My story (episode II)

So, in September 2002 I repeated the TOEFL (although it probably wouldn't have been necessary, since I was living in London for three years) and repeated the score (293). I must say that my current plans are to leave the engineering industry and start a new career in... consulting. Yes, that's right. Will these plans change during the MBA? Probably. :-)

Then I started researching for which schools to apply. Here's a brief description of that process:

1) London Business School

First pick. Great school, great reputation (now considered nº1 in Europe by the Financial Times 2005 Rankings), very interesting program allowing me to experiment different types of jobs (shadowing project, summer internship, 2nd year project), great list of recruiters (McK, BCG, etc.). Furthermore, I want to return to London! It's an amazing city and I certainly wouldn't mind living there forever. Another advantage: flights are becoming increasingly cheaper between Portugal (mainly from Porto) and London.

Application has been during stage 2 (R2) and I am now waiting for the interview decision, which will come out on the 11th February. So, fingers crossed.

2) Instituto de Empresa - Madrid

At first, this was probably my second pick, mainly because of the consistently good position in the FT Rankings. I then started researching about this school and tried to get in touch with students and alumni that could give me some useful feedback. There's an interesting thread about this school in the Business Week forums titled 'Bocconi, Instituto de Empresa or RSM'. I don't want to repeat everything in that thread and other things that I've found in spanish forums. However:

• it seems that IE is not considered as good as IESE or even ESADE in Spain;
• it is extremely good in entrepreneuship;
• it is considered an 'MBA factory';
• the recruiters list is not strong, for what I need;
• the exchange program is very poor;
• according to their Strategy Consultancy Day, the involved consultancy companies are not the ones I am looking for (yes.... McK and BCG).

I have my application complete and ready to be sent. However, I still am not sure if am going to apply for that school.

3) SDA Bocconi - Milan

This seems to be an interesting european school. However not ranked as high as IE in the FT Rankings, and not in the top positions in other rankings (like Wall Street Journal and Business Week), it seems to have a nice reputation in Europe, mainly in Italy (obviously) and in the UK. Here are some things that caught my attention regarding SDA:

• Although it's only a 14-month programme, it includes a 2-month internship or in-company project;
• Nice list of recruting companies and of companies involved in projects;
• Even fashion and automotive companies recruit at SDA (which may be extremely interesting!);
• Great exchange programme;
• It's in Milan! I love Italy and.... last but not least, my girlfriend will probably move to Milan in 2006.

My application is ready and will probably be sent this week.

4) IESE - Barcelona

Due to some disappointing information I got from IE, I decided to go for the top in Spain - IESE. It shares some good characteristics with LBS: good reputation, nice programme, great recruiting companies list, very interesting location. It also shares the most negative LBS characteristic: very VERY expensive!

Since my decision to apply for IESE is very recent (January 2005) I still don't have lots of specific information about this school (the type of information that you can't find in the brochures). However, I was able to arrange a meeting for today, with one of IESE's MBA Admissions Associate Directors. He is coming to Portugal for an Information Session scheduled for tomorrow and I will meet him later today. I hope to get more information about IESE and will certainly post something here in this blog.

5) RSM - Rotterdam

Another school that I started researching after changing my opinion about IE. I still don't know much about this school, but it seems very similar to SDA Bocconi, in terms of european reputation, placement records and programme. I finally received the email of an RSM alumni (another portuguese fellow) and will probably contact him in the next week or so.

And this is where I am now.