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(2.5) |
I had a decent MBA experience at Cranfield. The campus atmosphere and facilities was great. The location is not bad either considering its proximity to London. However studying in London, I feel, would have had its advantages as it will vastly facilitate networking (most jobs will be in London after all). Cranfield faculty was also pretty good. Many of them are the experts in their field commanding respect from the industry that they cater to, particularly in economics and finance. There is also a great thrust on entrepreneurship and a number of my colleagues have opted for that post MBA. Overall, I had quite a good experience studying at Cranfield but was tad disappointed with the support provided on the careers front.
The areas were Cranfield could do with some improvement would be in enhancing career opportunities for the MBAs. The companies that came to campus were few - Amazon and AT Kearney. If one is interested in such companies great. However, Amazon recruited four from my cohort all of whom needed visa sponsorships and Amazon provided it. That was not the case with AT Kearney. Also, future Cranfield students would themselves need to be very proactive from the very start in looking out for networking opportunities. Here a clear focus on which industry you are looking to work in would be a mighty help as one would not waste her/his time looking at all and sundry companies but only try to connect with firms he/she is interested in.
Overall BSchool experience (3.0)
Schools contribution (2.0)
Classmates rating (2.0)
Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Alumni Network
Consulting
Entrepreneurship
Student body, diversity
Career opportunities provided by school
Location
I initially thought of making a career move into strategy consulting, but the school doesn't have strong support for that nor is it recognized to be popular among the strategy consulting firms. But from a course point of view, the course is strong and a lot of lectures are engaging and thought provoking. But because as a candidate you would want a return on your investment, you would want to make it very clear as to what you want to end up with post the completion of your MBA. It is helpful to just focus on changing the location and not the industry and function which might be very hard.
You have to absolutely sure as to what you want to do post-MBA. The model in the UK is different. MBA is a good addition but not something which opens up a lot of doors. With an MBA you can move up the ladder and perhaps quickly thereafter but from a job point of view it is better that you look for similar roles in terms of function and don't have the misconception that you will get a lot of opportunities to move across functions (like moving to finance, marketing or operations) or can take up new one. Your best bet is just moving to a relatively senior position in the same function you were doing. Additionally many companies are unwilling to sponsor visas even when they have the license for it and there is no real help on this front for non-European students.
Overall BSchool experience (2.0)
Schools contribution (1.0)
Classmates rating (2.0)
Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Student body, diversity
Management
Alumni Network
Career opportunities provided by school
Brand/Ranking