international program with a minimum experience of 2 years in the bag. While 2 years is a recommended or required experience from most of the schools, the Indian students in HKUST this year have a minimum of 5 years work experience before school. But, if you have an exceptional Academic career, amazing GMAT score or great leadership experience, then you should still apply now with emphasis on your achievements till date.

Thanks,
Vikram

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Dear Palantir,

International experience is a factor that may be given much importance by the admissions team. However, you can negate the international experience factor by a very strong career progress, GMAT and other details in your application. And yes, you are very true. The international experience of our batch is very high and also the diversity is very highly stressed upon. Even when we form study groups for assignments and coursework, they make sure that no study group has more than 1 person from each country. So it is highly important for them.

thanks,
Vikram


Hi Vikram,

Thanks for the insights. They have been most helpful!
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Hi Hemanthkumar,

I am afraid we cannot compare HKUST and HKU MBAs since we are not familiar with the HKU program. Still, we can tell you more about our program's course content.

Basically, our curriculum includes 15 core courses and electives divided into 5 career tracks - General Management in China, Finance, Consulting and Strategy Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Students can choose whether to specialize in these tracks or not based on their own interests and goals. We also have 5 career clubs which build along these career tracks so that students can gain a practical exposure in the field as they participate or organize activities that reach out to the business community.

To prepare new students for the MBA, HKUST offers the residential program and MBA accelerator at the start of the program. The residential program includes case study training and experiential learning program which aim at fostering teamwork and facilitating the formation of study group. The MBA accelerator is mandatory for those with non-business background and hones students' basic accounting concepts, and quantitative and spreadsheet skills.

You can find more information about our program design here: MBA

Thanks,
Vikram

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Hi Mechanimal,

Here are my answers to your questions.

1. The median GMAT 80% range is from 540 - 720. I know it is a pretty wide range. So you can see that GMAT while important, forms only a part of the weightage on your complete application.

2. As far as I know from the previous batches, they have done pretty well in-terms of results in placements. If you know what you want, then you should not have a problem. Also, if you want to work in China or HongKong, Mandarin is required by most Chinese companies and a majority of HongKong companies. But there are companies which do not need mandarin for either of these locations and you can do your research based on your interests to achieve your goals. We have all trained our minds now to do it :). But you are never at a disadvantage because of that, because most of these companies have offices in other places (even India). So you can opt for those who do not have a location preference to place you.

3. Well, when i was doing my research, I wanted to go to one of the Top 5 in Asia. But I had to chose HK because of the largely diverse class (28 nationalities), very small class size (we are only 99 students) and of course HKUST is the NO 1 ranked asian MBA in the world, and the first one to break into the world's top 10 rankings 2 years in a row.

thanks,
Vikram

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Hi Raj79,

I am not sure about the interview calls. The first round deadline is until 15th Nov. So generally they will start reviewing the applications after that date and send further notifications by the interview deadline. So if you have completed your application, then i guess you will informed before the interview deadline which is posted on the application website.

For the last year, the average weighted salary was $134000. But remember, it is weighted salary, which means, it is not a direct currency conversion to USD. Rather it is a weighter number calculated according to the cost of living, currency value and many other things.

Thanks,
Vikram

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Thanks a lot ..