Tuesday 7 October 2014

IE Business School

Arriving in Madrid by train from Seville, our accommodation was immediately sourced and it was straight off to IE Business School up on Maria de Molina, a bit of a hike on a hot summer afternoon. I was more than happy to burn a few calories and generate some genuine sweat to actually walk the corridors of this leading business school since I had undertaken only online courses through this prestigious educational institution.


Upon arriving, I headed into the administration area to immediately book an interview with a career adviser. I spoke with a full time adviser, moving to Madrid for 18 months isn't an option for me so I was quickly introduced to the part time team.

I found to my dismay, IE Business School wasn't willing to recognise previous studies at the post graduate level. If I want to do their course, then I do their course in full without any credits, this was disappointing as I have been negotiating with a number of university and private business schools for advanced standing credits. Apart from saving time and effort, you save huge sums of money - I want to save time, effort and money.

The mode of delivery for part time international MBA students required 2 weeks full time attendance at the Madrid facility followed by an intensive 15 month course delivered via the Blackboard learning management system utilising Adobe Connect for weekly class conferences. At €55,000 this is going to be a big ask whilst maintaining full time employment, prepare to put your life on hold for that period.

As MBA curriculum is roughly similar, differentiation between institutions is difficult to identify with only reputations and alumni separating various business schools. I have learnt that high performers tend to be attracted to institutions with the best reputations regardless of cost. As I am a price sensitive consumer, in a highly mobile marketplace, I no longer have to solely apply to my local university, the tyranny of distance is no longer a deciding factor. I was also disappointed to learn that IE Business School does not really have a recruitment service organising graduate interviews with potential international employers, for that type of money spent, you want to be pretty certain you have access to top notch employers.

All in all, it was a highly productive afternoon.

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