Imperial College MBA vs St. Gallen MBA

I've worked with people from both schools and they were all of an extremely high caliber. As such, I don't think that there is a difference in the quality of the education. I also agree with other posters that both schools should give you a great chance to get into MBB. I would therefore recommend looking at other factors:

(1) Visa: Please keep in mind that Brexit could cause troubles. I'm currently on a visa in the US and visa issues are a bigger problem than one would think...

(2) Cost of living: London will be more expensive than St Gallen and I would recommend estimating the total difference over the span of the entire MBA. This is doubly true if you have to go into debt.

(3) CV Optimization: Which school will round out your entire CV better? For example, should you be from the UK, it might make sense to go to St. Gallen.

(4) Industry foci of MBB offices: Taking into account which industries you would want to work with when in consulting can help you decide. For example, I would expect a large amount of finance/banking projects at London MBB offices.

Lastly, you have two great offers - leverage them! GMATClub has several threads on using multiple offers to gain financial aid from the universities and I would suggest at least trying to do so.

Hello!

Congrats on the admissions!

You won´t make a mistake in any of them, so it´s a joyful decision. 

I would: 

1. Look at rankings: 
   1. Poets and Quants
   2. Financial Times
   3. etc
2. Research specific consulting-related programs they might have
3. Research their alumni - this is a key piece of doing an MBA, the community and network. COuld be that one of the two has much more alumni in consulting. Leverage LinkeIn and admissions page
4. Look at the professors and whether they have lab or courses aligned - this would also help with the network

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

I would ignore rankings for the decision as they are highly subjective.

I would focus on:

• Number of alumni working in MBB in your target location coming from the two schools, weighted for the size of the intake, in recent years – you should be able to find that on LinkedIn.
• Personal feedback of alumni of the program

Given that joining MBB is never a sure thing, I would also consider which programs would fit the most with your backup options.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

First, it depends on where you want to apply. If you want MBB UK (and maybe France), do Imperial. If you want rest of Europe probably do St Gallen.

Technically, St Gallen is ranked higher (http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/european-business-school-rankings-2019)

May I also recommend one other thing: Be careful setting your sites on a narrow objective so far into the future.

If you only prioritize your school choice based on MBB odds, I can almost gaurentee you'll be disappointed. What if you don't get into MBB? What if you do get in but hate it? What if you realize, before applying, you never wanted it?

I'm not saying give up (goals are important), but please consider the other important factors of the school...this should not be the main factor.

Hi,
first of all congratulations for the multiple offers :)

They are great schools but for not being in the world top 10 it is important to consider where you would like to apply for MBB. For the London office I would go to Imperial, for Zurich/Geneve I recommend St. Gallen. To maximize the impact of their great brands and referral opportunities indeed, I would recommend looking at the local opportunities.

Best,
Antonello

Dear A,

My congratulations that you have both offers from top MBA schools. It highly depends on where do you want to land an offer afterwards. So, if you want to apply in MB in DACH region (Germany, Austria or Switzerland) then in that case I would definitely suggest you to go for St.Gallen. However, of you want to build more international career, also in the English-speaking environment, either in Europe, US, Middlea East or rest of the world, I would definitely recommend you to go to Imperial College London, beacuse it is better-known world wide. 

If you need any further career advice, feel free to reach out. 

Best,

André

Hi there,

Both are great options - I think it depends on where is your preferred location (UK vs DACH-assuming you speak german)

Congrats on the offers.

Khaled

Hello,

First of all, congratulations!
Both of them are really good schools and you will have your chance to get an MBB offer. A good driver could be your preference for the office to work for, since companies are more in connection with business schools of the same country.

Best,
Luca

As has been mentioned already both are good schools with a strong reputation. I think the drivers of your decision will be:

1) Do you want to work in DACH or the UK after graduation?

2) Historical placement into MBB from the MBA program (use Linkedin to do your diligence here)

-A