Cambridge without funding vs French Business Schools with full funding

[neohippy]

Hello everyone,

Greetings! I am facing a dilemma regarding my business school endeavors. I have two offers at hand: a professional MPhil at Cambridge Judge Business School without funding and a PhD at one of the better known French Schools (ESSEC/EMLYON/EDHEC). I know the career choices would be different in both cases, however I am trying to gauge which school offers a better placement prospects for employment of international students in the countries they are based. Is the Cambridge brand really stronger than the French schools in Europe? Even though I won’t have to take a loan to attend Cambridge it would still be a very expensive investment (cost a total of GBP 36000). 

Any opinion, experience or suggestion would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[nugget]

Could you do the PhD at the French school and a post doc at Cambridge? If this is feasible, I'd go this route instead because of the sheer fact that it's a lot of debt.

 

How much total debt would you incur, including cost of living? I would get the full figures and evaluate how much debt you are comfortable taking on before making a decision and figure out the benefits and downsides of studying at each school.

[neohippy]

Thanks Jenste!

 

The postdoc option is good provided I make it! But the French school has given the option to visit Cambridge or other top school as visiting researcher while maintaining their stipend. So I am exploring that option. I wont go in to debt for attending the Cambridge MPhil as I can pay it myself but will have to forfeit many material things if I do that. 

 

Regards. 

[grindian]

If there isn't much of a different between going to Cambridge and a French school, I'd suggest you take the latter and spend the money you save, elsewhere

 

You're an international student, but are you a non-Eurozone student? Getting employment in that case is pretty difficult, from what I gather. A close friend is going to Judge for his MBA but his goal is to just build a professional network, gain some business domain knowledge and return to home country

[neohippy]

If there isn't much of a different between going to Cambridge and a French school, I'd suggest you take the latter and spend the money you save, elsewhere

You're an international student, but are you a non-Eurozone student? Getting employment in that case is pretty difficult, from what I gather. A close friend is going to Judge for his MBA but his goal is to just build a professional network, gain some business domain knowledge and return to home country

Yes, I am from outside eurozone. for me, returning back immediately would be a difficult situation as salary is not good enough back home to earn back the fees paid to Camb. The concern with the french school is, though it is a top 3-4 b school in france, probably not many outside eu would know. Probably in terms of quality of education both would be same. The choice is between better name vs full scholarship.:-! Edited July 25, 2015 by neohippy