The naked tree in front of my apartment starting to sprout with little buds. Not sure whether the leaves will grow to its fullness as the time I moved in last August, before I leave. Leaving UK for internship as well as exchange program from June, which means I will not be back till the beginning of IB Project in next January...
A friend from the Class of 2015 (enroll this summer) knew that I was selected for the exchange to CEIBS and asked me about the application procedure. For his reference, as well as for any future MBS MBA candidate that have interest for exchange, here are the procedure and advice for application.
The school will publish the partner schools list together with their fact sheets in late January. Normally only 1 place is offered by each partner school, but some offer up to 3 places. Students are allowed to choose a maximum of 3 schools for application. The application is done with a written exchange proposal with no specified format. Students are free to use their creativity in the exchange proposal to impress the selection committee which consisted of the MBA Centre and Program Directors.
After the submission of the exchange proposal, MBS Centre will then publish the school list with corresponding number of applicants but anonymous. From there, the applicants can judge how competitive the schools they apply to and be allowed to make changes if they would like to avoid competition. The popular partner schools this year were Chicago Booth, CEIBS, HKUST, Cornell, and McCombs, which shows a strong trend of either US or China.
All applicants will be called for an 20minutes interview and the questions are basically a check and verification of what written in the exchange proposal. The selection committee will then make the final decision of who go where by late March.
So, what are the deciding criteria? I suppose the key factors are:
1) Future career impact (Be sure you have a concrete reason/story that the exchange will help you in your future career, rather than just saying you want to learn a new language or to experience new culture)
2) Academic performance up to date (so, work hard in the first term!)
3) Role as MBS ambassador (register as a MBS embassador, be active in the extra-curriculum, know well what is the strength of MBS)
No additional tuition fee is required to pay to the partner school. But be prepared for expenses in the logistics to the exchange country, insurance (which can be very expensive in the case of US), and may be some administration fee and text books cost. The living expenses will depend on which country you are going to. As I will have my exchange in Shanghai, though the most expensive city in China, I do expect a lower living expenses than Manchester.
Hope these information will suffice and good luck in your application next year!
