Fashion: LIM MBA or Parsons AAS Fashion Marketing?

[dancepassion]

I am graduating with a Bachelor Degree in Biomedical Sciences in the UK this coming June. However, I have always been interested in fashion and I would really love to pursue to a career in the business side of fashion. However, I have no prior work experience related to fashion at all. All I have done was a finance internship and a few customer service jobs at clinics, so I am a bit worried.

 

As I have always wanted to study about fashion and I realised I lack the business knowledge & intellectual understanding of the fashion industry, I decided to continue my education upon completion of my bachelor degree. And luckily, I have recently been accepted to LIM College, to do the MBA program with a concentration in fashion management, and to Parsons, to do the AAS in fashion marketing. 

 

While I am sure Parsons is a more well-known school in the fashion industry and it will probably will provide me with more professional connections, LIM also has partnerships with many major fashion companies and many of its students have previously acquired internships with big names in the industry too. I am sure with my background, I will probably be better at merchandising or buying, so going to LIM, a school that is solely geared for the fashion business, seems to be more suitable for me. However, I do want to explore my creative potential and experience the feeling of working with the creative minds at Parsons. 

 

The level of the two courses is also one of my concerns. I am aware that an MBA is getting more important in the fashion industry nowadays. However, is an MBA in fashion management, with a curriculum that includes topics such as Global management, Business Law, Financial Management etc., not very useful for me at this stage since I have no previous work experience in the fashion industry? Would I be over-qualified for the industry while seeking for entry-level jobs? 

 

Both the MBA and AAS include a compulsory, credited internship as part of the curriculum. So I am sure I will get my first fashion-related work experience by doing either of these courses. However, I still need to consider my future after this one year of fashion education. Which course would be more appropriate and beneficial in my case?

 

Any advice would be extremely appreciated. Thank you so much in advance! 

Edited April 13, 2013 by dancepassion

[JungWild&Free]

I was a fashion-merchandising major (in addition to my psych major) in undergrad, and I would say that Parsons is going to help you break into the fashion scene way more than LIM.  Parsons and FIT are like the Ivies of fashion institutes, and marketing and management are pretty much synonymous in fashion.  Fashion marketing is brand management.  In terms of course-work, an undergrad major in FM (at least at my undergrad) would teach you retail math (basic accounting and formulas for ordering), consumer behavior and marketing basics, history of the fashion industry, line development, principles of business, economics and business ethics, global sourcing, the basics of textile testing and textile manufacturing.  From my program, many people immediately got jobs after graduation in NYC and LA with top houses and at mass retailers as management all over the country.  People in FM rarely have advanced degrees, so I would say that the most important thing for someone without a FM background would be to learn those fashion basics and a person with a FM degree would probably want the MBA because of the usefulness of an MBA in general.  Lacking the FM background makes me think you would benefit from the Parsons program, not in small part because of your access to the best fashion internships, but mostly because of your inexperience in the industry. 

[Caffeine Junkie]

Hey, how'd you convert your post into a poll (sha-bang!)? That is cool, I wish to do the same for mine!

[Caffeine Junkie]

BTW, I participated

[dancepassion]

I was a fashion-merchandising major (in addition to my psych major) in undergrad, and I would say that Parsons is going to help you break into the fashion scene way more than LIM.  Parsons and FIT are like the Ivies of fashion institutes, and marketing and management are pretty much synonymous in fashion.  Fashion marketing is brand management.  In terms of course-work, an undergrad major in FM (at least at my undergrad) would teach you retail math (basic accounting and formulas for ordering), consumer behavior and marketing basics, history of the fashion industry, line development, principles of business, economics and business ethics, global sourcing, the basics of textile testing and textile manufacturing.  From my program, many people immediately got jobs after graduation in NYC and LA with top houses and at mass retailers as management all over the country.  People in FM rarely have advanced degrees, so I would say that the most important thing for someone without a FM background would be to learn those fashion basics and a person with a FM degree would probably want the MBA because of the usefulness of an MBA in general.  Lacking the FM background makes me think you would benefit from the Parsons program, not in small part because of your access to the best fashion internships, but mostly because of your inexperience in the industry. 

Thank you so much for your advice. You've really thought from my perspective and I really appreciate that! 

Edited April 14, 2013 by dancepassion

[dancepassion]

Hey, how'd you convert your post into a poll (sha-bang!)? That is cool, I wish to do the same for mine!

 

When you start a new topic, you can click on "Manage Topic Poll", which should appear on the right column. Hope this helps Thank you for participating in my poll