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''' A TALE OF GREAT
BUSINESS SCHOOLS :
INSEAD -IMD- WHARTON '''
History's perspective in motion. And that too, through the eyes and prism of a student: The tale is set in late 90s. Come along and see:
I met with students, faculty and administration, attended classes and sampled student life, and compared it with my own experience at Wharton, where I am a second year M.B.A candidate.
My conclusion : For serious learning, go to IMD. For learning mixed with some great playing, Insead's the right place.
Both schools are set in glorious surroundings, IMD, in Lausanne, Switzerland, is located across the street from the shores of Lake Geneva. Most students live in nearby apartments on the town's hilly streets, enjoying panoramic views of the snowcapped peaks across the lake.
A 90-minute drive southeast from the Arc de Ttriomphe, leafy fountainebleau, France, home to Insead, is almost a suburb of Paris. Many Insead students take rooms in the area's well-tended stone houses and country chateaus.
IMD and Insead share three characteristics: truly international student bodies; one-year diplomas; and a focus on, well, the normal B-school subjects of finance, accounting, marketing and management. Neither program is cheap. Figure $50,000 for that one year.
After that the similarity. The IMD program is intimate and very serious. IMD's 1996 class, studying from January to December, numbers only 82. average age of IMD's students is 30, and over 80% of the class have at least five years of work experience.
Boasts, Kalpana Denzel, IMD's director of admissions and career services: ''People here talk about what they have done rather than what they would do.'' Only one in six applicants is accepted. One in eight is female. In 1996 there were only three Americans.
Denzel says American applications are on the rise, although mostly from applicants who lack the previous international experience sought by IMD.
Much bigger and less academically rigorous than IMD -yet equally selective- Insead assembles a student body similar to Wharton's in terms of age and experience. Average student age is 28, and average work experience is three to five years.
Insead runs two simultaneous one year M.B.A classes, called ''promotions,'' of roughly 260 students each.
One begins in January and one in September. Typically, 30% of Insead students come from consulting, and and even higher proportion exit into that field. I heard sarcastic grumbling from students that ''The Firm'' - McKinsey & Co -is using Insead as its own training facility.
If you want a good time with your diploma, think France. Insead students are more prone to the temptations of a well-rounded life than their IMD counterparts. In fact, their fast living has earned them a reputation in Fontainebleau for driving recklessly, trashing party rentals, and leaving town with unpaid bills.
Frequent midweek recruiting benders often leave classroom eyelids in serious need of propping.
Insead offers two main kinds of social events: house parties and national-week parties. Certain chateaus have legacies of glorious Scott Fitzgerald-ish dinner parties, and current students are compelled to maintain the standards of their predecessors -a challenge given perhaps more effort than their studies.
The same is true of national week parties. Student groups from different countries struggle to outdo each other and the legends of parties past by organizing the quintessential ethnic celebration.
Insead students houses are unbelievably de luxe. I visited a student house that was in the middle of a river. Another had a swimming pool, an apple orchard and a lawn the size of a soccer pitch.
Yet another had a walk-in fireplace and a view of a stream right out of Monet painting. Is this why Fontainebleau attracts more Americans than Luasanne does?
I don't know but that is the fact: The North American contingent , about 5% at IMD, was 15% at Insead.
Don't even consider Lausanne if you want big parties. The director at IMD's M.B.A program is Kamran Kashani, a dual Swiss and Iranian citizen who earned a B.A. and an M.B.A from UCLA and a doctorate in business from Harvard.
Kashani runs a tight ship. Structured class days at IMD run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It's just as well that the grueling days become long nights of reading and preparation, because the town pretty much shuts down at 7 p.m.
At IMD classed are heavily case-based. IMD subscribes to the philosophy that case learning comes in three equal parts: individual reading, small group analysis and class room discussion.
For a typical case students will read the material at night, meet early in the morning and discuss it with their study group, then attend a class in which the issues are immediately explored.
The Honour Post continues:
With respectful dedication all the universities, Colleges and Schools of the World. See Ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:
''' !!! Big World - Big Wonder !!!
Good Night & God Bless!
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