Copenhagen Business School vs. St. Gallen

Hi all,

I have been accepted to St. Gallen's MAccFin and CBS' Accounting, Strategy and Control programme. I would like to know which school presents better opportunities/prestige in terms of 1) academic reputation and 2) career prospects. The goal is to enter Finance afterwards.

I have also noticed a intriguing trend - friends in Asia would prefer to go to CBS while Europeans think rather highly of St. Gallen.

What do you guys think?

7 Comments
 

Since you got into St. Gallen, you either have a GMAT of over 650 or are Swiss. If you are the later, go to St. Gallen. If the first is true, apply to ESADE or EDHEC, they still accept students for this year. The MAccFin is just not as prestigious as MBF.

 

Indeed the MAccFin is not as prestigious, however I am rather sure SG will not accept me for its MBF programme since I am a sociology graduate. Not to mention I have absolutely no Finance background . However, I just began my 20s and I have a bit of time to work on that. I will definitely try applying for ESADE but please correct me if I am wrong, Edhec isn't ranked as highly as SG?

I need also to mention that I have no knowledge of any European languages and I am aware that it will hinder my job prospects in Europe. I plan to go to China to seek my pot of gold ( I sound like a leprechaun) since I am fluent in Mandarin. Therefore it is of paramount importance that the business school I am entering has established a reputation in Asia.

Thanks for your tip, 183!

 

Would you pls post your whole profile and future goals, so I can better help you.

In my opinion, you should take a Gap Year. Both BS are great, but those programs that you got into are not. If you still have time, consider to take a Gap Year, do some internships and try to apply next year to some other BS.

If you can not wait or do not want to, there are still some BS that you can apply to this year. IE, ESADE, NUS+CEMS (still good, even though you want to enter the financial sector) and some UK universities.

 

Well if you want to go to asia and cbs is ranked higher in asia, I would go to cbs. St Gallen is indeed a bit more prestigious in the german speaking world at least, but CBS is really on the rise in europe. I think the differences between the two are marginal with cbs having the better leisure opportunities. (also everyone speaks english which in st gallen might not be the case)

 
Best Response

I go to CBS.

The masters you're in isn't one of the best, AFAIK, and some corporates when recruiting here specify that they prefer/only want people from Advanced Econ and Finance, Applied Econ and Finance, or Finance and Strategy. Just something to keep in mind, but that affects maybe 1-3% of the job listings.

What's of more concern are your language skills. You will be at a disadvantage in St. Gallen without German skills and at disadvantage in CBS without Scandinavian skills. About 80% of the listings here, if not more, ask for proficiency in at least one Scandinavian language.

As for getting a job in China, I'm not sure how easy that is immediately out of a B-school in Europe. Better chances are something like working for Maersk for a year or two and asking for an internal transfer.

 

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