CEIBS -

Experience during the program

Making the decision to want to pursue an MBA is easy. Making the decision WHERE to pursue the MBA is a lot more difficult. Believe me, I have been there. What is more important – school ranking or program? How about the environment, does it make a difference in which country the school is located? All these thoughts were running through my mind about a year ago… After extensive research and determining that a combination of competitive school ranking and a thriving environment like China was the right combination for me, I applied at CEIBS in Shanghai.
As I am writing this review, I am sitting in my dorm room and can happily say that I got admitted and started my MBA journey about 8 weeks ago.

I would like to mention a few points that convinced me in the end that CEIBS is the right choice for me. First of all it is the #1 business school in Asia, and #11 worldwide (2017 FT ranking), for anyone who is concerned about the ranking aspect. More important to me was though, that CEIBS offers an exchange semester to almost all well-known business schools around the world (INSEAD, Wharton, LBS etc.). Coming to CEIBS, not only gives you the opportunity to experience studying and working (3 month internship) in China but in addition you can participate in the exchange and live in Singapore, Japan, the US, many countries in Europe like France, Spain, UK, Italy etc for three months. So if you are looking for an international MBA experience – you should come to CEIBS!

CEIBS offers a Chinese pre-course that I can highly recommend for everyone, who doesn’t speak Mandarin yet. The course is scheduled for 4 weeks and a great opportunity to already get to know some of your classmates and develop a very basic understanding of the language. I was positively surprised how much you can learn in just four weeks and how much fun it is to try to apply what you have learned in the real world, e.g. taking a cab or bargaining in a shop. Another huge advantage of arriving early for the pre-course is that you can already make yourself familiar with the surroundings and explore Shanghai a bit before the actual classes start.

Classes so far are quite demanding; the professors are not shy to overwhelm you with case studies and team reports. What I have learned from talking to the previous class is, term 1 and 2 are the most challenging. In term 3 you are able to choose from several electives and there will be more flexibility. CEIBS has quite a few international students, the majority of the student body is not surprisingly Chinese though. The MBA office tries to create very diverse teams, most likely there will be up to three different nationalities in your groups.

Please let me know, if you have specific questions that I didn’t touch on and I would be happy to answer those.

About job placement process

CEIBS offers a CDC (career development program), that supports you in finding an internship and later on a job. They organize job fairs and many networking events.

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

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Student body, diversity
Location

Best fit at this program:

Finance
Marketing
Investment Banking
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Facilities