According to my blog statistics the comparison and choice between ESADE and IESE has be one of the main interests of my readers. Therefore I decided to dedicate an article to my choice of ESADE over IESE.
IESE simply was never an option to me!!! It never made it to my radar. ESADE’s reputation was being the school with great people and culture and that reputation had reached me. Nothing alike about IESE. So i never considered IESE to be quite honest.
I met many of the schools at the MBA fair in London in 2008 and I based my choice simply on gut-feeling at the end of the day! LBS for example had some students present and the contact with them was terrible. After seeing how they were reacting to each other, talking to applicants, it was clear that I had no interest whatsoever in applying to them!
Another very important factor to me is the teamwork! I love teamwork and team focus and don’t like the cut-throat mentality of many other schools. When you have a school with a bell-curve grading system I assure you that you will feel enormous horizontal pressure. ESADE students are competitve but we are teams at the end of the day and not competitors. The feeling I got from IE, INSEAD and LBS namely showed me the exact opposite.
But at the end of the day you have to make the choice that feels right. you should definitely look beyond rankings though and consider the soft factors as well. I example only applied to HKUST, RSM and ESADE because these are the ones I had the best feeling about!! it is not only about ranks for me but about whether it feels right…
One last thing that I can recommend is that you ask to attend some of the classes when you visit the schools. And speak as intensively with students while on campus as possible!!! Keep asking and asking and asking!!! The responses and the way people respond will tell you a lot!
Overall i can say that I am very happy, I amazed with the selection of colleagues and definitely enjoy the experience!
I hope that helped you a little with your choice and let’s stay in touch!! Good luck with your applications!
My ESADE MBA 