Hi friends,

I'm looking for a one year MBA and I've realized that the best option is in Europe, commons MBA in USA are 2-years, and I can?t afford it :(

Could you tell me which could be the best MBA for me?

I'm 28 years old. I'm Argentinean and I get a Bachelor Degree en System Engineering and a Master Degree in Software Engineering, both of them at the top 2 universities of Argentina.

I've just get a B at CAE (Certificate for advance English) and I?m training for the GMAT test. I've worked 40/hs week since I'm 21 (I'm my country we used to work during our bachelor degree) that's why I get only 6.5 (1 to 10) GPA in my bachelor degree, I don?t know if it matters but the best GPA of the year at the university was 8.5 (1 to 10), I?ve a 9 (1 to 10) GPA in my MSc. Degree.

Do you think that I could be admitted in a good European university? In Argentina it's very rare to get a MSc. Degree with 28 years old and 6+ years of work experience, but I don't know if it will be considered in the university admission at Europe. Please, take in consideration that I?ll be 30 when I enter if I start the admission process now.

See you,
Radek

Hallo Radek,

Well, you're profile certainly fits an MBA candidate - degrees, work experience, and English(although you will have to do a GMAT). Taking all those factors into account, i Think you stand a good chance of getting Admitted to a good program.
since you come from Argentina, the first place that comes to mind in Europe is of course Spain, because you speak the language, which would make things easier for you.
there are some top notch schools in Spain, with very good rankings like the IE Businesses school in Madrid:
http://www.find-mba.com/university/457/ie-business-school
Ranked 4th in Europe by the FT:
http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/european-business-school-rankings

there are lots of them, so you would have to do a bit of research. try using the search function on this site for some more programs.

and a tip for you - in order to narrow down you're search,you should start by thinking what kind of MBA program are you looking for - a program concentrating on a specific branch, or a general one. another thing that could help is if you know you're budget - there are really big differences in fees between different MBA Programs.

Andy

Hi Andy, thanks for your advice.

I know that if I want to go to one of the top universities, the best choice would be someone from Spain; it would be easier for me.

Answering some of the questions that you have asked, I'm looking for a one-year program, a general MBA or someone with a technology management approach, I'm not thinking about a career path change, I only need the knowledge that the mba could give to me in order to get a management position in the software industry (in which I'm working now).

I think that it would be great if I could improve my English skills by taking the program in English.

I'm looking for a good program, but it doesn't need to be a top 10 one.

I was thinking about:

University of Oxford: Saïd
Lancaster University Management School
Manchester Business School
Warwick Business School
Cranfield School of Management
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
University of Edinburgh Business School
Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School

Would it be difficult to be admitted in the UK universities with my profile?
Are Rotterdam, Edimburg or Vlerick good ones? What do you think about solvay in Belgium?

Thanks for your opinion
Radek

Hi Radek,

Obviously those are all very good schools, and I would hesitate to recommend one over another when such a large part of these decisions comes down to personal preference. Whichever you choose, you'll have gone for a very well recognised, very well accredited institution. Your GPA is obviously something you'll have to think about - I would suggest checking out what it says on each school's - but in most cases a good first degree and prior business experience (which you have) will be more significant. I should also mention that in many cases you'll be expected to have taken a GMAT. A lot of people get very hot under the collar about GMAT scores, they're really not so bad. And look at this way, a good GMAT result might be the best way to make up for any other perceived shortcomings on your academic CV.

Hi lukeh, thanks for your answer.

A lot of people told me that, if I get a good gmat score (about 700), the fact of having a gpa of 2.6 in my engineering degree wouldn't be so important.
Would the gpa of my MSc. Degree be considered?
Do you know some respectable university that could give scholarships for latin american people without having super-high requirements?

Thanks,
radek