Seeing More of NZ - Easter Trip to Cape Reinga

So it struck me that with only a few months left in NZ, I've not played in my own backyard enough. How did it happen that in the last decade, I've not made time to fully appreciate the natural wonders here? As such, I planned a camping trip (or some would say "glamping" since the camp grounds had hot showers) up North to Pukenui and Cape Reinga which I've always wanted to see but never got round to.

I'm so glad I did! The views were simply amazing and reminded me of what I'll be missing when I leave. Below are some of the highlights from my trip :)

Earth meets sky at 90 Mile Beach low tide

Sand dunes beside grassy hills at Cape Reinga

Sunset sky at Cape Reinga

Stunning sunset at Cape Reinga - in the center you can see the waves from the clash of the Tasman Sea & Pacific Ocean

Cape Reinga lighthouse

Henderson Bay - quite a popular surfers beach

Matai Bay is very round so you can see waves at its mouth where the water collides

You can fish off these rocks at Matai Bay

Shipwreck Bay

Low tide at Shipwreck Bay - Panorama

River at Spirits Bay - up ahead is a stunning shell beach

Dipping a Foot Into Finance & Accounting

For those of us who don't come from finance or accounting backgrounds, the general consensus from alumni and current students is that some pre-MBA prep would be highly beneficial. I can appreciate that, being an over-achiever. After all, I know I would really hate to be the "last" in class when it comes to the finance and accounting core courses.

MOOCs are perfect for this, being free, taught by renowed educational institutions, and entirely flexible. So I've embarked on Introduction to Corporate Finance and Introduction to Financial Accounting on Coursera, taught by Wharton professors. Definitely highly recommended as I now know about the time value of money, annuities, NPV and some of the financial jargon that you would definitely come across in core courses.

In fact, INSEAD recommends doing such courses on Coursera pre-MBA and looking at the content of their 1 week pre-MBA Business Foundations course (€1,800 extra), they cover pretty much the same material for the Finance and Accounting sections. I've also heard that London Business School offers pre-MBA prep quant courses sometime in March, much like INSEAD's Business Foundations course, except that it's online and self-study. So I've figured I might as well get a head start and later when LBS does offer their course, it'll serve as a refresher.

On a side note, Coursera, I'm finding, is a little bit like falling down the rabbit hole. For avid learners it's a gold mine of pretty well-delivered business knowledge and I keep finding more courses I'd like to take. Alas there are only 24 hours in a day and I do still have to work for a living :) That said, I'm going to attempt to try and absorb as much knowledge as I can by July when I move over to London!

It's Decided

After oscillating between INSEAD and London Business School, I've finally decided to accept my offer to LBS.

It was by no means an easy decision given that they're both elite schools, and my post-MBA goals involve the field that INSEAD is strong in (consulting) in the location that LBS is strong in (London). It came down to evaluating which would give me the highest chances of attaining my post-MBA goal: switching to consulting in London. After all, the whole purpose of a MBA is to help you achieve your future career goals.

For those in the tough position of having been accepted to both LBS and INSEAD like me (now and in future), I found that hearing why people made the school decisions they did helps. So here's why I ended up deciding on LBS:

1. I'm planning on switching job function, location and industry, which is said to be doable in 10 months for consulting, but is definitely a stretch. Hence, it seemed less risky to give myself more time for job hunting with LBS's longer program and there's the added benefit of being able to better absorb the information that I'm sure to be overloaded with.
2. Networking is very important in business, and is certainly far more effective when you're actually living in the same city and can meet face-to-face. Plus, based on my experience, there's nothing like local immersion to actually understand the local culture and markets, which would allow me to gel more quickly with my future colleagues in London. Hence, I felt I had to be in London itself.
3. Looking at INSEAD's placements in consulting, in particular Bain, their students are distributed over various offices around the world, whereas for LBS most went to the London office. This information was gathered from the Bain careers site which showed how many interns Bain took from each school and which office the intern went to. Sample sizes are small but it did give a bit of an idea how each school differed.
4. mfprado1073 did a rough calculation for me here which showed that my chances of getting into consulting in London were higher with LBS than INSEAD.
5. I like the internship "try before you buy" concept. I've been researching quite a bit about consulting and while I think I know what to expect, I might wind up really not liking the lifestyle. No better way to find out than actually doing it, which I'd be able to do at LBS.
6. I like the people from INSEAD whom I've met and the INSEAD network is certainly outstanding, but that just means finding a way to tap into that network by making sure I keep in contact with all these INSEAD alumni :)

I'd like to credit the people I've met through the GMAT Club forums as their views definitely helped make my decision.

Anyway what this means going forward is that this blog is going to revolve around life as an MBA student at LBS :) Class of 2018 here I come!

Tuition Fees for London Business School 2016 Are Out

Tuition fees for the London Business School MBA program starting 2016 have been released. It's going to cost £70,800, which wasn't too far off my £70,000 estimate that I've been basing my budgets on.

This is a 4.5% increase from the 2015 tuition fee of £67,750, a bit of a jump given the state of the current economy and well above global inflation, global GDP growth rates and GDP growth rates for most regions. Then again, the 2014 to 2015 increase was 5.5% and 2013 to 2014 increase was 4.6%, so it does look like they have taken into account the current state of the global economy and lowered salary growth rates. Likely the weaker GBP and current low interest rates would have been considered too.

