INSEAD MBA for IBD

Dear Monkeys,

Do you think that INSEAD MBA is good enough for IBD in London these days assuming limited finance experience before the program? I am talking about the January intake which allows for a summer internship.

How big is the difference compare with an MBA from London Business School?

Thank you in advance

12 Comments
 
Best Response

I visited INSEAD last summer as I was looking at schools, with the intention of going into IB. While the school is primarily focused on consulting, everyone I spoke with said that you can get into IB if you put in the work AND have a good background. I spoke to several students who did the Jan intake and were interning at banks, but they all seemed to have somewhat relevant finance experience (corp fin, etc.). To me, this was a differentiation between INSEAD and the other schools I visited (LBS, top 20 US), where it is possible to get IB without having a finance-specific background.

Some representatives from the school said that if you do the Jan intake and know that you want to do banking, they will start to send you info to prepare for interviews starting in the fall (before the program even begins). This is because as soon as you come on campus in January, you would have to start interviewing for summer internships.

I am not sure what your "limited finance experience" is, but if I were you, I would focus my efforts on LBS if your goal is London IB. They are known to have stronger finance curriculum, are closer for networking purposes, and would allow you to have more adequate time to build finance knowledge and prepare for interviews.

 
"runNYC11"

I am not sure what your "limited finance experience" is, but if I were you, I would focus my efforts on LBS if your goal is London IB. They are known to have stronger finance curriculum, are closer for networking purposes, and would allow you to have more adequate time to build finance knowledge and prepare for interviews.

This. INSEAD is in the middle of nowhere; it is about an hour (with no traffic) just to drive to an airport that can get you to London.
 

You'd probably be better served by IESE (vs INSEAD). They do quite well with traditional MBA recruiters, including IB. Their folks at my BB are solid and personable.

The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.
 

I'm at INSEAD and currently finishing my summer associate programme at a US BB in London. INSEAD and LBS are the most represented here, and it's fairly equal between them. INSEAD does very, very well in IB. When you do the January intake, you will do the investment banking trek in London in December to network and prepare.

Speaking to people in this bank and others, INSEAD is the most represented school in BBs together with LBS. Then come US schools, and then IESE. INSEAD is also the most represented European school in PE in Europe.

Not a bad choice for anyone wanting to do finance, and I assure you it's as easy/hard for career switchers as it is at LBS or other schools. They come to business schools for people with different perspectives, not for promoted analysts.

Don't waste your life only thinking about money and prestige
 

Considering that 1,050 MBAs graduate each year in INSEAD, as opposed to 425 in LBS and 280 in IESE, I would be worried if INSEAD wasn't one of the most represented business schools in IB and PE in Europe.

Considering the size of its class, the placement rate in IB is fairly lower than in LBS and IESE. It would be interesting to see though how the January intake (525 students) compares to the September intake of LBS and IESE.

 

Less than 10 people (sometimes no one) in the July class shoots for IB so 90-100% of IB intake in a given year is from the December class, i.e the 525 number. In any case, hardly anyone at INSEAD recruits for IB so the success rate is pretty high.

+It would be idiotic to go to IESE over INSEAD for Ib as select firms such as PJT only recruits at LBS/INSEAD. Would you go to Stern over HBS for IB recruiting?

 

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