Experience during the program

Perfect batch size, allowed to meet everyone in the class, good diveristy, workgroups are carefully designed to force international experience. Finance profs are excellent. Some interesting extracurricular activities, like the surprising military style leadership training at St Cyr, that even skepticals loved. MBAT organization builds student commitment. Support to attend MBA competitions all over the world. Customizable programme is helpful, allows long or short internship, exchanges, specialization, and certificates.

Careers team could do better at finding good connections in investment banking and tier 1 consulting. France isnt an option for many intls, It was hard for those who wanted a job in Paris.

Location isnt bad, jouy is nice and allows to live in Paris. If you get a car, because public transportation is a nightmare. But campus life is actually fun.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Culture & Student Support
Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)

Best fit at this program:

Marketing
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Career opportunities provided by school
Culture & Student Support

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Experience during the program

Best: The school has great atmosphere, candidates and length. 16 months are the best fit for an MBA program. Not too long, not too short. The diversity of the student body is overwhelming, and the thing that came to me as the most surprising fact is: The number of events. The MBA has an average of at least 1 event per day. That is simply overwhelming - about 18 clubs that organize 1-2 events per month each plus career services events and general events. To add to that, there are countless of other events organized by the school and other programs.

There is a general sensation of some disappointment from the career services of the program, but I think that this is just high expectations. Many complain that percentage of jobs found through the school isn't high enough (as opposed to personal networking), but when I compared that percentage to other schools I got very similar results.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Student body, diversity
Alumni Network
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Tech
Management

Can be improved:

Career opportunities provided by school

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Experience during the program

I completed my MBA classes recently at HEC Paris in December 2015 and must say that it has been a wonderful experience.

Professors: The overall quality of teaching and the background of professors in the MBA program is impressive. Apart from highly acclaimed researchers, we were also taught by people working in top level positions in some of the largest firms in the investment banking, consulting, luxury and other industries.

Facilities: As far as I know, HEC has the largest campus among all the top business schools in Europe. It has a state of the art academic building which was designed by renowned architect David Chipperfield. Overall the building and the classrooms are very high-tech.
As HEC hosts the MBAT (informally coined as the MBA Olympics), a 3 day event where almost 1500 students from the best business schools in Europe (and sometimes the US) come to participate, it has top notch sports facilities too. We even have sports such as karting, rock climbing and rowing in the MBAT.
Also, the people in the MBA support staff are very helpful and efficient.
The hostel rooms/apartments are squeaky clean, comfortable and cozy. The canteen food is also pretty good although they could have some more variety in the cuisines that they offer.

Placement Cell: The career management cell at HEC still has some room for improvement. Even though HEC has a good placement overall, a significant number of the jobs are obtained through personal networking or through the alumni network. However, HEC has taken up some steps to iron out the placement process and things are improving at a steady pace every year. Overall, the job scenario after HEC MBA is good and gets better every year.

Program: The overall program is very well structured. It has been divided into two phases. The first phase is called the core phase where everyone has similar classes and coursework. The second phase is highly customizable and the students can design their course structure according to their priorities. The fact that HEC really stresses on real life case studies and puts the students in actual situations faced by real firms is one thing I really liked about the program.

Specialization: I specialized in Finance and found it to be a huge value addition to my earlier skill set. The specialization covers a lot of new concepts and the cases were super interesting.

MBA Colleagues: HEC has one of the best MBA cohorts in the world. The overall intake at HEC is super diverse and very closely knit. As the intake size is 200, all the students know each other almost inside out. We had people from more than 50 different countries in our intake and almost everyone had experience in a different kind of role. The class was highly competitive and I got to learn a lot from everyone.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Student body, diversity
Brand/Ranking
Facilities

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Marketing
Investment Banking
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Career opportunities provided by school

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Experience during the program

My feelings about the program :
- HEC Paris has a very important alumni network. Alumni are very helpful, willing to help in your search.
- The curriculum is well organized, starting from basis of business to specializations (finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, strategy, management) that dive very deeply in details. Professors are all phD from all best universities in the world.
- Classmates are also a good source of learning, thanks to diversified experiences.

I got interviewed from every companies I seriously prepared, including McKinsey & BCG, and got 4 differents job proposal in the same time. Hard to choose...

I would suggest to future applicants :
- start to prepare as soon as possible
- network, network, network
- make the most of it (even if you will work very hard, you will enjoy!)

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Alumni Network
Brand/Ranking

Best fit at this program:

Marketing
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Career opportunities provided by school

Read More

Experience during the program

Prior to my MBA, my goal was to get into the consulting industry, but I was a bit skeptic when I joined HEC. The truth is that HEC provides a great environment to achieve this goal for anyone ready to work hard. I would advise to start the preparation early through the consulting club and to network intensively. Networking is the key to get interviews. I got interview in every consulting firms for which I seriously networked. Good news, HEC has one of the greatest alumni network among all business schools. So just go ahead, work hard, and believe in your dreams!

About professors, classes and curriculum

Great professors, great mates with highly diversified backgrounds.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Student body, diversity
Alumni Network

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Career opportunities provided by school
Location

Read More

Experience during the program

Fantastic ROI, got a great job after interviewing with several top companies in different industries and locations (McKinsey, BCG, Credit Suisse, Google and more). Created an international network of contacts and most importantly I went from knowing very basic things about business to gaining a strong understanding of all the fundamentals and beyond. The campus is fantastic and located 30' from Paris and a Eurostar ride from London. The student body culture is very friendly and cooperative rather than cutthroat and the level rises with each intake as the program climbs up the rankings. Finally, the duration of the program is ideal. I learned the most interesting things after the first two core periods during try electives and specialization phases (last six months of a 16 month program so I can't really see how a shorter program would give me enough).

I would suggest candidates to visit the schools they are considering and make sure they fit well in the environment and the student culture while also considering the costs. While any top MBA can help you land a top job, it doesn't matter too much after you get that great job. Nonetheless, your loan will be there to be repaid and while salaries of the same positions differ very little to not at all depending from which school you come the total MBA investment you have to make varies considerably between schools. HEC Paris offers a top notch experience and credentials and at the same time it offers great scholarships making its ROI unbeatable.

About professors, classes and curriculum

The HEC Paris MBA curriculum is very up to date and the school uses a lot of data and is proactive in continuously fine tuning it and improving it to meet student and employer needs. On the negative side, there are some old school French professors that do not offer the international MBA experience you would expect but these become frewer and fewer and at the same time the school has some amazing professors (both international and French) who make the class experience unforgettable (check out Ioanid Rosu and Pascal Quiry).

About job placement process

Don't be fooled by any school's marketing. Your chances to land a great job are mostly predetermined before even you start your MBA. Any top MBA and I mean ANY, is, recruitment wise, a tick on the "top MBA [v]" box. If you don't have the past experience and credentials there is not too much the school can do for you. Of course there are always exceptions but your background clounts for more than 60-70%. An MBA can change your career completely like a friend of mine that just landed an Associate position with McKinsey before graduating from the program. He was a professional piano soloist BUT he had amazing academics and had displayed excellence throughout his professional career. HEC Paris runs a lot of bootcamps to help you prepare for many jobs and the schedule can even be too much but as I said in the end it is mostly up to you.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Student body, diversity
Facilities

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Marketing
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Culture & Student Support

Read More