This is of course entirely my opinion and observation. As someone earning in NZD, a 4.5% increase in a fee charged in GBP is significant. Also bear in mind that I have zilch finance or economics background beyond bits and pieces I've picked up for the sake of avoiding total personal investing disaster. And this is why I need to go to business school... :)

The Ultimate First World Problem - INSEAD vs LBS

Yes I know. I'm in the lucky position of having the option of attending the top two MBA programs in Europe. That does however present the dilemma of where to go, and there isn't much time to decide as the acceptance forms need to be back with London Business School by early January.

So I thought I'd list here what I like and don't about each program, which along with sourcing input from other sources, might help me decide.

INSEAD
I like that....

• It is definitely by far much cheaper for both tuition, opportunity and living costs. Tuition for 2016 has been set at €71,000. Living costs are an estimated €22,000.
• It is well known for being a strong consulting school alongside Harvard. Given that I wish to move into consulting post-MBA, the INSEAD brand would be very useful. Some say for consulting in Europe, it must be either Harvard or INSEAD.
• The firm I'd like to work in post-MBA, Bain, recruits the most number of MBAs from INSEAD.
• INSEAD attracts many consultants who I would be able to network with and learn from.
• INSEAD has a strong network in Asia given it has a campus in Singapore. This would be useful because Asia is the next economic centre.
• INSEAD has produced more Fortune 500 CEOs than LBS, being second after Harvard. I would rate INSEAD's alumni network as being slightly stronger compared to that of LBS.
• I got along very well with all the INSEAD alumni I've met so far. They feel like my "kind" of people.
• The electives for INSEAD are really interesting. There are so many I'm keen on taking. By contrast, the LBS electives don't sounds as exciting in the course descriptions so I'm not sure which to go for.
• INSEAD seems to be stronger in entrepreneurship compared to LBS, which is important to me as I have long term entrepreneurial goals.
• With family in Singapore, not only would I be able to see them more often while I'm on the Singapore campus, but also I would be able to save plenty on accommodation costs by moving back in with my parents.

I don't like that....

• The program is only 10 months long which gives you very very little time to absorb all the new knowledge as well as job hunt.
• At INSEAD I won't have a chance to do an internship so indeed to be very sure I want to become a consultant.
• I'll need to re-learn French to get it up to the level required by INSEAD for a third language prior to the start of the program, as I won't have time during the program.
• The Europe campus for INSEAD is located in France, which means I'll need to do extra travel to London where I want to work for interviews. This also means extra travelling costs. Plus, even if it's not located in Paris, France isn't exactly the safest of places to be right now.
• Given the program length, the cost of attending INSEAD per year actually works out to be more expensive compared to LBS.

London Business School 

I like that....

• I get to do at least one and possibly two paid internships. According to the current student who called me, if you want to do an internship, you should be able to find one.
• Using the money earned from the paid internship, I would be able to cover most if not all of my living costs for the second year, as the average internship pay is about £1054 per week.
• It is located in London, right where I want to work post-MBA. This makes networking and arranging job interviews easier. Plus there will be London based businesses that come to LBS to recruit but don't travel to INSEAD to recruit.
• Extra opportunity available for networking with London businesses and potential recruiters through the London Business Experience core course.
• LBS offers specialisations unlike INSEAD so I could major in strategy or entrepreneurship depending on what electives I take.
• It is a 15, 18 or 21 month program depending on what you want to do. This gives me more time to absorb all the new knowledge and the workload won't be as intense.
• I can potentially do an exchange to one of the Asian business schools like CEIBS which will provide a direct Chinese network. As many are well aware, the Chinese are all about relationships first.
• The tuition for LBS covers all expenses for a week long trip to another country for the compulsory Global Business Experience. This means that even if you can't afford to go on job treks, you can still get the global business exposure.
• LBS actually has a specific Turnaround and Restructuring Management consulting club which is slightly different to consulting, and something I'm really interested in.
• LBS only requires two languages, which I've got so not extra studying needed and instead I've got more time to spend studying Finance.
• LBS is probably more well-known in NZ and Australia compared to INSEAD although the alumni chapter in INSEAD seems larger.
• LBS has a reasonable commitment fee of £2000 and provides sufficient time to make the reservation payment, unlike INSEAD's commitment fee.

I don't like that....

• The cost of attending LBS is much higher than INSEAD. ROI for LBS is lower than INSEAD.
• Living in London is frightfully expensive, accomodation costs are more than my current mortgage! There's that tricky matter of needing to demonstrate financial means to obtain a student visa. This does mean you can't just go with half the cash and plan to earn the rest for living on after.
• LBS is not as strong in Asia as INSEAD which means if I did want a job in Asia it would probably be tougher.
• LBS isn't as well known for consulting so I'm not sure if that affects chances of landing that job at Bain that I'm aiming for.

In any case, I thought it would be a great idea to find out directly from Bain in London if they had a particular preference. Maybe the people hiring generally find MBA grads of one school or the other better. No harm asking in the name of research right? So I've emailed them and hopefully I'll get a reply this side of Christmas!